By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
California Thrasher, Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego, California, United States. \u201cSinging from Laurel Sumac in coastal sage scrub habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
Shots fired, as Biden consigliere Anita Dunn lets loose on her way out.
\nCoach, coach, coach! .
\nTrump steps outside the bulletproof glass to check on a fainting crowd member.
\nOn euphemisms.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Politics<\/p>\n
\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>\n
2024<\/p>\n
Less than one hundred days to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/rcp_2024-08-16.png\")
<\/p>\n
There is no good news here for Trump. The deterioration in both Pennsylvania and Georgia is especially marked. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations \u2014 in fact, all the leads \u2014 are within the margin of error. So the \u201cjoy\u201d is based on, well, vibes.<\/p>\n
Biden Defenestration:<\/p>\n
Senior Biden Advisor Anita Dunn, also defenestrated, lets loose:<\/p>\n
\u201cLeave the Dunn. Take the cannoli\u201d [Politico] (August 20, 2024). At a White House gathering honoring her: \u201cA group of senior advisers had just entered the room with the event in full swing \u2014 among them chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS, deputy chief of staff NATALIE QUILLIAN and national security adviser ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDALL. Moments later, Dunn surprised people by announcing that she had \u2018a few more things to say.\u2019 Pulling out some notes, Dunn proceeded to speak in blunt terms for roughly 10 minutes, according to five people who were in the room, about themes that, to some, seemed laden with subtext: loyalty, revenge and advice from a career in bare-knuckle politics.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was crazy \u2014 the most epic, jaw-dropping speech I\u2019ve ever heard,\u2019 one attendee told West Wing Playbook. \u201cThis was talked about for days.\u2019 \u2026. To understand how to succeed in Washington \u2014 to understand the use of power, she said, was to know \u2018The Godfather.\u2019<\/p>\n
Having spent a good part of her final days on campus meeting with younger staffers looking for career advice, Dunn offered a few pearls of wisdom from the film for those in the room. \u2018Never hate your enemies,\u2019 she said. \u2018It clouds your judgment.\u2019 \u2018Revenge is a dish best served cold,\u2019 she continued, underlining the point that paying back those who\u2019ve wronged you could take months, even years\u2026. It seemed like she was making a point, that her words may have been meant for some of the other senior aides who weren\u2019t there,\u201d another attendee said. Over the weekend that followed, two attendees said, many of them watched \u2018The Godfather\u2019 for the first time.\u201d \u2022 Who, I wonder, was \u201ccollege boy\u201d Michael Corleone? And\u2014<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy Biden Was Really Forced Out of the Race, According to Anita Dunn\u201d [Politico] (August 9, 2024). This factoid on the Biden\/Trump debate caught my eye: [DUNN:] \u201cI watched the debate at home. I watch it on dial groups. I watched the dials.\u201d Wired up to the dials were a panel of ndecided voters. And: \u201cWhen you watch dial groups, people are instructed to start at 50 on their dials. That is the neutral position. If they feel better, they turn it to the right and the numbers go up. And if they don\u2019t like what they\u2019re hearing, they turn it to the left and the numbers go down.\u201d And: \u201cIt\u2019s immediate feedback. But you also do a focus group before with a vote and you do a focus group after with a vote. And you hear people\u2019s reactions. And so voters experience this differently. And one of the things that was interesting was that voters didn\u2019t particularly like Biden\u2019s performance in the first half hour. He wasn\u2019t scoring well at all. But it\u2019s not as though they walked out. They very much liked a lot of the second half of the debate for Joe Biden. They hated Donald Trump. By the end of this, the first part of the strategy had absolutely worked in that people were like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019d forgotten. I really don\u2019t like this guy. He\u2019s all about himself, he\u2019s bragging.\u2019 I mean, they really did not like him. So Trump didn\u2019t gain any ground in the debate whatsoever. And we actually picked up a few votes in the group. So it was a bad debate, but it didn\u2019t feel catastrophic at all, certainly in terms of voters. And I think other people who did independent research saw roughly the same thing. If you go back and you look at the polls, what you will see is you didn\u2019t see much movement whatsoever coming out of the debate because the structure of this campaign had been fairly static for a long time, and the debate didn\u2019t change that. What did change it was 24 days of unremitting negative, horrible attacks on Joe Biden.