{"id":4829,"date":"2025-11-23T17:13:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2025-11-23T17:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:13:22","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-6-24-2024-naked-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=4829","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 6\/24\/2024 | naked capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n<p>Patient readers, what you see is what you get today; I must hustle along and finish a post on Project 2025. \u2013lambert<\/p>\n<p>Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Eastern Meadowlark, County Roads SE of Thrall, Williamson, Texas, United States.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>In Case You Might Miss\u2026  <\/p>\n<p>(1) Many new Covid charts; New York and New England wastewater down; positivity up; New York hospitaliztation continues its weirdly steady rise.<\/p>\n<p>(2) Trump lawfare status.<\/p>\n<p>(3) Supreme Court decisions and Thursday\u2019s debate.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Politics<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>2024<\/p>\n<p>Less than a half a year to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p> Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rcp_2024-06-21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"571\" height=\"1001\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-273727\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rcp_2024-06-21.png 571w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rcp_2024-06-21-171x300.png 171w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>At this point, we should entertain the hypothesis that the Bragg verdict is a damp squib, unless Biden can somehow leverage it in the debate. Swing States (more here) still Brownian-motioning around. Of course, it goes without saying that these are all state polls, therefore bad, and most of the results are within the margin of error. If will be interesting to see whether the verdict in Judge Merchan\u2019s court affects the polling, and if so, how. NOTE Sorry for the excess red dots; I can\u2019t seem to make them go away!<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Trump (People vs. Trump): \u201cAndrew Cuomo: If His Name Was Not Donald Trump The New York Case Would Have Never Been Brought\u201d [RealClearPolitics]. On Bill Maher: \u201c[CUOMO:] That case, the Attorney General\u2019s case in New York, frankly should have never been brought. And if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn\u2019t running for president from the former AG in New York, I\u2019m telling you that case would have never been brought. And that\u2019s what is offensive to people. And it should be. Because if there\u2019s anything left, it\u2019s belief in the justice system.\u201d \u2022 I suppose it would be too cheeky for the Trump campaign to make an ad out of that clip; or for Trump to mention it in debate\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Trump (Smith\/Cannon): \u201cAs Trump\u2019s Documents Case Crawls Along, Questions About Judge Abound\u201d [Wall Street Journal]. \u201cTrump\u2019s legal team has filed a stream of long-shot arguments, and the number of unresolved issues is piling up, with no trial date in sight. \u2018She could be overwhelmed and at sea, or super insecure, or it\u2019s just about delay. You could interpret it several different ways. But whatever the reasons, it certainly has the effect of bogging things down,\u2019 said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor and former public-corruption prosecutor.\u201d \u2022 I read the article twice, and for all I can tell, it\u2019s just vibes. Worth noting that Jack Smith over-reached, badly, once before; his conviction of Terry McAuliffe was reversed.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Trump (R): \u201cTrump is on a fundraising blitz. But there are other warning signs for Republicans\u201d [Politico]. \u201cBut outside of the money race, a series of other developments in recent days have left even Republicans with the impression that November may not be quite as good for the GOP as it once seemed\u2026. Now, new polling from Fox News shows an 11-point swing in President Joe Biden\u2019s favorability among independents: They prefer Biden by 9 points, a reversal from May, when they favored Trump by 2 points.\u201d That\u2019s a lot! And: \u201cFinancially, the conviction was a boon to Trump\u2019s small-dollar donor operation. But electorally, the reality of Trump\u2019s conviction has begun to set in, they said\u2026. [A]s Tom McCabe, the GOP chair of swingy Mahoning County, Ohio, put it: \u2018This election is going to be decided on the margins, and short-term, his conviction is hurting him in the polling.