By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Chicken Music of the Day
American Robin, 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon, Suffolk, New York, United States. “American Robin singing on a roof earlier than daybreak. Chicken provides just a few name notes earlier than flying off on the finish of the recording.”
In Case You May Miss…
(1) Boeing deaths.
(2) Trump nostalgia.
(3) Encampments information.
Politics
“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in reality a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Biden Administration
“Biden on campus protesters: No ‘proper to trigger chaos’” [Axios]. • Appropriate. Let’s depart that to the Govt Department!
2024
Lower than a 12 months to go!
RCP Ballot Averages, April 26:
Nationwide outcomes are nonetheless transferring Biden’s means. However all of the Swing States (more here) are transferring Trump’s means, though in tiny increments. It’s laborious to attribute this consistency to mere probability. “All” with one exception: Pennsylvania. If Susie Wiles is such a mind genius, why isn’t she fixing this?
* * * Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “Michael Cohen TikTok movies, fundraising stun authorized observers: Could have ‘torpedoed case towards Trump’” [FOX]. “Michael Cohen, who is meant to be a star witness in NY v. Trump, might need ‘torpedoed’ the case earlier than taking the stand by ranting about it on TikTok whereas fundraising, in response to authorized observers…. ABC Information published an article Sunday declaring Cohen’s actions ‘may very well be an issue, declaring that Cohen has chimed in on former Nationwide Enquirer writer David Pecker’s testimony, has often ‘railed towards Trump,’ has insisted the jury isn’t ‘bored’ and might revenue when followers bathe him with presents. TikTok permits viewers to donate ‘presents’ as they watch customers’ livestreams…. ‘Michael Cohen by his narcissism and his ego could have simply torpedoed the case towards Trump,’ [Michael] Avenatti advised Fox Information Digital from federal jail.” “(!!!!) Extra: ‘The state can’t win the case with out him and due to his conduct in reviewing trial testimony in violation of the court docket’s order, which simply admitted to when talking with ABC, the court docket should strike him as a witness, declare a mistrial, or each,’ Avenatti continued. ‘He had no enterprise commenting on different witnesses’ testimony.’ Avenatti stated Cohen is ‘not even purported to be listening to or studying of that testimony earlier than he testifies’ himself. ‘Alvin Bragg and his group have quite a lot of explaining to do, for my part,’ Avenatti stated.” • Entertaining!
Trump (R) (Bragg/Merchan): “NY vs. Trump: A trial looking for an imaginary crime” [FOX]. “Bragg’s courtroom smear marketing campaign towards Trump continued with prosecution witness Keith Davidson, the Los Angeles lawyer for Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who purportedly had an affair with Trump. Davidson negotiated the so-called “hush cash” funds for each his purchasers, which had been fully lawful. Paying somebody for his or her silence in change for a non-disclosure settlement is just not a criminal offense. Certainly, it’s a staple of hundreds of settlement agreements signed day by day…. Prosecutors additionally exploited the McDougal-Daniels imbroglio to backdoor a distinguished point out in court docket of the notorious “Entry Hollywood” tape that proved damaging to Trump simply weeks earlier than the 2016 election. Such proof ought to by no means be permitted since its scant probative worth is materially outweighed by the prejudicial impact on the jury. Regardless of. That’s precisely what Bragg needs.” • The Molineux Rule as soon as extra….
Trump (R) (Smith/Cannon) “Unredactions Reveal Early White Home Involvement in Trump Paperwork Case” [Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigations]. “A comparability of the redacted and unredacted materials exhibits the Archives acted in live performance with a number of Biden administration companies to construct the case — coordination that included the DOJ, the Biden White Home, and the intelligence neighborhood. The Trump case prompted revelations that each Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence had additionally retained categorized paperwork – in Biden’s case for many years, stretching again to his time within the Senate. However whereas the Archives’ outreach to Biden and Pence consisted of requests, the company took a extra assertive stance with Trump. ”
* * * Trump (R): “Is Trump Nostalgia Sufficient?” [Sean Trende, RealClearPolitics]. “The political science literature is fairly constant that . That’s not good for Biden both: When requested how they’d fee situations within the economic system right this moment, 30% stated ‘good,’ whereas 70% stated ‘poor.’ That’s higher than the 18-82 break up from mid-2022, however it’s nonetheless worse than in the midst of the COVID shutdown, when it was a 34-65 breakdown. And it’s far worse than the 70% ‘good’ ranking Trump obtained in late 2019. We will repeat ‘It’s a very long time till Election Day,’ and that’s true in a way. However Election Day can also be quick approaching; we’re virtually in Could, and folks begin voting in September in some states. If voters nonetheless have a good view of Trump’s presidency in just a few months and assume the incumbent president is a failure, the scenario will rapidly flip essential for Biden and the Democratic Get together.
