By Lambert Strether of Corrente
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Fowl Music of the Day
Grey Catbird, Heckscher SP, East Islip, Suffolk, New York, United States. “Singing from a small wooded space close to a marsh.”
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In Case You Would possibly Miss…
Kamala’s Democrat prep.
Collard greens and code switching..
Clear air within the colleges? Lol no..
H5N1 reassortment in Cambodia.
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Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
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2024
Lower than 100 days to go!
Friday’s RCP Ballot Averages:
The excellent news for Trump is that Kamala’s post-convention “bounce” appears to have been slight. The excellent news for Kamala is Trump’s continued deterioration in North Carolina, plus taking a slight lead in Pennsylvania. Bear in mind, nevertheless, that every one the fluctuations — actually, all of the leads, high to backside — are throughout the margin of error.
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The Debate (September 10)
Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris goes to ‘debate camp’: Insiders reveal the place VP’s preparation is already going ‘sideways’ as she will get prepared for primetime Trump showdown” [Daily Mail]. “Sources near the Harris workforce inform NOTUS that Harris is a little bit rusty on the talk stage as ‘technique classes have careened sideways’ when Harris ‘targeted too narrowly on minute particulars, successfully trailing the classes.’… Regardless of her willingness to debate, Harris and her workforce are nonetheless attempting to barter the principles of the talk with ABC Information, in accordance with a Harris marketing campaign supply chatting with NBC Information.” Nonetheless?! Extra: “Trump and his workforce anticipate that Harris is getting ready to interrupt him to try to ‘reality test’ his statements. The previous president, nevertheless, is conscious of Harris and her propensity to get misplaced into so-called ‘phrase salads’ whereas talking publicly. ‘She has unhealthy moments. The way in which she talks,’ Trump advised broadcaster Tucker Carlson in a latest interview, imitating feedback the vp made about college buses. ‘It’s bizarre. The entire thing is bizarre.’” • Harris: “Who doesn’t love a yellow college bus, proper? Are you able to increase your hand for those who love a yellow college bus? Many people went to high school on the yellow college bus, proper? It’s a part of our expertise rising up. It’s a part of a nostalgia, a reminiscence of the thrill and pleasure of going to high school to be along with your favourite instructor, to be along with your greatest mates and to study. The college bus takes us there.” It’s true that “It’s a part of a nostalgia” isn’t one thing a local English speaker would say, however it’s the condescension of “Elevate your fingers” that will get me. Right here’s the video:
The viewers, presumably, is grownup. Additionally, the hand gestures.
Kamala (D): “How Kamala Harris Plans to Lock In for Debate Prep in Pennsylvania” [NOTUS]. “In conversations with almost a dozen individuals concerned with or conscious of the preparations, a set of targets emerged for the subsequent week. The marketing campaign is planning to tune out as a lot of the skin noise as attainable to lock her in, conscious of Harris’ relative rust as a debater and her tendency to overprepare and fixate on the main points.” And: “[S]he’s as soon as once more utilizing notecards as a part of her prep, a second individual conversant in the preparations advised NOTUS, a behavior they consider she picked up throughout her regulation college days.” I might say the behavior got here from faculty debate, by which Harris participated. Extra: “Allies say Harris has needed to defend her concepts contained in the White Home during the last three years, getting ready her in some methods for this second. However Harris is, for all intents and functions, an out-of-practice debater with individuals who aren’t her colleagues. Subsequent week’s debate will come only a month shy of 4 years since she debated Vice President Mike Pence in Utah. For that, aides holed up in a lodge in Salt Lake Metropolis days earlier than the talk, as she used index playing cards to work by way of speaking factors — together with the now-famous “I’m talking” line, which one individual concerned within the session stated was a crowdsourced suggestion.” • Hmm. She recycled “I’m talking,” then. That didn’t go so effectively. Apparently, in neither of those two articles to we see any suggestion that Kamala would play the prosecutor (“Why am I debating a felon?”). Which appears a really apparent factor for her to do. Why go to all the difficulty of doing the lawfare for those who’re not going to make use of it in debate?
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Kamala (D): “The White Home desires you to know that Harris was on the decision” [Politico]. “Identify-checking Harris — or any vp, for that matter — is uncommon and suggests an try and buttress her credentials as she faces questions on her capacity to handle worldwide affairs and confronts an skilled opponent in former President Donald Trump. POLITICO’s evaluation of pool experiences, readouts, transcripts of administration briefings and feedback by the nation’s high diplomats and navy officers discovered that the administration elevated its mentions of Harris in public statements about international engagements since July, when Biden introduced he would drop out of the presidential election and endorsed his vp.” • The earlier NOTUS article consists of this sentence: “[T]he Biden administration is in what they hope to be the final stretch of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that may require Harris’ presence within the State of affairs Room.” Her mere presence…. I do know that Harris doing debate prep whereas a ceasefire deal was being consummated would look unhealthy, however avoiding a foul look appears to be the one cause for her presence.
