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2:00PM Water Cooler 2/11/2022 | naked capitalism

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Justice News Flash Report

2:00PM Water Cooler 2/11/2022 | naked capitalism

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

Not long, but very pretty warbling!

* * *

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” –Hunter Thompson

Capitol Seizure

“Prosecutors plan to call defendant’s children to testify in first US Capitol attack trial” [CNN]. “As the first trial for a January 6 US Capitol riot defendant approaches, prosecutors are laying out a strategy that includes calling a member of former Vice President Mike Pence’s security detail and the defendant’s two children to the stand. The trial of Guy Reffitt, a Texas Three Percenter, is scheduled to start at the end of February. Prosecutors revealed the possible witnesses and evidence they plan to present to jurors in a court filing on Monday. The list shows the vast amount of evidence the Department of Justice has gathered in the past year, as prosecutors have brought cases against hundreds of people, and on how they plan to approach what could be dozens of trials in the coming months…. Prosecutors allege that Reffitt took a gun to the Capitol, where he engaged in a prolonged battle with police.” • A “battle”?

“Investigators find gaps in White House phone records from Jan. 6: report” [The Hill]. “Investigators from the House select committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have found gaps in the White House phone records on the day of the insurrection, reports The New York Times. Investigators were unable to find the logs of calls by former President Trump during hours on that day when they know he was sometimes on the phone. There is no evidence that official logs were changed or deleted, the Times reports, and Trump often used his personal phone or those of aides for calls. At least one call directed to Trump on the day of the Capitol riot was picked up by an aide. Trump is known to have spoken to GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), but the call was not present in the official records shared with the investigative committee, according to the Times.” • From the Times story:

Some of the records that the Jan. 6 committee has received had been ripped to shreds and taped back together, reflecting the former president’s habit of tearing up documents. In addition, he removed more than a dozen boxes of presidential records from the White House when he left office, which the National Archives believes contained classified material, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The House Oversight committee on Thursday announced an investigation into what it called “potential serious violations” of the Presidential Records Act.

Biden Adminstration

“White House weighing former Obama adviser for senior Treasury job” [Politico]. “Prior to becoming a member of Obama’s economic council, Shambaugh served as a CEA staff economist focusing on international economics, and later as chief economist. After leaving the CEA, he spent three years as director of , a progressive economic think tank affiliated with Brookings. He also served on the Biden administration’s CEA transition team.” • Oh.

“Foreign policy “Blob” backs Biden on Ukraine” [Axios]. For a long time, I’ve thought of The Blog as a protoplasmic entity, like the Vugs in Philip K. Dick’s Game Players of Titan. But perhaps The Blog is more like a Shoggoth. In any case: “‘Policy has been clearly framed and communicated to allies and adversaries alike — blunting Russia’s ability to manipulate events,’ decreed the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, whose scoops and analysis drive coverage in foreign policy circles, on Feb. 1.” Contrasted to: “In mid-August, before the suicide blast at Kabul’s airport that killed 13 Americans and at least 170 Afghans, Ignatius called the situation a ‘disaster,’ and concluded, ‘Biden owns the final decision, for better or worse.’” • Ignatius drives coverage because he’s a CIA goon. I don’t find any of this encouraging.

Biden interview:

Democrats en Déshabillé

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party (“the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated post, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition here in a “live” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the way back to 2016, if not before:

The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” of course.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave aside characterizing the relationships between elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.

Note, of course, that the class power of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial model’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to mind. Suck up, kick down.

* * *

“Cuomo editorial missed point: that disputed conduct was never a crime (Your Letters)” [Syracuse.com (Bob)]. “A kiss on the cheek or touching someone’s back is not against the law and never has been.” • Cuomo still has a spokesman on the payroll. And it sounds like he’s getting ready for his close-up.