\u2019 \u2026. In a special election in Ohio\u2019s 6th Congressional District this month, massively outspent Democrat Michael Kripchak erased 19 points from Trump\u2019s 2020 margin of victory \u2014 still losing, but becoming the first Democratic candidate to carry the blue-collar Mahoning County since Trump painted it red in 2020. Incumbent Democratic senators in battleground states like Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania are polling ahead of their Republican challengers. In Arizona\u2019s open Senate race, Republican Kari Lake, a star of the MAGA movement, is underperforming in the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump (R): \u201cFormer first lady Melania Trump stays out of the public eye as Donald Trump runs for president\u201d [Associated Press]. \u201cThe former first lady noticeably did not accompany the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on any of the days of his more than monthlong hush money trial in New York. She was not there last month for the guilty verdict or the following day for his remarks at Trump Tower. She also did not appear June 14 at a 78th birthday party organized for Trump by his fan club, or at any of the campaign rallies he has held in recent months. Her absence during the trial and for other important moments is unusual, said Katherine Jellison, a professor of history at Ohio University who studies first ladies. But Jellison said maybe it should not come as a surprise as Melania Trump seems reluctant to follow the traditional public role of a politician\u2019s wife. As first lady, she also kept a low profile and she was not a regular presence on her husband\u2019s losing 2020 presidential campaign\u2026. \u2018But everything the Trumps do seems to be against the standard playbook of how candidates and spouses behave,\u2019 Jellison said.\u201d \u2022 A non-story, then\u2026. <\/p>\n<p>Trump (R): \u201cFormer Obama fundraiser says she\u2019s divorcing the Democratic Party, voting for Trump for the first time\u201d [FOX]. \u201cAn ex-Obama fundraiser who helped raise millions in donations for his campaign announced that she is \u2018divorcing\u2019 the Democratic Party and plans to vote for Trump in the upcoming election. \u2018Like any divorce, there\u2019s not just one thing, there\u2019s a series of things that led up to it,\u2019 Allison Huynh said on \u2018Jesse Watters Primetime\u2019 Wednesday\u2026. Huynh, who created Willow Garage, a company that created robotics and AI systems, which were later sold to Google, along with her then-husband Google programmer Scott Hassan, helped raise millions of dollars for the Obama campaign in 2008 by hosting elaborate \u2018$50,000- and $100,000-per-plate dinners, for Silicon Valley giants, the New York Post reported. In the years since, Huynh said she has grown disenchanted with the Democratic Party, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that she is increasingly fed up as crime, looting and homelessness continue to run rampant under their leadership.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Biden (D): \u201cAs Biden lags in key states, big questions for Democrats\u201d [Axios]. \u201cIn the five battleground states where there are also Senate races, Biden and the Democratic candidate are up in both only in Wisconsin, according to Real Clear Politics averages of polls released since May 1. In the other four \u2014 Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania \u2014 Trump leads, while the Republican Senate candidates have clear deficits.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Does either candidate have coat-tails?<\/p>\n<p>Biden (D): \u201cSorry, James Carville, but Joe Biden is the best bet to beat Trump\u201d [The Hill]. \u201cThe Electoral College math is admittedly a challenge for Biden. But there is no evidence any other Democrat could do better. There are 25 states that Trump won in both 2016 and 2020. He will likely win them all again in 2024 \u2014 including North Carolina and Florida, which he won narrowly both times \u2014 combining for 235 electoral votes. We will assume that any other Democratic candidate would very likely lose all of these states as well. Trump thus needs to add 35 additional electoral votes to that total to regain the White House. This brings us to Georgia, with its 16 electoral votes, and Arizona with its 11. Trump barely lost both states in 2020, despite winning them four years earlier. These are the two states Trump must win back from Biden this November. And there is little evidence that any other Democrat would have a better chance than Biden in keeping them out of the Trump column. Trump leads (albeit narrowly) in all recent polls of those two states. So adding Georgia and Arizona to Trump\u2019s column for the sake of argument gives him 262 electoral votes. Trump then needs only to win either Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin \u2014 three states he carried in 2016 \u2014 to be the next president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden (D): \u201cWhat Obama Is Whispering to Biden\u201d [Gabriel Debenedetti, New York Magazine]. \u201cOften these days, those who speak with Obama walk away with the clear impression that his fundamental view of politics, and of his ultimate political role, has only shifted so much even amid all of the past decade\u2019s upheaval. He is as forceful as anyone in declaring this moment\u2019s peril, but after years of seeming to question the deeper meaning of Trump\u2019s rise and possible return, Obama now comes across as having concluded that no radical rethink is necessary for his own conception of political progress or mass movements.