{"id":7685,"date":"2025-07-09T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7685"},"modified":"2025-07-09T14:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:21:29","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-8-28-2024-naked-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7685","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 8\/28\/2024 | naked capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n

Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n

Catbirds are in the Mimidae species (!), like mockingbird and thrashers. Readers have said they like the mimicry, so hopefully MacCaulay Library has enough recordings to keep us all satisfied, at least for a time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Black Catbird, Aguadas al Sureste de Cozumel, Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. I think I\u2019m hearing a frog in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Writer, You Can Never Collect Too Many Endings\u201d [Literary Hub]. \u201cA few years ago, at dusk, I saw an owl swoop into a low branch and start poking its beak into a catbird\u2019s nest. The catbirds inside made a terrible hissing-screeching-gargling sound\u2014like a baby that\u2019s been scalded\u2014and after a moment the owl, for whatever reason, decided it was too much and flew off. After the danger passed, dusk shifted to dark. The night deepened. It struck me that the owl could come back at any moment, and that the catbirds, whose cheery songs I loved and had been listening to all afternoon, lived under perpetual threat. While I didn\u2019t know what story from my life the moment might make a good ending for, I knew it was an ending because in the quiet of its resolution it kept gathering significance. It was factual and also metaphorical. I\u2019ve been those screeching catbirds. I\u2019ve been that owl.\u201d \u2022 I didn\u2019t search for this, I swear! It just randomly showed up in my RSS reader.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n

The DNC was a superspreading event, and adopted a eugenicist masking policy
\nBoeing door plug debacle reveals shop floor fiasco
\nVermeer\u2019s tronie.<\/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

\"\"<\/p>\n

Good news for Trump in that last week\u2019s deterioration seems to have been slowed, although we shall have to see if Kamala gets a convention \u201cbounce.\u201d Remember, however, that all the fluctuations \u2014 in fact, all the leads \u2014 are within the margin of error. If you read most of the press, you\u2019d think Kamala has this race in the bag. It\u2019s not so. Do note, however, Trump\u2019s deterioration in North Carolina: +2.4 last week to +0.9 this week, when OG pollster Sabato moved it to \u201ctoss-up\u201d status from \u201clean Republican.\u201d No wonder Trump held a rally there this week. NOTE With Kennedy, it would seem, about to drop out, I started tracking the national percentage as \u201cTop Battlegrounds,\u201d where Trump\u2019s shrinking lead is +0.1 this week (as opposed to \u201c5-Way RCP Average, where Harris led by +1.1 last week).<\/p>\n

Clinton Legacy<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-stricken Hillary Clinton drops out of Hamptons fundraiser, Bill Clinton steps in with Doug Emhoff: sources\u201d [New York Post]. \u201cHillary Clinton bowed out of a Hamptons fundraiser for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on Monday, we hear, after the former secretary of state came down with COVID-19\u2026. The event was held at the home of mega art collectors Lisa and Richard Perry, who are known to house works by Frank Stella, Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly and Donald Judd, among other blue-chip artists. Tickets at the highest tier went for a cool $100,000 each, and an invitation seen by Page Six said, \u2018This is likely to be one of the last small events in the NY area before the election, so it is not to be missed.’\u201d \u2022 \u201cToday, Covid no longer controls our lives.\u201d \u2014Joe Biden, February 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Realignment and Legitimacy<\/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

Elite Maleficence<\/p>\n

The memo that started it all:<\/p>\n

Here’s the memo that’s influencing the White House’s pandemic polices. It advises Biden to:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Declare the crisis phase of COVID over and push for feeling and acting more normal<\/p>\n

\u2013 Stop talking about restrictions and the unknown future ahead<\/p>\n

Source: #SOTU pic.twitter.com\/FvkzxEa1kO<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) March 1, 2022<\/p>\n

Totally not a superspreader event:<\/p>\n

“What is it like being in a room where four years ago this would have been a superspreader event?”<\/p>\n

There is so much misinformation in this interview. The DNC convention is a superspreader and happening during the peak of one of the largest summer COVID surges of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com\/PDE2Z44YzI<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) August 23, 2024<\/p>\n