Republican Funhouse

“‘Pro-Worker Conservatives’ Are Just Union Busters in Thin Disguise” [Eric Levitz, New York Magazine]. “The Republican Party does not want to increase workers’ bargaining power. The GOP coalition may be home to a growing number of working-class voters. But voters do not generally set party agendas; interest groups do. There are a lot of organized business interests aligned with the Republican Party, from countless local chambers of commerce to small-business groups to the National Restaurant Association. But beyond America’s police and border-guard unions, there are virtually no labor organizations exercising power within the Republican tent. What’s more, precisely because organized labor has no voice in the GOP — but has some in the Democratic Party — America’s most Republican business interests also tend to be its most exploitative. Highly profitable, capital-intensive corporations can afford to support the Democratic Party, since a pro-labor National Labor Relations Board won’t threaten their core interests. Low productivity businesses that can’t afford even marginal increases in their workers’ rights, however, are deeply invested in Republican rule. For the GOP therefore, pleasing working-class voters is a means; serving the interests of low-road employers is the end. ”

Who let this happen:

2022

* * *

Red meat for the base (1):

Red meat for the base (2):

Red meat for the base (3):

“Carville promotes new super PAC for Conor Lamb” [Politico]. “The fact that a super PAC is backing Lamb is a major development in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races. Lamb, a moderate, has so far been outraised by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the progressive frontrunner in the Democratic contest for the open Senate seat. An independent expenditure could help Lamb cut into Fetterman’s financial advantage. It is perfectly legal for candidates to talk to donors of super PACs backing them and appear at their fundraisers, as long as they do not personally solicit contributions in excess of finance limits for their campaigns. Still, many Democratic activists are troubled by the practice. Former President Barack Obama appeared at a fundraising event for a super PAC supporting him in 2012. During her 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton also met with super PAC donors. Carville’s email states that ‘Conor Lamb is appearing at these events only as a featured speaker; he is not asking for funds or donation.’” • Lol. Come on. Anyhow, I guess Manchin must be just about used up, because Carville wants to elect a new one.

“Here come the Covid midterms” [Politico]. “Republican strategists have described the pandemic to Nightly as a godsend, with its effects on both inflation and education, two of voters’ top concerns, as well as on Biden’s dismal public approval ratings. GOP strategists are vowing to run on unpopular Covid restrictions even if they’ve been taken away. They gleefully predict that Biden’s party will pay a price in the midterm elections for, in their view, waiting too long. The prospect that people will remember school shutdowns and mask mandates — and punish Democrats for them — is one possible outcome of pandemic politics, assuming the lull continues. But let’s stipulate that, in November, children aren’t wearing masks in schools, that families have spent the summer posing for pictures at Disney World and hugging Mickey Mouse. In that Clorox-free scenario, it’s not clear that Republicans are the party that will gain an advantage.” • Meanwhile, a million dead with no political consequences for either party. Surely there must be some opening for a candidate who hates both party establishments equally?

“Police records complicate Herschel Walker’s recovery story” [Associated Press]. “Walker’s already turbulent personal history… includes his acknowledged struggles with mental health, violent outbursts and accusations that he repeatedly threatened his ex-wife. And it will test voters’ acceptance of Walker’s assertion that he has long since been a changed person.” • Let the oppo begin! (And from the article, it seems like there is rather a lot.)

2024

“Tom Brady Could Beat Elizabeth Warren” [The American Conservative]. “My instinct is that it would be virtually impossible for Tom Brady to lose an election in Massachusetts. If even I feel such intense loyalty to the man, I can only imagine the feelings he inspires in people who actually care. (Efforts by the liberal Boston Globe to manufacture a controversy over Brady’s supposed snub of Boston in his retirement announcement are, I think, clearly intended to preempt just such a run.)…. It does remain unclear, however, just how much of a realignment Republican Brady really is. He owns a red hat and is chummy with 45, but beyond that we know as much about Brady’s prospective career as I know about his former one. He is completely inexperienced in politics, and his policy inclinations are entirely uncharted. I say let him figure it out as he goes; the man is good at thinking on his feet.” • Certainly the Senate is a better prospect for Brady than selling vitamin supplements, or whatever it is he plans to do.