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Kamala (D): “Cooking Collard Greens The Caribbean Means” [Caribbean Pot]. “Collard Inexperienced or collards just isn’t native to the Caribbean, so it’s not one thing we’d confer with as being conventional. Nevertheless, with our love for dasheen bush, spinach, Jamaican callaloo (chorai), Bok Choi and nearly each different inexperienced there may be, it’s pure that collards will discover a loving house in my kitchen.” • So, wherever Kamala discovered to cook dinner collard greens — Montreal? Her sorority? — it’s unlikely to be a household custom (not on her Jamaican father’s facet, and definitely not on her Indian mom’s facet).
Kamala (D): And code switching:
Considered one of my favourite accounts, on Twitter since 2011. On the whole, very level-headed.
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Trump (R): “Donald Trump Interview” (video) [Lex Fridman, YouTube (outside observer)]. • Good transfer by Trump marketing campaign employees:
Trump (R): “Questions surrounding Trump’s psychological acuity are an actual 2024 story” [MSNBC]. “The phrases beneath had been taken verbatim from a marketing campaign speech” [and they’re an especially dense example of free-form riffing]. “Trump’s asides stack atop one another with such density that it’s dizzying for even skilled political observers to discern what he’s attempting to get at…. Trump’s speeches appear to be rising extra discursive and troublesome to grasp by the day. These speeches are making it onerous, if not not possible, for individuals listening to them to know what he desires to do along with his energy in workplace, they usually’re reportedly turning off voters. They’re additionally elevating questions over whether or not the chaos he would sow in workplace could be even much less intentional than it was final time. Trump’s deteriorating [asserted, not shown] capacity to obviously talk is a consequential function of his 2024 candidacy. That deterioration could not have been as salient when Trump, 78, had 81-year-old President Joe Biden as an opponent. But it surely’s all of the extra clear as he now faces off in opposition to 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris. Questions on Biden’s psychological acuity had been rightly raised on this election cycle. Questions on Trump’s psychological acuity must be raised, too.” • I doubt this can stick, although after all the Democrats try it. Trump did advantageous in debate when he knocked Biden out of the race. Is there any signal of “deterioration” within the hour-long interview with Fridman? I don’t have time to take heed to it, however I’m guessing no, as a result of in any other case the memes would already be out.
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MI: “CAIR 2024 Election Survey 0f Muslim Voters” [CAIR]. “Because the 2024 nationwide basic election approaches, America’s estimated 2.5 million Muslim voters are positioned to as soon as once more play a vital function in shaping the political panorama. With their vital presence in key swing states, Muslim voters have the potential to affect the outcomes of not solely the presidential race but in addition quite a few congressional, state, and native elections.” • Helpful chart:
PA: “Taking the heart beat of Pennsylvania’s Trump nation, from Amish area to Gettysburg” [USA Today]. “Whereas the election could also be determined within the suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the place nearly all of the state’s residents stay, central Pennsylvania performs a job. It’s historically pink, with small pockets of blue within the cities, however the votes that come from the small businesspeople and churchgoers of the center of the state – usually referred to derisively as [deplorable] ‘Pennsyltucky’ – might make a distinction in a state the place the ultimate outcomes may very well be determined by a number of thousand votes.” • Value a learn. And from the York Each day File, so kudos to USA Immediately. (Pennsylvania nonetheless has a number of smallish newspapers, as we noticed with the reporting from Butler.)
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Syndemics
“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
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Covid 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 Normal Ideas” (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 handle given with the crops. 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 experiences); 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).
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Keep protected on the market!
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Airborne Transmission: Covid
“Children Are Headed Again to College. Are They Respiration Clear Air?” [Scientific American]. Lol no. “Throughout the U.S., youngsters are headed again to their school rooms—simply as COVID nears a recent, late-summer peak. Someway, 4 years right into a viral pandemic that everybody now is aware of spreads by way of the air, most faculties have finished little to nothing to ensure their college students will breathe safely. We—and particularly our kids—ought to have the ability to stroll right into a retailer or a health club or a faculty and assume the air is clear to breathe. Like water from the tap, laws ought to guarantee our air is protected. ‘Air is hard. You’ll be able to select to not partake of the water or the snacks on the desk, however you may’t simply abstain from respiratory,’ notes Gigi Gronvall, senior scholar on the Johns Hopkins Middle for Well being Safety and an writer of a 2021 report on the advantages of enhancing air flow in colleges.” • Someway. Some colleges are doing simply advantageous, although!
