{"id":7744,"date":"2025-07-09T14:21:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7744"},"modified":"2025-07-09T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:21:22","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-8-29-2024-naked-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7744","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 8\/29\/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, CADO & STCU Alley, Chital Area, Louisville, Corozal, Belize.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

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

Kamala\u2019s stint at McDonalds: Fact or fiction?
\nKennedyon healthy food, and on the environment.
\nSection 230 decision: \u201cThe business model of Big Tech is over.\u201d<\/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

* * *<\/p>\n

Kamala (D): \u201cAfter Chicago: The Challenge Facing Harris\u201d [The Nation]. The deck: \u201cWill she demonstrate clearly why she\u2019s the true champion of working people?\u201d \u2022 No. <\/p>\n

Kamala (D):<\/p>\n

Laugh at how desperate and dumb this is, but never stop being galled by the bad faith of MAGA loyalists who pretend to care about any kind of scruple. Low-character people this close to awesome power should fill you with contempt. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) August 29, 2024<\/p>\n

I read the Washington Free Beacon story top and bottom (and it gives me no pleasure to say that). Besides being good oppo, I thought it was a solid piece of reporting (and it gives me no pleasure to say that). Readers, can you poke any holes in the story?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Trump (R): \u201cDonald Trump lists the questions CNN must ask Kamala Harris in her first interview as the Democratic candidate\u201d [Daily Mail]. \u201cWhen she finally sits for her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris must explain why she has flip-flopped on so many policies, why she has done nothing to secure the southern border while in power, and why she needs a human shield alongside her, according to one avid viewer of television news, former President Donald J. Trump\u2026. At the top of his list: What is she hiding from? \u2018Why isn\u2019t it live? It\u2019s not a live interview,\u2019 he said. \u2018It\u2019s an interview that\u2019s going to be taped and then edited and then put out. So that\u2019s not even an interview.’\u201d \u2022 He\u2019s not wrong, is he? The Daily Mail interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Holy moley, that\u2019s an awful bad case of Empire-in-Decay decor. How preferable the elegant, youthful simplicity of Obama and Kamala\u2019s tan suits. From this morning once more:<\/p>\n

How it started. How it’s going. <\/p>\n

Ten years later, and it’s still a good look! pic.twitter.com\/KeI1gn7HSg<\/p>\n

\u2014 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 28, 2024<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Kennedy (R): A Republican operative:<\/p>\n

NEW: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. comes out with an ‘insane’ new proposal to end obesity in America which is not Ozempic. <\/p>\n

Ready for it?<\/p>\n

Giving everyone three healthy organic meals a day instead of paying $3 trillion for Ozempic. <\/p>\n

RFK argued against a new proposal that would\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/0wFsecW7Sb<\/p>\n

\u2014 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 28, 2024<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, is Kennedy so wrong?<\/p>\n

And is this so wrong?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, we don\u2019t actually know from what position Kennedy would reviving that consensus in the next Trump administration\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (Electoral) Politics of Age Gaps\u201d [Crooked Timber]. \u201cDespite being a Boomer, you may have noticed that [Kamala\u2019s] the young, exciting candidate\u2026. Biden and Trump are really quite old\u2026. It\u2019s our electoral institutions cause the US to have such astronomically old leaders. The two-party system, lax campaign and especially campaign finance laws, and the primary system tilt the process heavily in favor of people with time, money and political interest \u2014 which, in our society, tends to be older people. Combine this with the Baby Boom and you get the current situation, playing out in slow motion, a demographic wave not crashing but seeping into and drowning our politics. It\u2019s telling that the only way our institutions avoided replicating their mistakes was by a catastrophic failure. How can a younger politician win a primary in this system? They can\u2019t! Harris became the nominee not by winning the primary but by default.\u201d \u2022\u00a0By default? Is this dude kidding? Since when is coronation the default in a putatively democratic society?<\/p>\n

Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats and Republicans greet Covid spike with a collective shrug\u201d [Poltico]. A tranche of a million corpses, and all they can do so shrug. To be fair, Trump can\u2019t take credit for Operation Warp Speed because of the anti-vax dogmatists in his base (including Kennedy), and Biden can\u2019t take credit for any instead of an enormously successfully public relations effort that destroyed the creditibility of public health as an ideal. Biden can also take credit for never giving Trump credit for the vaccines he bet the farm on with his \u201cvax-only\u201d strategy \u2014 a Trump legacy Biden promptly squandered. No wonder they\u2019re silent. More: \u201c\u2018Voters do not like it being brought up at all,\u2019 said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden\u2019s 2020 campaign, who marveled at the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic convention where roughly 20,000 people crammed into Chicago\u2019s United Center for a week. \u2018They want to get over it.’\u201d \u2022 Ah, a Celinda Lake. She was the pollster who left \u201cMedicare for All\u201d off a voter survey on health care policy in Maine, until activists forced her to add itMR SUBLIMINAL Not that I\u2019m one to harbor a grudge\u2018These poeple. And: \u201c\u201dFor most people, Covid is less about getting an infection and more about a period of time when our lives were super disrupted \u2014 and that is behind us,\u201d said Ashish Jha, the Biden White House\u2019s former Covid response coordinator. \u201cWe do still have a public health problem, but it is no longer in any way a substantive societal problem.’\u201d \u2022 What a psycho Jha is. In what way is Long Covid not a \u201csubstantive societal problem\u201d? Not to mention the increasingly visible loss of executive function on a mass basis.<\/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