Trump (R): “On a time without work from court docket, fired-up Trump hits swing states” [BBC]. “However on Wednesday at a rally outdoors of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he appeared fired up as he spoke to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters for about an hour and a half…. ‘The trial is unquestionably going to extend his recognition,’ stated Nancy Ridge, a supporter from close by Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, who was sporting a jacket printed with Mr Trump’s mugshot on the again and the phrases ‘Wished: for president.’ ‘Particularly amongst lower-class individuals who have been convicted of crimes and even falsely accused. They perceive the justice system and the way corrupt it may be,’ she stated. ‘It’s free publicity,’ stated Jerry Cleppe, one other Trump fan ready in a queue outdoors the occasion. ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s good or dangerous, it’s consideration. The trial is an effective factor.’…. After his rally in Wisconsin, the previous president hosted one other occasion in Michigan.” • So, MI and WI are the priorities (this week).
Trump (R): “Trump eyes 2 battleground states as he appears to tear down Dem ‘blue wall’ once more” [FOX]. “It’s the previous president’s second swing by the 2 Nice Lakes swing states in a month…. Biden has made a number of journeys to Michigan and Wisconsin this 12 months, and his marketing campaign enjoys a formidable benefit in each states in the case of group and ground-game efforts.”
* * * Biden (D): “Biden’s Electoral School Problem” [Ron Brownstein, The Atlantic]. “President Joe Biden received a decisive Electoral School victory in 2020 by restoring outdated Democratic benefits within the Rust Belt whereas establishing new beachheads within the Solar Belt. However this 12 months, his place in polls has weakened on each fronts. The result’s that, even this removed from Election Day, indicators are creating that Biden may face a last-mile downside within the Electoral School. Even a modest restoration in Biden’s present assist may put him in place to win states price 255 Electoral School votes, strategists in each events agree. His downside is that each possibility for capturing the ultimate 15 Electoral School votes he would want to succeed in a profitable majority of 270 appears considerably harder…. Biden’s odds could notably diminish if he can’t maintain all three of the previous ‘blue wall’ states throughout the Rust Belt that he recaptured in 2020 after Trump had taken them 4 years earlier: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Biden is operating extra competitively in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin than in another swing states. However in Michigan, Biden has struggled in most polls, whipsawed by defections amongst a number of teams Democrats depend on, together with Arab People, auto staff, younger folks, and Black People. As James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist advised me, if Biden can get well to win Michigan together with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, ‘you aren’t going to lose.’ However, Carville added, if Biden can’t maintain all three, ‘you’ll must catch an inside straight to win.’” And: “Many operatives in each events separate the six states Biden carried most narrowly into three distinct tiers. Biden has appeared finest in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Biden’s place has been weakest in Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. Michigan falls into its personal tier in between.” • The collective knowledge of Democratic strategists however nonetheless price a learn.
