By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Hen Track of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Quitman Farm, Brooks, Georgia, United States.

In Case You Would possibly Miss…

1. DOGE.
2. Kamala’s future. If any.
3. The state of tech: like industrial chemical accident.
4. Covid wastewater: Excellent news.

Search for the Helpers

Will the opposite birds reject this chook, because it’s been held by a human?

My e-mail handle is down by the plant; please ship examples of there (“Helpers” within the topic line). In our more and more determined and fragile neoliberal society, on a regular basis regular incidents and tales of “the communism of on a regular basis life” are what I’m in search of (and never, say, the Purple Cross in Hawaii, and even the UNWRA in Gaza).

Politics

“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in truth a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Trump Transition

“Dr. Oz Uncovered for Colossal, Multimillion-Greenback Battle of Curiosity” [The New Republic]. “Dr. Mehmet Oz, the daytime tv host Donald Trump has picked to run the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers, or CMS, could have a direct monetary stake in three corporations that may do enterprise with the company he intends to run. A assessment of Oz’s 2022 tax disclosure by Accountable.US revealed that the Trump ally owned as much as $26 million stake in Sharecare, a digital well being firm co-founded by Oz that operates CareLinx, the “unique in-home care supplemental profit program” utilized by 1.5 million Medicare Benefit enrollees. The corporate went non-public in 2024, so it’s unknown whether or not Oz nonetheless owns a stake within the firm. Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic and Wegovy amongst different medicine, can be a consumer of Sharecare. As head of CMS, Oz has appreciable affect on the pharmaceutical trade—however with enterprise ties like these, it’s equally possible that these drug corporations might have a profound affect on him.” • $26 million? Oz is a patzer. Certainly the identical logic applies to each single billionaire in Trump’s cupboard? In any case, what’s an oligarchy however battle of curiosity on the grand scale?

“How Quick Can Trump Enact His 2025 Agenda?” [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. “The important thing to implementing Trump’s legislative agenda would be the budget-reconciliation course of that permits Congress to bypass the Senate filibuster and enact an enormous bundle of latest legal guidelines on an up-or-down party-line vote. That is how Trump received his tax cuts in 2017 and the way he tried to repeal Obamacare. Gadgets in a budget-reconciliation invoice have to be centered on fiscal issues, however it’s nonetheless an enormous asset to a celebration that controls the White Home and each chambers of Congress. It’s starting to appear like Group Trump desires two budget-reconciliation payments, one centered on authorizing the large buildup in border-security sources needed for Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and one other geared toward extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts. There’s rising speak of a really fast begin on the primary invoice. Because the 119th Congress shall be sworn in on January 3, Congress might get shifting on a price range decision organising this invoice even earlier than Trump takes workplace.” • This submit gives a helpful timeline for Trump’s first 12 months.

* * *

“Bringing Elon to a knife battle” [Jennifer Pahlka, Eating Policy]. “A whole lot of the federal government tech group is skipping the hand wringing; they’ve principally simply grabbed a bag of popcorn and are watching in actual time as Elon and Vivek study all of the issues they’ve identified, lived, and completely hated for his or her whole time in public service. They don’t see DOGE as their savior, however they’re feeling vindicated after years of shouting into the void. I’m struck by how totally different the tone of the DOGE dialog is between political leaders on the left and the individuals who’ve been preventing within the implementation trenches. One group is terrified they’ll succeed. The opposite is beginning to ask a shocking query (or not less than I’m): What if even billionaires can’t disrupt the system we’ve constructed?” • To this point, DOGE is a only a volunteer group. I might volunteer to reform authorities too, and even get pals to affix the “effort.” So what? However DOGE is lots like what Hyman Minksy stated about cash: “Everybody can create cash; the issue is to get it accepted.” How does DOGE get “accepted?” How, precisely, is DOGE going to transition from handwaving potential to kinetic power inside (or not less than affecting authorities? No one appears to ask. Jawboning? Govt orders?

