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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Hen Music of the Day
Home/Purple Finch, Pine Plains; Stissing Ave. & Poplar Ave., Dutchess, New York, United States. “Might be a Purple Finch as effectively. PM is not sure what chook that is due to its unusual music. This chook is perched on high of a Norway spruce. PM is 1/2 block from an equipment retailer. The chook took off with no flight name.” From 1975, again when birders added their observations to the recording.
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Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
2024
Lower than a yr to go!
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Trump (R): “Trump fraud trial LIVE: Ex-president awaits blockbuster verdict as hush cash courtroom date set” (dwell) [Independent]. “Choose Arthur Engoron is anticipated to ship a verdict in Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial on Friday that might see the previous president hit with tens of millions of {dollars} in fines and sanctions. The justice has already dominated that Mr Trump inflated his wealth on monetary statements that got to banks and insurers to make offers and safe beneficial loans. New York lawyer common Letitia James is searching for $370m and a ban on the defendant and his fellow Trump Group executives from doing enterprise within the state.” • That is the case about inflated New York actual property values.
Trump (R): “Trump to face trial on March 25 in NY felony hush cash case” [Reuters]. • That is the case a couple of wealthy dude paying off a mistress.
Trump (R): “Trump-Appointed Choose Denies Ex-President’s Movement to Delay Deadlines in Paperwork Case” [Mediate]. • That is the case the place the accused didn’t dump the paperwork in a field in his storage subsequent to “family detritus.” Actually, I’m all for the rule of regulation, I actually am, however may there please be a single tier?
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Trump (R): “Fani Willis simply gave Donald Trump precisely what he desires” [MSNBC]. “For many who usually think about Willis, she was understandably enraged and gave a grasp class in how you can defend oneself in a public setting. For others, her protestations have been excessive. Even so, the truth that there was even a listening to into Willis and whether or not she has a monetary battle of curiosity within the case was a windfall for Trump.”
Trump (R): “5 revelations from the explosive Fani Willis listening to in Georgia” [The Hill]. “Tensions exploded [(!)] Thursday throughout a frenetic [(!!)] listening to to find out whether or not Fulton County’s district lawyer’s workplace needs to be disqualified from persevering with its 2020 election interference prosecution of former President Trump and his allies on account of a relationship between high prosecutors on the case…. Firstly of her testimony, she railed in opposition to Roman lawyer Ashleigh Service provider for submitting the ‘dishonest’ movement to disqualify the district lawyer, accusing her of spreading ‘lies’ and implying she slept with Wade ‘the primary day [she] met with him.’ ‘When somebody lies on you — it’s extremely offensive,’ Willis mentioned after McAfee requested her to remain on subject with the questioning.” • The “money” stuff is fascinating, too, however I don’t know what the norms are, on this context….
Trump (R): “Jack Smith is in a rush, however he can’t say why” [Washington Examiner]. “The explanation for Smith’s haste has been apparent all alongside: He desires Trump to be tried, convicted, sentenced, and presumably jailed earlier than the Nov. 5 presidential election. Might something be clearer? Every part that Smith has performed since Aug. 1, 2023, when the indictment was unsealed, has been to hurry the case to a choice earlier than deadline — and the deadline has all the time been the 2024 presidential election. However right here’s the issue for Smith. The Justice Division forbids prosecutorial interference with elections. The rules are very clear: ‘Federal prosecutors and brokers might by no means choose the timing of any motion, together with investigative steps, felony expenses, or statements, for the aim of affecting any election, or for the aim of giving a bonus or drawback to any candidate or political social gathering.’ It’s now Feb. 15. The South Carolina main is on Feb. 24, adopted by the Michigan main, adopted by Tremendous Tuesday. Trump has already received Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada and is the prohibitive favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination. Trump can also be main President Joe Biden within the RealClearPolitics common of nationwide, head-to-head polls. So it’s honest to say that to date on this election yr, Trump is the main candidate to be the subsequent president of the USA. And Jack Smith is frantically attempting to place him in jail earlier than the election. Which may, simply may, be what the Justice Division intends to stop when it says federal prosecutors ‘might by no means choose the timing of any motion, together with investigative steps, felony expenses, or statements, for the aim of affecting any election.’ That could be a dangerous factor, and Jack Smith is doing it.”