Biden (D): “Don’t Neglect the Backlash to the ’60s” [Politico]. “Most media retrospectives of the Nineteen Sixties rejoice the marchers, the protests, the peace indicators together with the obligatory Buffalo Springfield lyrics (“There’s one thing taking place right here/ However what it’s ain’t precisely clear”). The truth is these upheavals had been an infinite in-kind contribution to the political fortunes of the appropriate. And if historical past comes even near repeating itself, then the most recent episode will redound to Donald Trump’s profit. Start with this, sadly correct, generalization: Protests of any type, even these most justified, produce a way of unease among the many public…. When upheaval started on school campuses, largely triggered by the escalation of the Vietnam Battle, this sense of disapproval grew sharply, and so did the political penalties. Ronald Reagan centered a lot of his 1966 marketing campaign for governor of California on attacking the Free Speech Motion on the College of California, Berkeley. He pledged to ‘clear up the mess at Berkeley,’ and denounced the ‘beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates’ who fueled ‘anarchy and rioting.’… The backlash towards the left was a key a part of the 1968 presidential race. Richard Nixon famously ran a marketing campaign on ‘regulation and order’ — highlighting each city and campus unrest. One industrial featured scenes of protest, as Nixon argued that ‘in a system of presidency that gives for peaceable change, there is no such thing as a trigger that justifies a resort to violence.’…. The scenes of violence in Chicago outdoors the Democrats’ 1968 presidential conference, in the meantime, additional contributed to the notion that left-wing lawlessness had gotten uncontrolled. It was a nightmare occasion for Hubert Humphrey’s beleaguered presidential marketing campaign, one the place the general public overwhelmingly sided with the Chicago police, not the demonstrators. (And, in fact, guess the place Democrats are holding their 2024 conference: Chicago.)”
* * * Kennedy (I):
At an occasion in Brooklyn, NY yesterday, I broke down latest sturdy polling knowledge that exhibits that President Biden is the true spoiler on this election — and that I’m the one candidate who can beat President Trump.
The numbers communicate for themselves ➡️ https://t.co/hKLFfOUgw4… pic.twitter.com/PYt1B2jhDE
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 2, 2024
Cheeky!
Kennedy (I): “Railroad Owned by RFK Jr.’s Megadonor Repeatedly Violated Environmental and Security Legal guidelines” [Exposed by CMD]. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could claim he might be ‘the most effective environmental president in American historical past,’ however the Republican industrialist bankrolling the tremendous PAC behind his longshot bid for the White Home has a protracted historical past of violating environmental legal guidelines. A Heart for Media and Democracy (CMD) research of the railroad enterprise that 81-year-old megadonor Timothy Mellon owned for 45 years exhibits quite a few violations of federal and state environmental and security legal guidelines, together with a felony conviction of the corporate for overlaying up a 2006 oil spill. Mellon’s backing could also be associated to Kennedy’s latest emergence as a local weather skeptic and harsh critic of the Environmental Safety Company (EPA). Regardless of being a former environmental lawyer and ‘crusader,’ he has shifted his place so radically that former allies are calling his marketing campaign a ‘local weather catastrophe.’ On the marketing campaign path, Kennedy has called the climate crisis ‘a pretext for clamping down totalitarian controls, the identical means the Covid disaster was,’ blaming ‘intelligence companies,’ ‘the world financial discussion board,’ and ‘the billionaire boys’ membership at Davos’ for efforts to manage world warming. Kennedy additionally denounces the EPA as ‘successfully run by the oil trade, the coal trade and the pesticide trade,’ even if the fossil gas trade and Republican state attorneys normal have repeatedly sued the company to problem its laws….. Throughout this election cycle alone [Mellon] has given greater than $50 million to GOP candidates and PACs, together with over $20 million to the American Values 2024 tremendous PAC that helps Kennedy’s impartial run for president. This represents virtually half of the PAC’s $43-million haul to this point this cycle. On the identical time, Mellon is financing former President Trump’s third run for the White Home.”
* * * “Why the Senate GOP is downplaying the probabilities of a crimson wave” [Politico]. “Senate Republicans are six months away from their most favorable Election Day map in a decade, with pickup alternatives in not less than a half-dozen states — together with sapphire-blue Maryland. Mitch McConnell isn’t predicting a crimson wave forward, although. There’s a motive for that. The minority chief is clearly cautious of his occasion overextending itself regardless of the advantageous situations after the dual debacles of 2020 and 2022, when former President Donald Trump’s embrace of flawed GOP nominees contributed to shocking Democratic wins. Whereas former Senate GOP marketing campaign chief Rick Scott (R-Fla.) predicted the occasion would win as much as 55 seats within the midterms, Democrats ended up gaining a seat. So regardless that Republicans have room to compete in eight states, McConnell stated in an interview that he’s primarily targeted on 4 for now…. ‘You’re taking polls round Labor Day and start to resolve the place you’re going to play,’ McConnell stated. ‘However we all know the place we’re going to play for positive proper now: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland.’”