\u201d \u2022 Oh.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>The Debate: \u201cWill the Supreme Court blow up the presidential debate?\u201d [New Criterion]. Well worth a read: \u201cWhatever the reasons, the two camps settled on a day and a week when the Supreme Court will be handing down a series of explosive decisions, several of them bearing upon the presidential campaign. Some of those decisions may be handed down on the morning of the debate and could upend settled strategies not only for Biden and Trump, but the debate moderators as well. The Supreme Court is still sitting on a dozen pending cases that were argued during the course of the 2023\u201324 term, and it\u2019s scheduled to issue opinions on all (or most) of them on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week\u2014that is, over the three-day period sandwiching the presidential debate. The granddaddy of them all is the Trump immunity case that may circumscribe Jack Smith\u2019s prosecution of the former president over his alleged role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.\u201d But also: \u201cIn Murthy v. Missouri, the court will rule on claims by multiple plaintiffs who contend that the federal government engaged in improper censorship by leaning on social-media companies to suppress conservative views in regard to the origins of COVID-19, the 2020 presidential election, the efficacy masks and vaccines, and other issues.\u201d \u2022 The court could say \u201cLet the people decide!\u201d and release everything on Thursday morning. Or it could tease us on Wednesday, and hold the most impactful cases until Friday. However it goes, it will be hard to see the timing as anything other than political. <\/p>\n<p>The Debate: \u201cExasperated Democrats try to stamp out talk of replacing Biden\u201d [The Hill]. \u201cOne Democratic senator feigned putting a make-believe pistol to their temple when asked about the prospect of yanking Biden off the ticket before the Democratic National Convention in August or the general election in November. The senator, who requested anonymity, said stories about replacing Biden on the ticket sound \u2018juicy\u2019 but are nothing more than a sign that political pundits have \u2018too much time on their hands.\u2019 \u2018There\u2019s no way in hell that\u2019s true. Not a chance in hell that\u2019s true,\u2019 the lawmaker insisted. \u2018I don\u2019t know what to say.\u2019 \u2026 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also poured cold water on the speculation. \u2018I\u2019ve heard no credible plan B, and I\u2019m not counting on a plan B,\u2019 he said. The Democratic senator said Thursday\u2019s debate between Biden and Trump \u2018will be a really critical point\u2019 in the campaign and would set the trajectory of the race. \u2018All of the questions that people are asking right now will have different answers after this debate,\u2019 he said. \u2018At the end of the day, it\u2019s going to be a choice between the two of them. I think Biden is so much sharper, quicker, knowledgeable than even Democrats give him credit for.\u2019 \u2018We all have moments when we can\u2019t remember a name, but that\u2019s not what\u2019s important about being president of the United States,\u2019 he said. \u2018I don\u2019t have a plan B; I\u2019m not looking for a plan B.&#8217;\u201d \u2022 The thing is, the talk is coming from Democratic strategists\u2026 talking their books?<\/p>\n<p>The Debate: \u201cIs this going to be the most performative presidential debate ever?\u201d [Jackie Calmes, Los Angeles Times]. \u201cNonetheless, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio recently wrote, presidential debates are \u201cone of the last mass audience experiences left in a highly fragmented TV landscape.\u201d Six of 10 U.S. adults said they would watch all or most of Thursday\u2019s showdown, and nearly a quarter said they would closely follow the news coverage about it, according to a PBS News\/NPR\/Marist poll this month. Good for them. In our polarized nation, a presidential debate is a rare communal experience, if far less enjoyable than a Super Bowl.\u201d And: \u201c[T]here\u2019s nothing in Trump\u2019s sorry rhetorical record to suggest he will rise to the occasion. Yet that, too, would be informative. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>* * *<br \/>\n* * *<br \/>\n* * *<br \/>\n* * *<\/p>\n<p>Democrats en D\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats prepare for more lawfare ahead of Trump 2.0\u201d [Unherd]. \u201cSo welcome to the doom spiral. As outlets such as the Times continue treating the Right\u2019s lawfare as a dark conspiracy and the Left\u2019s as a campaign to save democracy, political use of the courts will only escalate. This doesn\u2019t absolve partisans of their responsibility to constituents and the Constitution. It does, however, mean they\u2019ll increasingly feel forced to turn to the logic of \u2018desperate times, desperate measures\u2019, perhaps rightfully assuming that the only way out is through. If the placid Times story is any indication, it\u2019s not clear America\u2019s political elite is prepared for what that unleashes.