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Trump (R): “Sharp Elbows, Even Sharper Knives in Trump Internal Sanctums” [Philip Wegman, RealClearPolitics]. “Whereas some detractors attempt to dismiss [Turning Point founder Charlie] Kirk as a younger and inexperienced activist, the attain of the 29-year-old populist can’t be denied. He has a bigger social media following than lots of his critics, and politicians commonly compete for talking slots at TPUSA occasions, which draw crowds of younger conservatives within the 1000’s. His newest ambition: an eye-popping $108 million get-out-the vote marketing campaign by way of TPUSA’s political arm in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin to swing the election. ‘I don’t assume Trump is totally conscious of that plan. When he finds out, he’s not going to be glad in any respect,’ a Republican operative in shut contact with the Trump marketing campaign mentioned of the multi-million greenback effort. The associated fee is exorbitant in comparison with conventional door-knocking efforts, with little assure of success, the operative famous. When Trump learns of the bold spending plan, funded by donors who would in any other case give on to his marketing campaign, they predicted, the previous president ‘shall be pissed out of his thoughts.’” • Let’s wait and see.
Trump (R): “How Donald Trump Can Beat Joe Biden” [Louis Perron, RealClearPolitics]. “The primary problem for Donald Trump is that he has to ensure the 2024 election stays a referendum on Joe Biden. I say that as a result of it’s within the very nature of Donald Trump’s character to make the whole lot about himself…. It’s been mentioned that nice campaigns are by no means a rerun of earlier nice campaigns. In that sense, Donald Trump must evolve and reinvent himself. He’s now not the outsider he was again in 2016. If public opinion have been static, folks like me wouldn’t have a job. Donald Trump must do one thing that has develop into retro in U.S. politics, specifically to achieve out, and to take action in a significant method. One of many much-written about segments of swing voters that shall be decisive in November is suburban ladies. Jan. 6 and abortion are simply two points that they need to see addressed…. One may argue that in 2020, Trump did just a little little bit of outreach with respect to black males, and it labored surprisingly effectively. (I really assume that if he had performed extra of it, he may have received reelection)…. ? No, I don’t. I’ve labored for candidates who have been of their late 70s and early 80s, and I can verify from my very own expertise what’s being mentioned: It’s tough to show an outdated canine new methods. And that is significantly true for individuals who have received elections earlier than. That mentioned, it’s not unattainable both. In spite of everything, Kellyanne Conway was capable of make Donald Trump a extra disciplined candidate throughout the remaining months of the 2016 marketing campaign.” • Hmm.
Trump (R): “Trump world considers having the previous president ship the official GOP State of the Union response” [NBC]. “Aides and allies near former President Trump have mentioned the previous president giving the official Republican response to President Joe Biden’s March 7 State of the Union deal with, in response to 5 folks conversant in the talks. Two of the sources mentioned that Trump himself has mentioned it, however each mentioned he’s leaning in opposition to the high-profile gig. The choice on who will ship the response rests with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. A supply conversant in the planning of the State of the Union deal with mentioned there was no outreach by the Trump marketing campaign to these planning the GOP rebuttal…. Nothing smacks of Washington politics greater than the official out-of-power social gathering response to the State of the Union. That’s at odds with Trump’s message that, as a lot as he understands the character of politics within the nation’s capital, he isn’t a creature of what he calls ‘The Swamp.’” • As if Trump couldn’t alter the setting to keep away from this!