“Democrats Are Feckless and Republicans Are Chaotic. Right here’s Why” [Politico]. “Because the political scientists Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman argue of their new e-book, Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, America’s present system is formed by a paradox: The events seem omnipresent — on the poll line, on the occasion conventions, on the talk stage — but they’re unable to carry out lots of their fundamental features, like imposing ideological self-discipline amongst officeholders or constructing efficient electoral coalitions.” Yet another goddamned e-book to learn. Extra: “Rosenfeld: When you’ve got a undertaking for energy and if you wish to accomplish one thing, there is no such thing as a various to occasion politics.” • Lenin would agree. And he can be proper.
AZ: “Arizona Senate repeals near-total 1864 abortion ban in divisive vote” [Al Jazeera]. “The Arizona Senate has voted to repeal the state’s 1864 ban on abortion, which might in any other case have taken impact inside weeks. The repeal was handed by the Senate in a 16-14 vote on Wednesday and is predicted to be signed swiftly by Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed occasion strains to vote in favour of repealing the ban. The Arizona Home final week handed the measure after a handful of Republicans broke occasion ranks and voted with Democrats to ship it to the Senate. ‘We’re right here to repeal a nasty regulation,’ Senator Eva Burch, a Democrat, stated from the ground. “I don’t need us honouring legal guidelines about girls, written throughout a time when girls had been forbidden from voting.’”
Republican Funhouse
“Political heart revolts towards fringe, as leaders rebuke Greene, protesters” [The Hill]. “In a exceptional growth Tuesday, Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) introduced he and different Democrats would step in to assist Johnson defeat any movement supplied by conservatives to vacate his place. ‘I believe individuals are sick and bored with chaos and dysfunction. So I congratulate all of our associates on either side of the aisle within the Home for … truly doing their job as an alternative of the entire sideshow,’ stated Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate management group. ‘Republicans are by and enormous uninterested in all of the antics and the chaos, they usually notice it’s a political legal responsibility,’ he added. Vin Weber, a GOP strategist and former member of the Home Republican management stated, ‘We’re seeing a really sturdy response towards the political course of by the fringes of each events.’ ‘Despite the fact that he’s of the opposite occasion, we’re seeing within the response of the Democratic chief a frontrunner,’ he stated of Jeffries’s determination to aspect with Johnson towards the conservative insurgents in is convention. And he praised Johnson for standing as much as the critics in his convention by pushing the international help bundle by the Home, regardless that doing so put his job in danger. That daring determination was validated by the sturdy vote its totally different parts obtained from Home Republicans, together with 101 GOP lawmakers who voted for Ukraine funding.” • What the heck is “daring” about servicing The Blob?
“GOP Proper Flank Challenges Speaker Johnson (and Trump)” [RealClearPolitics]. “Home Speaker Mike Johnson has a revolt on his proper flank, and by extension, so does Donald Trump. The previous president has definitely tightened his grasp on the Republican Get together as he seeks to return to the White Home. All the identical, his authority is just not full…. Greene was by no means amongst those that distanced themselves from Trump after Jan. 6, and her reference to him was so sturdy that former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy repeatedly sought her counsel as a liaison to Mar-a-Lago. MTG nonetheless speaks with Trump often. She campaigned with him earlier this 12 months…. The Georgia firebrand is just not, nonetheless, a Trump rubber stamp. Neither is Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie or Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. The trio plans to drive a vote to take away Johnson subsequent week…. ‘Whether or not it’s operating for minority chief or speaker subsequent Congress, no person’s relying on this man being round,’ one other Republican lawmaker advised RCP earlier than including that Johnson’s solely path to salvation can be ‘Trump maneuvering to maintain him round.’ ‘I don’t know why he would,’ the lawmaker continued. ‘I don’t understand how Trump would justify that.’ For the speaker’s half, Johnson has stated that he and Trump ‘are 100% in line’ on their coverage agenda. And proper now, the previous president opposes the hassle to shake up management and sees it as counterproductive to Republican electoral goals. A Trump emissary, RNC Chair Michael Whatley, delivered that message on to the congresswoman in her workplace Wednesday.”
Democrats en Déshabillé
Yep:
That entire scratch a liberal, and a fascist bleeds assertion has by no means been extra obvious than it’s on this second.
— AshleyStevens (@The_Acumen) May 1, 2024
All factions of each events partaking liberally of the fascist “All You Can Eat” buffet.