Except it is a superspreader event, exactly like the Olympics (or a Taylor Swift Concert):<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 also attended last week\u2019s Democratic National Convention, infecting \u2018too many’\u201d [Chicago Sun-Times]. The deck: \u201cHealth officials say they saw no sign of a COVID-19 uptick after the convention, while attendees grumble on social media about getting sick. One union official said he knows at least 14 people who tested positive since attending the convention.\u201d The health officials \u201csaw no sign\u201d because the attendees flew home, bringing the virus with them. More: \u201cHow many people came down with COVID-19 after the convention? \u2018Too many. I can\u2019t even put a number on it,\u2019 said Ronnie Reese, Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s communications director\u2026. Anthony Driver Jr., executive director of Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council, said he knows at least 14 people who tested positive for COVID-19 since attending the convention. Officially, there are no numbers and there won\u2019t be. Many people diagnose themselves with at-home tests. With a virus incubation period of up to two weeks, many out-of-towners may just now be feeling symptoms.\u201d \u2022 There no numbers and there won\u2019t be because \u201cCovid no longer controls our lives.\u201d Except when it does:<\/p>\n

Wait- didn\u2019t they specifically say at the DNC that #Covid19 was no more? \ud83e\udd14 <\/p>\n

\u2014 Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) August 25, 2024<\/p>\n

And:<\/p>\n

The DNC and COVID: pic.twitter.com\/0n4SdQmWIw<\/p>\n

\u2014 Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) August 25, 2024<\/p>\n

And:<\/p>\n

A friend who was at the DNC posted a positive test and said the surprise guest was, in fact, Covid.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Read No Shortcuts (@JoshuaPHilll) August 24, 2024<\/p>\n

Here are the views of a DNC attendee. The thread is a rich motherlode of PMC entitlement and denial, so I encourage you to click through, if you can. He keeps returning to the fray:<\/p>\n

The DNC was in Chicago. The Uber driver, waiter, & worker is well aware of COVID risk. It\u2019s an assumption to act as if they don\u2019t & it\u2019s irrational to place blame specifically on DNC attendees.<\/p>\n

COVID doesn\u2019t just spread at the DNC.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gabrien Gregory (@GabrienGregory) August 26, 2024<\/p>\n

Classic! As if DNC attendee, who voluntarily attended the shindig in Chicago, is in the same class as the Uber Driver, who necessarily must ferry Gregory to and from the venue, to Starbucks, to brunch, because the working class must sell their labor to survive.<\/p>\n

The venue was well-ventilated (if believe their literature) but it\u2019s still a 3C\u2019s space (closed, crowded, close-contact) and so a layered approach that included masks would have been the safest approach, had the heatlth of attendees and workers been the priority:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DNC mask policy:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The DNC adopted the Great Barrington Declaration\u2019s eugenicist policy.<\/p>\n

DNC masking policy vs. RNC masking policy:<\/p>\n

RNC: Cloth, N95\/KN95, surgical mask allowed to be used as PPE to avoid transmission of viral infection.<\/p>\n

DNC: Mask allowed if necessary due to disability, may be asked to take off for security.<\/p>\n

We are truly in the upside down. pic.twitter.com\/x6pvSjWl2B<\/p>\n

\u2014 Joaqu\u00edn Beltr\u00e1n Free Palestine (@joaquinlife) August 26, 2024<\/p>\n

How is it that Democrats have a more vicious and reprehensible masking policy than Republicans?<\/p>\n

Here is a DNC minder actually getting an attendee to remove their mask:<\/p>\n

Watch the woman in the back holding the sign, masked. As they take her pic, I\u2019m willing to bet she was told to take her mask off for a better pic. These are the things that make it on mainstream media, vs a pic of a woman protecting her health & sending phenomenal messaging. #DNC pic.twitter.com\/iZ1loOXWma<\/p>\n

\u2014 Karyn Bishof (@K_Bishof) August 26, 2024<\/p>\n

Shortly after the convention, a Kamala operative posted this video to TikTok, from where it moved to Twitter. It shows a masked Kamala with cute children. Here is the Twitter version:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was waiting to talk to you!\u201d pic.twitter.com\/ZBpMOd6q0v<\/p>\n