2024 Put up Mortem

“Kamala Harris grapples along with her future in a wounded Democratic Social gathering” [WaPo]. “Within the wake of her personal 2024 loss, Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies are grappling with what her political future holds and debating whether or not the unofficial rule nonetheless applies — particularly, whether or not her first shot on the White Home because the Democratic nominee must also be her just one, given the extraordinary circumstances of Harris’s 107-day dash to Election Day.” And: “A few of her donors and supporters, significantly these in her dwelling state, hope she is going to run for governor of California in 2026. However in 2015, when she was state lawyer basic and a rising star deciding on her subsequent transfer, Harris determined to not search that job after intensive discussions with advisers. She listed the professionals and cons of operating for governor versus senator on a authorized pad, aides stated, concluding that the Senate was a greater match for her pursuits and her strengths as a former prosecutor. However as quickly as she misplaced to Trump on Nov. 5, some Harris supporters seized on the thought of a gubernatorial run, together with rich donors desperate to see her take a management function in such a robust submit. ‘,’ one Harris confidante stated.”• Lol. Musical interlude.

–>

Syndemics

“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; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Normal 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 handle 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 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 (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities 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, KF, KidDoc, 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 protected on the market!

Maskstravaganza

Symbols aren’t instruments?

Masks / Respirators are *instruments* to drastically scale back the danger of an infection from airborne pathogens. Their transformation into political and sociological *symbols* has been an enormous hindrance to addressing threat. Demonising *people* who do or don’t masks simply makes this worse.

— Conor Browne (@brownecfm) December 13, 2024

Image manipulators certainly consider symbols are instruments.

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

[1] (CDC) Seeing just a little extra crimson, however nothing new main worldwide hubs. Apparently, Calculated Danger is watching wastewater too.

[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has finished an important job normalizing successive waves of an infection.

[4] (ED) A bit uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Up!

[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Positivity is new, however variants haven’t but been launched.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States NY Empire State Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to 0.20 in December 2024 from 31.2 in November which was the very best studying since December 2021, and effectively beneath forecasts of 12. The studying confirmed enterprise exercise within the NY state held regular, following an enormous rise within the earlier month.”

Manufacturing: “Boeing’s 12 months of Disaster Leaves Traders Cautious of Overwhelmed-Up Inventory” [Bloomberg]. ” What was presupposed to be a comeback 12 months for Boeing Co. has become its worst stock-market plunge since 2008, and if Wall Road is correct, the plane-maker’s shares could have solely a modest restoration in retailer in 2025…. The inventory is down 35% this 12 months, inserting it among the many 20 largest decliners within the S&P 500 Index. The shares have stabilized over the previous month, however traders stay cautious. They level to the string of crises in 2024 that shook their confidence in Boeing’s prospects and the danger that it’ll endure ought to commerce friction construct anew below President-elect Donald Trump. ‘Simply staying out of the information could be a win for Boeing at this level,’ stated Eric Clark, portfolio supervisor of the Rational Dynamic Manufacturers Fund.” • And talking of public relations–

Manufacturing: “Pig Stench Causes KLM Boeing 787-9 To Divert To Bermuda” [Simple Flying]. “KLM Flight 685 was diverted to Bermuda after the scent of a herd of swine from beneath decks wafted by means of the cabin…. The crew reported an “obnoxious scent from cargo coming from pigs most likely, which can have one thing to do with the oxygen surroundings within the cockpit.’…. The diversion was not an emergency. There was no Mayday name, no PAN name, and no emergency companies have been required. The pigs have been unloaded and brought to a “safe location on the island throughout their impromptu vacation stayover.” • Clearly not Boeing’s fault, however they will’t catch a break, can they?

Manufacturing: “Boeing Delays Imply Trump Received’t Fly on a New Air Power One” [Wall Street Journal]. “President-elect Donald Trump didn’t get to fly on a brand new Air Power One throughout his first time period. He possible received’t get to fly on a brand new presidential airplane in his second time period, both. The long-delayed undertaking has fallen to this point not on time that Boeing has advised the Air Power that it expects to ship the brand new jets after Trump leaves the White Home, in accordance with folks accustomed to the matter. Meaning the airplanes wouldn’t be prepared till 2029 or later. Pissed off with the delays, Trump raised the undertaking with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg when the 2 males had a telephone dialog in November. As he prepares to return to the White Home, Trump has repeatedly requested advisers concerning the standing of Boeing’s work.Boeing was an important American firm, he has advised aides, in accordance with folks briefed on the discussions. What occurred to them? Trump has requested.”