Realignment and Legitimacy
Northern Arizona College encampment:
Can’t make this up. At Northern Arizona College, the VP of Inclusion helped tear down the encampment tents arrange by anti-genocide pupil protestors. 24 had been arrested. Oh & the college suspended the SJP chapter. pic.twitter.com/kmlrUNRpBZ
— Alexander Aviña (@Alexander_Avina) May 1, 2024
Similar as at Columbia, the place the cop-wielding President is a “lady of shade.” A lot for id politics, one would have thought.
UCLA encampment:
*additionally not most employees, comparable to janitors, meals service staff, library staff and so forth. A normal strike may assist appropriate this energy imbalance… 👀
— Samuel Lutzker (@SamLutzker) May 2, 2024
Possibly a UAW 4811 strike will ignite one thing….
UCLA encampment:
LA, y’a’ll positive know easy methods to maintain it tf down ❤️🔥🫡 pic.twitter.com/0xhB0na3dw
— eyerollsandbloodlust (@eyerollsnblood) May 2, 2024
The dastardly campers are cleverly concealing their connection to Soros by buying multi-colored tents…
Dartmouth:
“Greater than 90 protesters arrested at Dartmouth School pro-Palestinian encampment” [Boston Globe]. “Hanover police stated in a press release that they’d been suggested by the faculty that no tents can be allowed. Protesters put up a small grouping of 4 tents, and shortly tons of of individuals had gathered on the small encampment, singing songs and calling on the college to divest from corporations that revenue from warfare in Israel. By 8:30 p.m., about 30 state troopers and native law enforcement officials arrived on campus.” • Seven cops oer tent.
Brown encampment:
It seems that in case you do not name in anti-terror cops to beat, detain, and arrest your college students, you may truly keep away from escalating violence and chaos, and changing into headline information throughout the globe, and truly have a productive dialogue with demonstrators in your campus. https://t.co/hVKyQ39FCy
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 2, 2024
That is the time-honored tactic of college directors: Divert the scholar vitality right into a committee (after which, in fact, sabotage the committee).
Pandemics
“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid Sources, 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 knowledge). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the deal with given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Sources, 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 reports); 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).
Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Government of Canada).
Sources, 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!
Airborne Transmission: Covid
“Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The Distinction between Indoors and Open air” [Fluids]. From the Dialogue: “Two points particularly, the interplay between thermal plumes and ceilings and the entrainment of room air into exhalation plumes, seem to have been largely missed within the literature. Each are usually not an issue outside. But indoors, they current a significant problem as a result of rooms are by definition confined and customarily have ceilings. Because of this indoors: (i) boluses of respiratory aerosols (high-concentration clouds) will are inclined to kind on the ceiling and journey horizontally earlier than descending by the respiration zone of the room occupants; and (ii) because the focus of respiratory aerosols builds up within the room house, so the near-field publicity danger related to exhalation plumes will have a tendency to extend. Each these phenomena imply that the danger of transmission is far better indoors in contrast with outside. In addition they spotlight the inadequacy of the simplistic ‘near-field’–‘far-field’ evaluation framework. In actuality, in most indoor environments, the near-field and far-field publicity dangers are inextricably linked—one thing that’s not the case outside. As a result of exhalation plumes entrain air from the encircling room house, a suggestions loop exists between the far-field and near-field. ” And the conclusion: “By evaluating aerosol behaviour inside and out of doors buildings, we now have been capable of present that profound variations exist between the 2 environments and that that is prone to be the primary motive why SARS-CoV-2 transmission is a lot increased indoors than outside. Specifically, we now have recognized {that a} suggestions loop exists between the near-field and the far-field inside buildings, which is totally absent outside. This suggestions loop is facilitated by the motion of the exhalation and thermal plumes related to occupants in room areas. These plumes drive a lot of the air circulation inside rooms and might quickly disperse respiratory aerosol particles all through an area.” • This why masking needs to be common all through hospital amenities (though one would assume CDC would know higher than anybody that scorching air rises).
Transmission: H5N1
Michigan takes the lead:
Michigan: Willpower of Extraordinary Emergency
HPAI Danger DiscountNew restrictions for Michigan dairy and poultry farmers introduced.