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Biden (D): “Democrats Are Too Resigned to Biden” [Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal]. Arguments in opposition to a change in candidates in italic. “It’s too late. Lyndon B. Johnson, the final president to say no to hunt a second time period, dropped out on March 31, 1968. There was nonetheless time for contenders to launch and fund races. The first guidelines have modified since then, and ballots have been printed up. Mr. Biden can free his delegates, both from the day he steps apart or on the conference. Solely political romantics assume an open conference is feasible. You possibly can’t understand it’s unattainable. Every now and then in life you need to say, ‘Historical past, maintain my beer.’” • I don’t assume there’s any mechanical or technical downside {that a} smoke-filled room can’t resolve. The problem is introducing the candidate to the nation; that takes both a real, professionally run marketing campaign, or a star. Whereas it’s true that no one (regular) pays consideration to the election till after Labor Day, an August begin provides an awfully brief runway for an expert marketing campaign (and a stage of depth, ferality, and unity — “complete dedication” — I’m not certain that Democrats, as a celebration, possess). A star, however, doesn’t must be launched to the nation; that’s why Oprah is just not an insane concept as a kind, no matter her inclinations personally. (Celeb-hood was additionally one among Trump’s benefits, allow us to recall.) Little question a sure technology of Democrats would like to run Martin Sheen, however please, no.
Biden (D): “Sure, Democrats, it’s Biden or bust” [Vox]. “Different Democratic stars, like Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Secretary Pete Buttigieg, are additionally loyal Biden Democrats, ballot worse than Biden, or are biding their time. And to bypass Harris for one among them additionally opens up potential ire from Black voters, with out whom Democrats can’t win. Ought to a distinct, different Democrat emerge, with the vocal help of, I don’t know, Barack Obama and a core of Biden-critical strategists and politicians, and will first woman Jill Biden and different Biden confidantes method Biden and persuade him to drop out, we’d possible head towards a brokered conference with a number of rounds of voting. That additionally opens up the possibility for much more chaos and disunity amongst Democrats. Does that appear value it to anybody in Democratic politics proper now? The easy reply is not any. It’s too late.” • I agree on Physician Jill Biden’s crucial position. Too dangerous Gina Haspel isn’t a Democrat. She’d be very best!
Biden (D): “Biden Can’t Win With out Assist From Trump” [Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal]. “The Biden marketing campaign took a torpedo to its engine room final week within the type of particular counsel Robert Hur’s report. Mr. Hur wrote that he selected to not search an indictment of the president for mishandling labeled materials partly as a result of he thought a jury would see Mr. Biden as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, aged man with a poor reminiscence.’… To win, Crew Biden has just one choice—an all-out assault on Mr. Trump, utilizing each technique of communication daily in an assault of bizarre scope and expense. Victory would require Mr. Trump’s cooperation in making actually outrageous appeals to his hard-core supporters that alienate swing voters. Fortuitously for Mr. Biden, the previous president has performed his greatest to assist.”
Biden (D): “Biden Should Win. However How?” [Pamela Paul, New York Times]. “[Biden] wants to begin making the specter of a second Trump time period — in all its unbridled terror — actual now. Lord assist us, we’re counting on him to stop that from occurring.” • “Make [them] afraid some extra, Shaddam. I shouldn’t take pleasure in this, however I discover the pleasure unattainable to suppress.” –Frank Herbert, Dune
Biden (D): “Biden Is Set to Go to East Palestine, however Is He a Yr Too Late?” [New York Times]. Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Legislation violation. “However politics could also be inescapable. Whilst pro-Trump demonstrators rally on one aspect, others plan to carry a protest demanding that Mr. Biden carry extra assist to the neighborhood. And a few residents fear that one yr after a flurry of politicians turned their small city right into a prop, it’s about to occur once more.”
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Kennedy (I): “RFK Jr.’s Libertarian play” [Politico]. “If Kennedy is the [Libertarian] Occasion’s nominee, his marketing campaign and related PACs received’t must shell out tens of millions of {dollars} and gather tons of of 1000’s of signatures to get on the overall election poll in states throughout the nation…. The Mises Caucus — a extra radical libertarian faction organized across the work of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises — has been an influence middle throughout the social gathering since its endorsed candidate, Angela McArdle, received the nationwide committee chairmanship in a 2022 landslide victory with practically 70 p.c of the vote. It controls the vast majority of the delegates who will vote on the social gathering’s presidential nominee on the nationwide conference in Might. Whereas McArdle has recommended that the social gathering could also be open to a Kennedy bid, final weekend the Mises Caucus got here out formally in opposition to his candidacy, making it unlikely that Kennedy has an actual shot on the nomination. McArdle didn’t reply to a request for remark.” • I shouldn’t take pleasure in this….