Transmission: H5N1
“Cambodia’s latest H5N1 case concerned novel reassortant” [Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy]. “Sequencing of the affected person’s virus pattern on the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia discovered that the hemagglutinin gene from the two.3.2.1c clade that has been circulating in Cambodia and Southeast Asia since 2013. The inner genes, nevertheless, belonged to the newer 2.3.4.4b, which is circulating globally. ‘This novel reassortant influenza A(H5N1) virus has been detected in human circumstances reported in Cambodia since late 2023,’ the WHO stated. Cambodian well being officers have tracked and monitored the [patient’s] contacts, and no associated circumstances have been discovered. The nation has reported an uptick in human H5N1 infections since 2023, reporting 6 circumstances final yr and 10 this yr, of which 2 had been deadly. In April, animal well being officers in Vietnam and the United Nations Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) warned of the brand new reassortant circulating in chickens and muscovy geese. The scientists stated the virus has been circulating within the Larger Mekong subregion since 2022. Additionally, they famous that the reassortant had been linked to latest human circumstances and that the event exhibits the adaptive capability of the virus and the chance of latest, doubtlessly extra virulent strains.” • Musical interlude.
Denial and Cope
“As COVID Surges, the Excessive Worth of Viral Denial” [The Tyee]. Canada. “The topic of how to reply to a gradual burn pandemic stays taboo as a result of most public well being officers have already declared the emergency over. They’ve additionally stopped amassing essential information. COVID-19 deaths in Canada aren’t reported in a readily publicly accessible vogue. And a lot of the media pretends that an immune-destabilizing virus that may hurt the functioning of your organs together with your mind has little extra import than a benign chilly. As a consequence, authorities can’t now flip round and admit to the breadth of their mistake, not to mention acknowledge the rising dysfunction in public well being. Nor do they dare accumulate essential information documenting the size of their errors together with the relentless march of lengthy COVID…. Right here, then, is the place we’ve arrived. We’ve entered a vicious cycle the place extra infections generate extra COVID variants. The brand new variants have turn out to be extra immune evasive. On the similar time society has usually deserted masks, testing and fundamental public well being messages. We might gradual and suppress the cycle by dealing with the problem squarely. For instance, by cleansing soiled air the best way we as soon as tackled the disease-ridden spectre of cholera-infested water. However public well being officers are afraid to speak about clear air not to mention the apparent: avoiding an infection. Beating again COVID requires onerous work, communal knowledge and clear insurance policies that markedly cut back the extent of an infection in society. To this point we have now chosen viral denial, soiled air and a triumphant reign for lengthy COVID.” • Glorious article, value studying in full.
Elite Maleficence
“Easy measures reduce hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections” [Burnet]. Australia. “In a brand new research printed within the Journal of Hospital Infections, Burnet researchers discovered easy an infection management measures might save lives and cut back prices for hospitals. These measures embody testing sufferers for COVID-19 on admission, requiring employees to put on N95 masks in medical areas and utilizing Fast Antigen Checks (RAT) or Polymerase Chain Response (PCR) exams to stop transmissions. One of many paper’s lead authors, Burnet Affiliate Professor Nick Scott, stated on common, 15-25% of sufferers who examined optimistic for COVID-19 in hospital had contracted the virus after being admitted.” • However HICPAC would like that hospitals be loss of life traps so, no N95s. Dishevelled blues solely, if that!
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TABLE 1: Each day Covid Charts
Wastewater
This week[1] CDC August 26:
Final Week[2] CDC (till subsequent week):
Variants [3] CDC August 31
Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 24
Hospitalization
New York[5] New York State, information August 30:
Nationwide [6] CDC August 10:
Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens September 3:
Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24:
Vacationers Information
Positivity[9] CDC August 12:
Variants[10] CDC August 12:
Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 24:
Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 24:
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others aren’t 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] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, with scorching spots annotated. Retains spreading.
[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* highly regarded. XDV.1 flat.
[4] (ED) Down, however value noting that Emergency Division use is now on a par with the primary wave, in 2020.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flat, that’s, not down.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what’s, in share phrases, a major enhance.
[7] (Walgreens) Huge drop, however all these white states exhibiting no change: Labor Day weekend reporting points?
[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Down. These sh*theads at CDC have modified the chart in order that it doesn’t even run again to 1/21/23, because it used to, however now begins 1/1/24. There’s additionally no method to regulate the time vary. CDC actually doesn’t need you to have the ability to take a historic view of the pandemic, or examine one surge to a different. In an any case, that’s why the form of the curve has modified.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants) What the heck is LB.1?