\u201d \u2022 So it wasn\u2019t simply delusion that made the Biden team hang on; it was instrumented delusion; they had data they trusted that backed up their views. However, we at NC also watched the debate, and if somebody had wired us up to a dial, our reaction \u2014 universally \u2014 when Biden slipped his cog (and Trump drove the knife home) would have been very different and, I think, more representative of the voters. It\u2019s interesting to speculate why Dunn\u2019s dials misled her so. The sample could have been bad, but Dunn is obviously a stone professional, so that\u2019s unlikely. I\u2019m sure that there\u2019s a technical word for this, but clearly the panel knew they were wired up for the purpose of evaluating Biden, and perhaos the social norming that Biden was \u201csharp as a tack\u201d was so strong that even if they thought that somebody should take Biden\u2019s car keys away they couldn\u2019t communicate that to a person in authority (note that the dials are moved by conscious choice, and not measure autonomous nervous system stuff(.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Democrat National Convention Vignettes: <\/p>\n
Metaphor:<\/p>\n
DNC attendees cover their ears as the names of dead Palestinian children are read as they leave the convention pic.twitter.com\/9bueCbFeEr<\/p>\n
\u2014 BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) August 22, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach\u2019s Clinic: Tim Walz Delivers Emotional, Energetic DNC Speech\u201d [HuffPo]. \u201cConvention-goers welcomed him with signs that said \u201cCoach Walz\u201d and chanted \u201cCoach, coach, coach!\u201d The Minnesota delegation even held big cutouts of Walz\u2019s face.\u201d \u2022 Wowers. Maybe high school was the last time these people were truly happy?<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Walz: Win One for the Veeper\u201d [The American Prospect]. \u201cJust as the top banana of old vaudeville acts would be preceded on stage by a line of chorus girls, Walz was preceded by the now middle-aged members of Mankato West High School\u2019s 1999 state champion football team, for whom Walz was defensive coordinator. Normie dads, some now way out of shape, led the way for Coach Walz to take the stage and deliver his distinctive normie American, good-neighbor, progressive Democrat acceptance speech. Some of it was adapted from the stump speech he\u2019s been giving to great effect around the country. But it hit all the right notes for a national audience. If all this normie-ness didn\u2019t fully normalize Walz\u2019s progressive achievements, he took care to tout not only his enactment of paid sick leave and groundbreaking pro-union laws and universal school breakfasts and lunches, but also, repeatedly, the middle-class tax cuts he signed into law as well. Walz also spoke, more than I\u2019ve heard him do so before, in his coach persona. There was a bit of John Madden drawing play diagrams in his delivery, and a touch of Pat O\u2019Brien playing the sainted Knute Rockne in The Spirit of Notre Dame, telling Democrats to win one for\u2014well, not for the Gipper (who had been played in that 1930s Warner Bros. film by a young Ronald Reagan)\u2014but for Kamala, and the nation, and your kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA protest carnival produces little heat in Chicago\u201d [Semafor]. \u201cThe Coalition to March on the DNC started building Monday\u2019s event last summer, before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. By the time delegates arrived in Chicago, the march was almost entirely about American support for Israel\u2019s war. And the activists who wanted to give up on electoral politics, and demolish the Democrats, grew further away from the activists trying to bring their party in line\u2026. Code Pink, the Party for Socialism & Liberation, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression \u2014 the 270-odd groups that marched to the DNC security perimeter were united around cutting off military aid to the Jewish state. Some wanted to abolish it altogether, dismantling one \u2018settler-colonial\u2019 nation on the way to dismantling all of them. Inside the convention, the three dozen uncommitted delegates, elected by anti-war protest voters, were just as focused. But their demands diverged. Democratic anti-war activists in the United Center wanted an immediate ceasefire and an \u2018arms embargo\u2019 on Israel. The Biden administration was working on the first, but unlikely to deliver the second, and Harris had essentially ruled it out. \u2018The Vice President\u2019s team has been engaging,\u2019 said Abbas Alawieh, an uncommitted delegate from Michigan and frequent spokesman for the faction. \u2018They\u2019ve been listening. I find that very encouraging. It is definitely a very big change from when we were trying to have conversations with President Biden.’\u201d \u2022 I don\u2019t see 270 organizations as a strength. Quite the reverse.<\/p>\n
Trump:<\/p>\n
Trump (R): Good idea, especially if his content spreads instantly on TikTok (which I presume the campaign has arranged):<\/p>\n
Former President Trump says he\u2019s doing a live play-by-play on Kamala Harris\u2019s speech tonight, as well as some other speeches given at the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s doing it on Truth Social. pic.twitter.com\/cV1i9aVovo<\/p>\n
\u2014 Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@yashar) August 22, 2024<\/p>\n