“Joe Manchin suggests Mitt Romney, Rob Portman as potential working mates as he flirts with third-party ticket” [FOX]. • Pricey Lord.
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NY: “5 takeaways from Democrats flipping George Santos’ Home seat in New York” [PBS]. Undistracted by the liberalgasm as a result of going Republican Lite on immigration may not be a loser within the ‘burbs: “Democrats additionally outspent Republicans $14 million to $8 million on this race, an enormous sum for a particular election…. Democrats hammered Pilip’s ethics, likening her to Santos. Over Santos’ face, this extensively run advert begins: ‘Identical story. New title.’ It then exhibits Pilip and says she’s ‘about to embarrass us once more’ and goes on to drop the oppo file about ‘unpaid payments from her household’s enterprise” and that she ‘additionally owed greater than $100,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS, even submitting a false monetary disclosure. … She’s an moral nightmare.’ Suozzi is a recognized amount on Lengthy Island. He’s a former Nassau County govt and is a former congressman. Democrats primarily billed the race as a average, grownup within the room vs. an extremist, MAGA candidate.”
NY: “Democrats Have Themselves a Victory in New York. However They Additionally Have a Drawback” [Slate]. “The important thing to this race was the cash. Democrats spent practically $14 million, virtually double the GOP’s $8 million funding within the race. In accordance with AdImpact, the overall advert spend for simply this Lengthy Island district totaled an eyewatering $21.4 million. That’s greater than quadruple the outlay of the 2022 race that yielded Santos…. Ready for the nationwide social gathering to airdrop a spending benefit of tens of millions of {dollars} is just not a sustainable technique to win elections. The problem of this win and the value tag present the price of the New York State Democratic Occasion’s refusal to reconcile with the failures of the social gathering equipment after the 2022 midterms. This district may even have to return to the polls for this identical race in November. What number of tens of millions will that value? It may very well be an issue for Biden too. He could also be outdated. He could also be unpopular. However New York Democrats are a millstone round his neck, not the opposite method round. ‘This shouldn’t be an in depth race,’ mentioned Klein, the progressive organizer, on election day. “It makes me very nervous for November.” • Plenty of not-very-encouraging element on NY Democrats.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“Our Most Critical Nationwide Safety Menace Isn’t Russian Nukes In Area, It’s Intelligence Companies In Washington” [The Federalist]. “It was a busy day in Washington on Wednesday because the intelligence forms tried to foment a nationwide safety panic over Russian nukes in area in hopes of ramming via the Ukraine assist package deal and killing reforms designed to curb its energy to spy on Individuals…. What occurred subsequent is telling. Though the Home Republicans who have been pushing for the [Section 702] FISA reforms [on ending Bush-era warrantless surveillance] seemed to be successful the talk, within the aftermath of the hysteria over Russia nukes in area, Speaker Johnson pulled the invoice and canceled Congress for the remainder of the week. It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to determine what occurred right here. Our intelligence companies don’t need lawmakers getting in the way in which of their plans.” • Nope. And sadly it takes a reactionary to say it.
“The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Field and Handed It to a Stranger” [Charlotte Cowles, New York Magazine (“The Cut”)]. The deck: ” I by no means thought I used to be the form of individual to fall for a rip-off.” Cowles the Lower’s financial-advice. Skipping the horrid particulars to return to the half the place Cowles muses on the debacle:
It was my brother, the lawyer, who identified that what I had skilled sounded so much like a coerced confession. “I learn sufficient transcripts of dangerous interrogations in regulation faculty to grasp that anybody may be satisfied that they’ve a really slim set of horrible choices,” he mentioned. Once I posed this concept to Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at John Jay School of Prison Justice who research coerced confessions, he agreed. “If somebody is attempting to get you to be compliant, they do it incrementally, in a collection of small steps that take you farther and farther from what you realize to be true,” he mentioned. “It’s not about breaking the need. They have been altering the sense of actuality.”
