{"id":9034,"date":"2025-07-04T18:04:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=9034"},"modified":"2025-07-04T18:04:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:04:47","slug":"200pm-water-cooler-10-2-2024-naked-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uang69.id\/?p=9034","title":{"rendered":"2:00PM Water Cooler 10\/2\/2024 | naked capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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

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

Return to the mimidae!<\/p>\n

Blue Mockingbird, Yecora, Km 262, Sonora, Mexico.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

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

Vance-Walz debate.
\nBoeing and Longshoremen strikes..
\nEffects of Helene on North Carolina election.<\/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

Trump Assassination Attempts (Plural)<\/p>\n

2024<\/p>\n

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

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

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This week\u2019s crop of flag-of-convenience Democrat celebrities and generals didn\u2019t turn the tide either. Despite the micturition and lamentation (very much including my own) about the Trump campaign dogging it when the election is theirs to win (see Gallup, \u201c2024 Election Environment Favorable to GOP\u201d on the issues) do note the steady deterioration in Kamala\u2019s position in the (aggregated) top battlegrounds. (Of course, we on the outside might as well be examining the entrails of birds when we try to predict what will happen to a subset of voters (undecided; irregular) in a subset of states (swing), and the irregulars especially might as well be quantum foam, but presumably the campaign professionals have better data, and have the situation as under control as it can be MR SUBLIMINAL Fooled ya. Kidding!.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Vance-Walz debate:<\/p>\n

\u201cRead the full VP debate transcript from the Walz-Vance showdown\u201d [CBS]. \u2022 Here it is, for those who want to check \u201cDid he really say that?!\u201d I will have much more on this topic shortly; suffice to say that NC commenters did a terrific job last night.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Trump (R): On abortion, in ALL CAPS:<\/p>\n

EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2024<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

NC: \u201cVoters Affected by Helene\u201d [North Carolina State Board of Elections (SlayTheSmaugs)]. \u201cTotal registered voters (25 disaster counties [i.e. WNC]): 1,275,054. Republican Party: 480,097; Democratic Party: 292,836.\u201d \u2022 And the Democrats will be concentrated disprotionately in Asheville, which, all other things being equal, will recover first. See NC on Helene in NC here.<\/p>\n

Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n

\u201cWho Are the \u2018Undecided\u2019?\u201d [Rick Perlstein, The American Prospect]. The deck: \u201cIt may not be about issues, but whether voters surrender to Trump\u2019s invitation to return to the womb.\u201d Has whoever wrote this deck lost their mind? Could we at least try to moderate the psychologizing slightly? More: \u201cIf the authoritarians in control of the Republican Party achieve enough power, they will start methodically knocking off liberal institutions, including politically independent journalism.\u201d \u2022 Politically independent journalism sounds like something the Censorship Industrial Complex should be doing something about. If it\u2019s not, is such journalism all that independent?<\/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 (wastewater); 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, KidDoc, 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

Maskstravaganza<\/p>\n

\u201cLouisville mayor says city will bring back mask ban after recent shooting\u201d [The Center Square]. \u201cLouisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told reporters the city will begin to re-enforce a more than 40-year-old ordinance that bans the wearing of masks in public places. The move, which Greenberg revealed during his weekly press briefing, comes just days after a shooting that took place outside a high school football game. The alleged perpetrators were wearing surgical masks in the incident Sunday evening that injured two teenagers, one critically, at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in the southwestern part of the city. Greenberg said the decision to bring back enforcing the ban passed in 1983 happened after he spoke with Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Paul Humphrey regarding steps the city could take while it continues to seek additional help from Frankfort and Washington regarding gun violence. The mask ban had been suspended after the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mask ban debated in St Louis:<\/p>\n

Fight STL’s mask ban. STL’s Board Bill 2 criminalizes wearing a medical mask, hood, or facial covering in public to conceal your identity or while breaking another law. Get involved: pic.twitter.com\/oaQBisMMPW<\/p>\n

\u2014 MaskBlocStLouis (@MaskBlocStLouis) October 1, 2024<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

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

Lambert here: At last, the wastewater data looks improved. Apparenltly, we dodged a \u201cBack to School\u201d bullet, at least at the national level. The wastewater drop is reinforced by the positivity numbers as well.<\/p>\n

Wastewater<\/p>\n

This week[1] CDC September 23<\/p>\n

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

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Variants [3] CDC September 28<\/p>\n

Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC September 21<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hospitalization<\/p>\n