The Democrat propaganda is making me a bit counter-suggestible, so: In the firehose of \u201cjoy\u201d it\u2019s possible for even me to forget that Trump is, in fact, a formidable campaigner. 2016: Went through the Republican establishment like a knife through butter, then beat Clinton. 2020: Wins but for Covid. 2024: Having rebuilt the Republican Party, for good or ill, to be more Trumpian, he then knocks the Democrat candidate out of the race in debate. From the 30,000-foot view, that\u2019s not a bad track record. All this with the press, the spooks, and large parts of the justice system serving as arms of the Democrat Party. Now, I do think he needs some re-adjustment of his schtick, but come on. <\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cTrump speaks from behind bulletproof glass at first outdoor rally since his attempted assassination\u201d [Associated Press]. \u201cAt his first outdoor rally since last month\u2019s attempted assassination, Donald Trump spoke from behind bulletproof glass Wednesday in North Carolina at an event focused on national security.\u201d \u2022 Swing state. Oddly, or not, Biden never did give RFK Secret Service protection. It\u2019s almost as if the Democrats were in LIHOP mode. Oddly, AP doesn\u2019t mention this incident\u2013<\/p>\n
Trump (R): \u201cTrump steps outside bulletproof glass to hug woman having a medical emergency in first outdoor rally since the shooting\u201d [Daily Mail]. \u201cTrump was in mid flow at a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, his first outdoor event since he survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the crowd and people could be heard shouting \u2018Medic!\u2019. Trump, who was talking about UFC and boxing, stopped and looked. He then said into the microphone: \u2018A doctor, please\u2026’\u201d Video:<\/p>\n
JUST IN: Donald Trump steps out from the bulletproof glass at his North Carolina rally to check on one of his supporters who passed out.<\/p>\n
Today was Trump’s first outdoor rally since the assas*ination attempt at his PA rally on July 13.<\/p>\n
Trump is giving the speech at the North\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/xVCdTIxBif<\/p>\n
\u2014 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 21, 2024<\/p>\n
Say what you like about Trump, he\u2019s got brass ones. (Not, as I have said, that courage is a virture. Courage is virtuous depending on the end it serves. Nevertheless.)<\/p>\n
Kennedy:<\/p>\n
\u201cRFK\u2019s Running Mate Nicole Shanahan: DNC \u201cTurned Us Into A Spoiler,\u201d Made A Fair Election Impossible For Us\u201d [RealClearPolitics]. Shanahan: \u201cI did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate, I put in tens of millions of dollars to win and do the right things. ClearChoice, this DNC-aligned PAC that was created specifically to take us out, has spent millions of dollars to take us out. They have turned us into a spoiler. We didn\u2019t want to be a spoiler, we wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot. The DNC made that impossible for us. They have banned us, shadowbanned us, kept us off stages, manipulated polls, used lawfare against us, sued us in every possible state, they\u2019ve even planted insders into our campaign to disrupt it and create actual legal issues for us. The extent of the sabotage they\u2019ve unleashed on us is mind-blowing, we\u2019re still learning new ways they have sabotaged us. I really wanted a fair shot at this election, and I believed in the American that I pledged allegiance to as a little girl. And that is not where we are today, and it is not because of the Republican Party taking us out, it is the Democratic Party taking us out. And I am so disappointed I ever helped them, I am so disappointed I helped Chuck Schumer in that Georgia runoff, to secure the [Senate] majority. It is probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life.\u2019 \u2022 I don\u2019t disagree that the RFK campaign was in it to win it; getting on the ballot in as many states as they did was an extraordinary achievement.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
MT:<\/p>\n
Cannot overstate how huge this is for any Harris\/Walz agenda. Without Jon Tester winning reelection and maintaining a Senate majority, all these encouraging domestic agenda items could die on the vine. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) August 21, 2024<\/p>\n
Campaign Finance<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Kamala Harris is winning over Wall Street\u201d [CNN]. \u201cBut even before Harris revealed key details of her platform, Roger Altman, founder and senior chairman of Evercore, told CNBC last month that he supports Harris and that expects her campaign to be \u2018very well financed.\u2019 Blackstone president Jonathan Gray contributed $413,000 to the Harris Action Fund at the end of July, a source familiar with his giving told CNN. Alex Soros, son of billionaire liberal donor George Soros, endorsed Harris in an X post last month. George Soros also supports Harris, his spokesperson told CNN. Avenue Capital Group CEO Marc Lasry donated $100K to the Harris Action Fund in March, according to Federal Election Commission data. Sonnenfeld, known as the \u2018CEO Whisperer,\u2019 argued that Harris\u2019 stronger relationship with Wall Street compared to Biden\u2019s is because she toned down the \u2018class warfare\u2019 rhetoric and had a track record as California attorney general acting fairly \u2014 even if not overly favorably \u2014 with businesses. \u2018She went after abuses but didn\u2019t see the scale of enterprise itself as misconduct. She knows that thriving businesses are good for the economy and the average American worker,\u201d Sonnenfeld said. Of course, some Wall Street bigwigs have made their support for Trump clear. Bill Ackman, billionaire hedge fund manager and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, endorsed Trump as president in a July X post. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said in March that he is backing the former president\u2019s bid. Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent is a supporter of Trump and attended his rally in Asheville, North Carolina.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBig Crypto, Big Spending: Crypto Corporations Spend an Unprecedented $119 Million Influencing Elections\u201d [Public CItizen]. \u201cCrypto corporations are by far the dominant corporate political spenders in 2024 as nearly half (48%) of all corporate money contributed during this year\u2019s elections ($248 million so far) came from crypto backers.\u201d \u2022 Cool, both parties are financed by fraudsters. Which makes sense.<\/p>\n
Democrats en D\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocratic platform favors slate of smaller goals over a health overhaul\u201d [STAT]. \u201cGone are the days when Democrats bickered over wholesale reform of the American health care system \u2014 including Vice President Harris herself during the 2020 campaign cycle. <\/p>\n
Instead, their plan this election cycle evokes President Biden\u2019s slogan to \u2018finish the job\u2019 \u2014 even though they\u2019re running a new candidate. With the notable exception of calling to erase medical debt by working with states, Democrats are largely eyeing marginal extensions or reinstatements of their prior policy achievements.\u201d \u2022 \u201cBickering.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats Scrub Death Penalty Opposition From Campaign Platform\u201d [HuffPo]. \u2022 Hmm. I wonder who former DA Kamala has in mind?<\/p>\n
Syndemics<\/p>\n
\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>\n
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
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
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
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux us\u00e9es); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).<\/p>\n
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, KF, 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
Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
Lambert here: Worth noting that national Emergency Room admissions are as high as they were in the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n
LEGEND<\/p>\n
1) \u2605 for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n
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
NOTES<\/p>\n
[1] (CDC) This week\u2019s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.<\/p>\n
[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. First showing of the new variant from China, XDV.1 (though it didn\u2019t appear in traveler\u2019s data).<\/p>\n
[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Going down. Doesn\u2019t need to be a permanent thing, of course. (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
Lambert here: Since things are bad out on the West Coast, I went looking for California hospitalization data to compare with New York\u2019s, and found this: \u201cDue to changes in reporting requirements for hospitals, CDPH is no longer including hospitalization data on the CDPH dashboard. CDPH remains committed to monitoring the severe outcomes of COVID-19 and influenza, including the impact on hospitals. CDC\u2019s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) will remain open to accept data, and CDC and CDPH strongly encourage all facilities to continue reporting.\u201d Thanks, Mandy!<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) Fiddling and diddling.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Jumping.<\/p>\n
[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 range. 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
[10] (Travelers: Variants) The new variant in China, XDV.1, is not showing up here.<\/p>\n
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.<\/p>\n
[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Initial Jobless Claims\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US rose by 4,000 from the previous week to 232,000 on the period ending August 17th, slightly ahead of market expectations of 230,000 to mark a three-week high. The increase held initial claim counts well above their averages from earlier this year, consolidating the trend of a softening labor market outlined by the July jobs report and the large downward revision to nonfarm payrolls for the year ending in March, backing bets that the Federal Reserve will deliver rate cuts in every decision remaining this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Kansas Fed Manufacturing Index\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe Kansas City Fed\u2019s Manufacturing Production index rose to 6 in August 2024, the highest in one year, from -12 in July.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Economy: \u201cUnited States Chicago Fed National Activity Index\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe Chicago Fed National Activity Index fell to -0.34 in July 2024 from a revised -0.09 in June, compared with market expectations of +0.03.