Realignment and Legitimacy

Propaganda at work:

“Open Everything” [Yascha Mounk, Tne Atlantic]. We have already linked to this, but I want to call out one sentence: “Many of us became accustomed to carrying out an informal risk-benefit analysis before every outing.” • Mounk clearly believes this is over the top, just too much. In the midst of a still-continuing global pandemic? Reallly? OTOH:

See NC, August 16, 2021…

“How Is America Still This Bad at Talking About the Pandemic?” [The Atlantic]. “But one thing about the pandemic has remained largely unchanged: Political and scientific leaders are still recommendations to the American public. Are mask mandates warranted at work and school? First we were told no; then, yes; now the answer, for good reasons this time, is changing again. Are fourth mRNA shots necessary for the most vulnerable? First the CDC said no; then, to get one five months after the third dose; and now the waiting period has been reduced to three months.” • Perhaps the confusion was the point; after all, if our “political and scientific leaders” had clearly formulated a theory of tranmission based on science — aerosols — uncomfortable measures might have had to be taken, like spending money on ventilation, not just in schools but in factories and all closed spaces (especially restaurants, bars, and churches). Best to do the minimum and muddle through. Or less than the minimum:

The fourth-wealthiest county in the United States is protecting its children with Plexiglass shields. Not a HEPA filter or a Corsi box in sight, let alone a window. This is more than “bad communication.”

“‘People are moving on with their lives’: is the end of Omicron in sight?” [Financial Times]. “‘,’ agreed Ali Mokdad, a University of Washington global health professor. ‘The question is not will countries lift all restrictions, but when.’” Remind me never to listen to a “global health professor. More: “[T]wo years on, with Omicron receding [except for BA.2, of course], moves are afoot to scrap even basic measures, as a range of governments bank on high levels of population immunity and broad vaccine coverage to .” • Because of course hospitals are immensely powerful institutionally (and in the US, highly profitable), and who cares about Long Covid, vascular damage, and so on….

“Abrupt end to mask mandates reflects a shifting political landscape” [WaPo]. “State officials say the decisions are driven by data showing that the worst of the omicron surge has passed, but acknowledge they must also weigh a weary public’s tolerance for pandemic life. Even as the Biden administration continues to recommend mask requirements, many of the biggest states led by Democrats are abruptly taking a different tack. California, Oregon, Delaware and Connecticut joined New Jersey in announcing a partial end to mask mandates Monday. The governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts announced plans Wednesday to end school mask mandates, while the executives of New York and Illinois said they would scrap mask requirements for businesses but are still reviewing schools. Washington announced it would end an outdoor mask mandate and the indoor mask mandate was under review. Several of these Democratic governors have stressed that their constituents need to live with the virus, in the pandemic when they declined to take statewide measures to curb the delta and omicron surges.”

“Masks off? Democrats try for a pandemic pivot” [Politico]. “Many in the party are now coming around to what swing-district lawmakers have privately warned for weeks: that the Biden administration needs to drastically rethink its handling of Covid, particularly in the suburbs. Those vulnerable Democrats worry that over masks, school closings and vaccine mandates will crush them in purple districts this fall. But the current shift may be too little, too late to avoid blowback from voters wearied by pandemic whiplash.” • The argument could be made that the clashes are so ugly only because Democrats have been so consistently weak (not to say unprincipled. I mean, when major party figures keep appearing in public unmasked, what does that say?). The clashes are also ugly because Republicans aren’t frivolous about their political commitments.

* * *

“No, Democrats and Republicans Aren’t Equally Anti-Democratic” [Eric Levitz, New York Magazine]. “Progressivism’s affection for popular democracy is also fickle, but it is by no means equally so. Like every other ideological movement in the history of democratic politics, American liberals would like public policy to reflect their preferences, even for issues on which they lack a popular mandate. Nevertheless, they are not trying to immunize their ideological project from democratic rebuke through targeted disenfranchisement or baseless allegations of election fraud. The Trumpist GOP has a monopoly on that pastime. If the left’s commitment to minority rights renders it hostile to some forms of majority rule, that same commitment fortifies its support for fundamental democratic rights since the socially marginalized have a greater investment in democratic equality and rule of law than the socially dominant. Liberals are the fair-weather friends of popular self-rule; the modern conservative movement is its enemy.” • I’m not sure that’s the killer argument Levitz thinks it is. What’s the weather like, and what’s it going to be like?