\u2605 New York[5] New York State, data October 1:<\/p>\n

National [6] CDC September 7:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Positivity<\/p>\n

National[7] Walgreens September 30:<\/p>\n

\u2605 Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic September 26:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Travelers Data<\/p>\n

Positivity[9] CDC September 9:
\nVariants[10] CDC September 9:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Deaths<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC September 21:<\/p>\n

Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC September 21:<\/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. Much less intense!<\/p>\n

[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XEC has entered the chat.<\/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) Definitely down.<\/p>\n

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). <\/p>\n

[7] (Walgreens) Big drop continues!<\/p>\n

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

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up, though lagged.<\/p>\n

[10] (Travelers: Variants).<\/p>\n

[11] Deaths low, positivity down.<\/p>\n

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

Stats Watch<\/p>\n

Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States ADP Employment Change\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cPrivate businesses in the US added 143K workers to their payrolls in September 2024, the most in three months, following an upwardly revised 103K in August and well above forecasts of 120K. Job creation showed a widespread rebound after a five-month slowdown, with manufacturing adding jobs for the first time since April.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retail: \u201cUnited States Total Vehicle Sales\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cTotal Vehicle Sales in the United States increased to 15.80 Million in September from 15.10 Million in August of 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Supply Chain: \u201cDockworkers may have the negotiating advantage in their strike against US ports\u201d [Associated Press]. \u201cThe 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation\u2026 Organized labor enjoys rising public support and has had a string of recent victories in other industries, in addition to the backing of the pro-union administration of President Joe Biden. The dockworkers\u2019 negotiating stand is likely further strengthened by the nation\u2019s supply chain of goods being under pressure in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which has coincided with the peak shipping season for holiday goods. The union is also pointing to shipping companies\u2019 record profits, which have come in part because of shortages resulting from the pandemic, and to a more generous contract that West Coast dockworkers achieved last year. The longshoremen\u2019s workloads also have increased, and the effects of inflation have eroded their pay in recent years. In addition, commerce into and out of the United States has been growing, playing to the union\u2019s advantage. Further enhancing its leverage is a still-tight job market, with workers in some industries demanding, and in some cases receiving, a larger share of companies\u2019 outsize profits.\u201d \u2022 Handy chart:<\/p>\n

Which companies are hit hardest by the American port strike? pic.twitter.com\/1qsRa3ruMe<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sam Chambers (@SamChambers) October 2, 2024<\/p>\n

Supply Chain: \u201cUS port workers union backed by White House in strike\u201d [Reuters]. \u201cOn Tuesday, President Joe Biden\u2019s administration put pressure on U.S. port employers to raise their offer to secure a deal with dockworkers. Administration officials led by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su have been urging both sides to return to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

Economists have said the strike will not initially raise consumer prices as companies accelerated shipments in recent months for key goods. However, a prolonged stoppage will eventually filter through, with food prices likely to react first, according to Morgan Stanley economists\u2026. Morgan Stanley economists said in a late Tuesday note that the strike could hit growth and raise inflation \u201cbut only if it is long-lasting,\u201d noting that the implication for transport should be limited unless the strike lingers. The strike, the ILA\u2019s first major stoppage since 1977, affects 36 ports \u2013 including New York, Baltimore and Houston \u2013 that handle a range of containerized goods ranging from bananas to clothing to cars. The walkout could cost the American economy roughly $5 billion a day, JP Morgan analysts estimate.\u201d \u2022 Administration statement:<\/p>\n

New statement from @ActSecJulieSu places the blame for the ILA strike squarely on the shipping company CEOs. <\/p>\n

Negotiations \u201cmust begin with these giant shipping magnates acknowledging that if they can make record profits, their workers should share in that economic success.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/QBUbfVQxDg<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) October 1, 2024<\/p>\n