So, like liberal Democrat social gathering politics?
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“Republican decision exhibits intent to bypass Az voters in 2024 presidential election” [Tucson Sentinel]. “Rep. Rachel Jones, of Tucson, is the sponsor of Home Concurrent Decision 2055, a declaration saying that the state legislature already has the ability — by way of the U.S. Structure — to pre-appoint Arizona’s electors for the 2024 presidential election, to make sure that they’d vote for former President Donald Trump, whatever the outcomes of the favored vote. The Legislature would then use the specter of ignoring the votes of tens of millions of Arizonans to strong-arm Hobbs into signing an election reform invoice that may eradicate early voting and permit solely in-person voting and solely on Election Day with no mail-in ballots, to be fully counted by hand. Hobbs wouldn’t have the ability to veto the measure because the decision doesn’t have the ability of regulation, however merely declares its backers’ intentions and what they already consider to be true, per federal regulation.
hile the Republican members of the Home Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee virtually all the time vote alongside social gathering strains to approve proposed laws from their very own social gathering, Jones’ decision went too far, even for them.” • Certainly!
#COVID19
“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Common Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be at liberty to contact me on the deal with given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater stories); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
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Search for the Helpers
Two, three, many Chicagos:
Cóvid-safer occasions in Chicago this week and subsequent!
All of them could have at the very least one among our air purifiers. Some may even require masks!!
Cóvid security is straightforward after we do it collectively 🩵🩵🩵 pic.twitter.com/cSVLvBf65j
— Clear Air Membership (@Clean_Air_Club_) February 16, 2024
Vaccination and Vaccines
“Might a nasal vaccine imply you by no means get Covid once more? The way it works, the place to get one and the whole lot it is advisable to know” [Daily Mail]. “Might a powdered vaccine you inhale lastly supply the possibility to stamp Covid out for good? The vaccine is designed to work within the respiratory tract, the place the virus first will get into the physique. In accordance with a research, the vaccine affords virtually immediate safety in opposition to Covid – in comparison with standard injected vaccines, which take as much as 14 days to develop into totally efficient. The inhaled vaccine blocked each an infection with the virus and the possibility of spreading it to others…. The vaccine is fabricated from tiny spheres that comprise the protein that’s distinctive to the virus which causes Covid. It’s inhaled into the nostril and absorbed by blood vessels within the respiratory tract, the place immune cells known as T-cells and B-cells (which produce antibodies), assault it after which keep in mind it…. ‘An injected vaccine given into the muscle, often within the arm, may even produce T-cells and B-cells, however these will primarily flow into within the blood and organs,’ he provides. ‘Injected vaccines solely provoke a tiny amount within the nostril and mouth, so that they aren’t very best guards for the purpose the place the Covid virus features entry. ‘It’s like placing safety guards behind a wall – with a nasal vaccine you’ve got these guards the place you want them.’” The Covid scenario within the UK should be actually dangerous if the Day by day Mail is writing about vaccines (though kudos to their scientific reporting, as traditional). Extra: “We have already got them. Fluenz Tatra, a nasal vaccine that accommodates a dwell however weakened type of the flu virus is given to tens of millions of kids annually (however because it accommodates a dwell virus it’s not appropriate for older folks as a result of their immune methods are weaker). By way of Covid, there are lots of nasal vaccines in growth world wide, and at the very least two within the U.S. could also be at a stage the place they are often put earlier than the regulators later this yr. One of many contenders within the UK, known as ViraVac, has been developed by Professor Munir and his group based mostly on a vaccine initially sprayed round barns to halt a type of coronavirus in chickens. This had proven promise in animal research however he says he’s has struggled to search out the funding wanted to maneuver to the subsequent stage of analysis because the World Well being Organisation downgraded the standing of Covid, saying in Might final yr that it was ‘now not a worldwide emergency’.” • Good job, WHO. (We ran the Nature authentic again in December; it’s paywalled, sadly.)
