{"id":7986,"date":"2025-07-07T23:06:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T23:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7986"},"modified":"2025-07-07T23:06:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T23:06:06","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-9-5-2024-naked-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=7986","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 9\/5\/2024 | naked capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Readers, I have a post to finish, but today was eventful, and so I\u2019m going to put up some items here, finish my post, and then return here and do some backfilling. Hopefully there\u2019s enough here to get you going. If not, talk amongst yourselves! \u2013lambert<\/p>\n

Gray Catbird, Shindagin Hollow SF\u2013Bald Hill School Rd., Tompkins, New York, United States. Four minutes of catbird!<\/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

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Less than one hundred days to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n

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The good news for Trump is that Kamala\u2019s post-convention \u201cbounce\u201d seems to have been slight. The good news for Kamala is Trump\u2019s continued deterioration in North Carolina, plus taking a slight lead in Pennsylvania. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations \u2014 in fact, all the leads, top to bottom \u2014 are within the margin of error. <\/p>\n

\u201cHistorian who accurately predicted 9 of last 10 presidential elections makes his 2024 pick\u201d [USA Today]. \u201cAllan Lichtman, the historian who correctly predicted the outcome of nine out of the ten most recent presidential elections, has made his guess on who will reclaim the White House this year. Spoiler alert: it\u2019s Vice President Kamala Harris. Lichtman said in a video, [clickbait] first reported by The New York Times, that he based his prediction on thirteen keys or \u2018big picture true false questions that tap into the strength and performance of the White House Party.’\u201d \u2022 See here for Lichtman\u2019s prediction system, which goes all the way back to 1860. Here is the chart for this year:<\/p>\n

Allan Lichtman Officially Predicts That Kamala Harris Will Win the Election! pic.twitter.com\/NngkRXCzTV<\/p>\n

\u2014 13 Keys Tracker (@13_keys_tracker) September 5, 2024<\/p>\n

More: \u201c\u2018Foreign policy is tricky, and these keys could flip,\u2019 he said in the video. \u2018The Biden administration is deeply invested in the war in Gaza, which is a humanitarian disaster with no end in sight. But even if both foreign policy keys flipped false, that would mean that there were only five negative keys, which would not be enough for Donald Trump to regain the White House.’\u201d \u2022 One wonders whether debacles in both Gaza and Ukraine would affect the results of Lichtman\u2019s prediction sustem. Dunno about an incumbent seeking re-election. Isn\u2019t that false?<\/p>\n

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The Debate (September 10)<\/p>\n

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Trump (R): \u201cTwo RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests\u201d (press release) [Office of Public Affairs, Department of Justice]. Aren\u2019t we paying the Censorship Industrial Complex a lot of money to prevent this sort of thing? Anyhow: \u201cThe Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,\u2019 said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. \u2018The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country\u2019s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.\u2019 \u2018Our approach to combating foreign malign influence is actor-driven, exposing the hidden hand of adversaries pulling strings of influence from behind the curtain,\u2019 said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. \u2018As alleged in today\u2019s indictment, Russian state broadcaster RT and its employees, including the charged defendants, co-opted online commentators by funneling them nearly $10 million to pump pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation across social media to U.S. audiences. The Department will not tolerate foreign efforts to illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division.\u2019 \u2018Covert attempts to sow division and trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda represents attacks on our democracy,\u2019 said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.\u201d \u2022 The rhetoric seems a little over-heated (helpfully underlined); can they possibly believe that they\u2019re saying? Anyhow, it\u2019s good to have the sources of \u201cdivision\u201d identified at last. And now do Israel and The Lobby.<\/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

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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

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Airborne Transmission<\/p>\n

\u201cIndoor air monitoring goes to school\u201d [Chemical and Engineering News]. How it started: \u201c[I]t wasn\u2019t until the day after the US ended its COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023 [ha ha] that the CDC provided a precise ventilation target of five air changes per hour in any occupied space. For schools to meet this target, the air in every classroom would need to be completely refreshed every 12 min. In Denver, Hernandez says, \u2018none of these schools could do that.’\u201d How it\u2019s going: \u201cIn Colorado and Boston, collaborations between scientists and school districts that helped get students safely back to school at the height of the pandemic have continued and expanded. The indoor air monitoring programs that begun during the pandemic are now ensuring that kids headed back this fall are breathing clean air in homeroom.\u201d Two cities\u2026 And: \u201cWith hundreds of schools now actively monitoring indoor air quality, it is perhaps surprising that it took a global pandemic to get air sensors into classrooms. The onus of monitoring and regulating the air pollutants inside buildings has always fallen to building managers. The US Environmental Protection Agency \u2018doesn\u2019t have broad responsibility for monitoring indoor air or ensuring its quality in the same way we are authorized for ambient air,\u2019 says Vito Ilacqua, acting director of the agency\u2019s Center for Scientific Analysis. In other words, there is no Clean Air Act for indoor spaces.\u201d \u2022 Sigh.<\/p>\n