Supply Chain: \u201cAt issue in the longshoremen\u2019s strike: How much automation is appropriate at ports?\u201d [MarketWatch]. \u201cDockworkers want language in their next contract that protects them from the robots and software and now AI that threaten to do a lot of their jobs, from moving and stacking containers to checking in the trucks that take those containers away\u2026. ome ports on the Eastern Seaboard are what\u2019s known in the shipping industry as semi-automated. \u2018That means that a longshore worker will still move the container from the ship to the backland, the storage area,\u2019 explained Geraldine Knatz, the former director of the Port of Los Angeles. \u2018This is one sector where we are woefully inefficient, we\u2019ve resisted essentially as many efforts at automation as possible in comparison to our peers in China or in Europe,\u2019 said Jason Miller, a supply chain professor at Michigan State. Miller says the U.S. consumer bears the cost of that inefficiency in the form of higher import prices. Port operators have typically tried to reassure longshoremen that they can be reassigned to a different role once the robots arrive, says Jim Kruse at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDockworkers strike could compound supply-chain problems for Boeing and Airbus\u201d [Business Insider]. \u201cPorts on the East and Gulf Coasts have been shut down as 45,000 workers represented by the International Longshoremen\u2019s Association went on strike Tuesday\u2026. Boeing also has a plant in Charleston, South Carolina for the 787 Dreamliner. Most parts are sent by air, but some arrive by sea, aerospace outlet Leeham News reported\u2026. If dockworkers remain on strike for some time, Airbus could also face disruption as it has a plant in Mobile, Alabama. The factory is the final assembly line for some North American customers\u2019 A319, A320, A321, and A220 jets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manufacturing: \u201c33,000 Boeing workers lose health care coverage\u201d [Freight Waves]. \u201cBoeing has cut health care coverage for 33,000 of its workers and their families as machinists union strikes continue to halt production in the Pacific Northwest\u2026. \u2018Boeing executives cannot make up their minds,\u2019 said IAM International President Brian Bryant in the release. \u2018One day they say they want to win back the trust of their workforce. The next moment, on the heels of many recent missteps by their labor relations team, Boeing executives are now tripping over dollars to get pennies by cutting a benefit that is essential to the lives of children and families, but is nothing compared to the cost of the larger problems Boeing executives have created for their workforce and for the company itself over the last ten years. Their missteps are costing not just the workers but our nation.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Manufacturing: \u201cBoeing 737 deliveries \u2018held steady\u2019 in September despite strike concerns \u2013 BofA\u201d [Investing]. \u201cBoeing\u2019s (NYSE:BA) deliveries of its 737 jets \u201cheld firm\u201d in September thanks in part to measures taken by the aerospace giant to offset the impact of an ongoing strike by workers in the US Pacific Northwest, according to analysts at Bank of America. Boeing delivered around 28 of the planes during the month, down slightly from 32 units in August, the BofA analysts said, citing data from aviation analytics group Cirlum. Calling the total \u2018solid,\u2019 the analysts noted that 70% of the monthly deliveries were carried out prior to the onset of the work stoppage. Third-quarter deliveries also remained \u2018strong,\u2019 with approximately 92 of Boeing\u2019s popular 737s delivered during the period, up from 70 in the second and third quarters, the data showed. However, when compared to the corresponding timeframes in 2023 and 2022, 737 deliveries are down 20% and 17%, respectively, the BofA analysts said. They flagged that the company\u2019s delivery performance going forward \u2018will largely depend\u2019 on the duration of the strike, which is now in its third week.\u201d \u2022 Indeed!<\/p>\n

Tech: \u201cBots, so many Bots\u201d [WakaTime]. \u201cProductHunt has over 1 million user signups. More than 60% of those are bots\u2026. Is launching on ProductHunt worth it? Even though most comments and upvotes are bots, there\u2019s probably still some real humans using ProductHunt\u2026 maybe. If you pay the bots and get featured in the newsletter, my guess is more real humans will see your product\u2026. Overall, in my opinion it\u2019s still worth launching on ProductHunt however I wouldn\u2019t spend more than a few minutes preparing the launch and definitely don\u2019t waste time replying to comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 68 Greed (previous close: 75 Extreme Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 66 (Hreed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Oct 1 at 1:46:30 PM ET.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Don\u2019t Deserve Dogs\u201d<\/p>\n

I would hate for this feel-good story to be false:<\/p>\n

8 y\/o daughter lost her hearing. Had to learn to sign. Struggled at first as none of her friends knew how to talk to her. One day I noticed our Labrador run to the treat cupboard after she signed “treat?” to her. In the absence of friends our dog had learned sign language for her<\/p>\n

\u2014 Fesshole (@fesshole) October 1, 2024<\/p>\n

Have any readers had similar experiences?<\/p>\n

Gallery<\/p>\n

The framing and cropping reminds me of the way Manet\u2019s race track paintings:<\/p>\n

The Dog, 1819 pic.twitter.com\/e0ao98Z4pD<\/p>\n

\u2014 Francisco Goya (@artistgoya) October 2, 2024<\/p>\n

Photographic avant la lettre, in 1819.<\/p>\n

Does anyone know if Monet really got the train schedules changed so he would have better light?<\/p>\n

