By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Richard W. DeKorte Park, Bergen, New Jersey, United States. “I love how it’s ‘song’ includes sirens. The reason why became obvious as I listened to sirens coming from the Turnpike.”
In Case You Might Miss…
- Gaetz: Exit, stage right.
- Ortberg: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
- How the Democrats abandoned the working class.
Politics
“So many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
Trump Transition
“Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s pick for attorney general, averting confirmation battle in the Senate” [Associated Press]. “The Florida Republican’s announcement came one day after meeting with senators in an effort to win their support for his confirmation to lead the Justice Department. ‘While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,’ Gaetz said in a statement announcing his decision. ‘There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.’ Trump, in a social media post, said: ‘I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!’” • Gracefully done — probably those Venmo transactions* did it — but I hate this play in the Democrat Playbook so much because it’s one more way for the Democrat Party — which has a (white) (male) workplace abuser as an honored and much-loved party elder — to avoid talking about policy (i.e. universal concrete material benefits (i.e. the working class)). And of course the moral preening is offensive. On the bright side, it looks like we won’t have a populist anti-truster at Justice (unless Trump does the unexpected). NOTE * One of the many advantages of our cash-free future!
“Republicans Must Defend Matt Gaetz To End The Use Of Salacious Lies As A Political Weapon” [The Federalist]. “The claims against Gaetz are but another information operation, however, mirroring the ones that previously targeted Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh. And this pattern will continue unabated unless Americans unflinchingly condemn the tactic — no matter the target. We should have learned this lesson from Donald Trump’s first presidential run and time in office. From Crossfire Hurricane, to the pee-tape dossier, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, unsupported and unbelievable accusations leaked to the public hampered Trump’s ability to advance his agenda. Time and again the charges proved unfounded, and yet in advance of the 2024 election, the lawfare continued. The country, however, had wised up by then and recognized the various criminal and civil charges leveled against Trump for what they were: an effort to interfere in the election. Why then is anyone giving credence to the accusations against Gaetz, especially given the FBI — after thoroughly investigating the matter for two years — decided not to charge Gaetz?” • Strange bedfellows, Lambert and The Federalist, though here we are. (My position, however, is that even salacious truths should be deweaponized (adult to adult, consensual being the standard. I’m sure Roger Stone would agree with me….).
“4 Trump administration picks have sexual misconduct allegations in their past” [CBS]. “Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk are all in line to serve as top government leaders. All have faced varying degrees of sexual misconduct allegations. The president’s picks to carry out his agenda reflect an incoming administration hostile to the norms of the ‘Me Too’ movement.” Ah yes. #MeToo. Remember Time’s Up? Good times. Anyhow: “Behavior that might have gotten a person fired or canceled (or not nominated to a cabinet position) over the last several years, appears to be less problematic in the Trump 2.0 era. Machismo was often a centerpiece of Trump’s appeal to voters during the 2024 campaign. He regularly spoke about toughness — whether that trait applied to his immigration policy, combating illicit drug trade or surviving two assassination attempts. Wrestler Hulk Hogan delivered a primetime speech at the Republican National Convention, ripping off his shirt while lavishing praise on the nominee. And Trump also spent time on right-leaning podcasts with largely male audiences. His entreaties to male culture paid off in November.” • “Male culture.” Huh? Is that a thing now?
* * * “Trump taps Russ Vought, one of the authors of Project 2025, to lead budget office again” [CBS]. “President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, according to two sources close to the transition. If confirmed, this will be Vought’s second time in the role. He served as OMB director during Trump’s first term, too. Earlier in the Trump administration, Vought was deputy OMB director and acting director. Before he joined the first Trump White House Vought was vice president of Heritage Action for America, which leads a grassroots effort to implement conservative policies across the U.S. It produces a conservative scorecard that grades members of Congress on their votes on conservative bills. Vought wrote a chapter of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint — his chapter covers the ‘Executive Office of the President.’ The OMB director’s office develops the president’s proposed budget, and it’s responsible for executing the president’s agenda across the federal government.”