\u201d \u2022 Third World stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<p>Nobody credits Joe Biden for doing his most important job really well:<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">4 years ago Bernie Sanders held a rally with AOC in Queens that drew over 25,000 people. Today, both showed up to rally for Jamaal Bowman and the place was empty. This is what happens when you make people believe you will fight for them and then you don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) June 23, 2024<\/p>\n<p>Syndemics<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); \u201cIowa COVID-19 Tracker\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201cInfection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n<p>Lambert here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To update any entry, do feel free to contact me at the address given with the plants. Please put \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>Resources, United States (Local): 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\u2019Alene; 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).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux us\u00e9es); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).<\/p>\n<p>Hat tips to helpful 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, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3). <\/p>\n<p>Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n<p>LEGEND<\/p>\n<p>1) \u2605 for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n<p>2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NOTES<\/p>\n<p>[1] (CDC) This week\u2019s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. The numbers in the right hand column are identical. The dots on the map are not.<\/p>\n<p>[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n<p>[3] (CDC Variants) KP.3 dominating.<\/p>\n<p>[4] (ER) This is the best I can do for now. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.<\/p>\n<p>[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Though the level is not high, I find the seemingly inexorable rise concerning. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)<\/p>\n<p>[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). This is the best I can do for now. Note the assumption that Covid is seasonal is built into the presentation. At least data for the entire pandemic is presented.<\/p>\n<p>[7] (Walgreens) 4.3%; big jump. (Because there is data in \u201ccurrent view\u201d tab, I think white states here have experienced \u201cno change,\u201d as opposed to have no data.)<\/p>\n<p>[8] (Cleveland) Still going up!<\/p>\n<p>[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn\u2019t even run back to 1\/21\/23, as it used to, but now starts 1\/1\/24. There\u2019s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn\u2019t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that\u2019s why the shape of the curve has changed.<\/p>\n<p>[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads. I\u2019m leaving this here for another week because I loathe them so much:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/last_week.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"544\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-272941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/last_week.png 601w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/last_week-300x272.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.<\/p>\n<p>[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n<p>Stats Watch<\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas\u2019 general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas came in at -15.1 in June 2024, up from a four-month low of -19.4 in May. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, inched up to 0.7 from -2.8 in May.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Tech: \u201cWhy astronauts \u2018need space sex robots\u2019 \u2013 and it\u2019s not just because they\u2019re randy\u201d [Daily Star]. And the deck: \u201cResearchers say mechanical robots are preferred than virtual assistants in space when it comes to solving problem and providing emotional support to astronauts on long mission.\u201d \u2022 Plus, robots won\u2019t get kidney dysfunction in space. Idea: Forget about the astronauts. Just send robots!<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear &amp; Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 40 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 41 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 24 at 12:45:44 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p>Rapture Index: Closes down one on food supply. \u201cThe lack of activity has downgraded this category\u201d [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 186. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) \u2022 Not what the climate coverage implies.<\/p>\n<p>The Gallery<\/p>\n<p>Class Warfare<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBring Back Capitalism\u201d (excerpt) [Matt Taibbi, Racket News]. \u201cSeeing Chase CEO Jamie Dimon issue a smiling clarion call in Fortune for higher taxes and massive government intervention via a \u2018Marshall Plan for America\u2019 was a major tell that something even worse than what he called \u2018free-for-all capitalism\u201d was being contemplated. Dimon\u2019s pledge was in line with outgoing World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab\u2019s \u2018stakeholder capitalism,\u2019 which purports to end the idea of corporations existing to \u2018maximize their profits,\u2019 and make business leaders \u2018trustees of society,\u2019 leading efforts to address \u2018social and environmental challenges.\u2019 For those who aren\u2019t fluent in rich-person bullshit, what Schwab and Dimon (and a long list of others, like Apple CEO Tim Cook and BlackRock\u2019s Larry Fink) were proposing was that we take the same people who spent the last twenty years devouring Fed rescues and converting the savings of the middle class into Jackson Hole villas, and instead of hurling them off cliffs, put them in charge of society. They would additionally like taxpayers to fund a big enough safety net to guarantee the next generation of customers for, say, a depository bank. As in: \u2018We screwed things up so badly, you need to give us even more leeway to make things right.\u2019 It\u2019s enough to make the most mild-mannered person reach for something sharp.\u201d \u2022 That\u2019s the stuff to give the troops! (However, I don\u2019t think much of Substack\u2019s \u201cClaim my free post\u201d button; in fact, it\u2019s just a gimmick to get me to download their app, i.e. not free. Why not just open up the post?)<\/p>\n<p>News of the Wired<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMicrofeatures I Love in Blogs and Personal Websites\u201d [Daniel\u2019s Blog]. This one: \u201cRSS is a feed standard that allows sites to publish updates. Blogs in particular can make use of RSS to notify readers of updates. RSS feeds are processed by a feed reader, which is a program that polls a website\u2019s index.xml file (or other similar files) and reads it to detect new content. If you opt in to full-text RSS feeds, users can read the entire post entirely from their reader. RSS makes it easier to keep up with your site. Rather than having to check in on every author whose content I enjoy on the internet, I can add their feed URL to my list, and have my feed reader automatically aggregate all updates for me to read. It\u2019s kind of like a social media or news feed, except that I control what\u2019s shown to me, and authors of the blogs I follow don\u2019t need to create accounts and explicitly share their work on social media!\u201d \u2022 I upgrade my RSS workflow when it looked like the Twitter might go belly-up; I\u2019ve never regretted it. That said, most of the other features are or were do-able in the blogoshere, but the platforms \u2014 looking at you, Substack \u2014 don\u2019t support them, greatly limiting the expressive power of the author. <\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>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, lichen, 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. From Angie Neer:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rhododendron_2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-273849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rhododendron_2.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/rhododendron_2-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Angie Neer writes: \u201cThis rhododendron bush is old and neglected, shaded and crowded by neighboring trees. But it still makes some beautiful blossoms, and the morning sun hit this one like a spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n<p>Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"606\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png 606w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow:none; padding:0; margin:0\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2024\/06\/200pm-water-cooler-6-24-2024.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lambert Strether of Corrente Patient readers, what you see is what you get today; I must hustle along and finish a post on Project 2025. \u2013lambert Bird Song of the Day Eastern Meadowlark, County Roads SE of Thrall, Williamson, Texas, United States. * * * In Case You Might Miss\u2026 (1) Many new Covid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,34,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berita-internasional","category-berita-dalam-negeri","category-berita-panas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11259,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions\/11259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}