Monet was famous for landscapes, light, and color.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, he obsessed over black smoke and a dull station. <\/p>\n

No one understood. <\/p>\n

The authorities didn\u2019t understand either: Monet asked to change the train schedule to “play” with smoke and light.<\/p>\n

The result changed everything.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Wp0nVPN23H<\/p>\n

\u2014 Impressions (@impression_ists) October 1, 2024<\/p>\n

Healthcare<\/p>\n

\u201cEpic Systems, a lethal health record monopolist\u201d [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. Note \u201c#thanks-obama\u201d in the URL. \u201cEpic Systems makes the dominant electronic health record (EHR) system in America; if you\u2019re a doctor, chances are you are required to use it, and for every hour a doctor spends with a patient, they have to spend two hours doing clinically useless bureaucratic data-entry on an Epic EHR. How could a product so manifestly unfit for purpose be the absolute market leader? Simple: as Robert Kuttner describes in an excellent feature in The American Prospect, Epic may be a clinical disaster, but it\u2019s a profit-generating miracle: At the core of Epic\u2019s value proposition is \u2018upcoding,\u2019 a form of billing fraud that is beloved of hospital administrators, including the \u2018nonprofit\u2019 hospitals that generate vast fortunes that are somehow not characterized as profits.\u201d \u2022 On upcoding, see NC in March and April 2017.<\/p>\n

Book Nook<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elite College Students Who Can\u2019t Read Books\u201d [The Atlantic]. \u201cNicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University\u2019s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they\u2019re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames\u2019s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college\u2014even at highly selective, elite colleges\u2014prepared to read books. This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover. \u2018My jaw dropped,\u2019 Dames told me. The anecdote helped explain the change he was seeing in his students: It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t want to do the reading. It\u2019s that they don\u2019t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.\u201d \u2022 Can readers confirm this isn\u2019t just The Atlantic fomenting a moral panic?<\/p>\n

\u201cMath from Three to Seven, by Alexander Zvonkin\u201d [Mr. and Mrs. Psmith\u2019s Bookshelf]. \u201cToday, those same Russians are all over Wall Street and Silicon Valley and Ivy League math departments, still overrepresented in technical fields. What explains it? Are Russians just naturally better at math and physics?\u2026. in the interviews I\u2019ve read with Soviet mathematicians and scientists, the things that comes up over and over again are \u201cmathematical circles,\u201d a practice that originated in the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and then spread far and wide through the Soviet Union. A mathematical circle is an informal group of teenagers and adults who really enjoy math and want to spend a lot of time thinking and talking about it. They\u2019re a little bit like sports teams, in that they develop their own high-intensity internal culture and camaraderie, and often have a \u201ccoach\u201d who is especially talented or famous. But they\u2019re also very unlike sports teams, because they don\u2019t compete with each other or play in leagues or anything like that, and usually any given circle will contain members of widely varying skill levels. Maybe a better analogy is a neighborhood musical ensemble that gets together and jams on a regular basis, but for math. The most important thing to understand about mathematical circles is that the math they jam on is completely unlike the math you study in school, and also completely unlike the \u201ccompetition\u201d math that bright kids in the United States sometimes do. The bread and butter of the mathematical circle is solving problems together, as a team. There is no time here for exercises; you can do that lame stuff at school. Sometimes the coach picks a problem for you, something just beyond your ability, just the thing you need to hone your edge. But sometimes the whole circle works together on a problem that nobody has the answer to and that challenges the very best members. These problems are the most important, because with them you see great minds, men older and more talented than you, stretched to the breaking point and occasionally beaten.\u201d \u2022 Sounds like D&D!<\/p>\n

Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n

Indeed:<\/p>\n

I miss when this was our biggest crisis pic.twitter.com\/OcPlcTFDLR<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) October 1, 2024<\/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 TH:<\/p>\n

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TH writes: \u201cWhen I entered \u201cmeaning of a white rose\u201d in the Chrome search engine, and got a blog ( ) one of the entries was: <\/p>\n

The color white in roses signifies innocence, humility, and fresh starts, making them a fitting choice to promote peace in political affairs. The white rose significance in such situations is powerful and universal.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Those aren\u2019t words I expect to find side by side these days \u2014 Peace in politics? Oxymoron? One can always hope. \ud83d\ude0a\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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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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n