Elite Maleficence<\/p>\n

Cute!<\/p>\n

Good morning!#CDCKills pic.twitter.com\/NzdzPmbEOT<\/p>\n

\u2014 \ud83d\udc00 (@Guiness_Pig) September 3, 2024<\/p>\n

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

Wastewater<\/p>\n

This week[1] CDC August 26:<\/p>\n

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

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Variants [3] CDC August 31<\/p>\n

Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 24 <\/p>\n

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Hospitalization<\/p>\n

New York[5] New York State, data August 30:<\/p>\n

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

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Positivity<\/p>\n

National[7] Walgreens September 3:<\/p>\n

Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 24:<\/p>\n

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Travelers Data<\/p>\n

Positivity[9] CDC August 12:
\n Variants[10] CDC August 12:<\/p>\n

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Deaths<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 24:<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 24:<\/p>\n

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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] (ED) Down, but worth noting that Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Flat, that is, no longer down.<\/p>\n

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n

[7] (Walgreens) Big drop, but all those white states showing no change: Labor Day weekend reporting issues?<\/p>\n

[8] (Cleveland) Dropping.<\/p>\n

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down. 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) What the heck is LB.1?<\/p>\n

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up. If the United States is like Canada, deaths are several undercounted:<\/p>\n

Tara Motarity has confirmed our fears.Most provinces are only reporting about 20% of covid deaths.Maybe even less.Which suggests the deaths are close to 5 times to 6+ times the reported figures.Nova Scotia has reported 270 so far this year. It’s actually 1,325-1,700 so far. pic.twitter.com\/6xF6SREyKB<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dr.Robert Strang (@DSlayer520) September 2, 2024<\/p>\n

[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n

Stats Watch<\/p>\n

Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Challenger Job Cuts\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cUS employers announced 75,891 job cuts in August 2024, the most in five months, and the most for the month since 2009 when excluding the pandemic-induced crash in 2020. The result was in line with other key releases in reflecting the softening of the US labor market, strengthening the rhetoric for doves in the FOMC. Among different sectors, tech companies announced the most cuts\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Initial Jobless Claims\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US dropped by 5,000 from the previous week to 227,000 on the period ending August 31st, below market expectations of 230,000, and reaching a new 7-week low.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States ADP Employment Change\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cPrivate businesses in the US added 99K workers to their payrolls in August 2024, the lowest number since January 2021, following a downwardly revised 111K in July and well below forecasts of 145K. Figures showed the labor market continued to cool for the fifth straight month while wage growth was stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tech: \u201cIntel\u2019s Money Woes Throw Biden Team\u2019s Chip Strategy Into Turmoil\u201d [Bloomberg]. \u201cThe Biden-Harris administration\u2019s big bet on Intel Corp. to lead a US chipmaking renaissance is in grave trouble as a result of the company\u2019s mounting financial struggles, creating a potentially damaging setback for the country\u2019s most ambitious industrial policy in decades. Five months after the president traveled to Arizona to unveil a potential $20 billion package of incentives alongside Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger, there are growing questions around when \u2014 or if \u2014 Intel will get its hands on that money. Intel\u2019s woes also may jeopardize the government\u2019s ability to reach its policy goals, which include establishing a secure supply of cutting-edge chips for the Pentagon and making a fifth of the world\u2019s advanced processors by 2030. Intel is mired in a sales slump worse than anticipated and hemorrhaging cash, forcing its board to consider increasingly drastic actions \u2014 including possibly splitting off its manufacturing division or paring back global factory plans, Bloomberg reported last week. That threatens to further complicate its quest for government funding, at a time when Intel desperately needs the help. The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones \u2014 and after significant due diligence. That process, which applies to all Chips Act winners, has been clear from the outset, and aims to ensure that companies only get taxpayer dollars once they\u2019ve actually delivered on their promises. Intel, like other potential recipients, hasn\u2019t received any money yet. In ongoing negotiations, Intel has grown frustrated with what it sees as the government dragging its feet and has urged officials to release funding faster\u2026.\u201d \u2022 Who\u2019s running Intel? Zelensky?<\/p>\n