1/2https://t.co/VYGRnd8vZ9 pic.twitter.com/Wb0zlSbX7j
— CoronaHeadsUp (@CoronaHeadsUp) May 2, 2024
Good for them!
Sequelae: Covid
Hair loss? Actually?
Put up-acute an infection hair loss hasn’t gotten almost sufficient consideration. We heard about post-COVID telogen effluvium in 2020/2021, after which it appeared to vanish, so folks guessed this meant it went away.
Nope. Ask any hair stylist that may discuss. Im some circumstances, it’s persistent. https://t.co/6EBiXkCihF— Kathryn (@kadamssl) May 1, 2024
Have any readers heard of this?
Elite Maleficence
CDC kills off hospital knowledge:
Hmmmm, @CDCDirector Mandy Cohen is surprisingly silent in regards to the termination of required reporting of COVID hospital admissions/beds. The @CDCgov / epidemiologists used this key knowledge for guiding pandemic planning. ➡️CDC has now killed that right this moment. Who might be killed tomorrow? Dunno. https://t.co/28ZGgGihvH
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 2, 2024
Since clearly solely hospitals who really feel they’re performing nicely will report, the information is now ineffective. I’m going to must rethink my tables once more. Do not forget that the general public well being institution thinks solely hospitalizations and deaths are necessary, and each appear to be going darkish.
WHO is a maskless and ill-ventilated speaking store:
“[improving] indoor air high quality by higher air flow, filtration or UV disinfection..needs to be excessive on the agenda of..the pandemic settlement, to be unveiled at subsequent month’s World Well being Meeting. But it surely stays silent on these important public well being protections.” 💯 https://t.co/SfBF8rBCMp pic.twitter.com/jgOGylul2N
— Maarten De Cock (@mdc_martinus) May 2, 2024
TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others are usually 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) Our curve has now flattened out at a degree far above valleys below Trump. Not a fantastic victory. Notice additionally the realm “below the curve,” apart from taking a look at peaks. That space is bigger below Biden than below Trump, and it appears to be rising steadily if inconsistently.
[2] (Biobot) No backward revisons….
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.2 has entered the chat, not less than within the mannequin. As of Could 11, genomic surveillance knowledge might be reported biweekly, primarily based on the provision of optimistic take a look at specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice every week; semiweekly.” Seems to be like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.
[4] (ER) CDC appears to have killed this off, for the reason that hyperlink is damaged, I think in favor of this thing. I’ll attempt to affirm. UPDATE Sure, depart it to CDC to kill a web page, after which announce it was archived a day later. And heaven forfend CDC ought to clarify the place to go to get equal knowledge, if any. I preferred the ER knowledge, as a result of it appeared actually laborious to recreation.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flattening out to a non-zero baseline. I suppose to a tame epidemiologist it appears like “endemicity,” however to me it appears like one other tranche of lethality.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC) Nonetheless down. “Maps, charts, and knowledge supplied by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Take a look at Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Slight uptrend.
[9] (Vacationers: Posivitity) Uptick.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) JN.1 dominates completely. And no point out of KP.2
[11] Seems to be just like the Instances isn’t reporting demise knowledge any extra? Possibly I would like to return to The Economist….
Stats Watch
Employment State of affairs: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of folks claiming unemployment advantages within the US was unchanged from the prior week at 208,000 on the interval ending April twenty seventh, remaining on the lowest degree in two months, and firmly under market expectations of 212,000. It was the fourth consecutive stronger-than-expected outcome, pointing to continued tightness within the US labor market and including leeway for the Federal Reserve to delay rate of interest cuts ought to inflation stay stubbornly above the central financial institution’s goal. ”
Manufacturing: “United States Manufacturing unit Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for US manufactured items rose by 1.6% from the earlier month to $584.5 billion in March of 2024, following a 1.2% improve in February, in step with expectations.”
Provide Chain: “United States LMI Logistics Managers Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Logistics Supervisor’s Index within the US elevated to 58.3 in March 2024, from 56.5 in February, marking the quickest enlargement since September 2022. This means that the general logistics trade is experiencing wholesome development, albeit on the decrease finish. The expansion is attributed to long-planned stock expansions and improved effectivity in warehousing and transportation.”