“States consider record wave of voting bills” [The Hill]. “A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, a group that supports expanded voting rights, found legislators in more than half the states have already introduced about 250 bills that would restrict the right to vote. At this point a year ago, just 75 such measures had been introduced…. About two-thirds of all states will consider measures that would expand the right to vote. Nearly 400 of those measures had been introduced by mid-January, according to the Brennan Center’s research.” • There was a lot of panic about redistricting, too, and look what happened…

“No, the Revolution Isn’t Over” [The Upheaval]. On wokeness: “8. Majorities don’t matter. Unfortunately for those dreaming of harnessing a majority anti-woke popular will, the truth is that, as statistician and philosopher Nassim Taleb has explained in detail, it’s typically not the majority that sets new societal rules, but the most intolerant minority. If the vast majority generally prefers to eat Food A instead of Food B, but a small minority is absolutely insistent on eating Food B and is willing to start chopping the heads off of anyone who disagrees and serves Food A – and the majority doesn’t care enough to get all bloody dying on this particular culinary hill – all restaurants will soon be serving only Food B, the new national cuisine. This is especially true if the intolerant minority already holds a disproportionate position of influence within the system, given that… 9. Personnel is policy. Let’s imagine, for example, that some lawmakers officially ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in their state’s schools or universities. Will this be the end of the matter? Will all the woke teachers and administrators who consider “consciousness raising” through “critical pedagogy” – or in general what Marxists call “praxis,” the constant need for the transformation of theory into practice – to be practically a religious commandment just stop doing so? No of course not.”

“Boy Scouts: Tentative Deal With Official Sex Abuse Claimants” [US News]. “Two years after filing for Chapter 11 protection amid a flood of child sex abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America has reached a tentative settlement with an official bankruptcy committee representing more than 80,000 men who say they were molested as children by Scout leaders and others. The settlement announced Thursday comes just two weeks before the start of a hearing at which a Delaware judge will hear arguments on whether she should confirm the BSA’s proposed reorganization plan. All told, the compensation fund would total more than $2.6 billion, which would be the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.” • And we wonder why trust in institutions is fulling. Mini-Epsteins all over the place….

#COVID19

Case count by United States regions:

I have again added a “Fauci Line” to congratulate Biden and his team — Klain, Zeints, Fauci, Walensky — for finally falling below the former guy’s highest peak. I have also added a red vertical line to mark the point where the adults in the room took charge. (Rise like a rocket, and fall like a stick; the slope of the downward curve is more or less the same as the upward curve. Previous peaks — how small the early ones look now — have been roughly symmetrical on either side. But the scale of this peak, and the penetration into the population, is unprecedented.) I wonder if there will be plateau when BA.2 takes hold. Since the Northeast has form, that is probably the region to watch for this behavior first.

The official narrative was “Covid is behind us,” and that the pandemic will be “over by January” (Gottlieb), and “I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It’s over” (Bill Maher) was completely exploded. What a surprise! This time, it may be different. But who knows?

NOT UPDATED MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection:

Continues encouraging. No jump from the return of the students yet, which is even more encouraging, especially if you’re in “Waiting for BA.2” mode.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple school systems but several large universities. Since Boston is so very education-heavy, then, I think it could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally.

From CDC Community Profile Reports (PDFs), “Rapid Riser” counties:

Continued improvement. Tennesse reports weekly. (Remember that these are rapid riser counties. A county that moves from red to green is not covid-free; the case count just isnt, well, rising rapidly.)

The previous release:

Not to pour cold water on this improvement, but to underline that “a county that moves from red to green is not covid-free,” here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to community transmission:

Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile):

Sea of green! From the point of view of our hospital-centric health care system, green everywhere means the emergency is over (and to be fair, this is reinforced by case count and wastewater). However, community transmission is still pervasive, which means that long Covid, plus continuing vascular damage, are not over. (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the arrow, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So it’s possible to have an upward trend, but from a very low baseline.)

Just a reminder:

As with everything else, because the United States is not a serious country, our hospitalization data is bad. Here the baseilne is off:

Death rate (Our World in Data):

Total: 939,427 932,443. I have drawn an ant-trIumphalist “Fauci Line.” Sadly, the Biden administration has only managed a death rate equal to the first peak under Trump, then considered a national disaster. I sure hope we break a million before Biden’s State of the Union speech.

Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista):

Good news here too.

The excess deaths chart appears weekly, on Friday.

Look at the qualifications in that drop-down. And the enormous typo, helpfully highlighted, has been there for weeks. I know the CDC copy editing process is slow, but this is ridiculous.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Tech: “SpaceX has so many Starlink satellites they’re increasingly photobombing astronomers’ images, a study says” [Insider]. “There has been a huge increase in the number of astronomers’ images corrupted by streaks of reflected sunlight caused by SpaceX’s satellites, a new study has found. According to the study, which was published by the Astrophysical Journal Letters, SpaceX launched 150 Starlink satellites in the last month, with more than 1,900 satellites now launched. SpaceX has received approval from the US Federal Communications Commission to operate 12,000 satellites. The study found a 35-fold increase in Zwicky Transient Facility [ZTF] images taken during twilight that were corrupted by streaks – from less than 0.5% in late 2019 to 18% in August, 2021. ‘We find that the number of affected images is increasing with time as SpaceX deploys more satellites,’ the researchers wrote.”

Tech: “NASA raises concerns about SpaceX satellite deployment plan” [Sky News]. “In a statement to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NASA said it ‘has concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events.’ The US space agency also expressed worry about the possible impacts to its science and human spaceflight missions. There are currently 25,000 total objects tracked on-orbit – and around 6,100 below 600km, NASA noted. SpaceX’s Gen2 expansion ‘would more than double the number of tracked objects in orbit and increase the number of objects below 600 km over five-fold,’ it said.” • A “conjunction event” occurs when “collision avoidance” may be needed to prevent satellites from crashing into each other, or into space debris.

Tech: “Geomagnetic storm takes out 40 of 49 brand new Starlink satellites” [The Register]. “SpaceX last week launched 49 shiny new Starlink broadband-beaming satellites, which is good. But 40 of them have already, or will shortly, meet their demise due to a geomagnetic storm that struck a few days after their ascent. Which is bad.” • Nature is healing.

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 38 Fear (previous close: 37 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 35 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 11 at 1:25pm. Still flirting with neutral.

Book Nook

1984 has a happy ending?!

Diegetic: “In video games ‘diegesis’ comprises the narrative game world, its characters, objects and actions which can be classified as ‘intra-diegetic’, by both being part of the narration and not breaking the fourth wall.” In other words, the Appendix on Newspeak is part of the narrative:

The whole thread is worth reading.

Our Famously Free Press

Every so often reality breaks through:

That loss of composure reminds me a little of Anderson Cooper’s coverage of Katrina….,

Class Warfare

“Help a Broke Labor Reporter Recover from Long Covid” [Payday Report]. • One reason Mike Elk might not have been in Ottawa.

“The real enemy”:

Good to see the Teamsters using their supply chain muscles in solidarity with nurses who needed PPE (Canada’s hospitals being dominated by droplet goons, even more so than the United States). Oh, wait…

News of the Wired

“This family almost lost their home over Iowa’s little-known ‘quiet title’ law” [Iowa Public Radio]. “It turned out someone else took control of Natalia’s house through an unfamiliar property law that’s on the books in Iowa as well as throughout the Midwest. It’s called a quiet title action. In most instances, it’s used to settle questions over who owns a piece of property. People may file quiet title actions to resolve boundary disputes or to resolve who owns property after someone dies. But some worry that problems in the law can result in the exploitation of homeowners, particularly in communities like Marshalltown where many residents are immigrants or don’t speak fluent English. Experts tell the Midwest Newsroom that shortcomings in the way Iowa’s quiet title law is written include vague language that defines how someone can argue that the property belongs to them. Another is the way people are notified – or, as in Natalia’s case, are not notified – that there’s a dispute involving ownership of their property.” • News you can use!

“Researchers use ultrasound to precisely and safely activate brain cells in mice” [STAT]. • Don’t tell Marketing!

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Contact information for plants: Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (Late Introvert):

Late Introvert writes: “My partner gave this as an Xmas gift, so you can see the progress. Local supplier. Will get two or three more fruits, and they are easy to dry. Not sure about recipes yet.” I look forward to the recipe, but… I dunno. Looks a bit like a Shoggoth….

* * *

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