* * * “Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government” [Wall Street Journal]. “Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections. This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision. It imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers. Thankfully, we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem.” Highlights from MSN: “
Realignment and Legitimacy
“The Democrats’ Long Goodbye to the Working Class” [Michael Baharaeen, The Liberal Patriot]. Worth reading in full, but here are some highlights: “[B]y the 1990s, the country was growing more diverse and better educated. Bill Clinton was a beneficiary of this new reality, as he made sweeping gains with women, young people, voters of color (especially Hispanics), and college-educated voters. Importantly, he also retained significant support from white Americans and lower-educated voters, who made up the vast majority of the electorate. As Clinton rode this coalition to victory twice—marking the first time since FDR that a Democrat had won two full terms as president—some political observers, including my colleague, Ruy Teixeira, saw the emergence of a new majority, one that could consistently win elections using the formula Clinton had used…. Obama’s two wins confirmed for many Democrats and Republicans the validity of the ’emerging Democratic majority’ thesis. Gone were the days when Democrats needed to win a majority of white voters, a feat they had found nearly impossible to achieve since the 1960s. Now, the party that represented America’s demographic future stood to lead it as well.” But: “The Obama coalition is not a coalition, but rather a moment,” Is “The Obama Coalition” Even a Thing? Was It Ever? (2016). And indeed: “But no sooner had that consensus come into focus than Donald Trump arrived on the scene. Trump disrupted the Democrats’ plans for building a dominant coalition and, in the process, helped precipitate a dramatic realignment between the two parties—one rooted in economic and social class. This change has tipped the demographic advantage in favor of Republicans and left Democrats at very real risk of losing many of the voters who not long ago were expected to deliver them an enduring majority.” And here we are: “. Harris retained higher levels of support among college-educated voters, winning them by 14 points. But perhaps just as telling: she carried high-income earners (those earning at least $100,000) by seven points—by far the largest margin for a Democratic nominee in the modern era. On the other side, Trump became the first Republican nominee on record to win low-income voters, narrowly carrying them by three points. He also continued growing his advantage with non-college voters, winning them by 13 points—the largest margin for the GOP since at least 1988. And his 44 percent support from union households marked the greatest share for a Republican since Ronald Reagan. Looking at this picture, it’s hard not to see that the Democrats are becoming the very thing they have long fought against: the party of the elites. This stands in sharp contrast to their longtime image as the champions of the working class.” • Not “are becoming,” “have become,” especially if you substitute “PMC” for “elites,” which, after all, could include billionaires. And the Democrats certainly didn’t “fight” very hard! In fact, you could argue that the transformation was fully in place by 2008, given Obama’s disparate response in the financial crisis to the banksters and the working class, even if the PMC only achieved class consciousness in 2016-2020.
Syndemics
“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).
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 “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!
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’Alene; 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).
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
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).
Stay safe out there!
Elite Maleficence
“Grief can be ‘really overwhelming’ for teenagers and young people” [BBC]. • As of April 2024, there were 230,000 deaths from Covid in the UK. I was 100% certain Covid wouldn’t be mentioned in this article, and sure enough, it wasn’t.
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC November 11 | Last Week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC November 9 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 9 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data November 20: | National [6] CDC November 14: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens November 18: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 16: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC October 28: | Variants[10] CDC October 28: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 2: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 2: |
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LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) Good news!
[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* still popular. XEC has entered the chat. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.
[4] (ED) Down.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Steadily down.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Actually improved; it’s now one of the few charts to show the entire course of the pandemic to the present day.
[7] (Walgreens) Down.
[8] (Cleveland) Down.
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Down.
[10] (Travelers: Variants). Now XEC.
[11] Deaths low, positivity down.
[12] Deaths low, ED down.
Stats Watch
There are no official statistics of interest today.
Manufacturing: “Boeing CEO to Employees: We Can’t Afford Another Mistake” [Wall Street Journal]. “The company, Ortberg said, is burning through billions of dollars and can’t tap investors for another rescue. The company recently sold $24 billion worth of new shares to bolster its cash reserves. Some research and development spending could be delayed, the CEO said. He said Boeing won’t turn cash-flow positive until it ramps up 737 production to the 38-per-month target it initially aimed to hit by the end of 2023. And he said the company simply lacks the money to launch a new plane program but it doesn’t imminently need one.” No, but it needs development to start imminently. More: “Ortberg also told employees that he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump recently and that the two discussed the impact of potential tariffs on Boeing, one of the country’s biggest exporters. The Boeing chief warned employees that any trade war with China would weigh on the company, given that Boeing sells jets to Chinese airlines while the U.S. doesn’t import any aircraft from the country.” And: “‘,’ he said. ‘Let’s focus on the task at hand.’” • The beatings will continue until morale improves. Also, doesn’t one stand around a water cooler, not “sit at” one? Anyhow, if I were a Boeing machinist, I don’t know if I’d “bitch” about “people.” I might share my considered views about Boeing management and union management combining their efforts to eliminate defined benefit pensions forever.