The Bezzle: Why don’t we’ve a Strategic Baseball Card Reserve?

Can anyone clarify to me what’s “Strategic” a couple of “Strategic Bitcorn Reserve,” and why it’s not merely an outright subsidy to those crooks and fraudsters?

Immediately’s Concern & Greed Index: 56 Greed (earlier shut: 50 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 48 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 16 at 1:19:55 PM ET.

Rapture Index: Closes down one on Plagues. “The dearth of exercise has downgraded this class” [Rapture Ready]. File Excessive, October 10, 2016: 189. Present: 182. (Keep in mind that bringing on the Rapture is nice.) • Onerous to consider the Rapture Index goes down. Doesn’t the collapse of Syria carry the Third Temple nearer? Do these folks know one thing we don’t?

Gallery

David with the top of Goliath:

Chairoscuro!

Class Warfare

“By no means Forgive Them” [Ed Zitron, Where’s Your Ed At?] A formidable rant, value studying in full. This caught my eye: “I’m not penning this to complain, however as a result of I consider — as I hinted at just a few weeks in the past — that we’re within the midst of the largest-scale ecological catastrophe of our time, as a result of virtually each single interplay with expertise, which is required to dwell in trendy society, has develop into actively adversarial to the consumer. These points hit every part we do, on a regular basis, a relentless onslaught of interference, and I consider it’s a lot larger than simply social media and algorithms — although they’re an enormous a part of it, in fact. In plain phrases, everyone is being fucked with always in tiny little methods by most apps and companies, and I consider that billions of individuals being fucked with directly in all of those methods has profound psychological and social penalties that we’re not meaningfully discussing. The common individual’s expertise with expertise is one so aggressive and violative that I consider it leaves billions of individuals with a constant low-grade trauma. We appear, as a society, able to understanding that social media can damage us, unsettle us, or make us really feel crazed and offended, however I believe it’s time to just accept that the remainder of the tech ecosystem undermines our wellbeing in an equally-insidious means. And most of the people don’t realize it’s occurring, as a result of everyone has accepted deeply shitty circumstances for the final ten years.” And: “Why wouldn’t folks really feel insane? Why wouldn’t the web, the place we’re principally compelled to dwell, drive most individuals loopy? How are we not discussing the truth that a lot of the web is riddled with poison? How are we not treating the present state of the tech trade like an industrial chemical accident? Is it as a result of there are too many individuals at fault? Is it as a result of fixing it might require us to really interrogate the material of a capitalist dying cult?”• He’s not improper, is he?

“How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy” [MIT Technology Review]. “One factor [Rob Lalka’s The Venture Alchemists] is especially efficient at is deflating the parable that these entrepreneurs have been in some way gifted seers of (and traders in) a future the remainder of us merely couldn’t comprehend or predict. Certain, somebody like Thiel made what turned out to be a savvy funding in Fb early on, however he additionally made some very pricey errors with that stake. As Lalka factors out, Thiel’s Founders Fund dumped tens of hundreds of thousands of shares shortly after Fb went public, and Thiel himself went from proudly owning 2.5% of the corporate in 2012 to 0.000004% lower than a decade later (across the identical time Fb hit its trillion-dollar valuation). Throw in his objectively horrible wagers in 2008, 2009, and past, when he successfully shorted what turned out to be one of many longest bull markets in world historical past, and also you get the impression he’s much less oracle and extra ideologue who occurred to take some large dangers that paid off.” • And that’s earlier than we get to Marc Andreessen.

Information of the Wired

Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me pictures of vegetation. Greens are nice! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you would like your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From WB:

WB writes: “Our garlic chives are preparing for winter.”

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