Celebrity Watch<\/p>\n

\u201cNeil Young Explains Crazy Horse Tour Cancelation, Says He\u2019s Planning To Return To The Road With Promise Of The Real\u201d [Stereogum]. Young: \u201c\u2018I was doing great and we were moving right along,\u2019 Young said. \u2018Everybody\u2019s loving the shows. Then I just woke up one morning on the bus and I said, \u2018I can\u2019t do this. I gotta stop.\u2019 It was like I felt sick when I thought of going on stage. My body was telling me, \u2018You gotta stop.\u2019 So I listened to my body. Then it gets into all the legal matters: \u2018You got this, you got that, people bought tickets, they did this, they did that.\u2019 I understand that. What matters to me is the art of playing, and the music. That\u2019s what matters. That\u2019s what people loved. That\u2019s what they come to see. But if that\u2019s not there, me going is not happening. My body told me to not do it.’\u201d \u2022\u00a0Fine as far as it goes, and more honest than most, but why not worry about infecting the fans?<\/p>\n

Elite Maleficence<\/p>\n

CDC will not or cannot think through the consequences of the fact that #CovidIsAirborne, one of which is protection needs to be layered, Swiss Cheese-style:<\/p>\n

Glad to see. Would add KN95 masks or N95 respirators are highly effective at reducing amount of viruses inhaled if someone else is sick in a home, and isolation of an infected person in a negatively pressurized space is generally easy (fan blowing out window) & reduces spread. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Richard Corsi, PhD, PE (Texas) (@CorsIAQ) August 28, 2024<\/p>\n

All the layers must be advocated for, and the general principle explained.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/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 27:<\/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) Again, an uptick, but the state as a whole is still down. Makes me wonder if there\u2019s something happending at New York airports. 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

Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Initial Jobless Claims\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US fell by 2,000 from the previous week to 231,000 on the period ending August 24th, in line with market expectations of 232,000. Despite this decrease, the figure remained well above the averages seen earlier this year, reinforcing the ongoing trend of a softening labor market, as highlighted by the July jobs report and the significant downward revision to nonfarm payrolls for the year ending in March.\u201d<\/p>\n

GDP: \u201cUnited States GDP Growth Rate\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cReal gross domestic product (GDP) in the US grew at an annual rate of 3.0% in the second quarter of 2024, up from 2.8% in the initial estimate and 1.4% in the first quarter. The upward revision was mainly due to increased consumer spending (2.9% vs 2.3% earlier reported).\u201d<\/p>\n

Profits: \u201cUnited States Corporate Profits\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cCorporate profits in the US rose by 1.7% from the previous period to $2,774 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, rebounding from the 2.7% decline in the earlier quarter, according to a preliminary estimate. The rebound was led by the bounce in undistributed profits (5.6% vs -11.6% in Q1) amid the recovery for net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment (3.3% vs -2.9%).\u201d \u2022 Whatever that means.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Tech: \u201cJudges Rule Big Tech\u2019s Free Ride on Section 230 Is Over\u201d [Matt Stoller, BIG]. The deck: \u201cAlgorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.\u201d \u2022 Big if true.<\/p>\n

Tech: \u201cI spent an evening on a fictitious web\u201d [Paul Kinlan]. Read the bio first: \u201cI lead the Chrome Developer Relations team at Google.\u201d Now read the post and imagine what to means for humans who actually create the content harvested by AI thieves.<\/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

I don\u2019t know:<\/p>\n

Apple tree by Klimt pic.twitter.com\/sCfpWPkdIw<\/p>\n

\u2014 Impressions (@impression_ists) August 29, 2024<\/p>\n

I suppose might view the tree as having been flattened onto the canvas, rather like a Mercator projection, but I think apple trees should be round (so call me a Philistine).<\/p>\n

News of the Wired<\/p>\n

I am not 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 AM:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AM writes: \u201cHydrangeas in full force.\u201d<\/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