Manufacturing: “Boeing CEO Calls on Employees to Take Ownership of Turnaround” [Bloomberg]. “Ortberg bluntly told employees during a companywide address on Wednesday that they control the company’s destiny, according to people familiar with the matter. The CEO, who took the helm a little more than 100 days ago, said it’s up to all workers to turn the company around, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The comments mark Ortberg’s most impassioned plea yet to rally workers behind his turnaround plan since he took over as CEO in August.” • “Take ownership” seems to be a fanciful invention by a Bloomberg editor, since Ortberg is not quoted to that effect in the text. Anyhow, if workers “taking ownership” of Boeing was the goal, they would at least have a seat on the Board, no?
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s CEO tells staff to stop ‘bitching by the water cooler’ and focus on beating Airbus” [Fortune]. “In an all-hands meeting this week, Ortberg gave his staff some brutal feedback, telling them to cut back on complaining and focus on beating competitor Airbus. ‘Don’t sit at the water cooler and bitch about people,’ Ortberg told his colleagues, according to a meeting recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal. ‘Let’s focus on the task at hand.’ ‘We spend more time arguing amongst ourselves than thinking about how we’re going to beat Airbus. Everybody is tired of the drumbeat of what’s wrong with Boeing. ,’ he said.” • It may be this was all well-received on the shop floor; presumably there will be reporting to come on that (oddly, as of this writing, there’s nothing from Dominic Gates at the Seattle Times on this story). But to me… Ortberg? A snowflake? Suck it up, buttercup!
Manufacturing: “FAA administrator plans to meet with Boeing CEO in Seattle” [Reuters]. “AA Administrator Michael Whitaker said on Thursday he plans to soon visit Boeing’s (BA.N), opens new tab Seattle offices to meet with CEO Kelly Ortberg as the planemaker resumes 737 MAX production. Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would boost its oversight of Boeing as the planemaker prepares to resume production of its 737 MAX jets following a 53-day strike that ended two weeks ago. ‘We are working closely with Boeing to make sure the safety management system is driving their actions during’ the restart of production, Whitaker said, who spoke to Ortberg earlier this month on the production plan. Boeing did not immediately comment. The FAA noted that it maintained its enhanced on-site presence at Boeing factories throughout the strike ‘and will further strengthen and target our oversight as the company begins its return-to-work plan.’” • While Boeing’s cash flow depends on ramping up production…
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 58 Greed (previous close: 50 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 58 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Nov 21 at 1:21:24 PM ET.
Gallery
“The color purple is unlike all others, in a physical sense” [ZME Science]. “But there is one color we can see that isn’t quite like the rest. This color, purple, is known as a non-spectral color. Unlike all its peers it doesn’t correspond to a single type of electromagnetic radiation, and must always be born out of a mix of two others… If you look at orange, which is a combination of yellow and red, you can see that its wavelength is roughly the average of those of its constituent colors. It works with pretty much every color combination, such as blue-yellow (for green) or red-green (for more orange). Now, the real kicker with purple, which we know we can get by mixing in red with blue, is that by averaging the wavelengths of its two parent colors, you’d get something in the green-yellow transition area. Which is a decidedly not-purple color. That’s all nice and good, but why are we able to perceive purple, then? Well, the short of it is “because brain”. Although purple isn’t a spectral color in the makeup of light, it is a color that can exist naturally and in the visible spectrum, so our brains evolved the ability to perceive it; that’s the ‘why’.” • Other non-spectral colors? Black, white, grey. And metallic colors!
“Archaeologists discover 12,000-year-old pebbles that could provide new insights about the wheel” [FOX]. “12,000-year-old perforated stones found over years of excavations in Israel may “represent early evidence for the adoption of spinning with the ‘spindle and whorl’ device,” according to newly published research in PLOS ONE…. ‘In a cumulative evolutionary trend, they manifest early phases of the development of rotational technologies by laying the mechanical principle of the wheel and axle,’ the researcher wrote in their study. “All in all, it reflects on the technological innovations that played an important part in the Neolithization processes of the Southern Levant.’” • It would indeed be interesting if the chariot wheel began as the spindle….
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Converger writes: “This afternoon in the South African section of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.”
Kind readers, the stock of plant pictures is still not quite there… .
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