[11] Deaths low, however positivity up. If america is like Canada, deaths are a number of undercounted:
Tara Motarity has confirmed our fears.Most provinces are solely reporting about 20% of covid deaths.Possibly even much less.Which suggests the deaths are shut to five instances to six+ instances the reported figures.Nova Scotia has reported 270 to date this yr. It is really 1,325-1,700 to date. pic.twitter.com/6xF6SREyKB
— Dr.Robert Strang (@DSlayer520) September 2, 2024
[12] Deaths low, ED up.
Stats Watch
“United States Manufacturing facility Orders” [Trading Economics]. “New orders for US manufactured items rose by 5% from the earlier month to $592.1 billion in July of 2024, rebounding from the three.3% drop within the earlier month, and above market expectations of a 4.7% enhance, signaling the resilience of the US economic system.”
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Tech: Uh oh:
Hachette v. Web Archive is out: second Circuit rejects managed digital lending principle; IA’s use just isn’t transformative; all 4 truthful use elements favor the publishers; the general public advantages from shutting down IA’s infringement. #copyright
— Devlin Hartline (@devlinhartline) September 4, 2024
Tech: “Canva says its new AI options justify elevating subscription costs by 300%” [Fortune]. “Within the U.S., some Canva customers will see their Groups subscription worth bounce in early December from $119.99 per yr to $500 per yr. The primary 12 months will probably be discounted to $300, however it’s nonetheless greater than double what customers at the moment pay. Canva Groups will replace from $10 per 30 days per individual, with a minimal of three individuals required for that subscription, a Canva spokesperson confirmed. Canva says its worth hike is attributable to new options—notably these which might be AI-powered.” • So, heaps extra AI slop to justify the funding….
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Immediately’s Worry & Greed Index: 54 Impartial (earlier shut: 65 Greed) [CNN]. One week in the past: 56 (Greed). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Sep 4 at 1:27:54 PM ET.
Class Warfare
“Hundreds of lodge employees proceed nationwide strike on Labor Day, demanding greater pay” [NBC]. “Hundreds of employees at 25 resorts throughout the nation remained on strike for a second day Monday, demanding greater pay and the reversal of pandemic-era cuts, with members in additional cities anticipated to affix the strike. On Sunday, round 10,000 lodge employees walked off the job, kicking off the strike throughout the busy Labor Day weekend at 25 resorts in eight cities, together with San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu. The employees are represented by the UNITE HERE union and work for the Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt lodge chains….. Roughly half of these on strike, about 5,000, are from Honolulu, The Related Press reported…. UNITE HERE says strikes have been approved and will start quickly in different cities, together with Baltimore; New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland, California; and Windfall, Rhode Island…. The union stated related strikes led to contracts final yr for Los Angeles lodge employees and Detroit on line casino employees.”
“Our Animals, Ourselves” [Lux Magazine]. “Conservatives are terrified by the prospect of a society that actually values and decommodifies (non-fetal) life, which is why they promote a picture of flesh-consuming masculinity. Sadly, it appears many socialists aren’t so totally different. Leftists not often interact with the myriad issues of animal agriculture, and are sometimes dismissive or contemptuous of those that do. On this, their views are totally mainstream. A latest episode of the favored lefty podcast Citations Wanted started with an evaluation of representations of vegetarian characters in common tradition, and the end result was hardly flattering — routinely performed by ladies, they are typically unbearable. Such gendered stereotyping will come as no shock to readers of Carol Adam’s 1990 e-book The Sexual Politics of Meat, which weaves accounts of nineteenth century radicalism and examinations of twentieth century advertising strategies right into a pathbreaking work of ‘feminist vegetarian essential principle’ (after studying Adams, you’ll by no means hear a girl say she felt handled as a ‘piece of meat’ in the identical manner). Immediately we are sometimes advised that the animal rights motion got here into being within the Nineteen Seventies, birthed by the white male thinker Peter Singer…. Within the English-speaking world, many ladies abolitionists, suffragettes, and pacifists advocated for vegetarianism and made connections throughout actions and causes lengthy earlier than Singer… got here on the scene, together with the brave abolitionist sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké, who rejected meat partly as a result of they thought it will hasten the ’emancipation of girl from the toil of the kitchen.’ Singer rode roughshod over these mental antecedents by distinguishing his supposedly rational arguments from all of the emotional — that’s, female — advocacy that got here earlier than it. Within the 1800s, there was even a prognosis, zoophilpsychosis, for the affliction of being overly involved for animals, from which ladies had been believed to disproportionately endure.” • Zoophilpsychosis…
Information of the Wired
I’m not feeling wired right this moment.
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Contact data for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me pictures of crops. Greens are advantageous! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it at first 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 artinnature:
artinnature writes: “Bumblebees on Oxydendrum arboreum (Sourwood).”