Manufacturing: “Whistleblower Josh Dean of Boeing provider Spirit AeroSystems has died” [Seattle Times]. “Joshua Dean, a former high quality auditor at Boeing provider Spirit AeroSystems and one of many first whistleblowers to allege Spirit management had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a battle with . Often known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., the place Spirit is predicated. He was 45, had been in good well being and was famous for having a wholesome life-style. He died after two weeks in essential situation, his aunt Carol Parsons stated…. Parsons stated Dean grew to become in poor health and went to the hospital as a result of he was having hassle respiration simply over two weeks in the past. He was intubated and developed pneumonia after which a severe bacterial an infection, MRSA…. Dean was represented by a regulation agency in South Carolina that additionally represented Boeing whistleblower John ‘Mitch’ Barnett.” Extra element–
Manufacturing: “Boeing provider whistleblower Joshua Dean useless at 45” [FOX 59]. “Dean had been hospitalized with Influenza B and MRSA, and developed pneumonia, in response to a Fb publish from his mom. His situation rapidly deteriorated and he was transferred to a hospital in Oklahoma Metropolis. There, he was placed on an ECMO machine, which pumps blood outdoors the physique and circulates oxygenated blood, taking on the operate of the center and lungs and permitting different organs to heal. He was additionally present process dialysis. It was quickly found after a CT scan that Dean suffered a stroke. Previous to his hospitalization, Dean was stated to be ‘in good well being and was famous for having a wholesome life-style,’ in response to The Seattle Instances, which first reported his demise.” • Eeesh. Can’t Boeing persist with killing folks wholesale? Does it must go retail? Kidding!
Manufacturing: “Whistleblower Legal guidelines That Shield Lawbreakers” [Maureen Tkacik, American Prospect]. This text, glorious as ordinary, is basically two articles, one on the subject within the headline, one buried. Right here is the buried half: (1) “Showing earlier than the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, [Sam] Salehpour described an unsettling night when his model new tire started to flatten on the drive house. When he pulled over at a physique store, a mechanic found a nail. Simply so you recognize, the mechanic advised him, you didn’t run over this nail; it’s not an accident.” (2) “Later that afternoon, I acquired a textual content message from considered one of Barnett’s outdated Boeing co-workers who’d been fired from the Charleston plant for reporting a security danger created by shoddy manufacturing. An FAA investigation had vindicated a lot of the whistleblower’s allegations, solely after they’d withdrawn their AIR 21 grievance out of concern Boeing would drive them to pay authorized charges. Contained in the whistleblower’s textual content was a photograph of a wheel lacking two lug nuts; the automotive had been mysteriously wobbling, in order that they’d pulled over to verify. It had been years since they’d left the corporate, however they may not shake the sense that somebody, someplace was nonetheless attempting to precise revenge on them for talking out. “If something occurs,” they advised me, not for the primary time, “I’m not suicidal.’” (3) “”John’s boss at all times advised him he was going to push him until he broke, and that’s what they did,” says Turkewitz, whose therapist has been serving to him come to peace with the truth that Barnett doubtless did kill himself, and that his preliminary denial was partly influenced by guilt for having compelled his consumer to relive six and a half years of day by day micro- and macro aggressions in a grueling deposition.” • Anyone aside from me having some cognitive dissonance over (1) and (2) vs. (3)? And now we now have one other demise, this one from “a fast paced an infection,” not crude sabotage, however possibly they’re more sophisticated up in Seattle? Not that I’m foily, however as I wrote, of Barnett’s demise: ” Issues I need to know: Why was the gun in Barnett’s hand? Why did the police mud the automotive for finger prints? What did the word learn? The place is Barnett’s pc?” These questions appear affordable to me, and have by no means been answered. So I don’t know why the opinion of Turkewitz’s therapist — Jennifer Melfi? — is related, right here.
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s intentionally faulty fleet of flying sky-wreckage” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. Abstract of the sphere of play. That is intereting “The factor is, Swampy* wasn’t simply defending the lives of the passengers in these faulty plane – he was additionally defending Boeing staff. Underneath Sec 38 of the US Prison Code, it’s a 15-year felony to make any ‘materially false writing, entry, certification, doc, report, knowledge plate, label, or digital communication regarding any plane or house car half.’ (When Swampy advised a gathering that he took this significantly as a result of ‘the paperwork is simply as necessary because the plane’ the room erupted in laughter.)” • Holding off a felony cost looks like a great motive for homicide, to me. NOTE * “Swampy” = John Barnett’s nickname, which Tkacik has adopted, and Doctorow appears to have adopted from Tkacik…..