“New dry powder aerosol COVID-19 vaccine exhibits promise in opposition to a number of virus strains” [News Medical]. Mice, hamsters, and non-human primates. “Research findings revealed that this single-use nasal spray promotes the strong manufacturing of IgG and IgA antibodies and bolsters native T cell responses with the nasal tract and alveoli in murine and non-human primate fashions. The composition of the virus permits it to confer protection in opposition to each ancestral COVID-19 variants and the more moderen Omicron strains. This novel vaccine may type the idea for a brand new technology of non-invasive vaccines in opposition to each COVID-19 and different respiratory tract infections…. Most encouragingly, this vaccine was discovered to be each single dose and multivalent – not like standard vaccines, the efficacy of R-CNP@M was secure in opposition to an infection by standard and Omicron COVID-19 lineages. Moreover, not like earlier vaccines (together with most aerosol-based ones) this vaccine requires administration solely as soon as.”
Immune Dysregulation
“Adelaide little one reported with measles as instances emerge round Australia” [ABC Australia]. “Well being authorities have warned travellers on a flight from Melbourne to Adelaide to be alert for signs after a toddler has contracted measles.” Oh good. Extra: “The extremely contagious illness begins with fever, cough, runny nostril, sore eyes, adopted by a rash which begins on the pinnacle and spreads down the physique.” • The rash begins three to 5 days after signs start. However the signs are so much like Covid, for which California, Oregon, and (presumably) CDC will power youngsters again to high school in a single (1) day, thus guaranteeing transmission of an airborne virus with an R0 of 18, far larger than Covid.
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TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new in the present day; all others usually are not up to date.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (Biobot) No backward revisions. The uptick is actual (at the very least to Biobot).
[2] (Biobot) Biobot information suggests an increase within the Northeast. MRWA information doesn’t counsel that, as of February 8:
Right here, FWIW, is Verily nationwide information as of February 14:
And regional information for HHS Area, the Northeast:
[3] (CDC Variants) “As of Might 11, genomic surveillance information shall be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of optimistic check specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice every week; semiweekly.” Seems like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
[4] (ER) Doesn’t help Biobot information. “Charts and information offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous yr, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not the whole pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “similar to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is suitable for bothMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these folks a lot. Discover additionally that this chart exhibits, at the very least for its time interval, that Covid is just not seasonal, despite the fact that CDC is attempting to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections. And naturally, we’re not even moving into the standard of the wastewater websites that we now have as a proxy for Covid an infection total.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Somewhat slowing of the lower may very well be a flattening, in line with Biobot information. Let’s wait and see.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down “Maps, charts, and information offered by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Check Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) It might be fascinating to survey this inhabitants usually; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and large peer stress, went and acquired examined anyhow.
[8] (Cleveland) Lambert right here: Share and absolute numbers down.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Up, albeit within the rear view mirror.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) Swift rise of JN.1.
Stats Watch
Housing: “United States Housing Begins” [Trading Economics]. “Housing begins within the US slumped 14.8% month-over-month to an annualized 1.331 million in January 2024, the bottom since August and lacking market forecasts of 1.46 million. It’s the largest fall since April 2020, following a revised 3.3% enhance to 1.562 million in December.”
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Power: “How a lot electrical energy does AI devour?” [The Verge]. “The problem of constructing up-to-date estimates, says Sasha Luccioni, a researcher at French-American AI agency Hugging Face, is that corporations have develop into extra secretive as AI has develop into worthwhile. Return just some years and corporations like OpenAI would publish particulars of their coaching regimes — what {hardware} and for a way lengthy. However the identical data merely doesn’t exist for the most recent fashions, like ChatGPT and GPT-4, says Luccioni. ‘With ChatGPT we don’t understand how large it’s, we don’t know what number of parameters the underlying mannequin has, we don’t know the place it’s working … It may very well be three raccoons in a trench coat since you simply don’t know what’s beneath the hood.’”