Real Estate: \u201cCreative destruction rips through US commercial property\u201d [Financial Times]. \u201cThe financial train wreck laying waste to parts of the market for big office buildings in some of America\u2019s largest cities is showing no signs of abating, even as the US economy as a whole continues to be chugging along just fine. The questions remain as to why this is happening and whether the bottom has been reached. The detritus is strewn everywhere\u2026. Part of the problem for owners of these buildings, and their lenders, is the fundamental change in the nature of work, post-pandemic. Between high-speed internet access, video calls and working-from-home privileges, people aren\u2019t going to an office to work as often as before \u2014 although that partly depends on the city, with Miami and New York City having much higher levels of employees back in the office compared with San Francisco and Los Angeles. Less office space is now needed. \u2018The vacancy rates are the highest I\u2019ve ever seen,\u2019 Flexner said. It does seem bleak, and there are genuine negative knock-on effects for restaurants, retail stores and other businesses that depend on the foot traffic and commerce generated by a bustling office complex\u2026. As for these struggling commercial office towers, Schumpeter\u2019s logic is likely to prove true. [Tom Flexner, a former vice-chair at Citigroup] said many of these buildings would be razed, taken down to the raw land, at great cost, and then would rise again as residential properties or new commercial properties designed to meet the demands of the evolving office culture. Until then, the bloodbath will continue and the pain will be considerable for both equity and debtholders.\u201d <\/p>\n

Real Estate: \u201cFrenzy over Venezuelan gang in Aurora reaches crescendo, fueled by conflicting information and politics\u201d [Denver Post]. \u201cThe mayor\u2019s claim of a gang takeover is disputed by other city officials, who say the longstanding disarray and poor conditions at the apartment buildings were the fault of poor oversight by CBZ Management \u2014 not because of criminal acts by Tren de Aragua members. \u2018There\u2019s this hysteria that we apparently have a gang problem, but what we have is a slumlord problem in the city of Aurora,\u2019 City Councilwoman Alison Coombs said.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 47 Neutral (previous close: 52 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 60 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Sep 5 at 1:10:04 PM ET.<\/p>\n

Book Nook<\/p>\n

\u201cJust say it, Henry\u201d [London Review of Books]. The prefaces of Henry James. \u201cPeople who are impatient with the late James may think his view of human reality is over-refined and unreal. It isn\u2019t. It is a version of the world in which we live\u2026 [W]e occupy a delicate weave of emotions and beliefs that half beguiles us into thinking of ourselves as its centre, until something is seen or something happens which tells us, irrefutably, that we are not. We live in a state of bewilderment, even though we do not want to acknowledge it, and indeed may not always know it. James\u2019s late style evolved along with this multiplex vision of human reality, and it is not so much a vehicle for that vision as its enabling condition. That fusion of style and content was a great event in the literary history of the early 20th century\u2026. The best moments in the prefaces are not just about the fiction but share with the later fiction a fascination with the dirty things that they are trying not to talk about, or from which they may even be flinching or recoiling.\u201d \u2022 Hence the inverted commas, the adverbs, the endless circumlocutions\u2026. <\/p>\n

Class Warfare<\/p>\n

\u201cUltra-Rich Families Set to Control $9.5 Trillion by 2030, Deloitte Says\u201d [Bloomberg] \u201cThe wealth of ultra-rich families will likely swell to $9.5 trillion by 2030, according to estimates from consultancy Deloitte, as family offices grow and morph to rival hedge funds. The figure would mark a 73% jump from the current $5.5 trillion controlled by people represented by family offices, according to the report. The number of investment firms for the wealthy is expected to grow by one-third over the same time period, to 10,720. As wealth inequality concentrates more money in the hands of the very rich, and as it becomes easier to open a family office, the industry is catching up with hedge funds in size and \u2014 in some cases \u2014 hiring from a similar pool of professional investors.\u201d \u2022 Trees grow to the sky?<\/p>\n

News of the Wired<\/p>\n

I have yet to become wired today.<\/p>\n

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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 MarkT:<\/p>\n

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MarkT writes: \u201cAnother winter walkd among the giant tree ferns in Akatarawa Forest Park, Wellington, New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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