Manufacturing: “One other Boeing Whistleblower Turns Up Lifeless” [FITS News]. The deck: “They’re dropping like 737s….” I can’t get into this; if some type reader can, please ship it alongside, as a result of these are locals who don’t fiddle. I assumed the primary remark was attention-grabbing: “If we had been dwelling in an episode of The Blacklist, somebody contained in the regulation agency can be answerable for the deaths. They’d be the frequent denominator that has the looks of advocating for the whistleblower. They’d be a part of a world operation, in all probability primarily based in Russia, and solely a Boeing senior official and one other from an institutional shareholder would find out about it.” • Maybe a trifle baroque….
Tech: “A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Regulation to Let You Management Your Personal Feed” [Wired]. “The suit was filed by the Knight First Modification Institute at Columbia College on behalf of researcher Ethan Zuckerman, an affiliate professor on the College of Massachusetts—Amherst. It makes an attempt to take a federal regulation that has typically shielded social networks and use it as a instrument forcing transparency…. Part 230 of the Communications Decency Act is finest identified for permitting social media corporations to evade authorized legal responsibility for content material on their platforms. Zuckerman’s go well with argues that considered one of its subsections provides customers the appropriate to manage how they entry the web, and the instruments they use to take action.
“Part 230 (c) (2) (b) is kind of express about libraries, mother and father, and others being able to manage obscene or different undesirable content material on the web.” • Attention-grabbing!
In the present day’s Worry & Greed Index: 36 Worry (earlier shut: 40 Worry) [CNN]. One week in the past: 39 (Worry). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Could 2 at 1:37:46 PM ET.
Class Warfare
“Police Unions: What to Know and Why They Don’t Belong within the Labor Motion” [Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue]. “Police unions have at all times been outliers amongst organized labor, and there are various explanation why the Industrial Staff of the World (IWW) union has lengthy refused to permit cops (and jail guards) into its group. For one factor, no different union members maintain the authorized capacity to straight-up kill one other human being whereas on the job…. [Author Kristian Williams] argues that the shared office id that makes up the “skinny blue line” mentality for cops transcends different id markers, and exhibits how they view themselves as police first, and every part else second. As such, police unions are inclined to preserve their distance from the remainder of the labor motion (except they’re cracking its members’ skulls)…. The cognitive dissonance that comes with figuring out that members of my union are being crushed bloody and viciously arrested by members of one other union that falls below that identical AFL-CIO umbrella is sickening, as is the information that we should struggle our personal management to drive a change. However I do know that there are a fantastic many people who’re up for the problem, and this battle is way from over.”
Information of the Wired
“Key Consciousness Connections Uncovered” [Neuroscience News]. “The research concerned high-resolution scans that enabled the researchers to visualise mind connections at submillimeter spatial decision. This technical advance allowed them to determine beforehand unseen pathways connecting the brainstem, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal forebrain, and cerebral cortex. Collectively, these pathways kind a ‘default ascending arousal community’ that sustains wakefulness within the resting, aware human mind. The idea of a ‘default’ community is predicated on the concept particular networks throughout the mind are most functionally energetic when the mind is in a resting state of consciousness. In distinction, different networks are extra energetic when the mind is performing goal-directed duties…. The authors are at the moment conducting medical trials to stimulate the default ascending arousal community in sufferers with coma after traumatic mind damage, with the aim of reactivating the community and restoring consciousness.” • Advantageous, however when can we use this default community for promoting, or higher but, hire it?
Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photos of vegetation. Greens are high-quality! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you’d like your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it in the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) here. From Carla:
Carla writes: “These cactus blooms final for less than a day. For a few years, the plant bloomed solely every year. The previous few years it has bloomed extra typically. At all times a deal with!” This pretty photograph screams Midwest to me, however I’m unsure why. Maybe as a result of my mom’s associates put blue China plates within the window? Or is it the form of the driveway, sidewalks, and garden outdoors?
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