Tech: “Air Power OKs Autonomous Cargo Flights Throughout California After Profitable Check” [Times of San Diego]. “The U.S. Air Power has licensed San Francisco-based Xwing to move time-sensitive cargo throughout California on autonomous plane. The authorization follows a two-week demonstration totaling over 2,800 flight miles to civilian and army airports, together with March Air Reserve Base, Vandenberg Area Power Base, Sacramento McClellan Airport, Meadows Subject Airport, and Fresno Yosemite Worldwide Airport. The missions concerned a self-flying single-engine Cessna 208B Grand Caravan that may carry 3,000 kilos of cargo.”
Public Relations: “Buying and selling belief” [Seth’s Blog]. “Many corporations, significantly tech ones, are intentionally buying and selling belief for short-term earnings. Amazon and plenty of different corporations went from investing closely in being dependable, reliable and honest to taking persistent steps to commerce these helpful property for quarterly outcomes. It’s value being clear about this–they did this deliberately. They determined that the boldness customers had positioned in them wasn’t value as a lot because the shortcuts they may take to extend earnings as a substitute. Whereas the survey focuses on extensively recognized, massive establishments, the identical may very well be mentioned for the native pizzeria. When you burn some belief, it’s virtually unattainable to earn it again. It took Harvard 400 years to develop into Harvard, Google about twenty to earn its place. That is the chance you’ve been ready for–to develop into the one which earns the advantage of the doubt. Being the low-trust choice is hardly a spot value preventing for.” • Enshittification considered from one other angle. Helpful chart:
I like Twitter’s place on the absolute backside, however I feel Brooking’s is lacking one thing: I don’t belief Twitter, the agency, within the slightest, regardless of the proprietor. However I belief my curated listing of follows very a lot (distinct from Fb, whose feed is so [family blogged] to belief anybody or something on it).
Right now’s Concern & Greed Index: 76 Excessive Greed (earlier shut: 76 Excessive Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 77 (Excessive Greed). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Feb 16 at 1:24:38 PM ET.
Zeitgeist Watch
Not a pleasant individual in any respect:
NEW – Klaus Schwab Says ‘It Will Be a New World’ in Ten Years
“I feel we now have to be ready for a world the place we see a fusion of our bodily, our digital, and our organic dimensions…So it is going to be a brand new world…In ten years in all probability it is going to be fully totally different from… pic.twitter.com/ZePU37XC1V
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) February 16, 2024
I don’t imply to sound dystopian, however doesn’t this indicate a commerce in physique elements?
The actual and the faux:
Nonetheless, the model of the present hosted on the NFL’s official YouTube web page has the audio cleaned as much as take away Keys’s bitter notes (hyperlink: https://t.co/IutG4l7Eka).
Bootleg clips containing the unique, genuine audio are being scrubbed from YouTube at a breakneck tempo. pic.twitter.com/F2Esr4ozmE
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) February 13, 2024
Class Warfare
“The id of revenues and sources of income.” –The Bearded One
“It’s the Working Class, Silly” [Harold Mayerson, Prospect]. Evaluation of Judis and Teixiera, The place Have All of the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Occasion within the Age of Extremes. “As Judis and Teixeira inform the story, two units of culprits lie behind the Democrats’ financial and cultural missteps. They maintain Wall Road and Silicon Valley chargeable for the social gathering’s failure to comply with via on the populist economics that Carter, Clinton, and Obama at instances rhetorically invoked. The true perpetrator for cultural radicalism, Judis and Teixeira argue, is the Democrats’ “shadow social gathering”—advocacy teams, assume tanks, foundations, and different donors in addition to liberal media which have pushed the social gathering towards positions that make no sense to working-class voters. Mainly, Judis and Teixeira assume that neoliberal economics and cultural radicalism make a lethal mixture, interesting to an elite however to not the mass of voters. They need Democrats to maneuver left on economics and towards the middle on tradition to recreate the politics that sustained the New Deal.” • Ah, the NGOs. Judis and Teixiera, then, are additionally attacking the PMC. Similar to Rasmussen. How you are able to do evaluation of the working class with out making capital, named as such, a part of the image… It’s like doing astrology in a pre-Copernican universe.
Information of the Wired
Like “bug”:
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