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cApple splits App Store team in two, introduces new leadership\u201d [Ars Technica]. \u201cApple is comprehensively restructuring its long-standing App Store team, splitting the team into two separate divisions as the executive who has run it for more than a decade says goodbye to the company. There will now be one team for the familiar, Apple-run App Store, and another one to handle alternative app stores in the European Union. Apple recently partially opened the platform to third-party app stores in response to the Digital Markets Act, a set of European regulations meant to break up what legislators and regulators deemed to be app store monopolies.\u201d \u2022 The App Store has a horrible UI\/UX, and whoever made or let that happen should have left long ago (of course, it was a monopoly, so there\u2019s no incentive to improve it. Maybe the EU did us all a favor).<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 49 Neutral (previous close: 50 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 33 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 22 at 1:19:03 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n
\u201cEuphemise this\u201d [Aeon]. \u201cWhat the cognitive psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker has artfully termed \u2018the euphemism treadmill\u2019 is not a tic or a stunt. It is an inevitable and, more to the point, healthy process, necessary in view of the eternal gulf between language and opinion. We think of euphemisms as one-time events, where one prissily coins a way of saying something that detracts from something unpleasant about it. That serves perfectly well as a definition of what euphemism is, but misses the point that euphemism tends to require regular renewal. This is because thought changes more slowly than we can change the words for it, and has a way of catching up with our new coinages. Since that is likely eternal, we must accept that we\u2019ll change our terms just like we change our underwear, as a part of linguistic life in a civilised society\u2026. A word, then, is like a bell tone, with a central pitch seasoned by overtones. As the tone fades away, the overtones can hang in the air. Words are similar, with opinion, assumption and, more to the point, bias as equivalents to the overtones. Crippled began as a sympathetic term. However, a sad reality of human society is that there are negative associations and even dismissal harboured against those with disabilities. Thus crippled became accreted with those overtones, so to speak, to the point that handicapped was fashioned as a replacement term free from such baggage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Class Warfare<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat If Data Is a Bad Idea?\u201d [Beyond the Frame]. \u201cData is inherently objectifying. This property is an asset when describing inert phenomenon such as the composition of soil or the properties of various metals. Data enables the applied work of engineers and there are no direct ethical considerations.There are plenty of systemic ethical considerations when using these resources. But that\u2019s beyond the scope of this article. The problems become apparent when we start talking about people. Data cannot express a meaningful distinction between intelligent actors and the things they act upon; a database that tracks widget production can also store information about the people who buy those widgets. Databases then turn intelligent actors \u2013 who are often human beings \u2013 into things to be acted upon. This is where data can quickly become a \u2018bad idea.’\u201d<\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
\u201c1 in 4 Unresponsive People with Brain Injuries May Be Conscious\u201d [Scientific American]. \u201cAt least one-quarter of people who have severe brain injuries and cannot respond physically to commands are actually conscious, according to the first international study of its kind.<\/p>\n
Although these people could not, say, give a thumbs-up when prompted, they nevertheless repeatedly showed brain activity when asked to imagine themselves moving or exercising. \u2018This is one of the very big landmark studies\u2019 in the field of coma and other consciousness disorders, says Daniel Kondziella, a neurologist at Rigshospitalet, the teaching hospital for Copenhagen University. The results mean that a substantial number of people with brain injuries who seem unresponsive can hear things going on around them and might even be able to use brain\u2013computer interfaces (BCIs) to communicate, says study leader Nicholas Schiff, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
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 PR:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/stump.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
PR writes: \u201cFrom a recent trip to NW Oregon and SW Washington state.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. 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
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\")
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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!\n<\/p>\n
![\"Print](\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\")
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