\u2014 chris evans (@notcapnamerica) August 26, 2024<\/p>\n

Being of a suspicious nature, I looked for the provenance of the video. The Kamala operative did not give a date or time. However, alert reader marym exercised her mad detective skillz and found the source: A school in West Haven, CT, story published March 26, 2021. But the vibes!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n

Lambert here: Readers, I apologize for butchering the table formatting yesterday; I just spent some time reformating the HTML so it\u2019s not so fragile. Do feel free to bring formatting issues to my attention in comments.<\/p>\n

Wastewater<\/p>\n

This week[1] CDC August 20:<\/p>\n

Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Variants [3] CDC August 17<\/p>\n

Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 17 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hospitalization<\/p>\n

\u2605 New York[5] New York State, data August 23:<\/p>\n

National [6] CDC August 10:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Positivity<\/p>\n

National[7] Walgreens August 20:<\/p>\n

Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 17:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Travelers Data<\/p>\n

Positivity[9] CDC July 29:
\n Variants[10] CDC July 29:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Deaths<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 10:<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 10:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/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. XDV.1 flat.<\/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) A tiny little jump. Let\u2019s watch carefully. (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

There are no officials statistics of interest today.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Manufacturing: \u201cInside Boeing\u2019s factory lapses that led to the Alaska Air blowout\u201d [Seattle Times (PI)]. Deck is not, but should be: \u201cAnatomy of a Clusterf*ck.\u201d Do read in full for the horrid details; many of us, I am sure, have been on a similar shop floor. This caught my eye; when they first open the door plug (the one that fell off, later): \u2018Filling in for the veteran mechanic on vacation, the Trainee was perhaps the least equipped to do this atypical job. He\u2019d been at Boeing for about 17 months, his only previous jobs being at KFC and Taco Bell. \u2018He\u2019s just a young kid,\u2019 the Door Master Lead said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech: \u201cTesla Drivers Say New Self-Driving Update Is Repeatedly Running Red Lights\u201d [Futurism]. \u201c\u2018Thankfully I stopped it before it ran the light,\u2019 wrote one Redditor user in a thread with several other Tesla drivers experiencing the same thing, \u2018but hopefully Tesla is aware their software is at a very dangerous level right now.\u2019\u2026 This is all happening as Musk pivots Tesla towards robotaxis, which have run into their own issues with crashes, glitches, and unpopularity with pedestrians. Will a software patch improve the red light issue? Perhaps. But there\u2019s something that Musk can do that\u2019s low cost and won\u2019t hurt anybody: stop calling the Tesla auto assist software \u2018Full Self-Driving\u2019 until it really is.\u201d <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 52 Neutral (previous close: 52 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 51 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 28 at 12:57:20 PM ET.<\/p>\n

Gallery<\/p>\n

He saw the insulators (!):<\/p>\n

View of Malakoff Hauts de Seine pic.twitter.com\/1VoUGvDzmH<\/p>\n

\u2014 Henri Rousseau (@artrousseau) May 12, 2024<\/p>\n

\u201cMasterful Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer rendered famous \u2018Girl with a Pearl Earring\u2019 during Golden Age\u201d [FOX]. \u201cThe painting depicts a woman, but it\u2019s not a portrait, but rather a \u201ctronie,\u201d according to the Maurithshus museum, which is a painting of an imaginary figure.\u201d \u2022\u00a0So, word of the day: tronie. Amazingly, this FOX story is straight-up informative, with no angle at all that I can see (at least not a FOX-level angle). Maybe I was ahead of the zeitgeist on this gen-u-wine, human-made art thing, and others have the same thirst.<\/p>\n

News of the Wired<\/p>\n

I am not feeling wired today.<\/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 Carla:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carla writes: \u201cPerennial Hibiscus with dew on the leaves.\u201d Lovely! (And I like the shadowy foreground with the bright background; the bright green reminds me of the bright summer afternoon lawns of my Midwestern childhood \u2014 regardless of my strictures upon lawns today!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

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

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\"Print<\/div>\n<\/div>\n