By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Southeast Greenway, Mueller, Travis, Texas, United States. “All sang.” A lot going on!
In Case You Might Miss…
- The urban-rural divide.
- Thomas Frank on populism (video).
- Blue periods ….
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
Campaign Finance
“A Chinese national, charged with fraud by the SEC, just sent Donald Trump $18 million” [Popular Information]. “Chinese Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $6.2 million for a banana — sold by Sotheby’s as conceptual art — and then ate it last Friday. The banana is not Sun’s most notable recent purchase. On November 25, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, a new crypto venture backed by President-elect Donald Trump. Sun said his company, TRON, was committed to “making America great again….. Sun’s decision to buy $30 million in WLF tokens has direct and immediate financial benefits for Trump.”
Democrats en déshabillé
“Why Democrats FEAR Populism (And Keep Losing)” (video) [Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs, YouTube].
Normally, I don’t link to Current Affairs, because Nathan J. Robinson union-busted his own magazine, but for Thomas Frank, I will make an exception.l
Realignment and Legitimacy
“The Political Economy of the Urban-Rural Divide” (PDF) [Keith Orejel, LPE Project]. “But something fundamentally new occurred in the mid-to-late 1990s. A yawning gap opened between urban and rural voters, with rural Americans voting in ever larger margins for the Republican Party and their metropolitan counterparts doing the same for Democrats. While political strategists and commentators tended to point to cultural interpretations for this divide—everything from Christian Nationalism to White Rural Rage—such explanations fail to account for the fact that this transformation occurred simultaneously across the entire nation, and indeed, in many other advanced industrial countries as well. As I will lay out in this post, the urban-rural divide was first and foremost a product of political economy. Starting in the 1990s, the Democratic Party emerged as the champion of a new globalized, knowledge economy, whose centralizing tendencies concentrated the most sophisticated and profitable enterprises in metropolitan areas. As a result, the historic party of industrial workers morphed into the home of highly educated metropolitan professionals. Meanwhile, rural areas struggled to adapt to the global era, becoming a repository for slow growth sectors—manufacturing, retail, construction, agriculture, and gas and oil—that provided mostly low paying, unskilled jobs. The Republican Party capitalized on this decline, arguing that their economic agenda of low taxes, minimal government spending, and weak regulations was critical to the well-being of rural industries and their largely non-college educated employees. By examining the emergence of the urban-rural divide in detail, we can see that the results of last week’s election were by no means inevitable. The Democratic Party’s collapse in the countryside was the predictable consequence of decisions to prioritize certain constituencies to the neglect of others. If the party is ever again to capture a sufficient governing majority to enact the social and economic agenda our country needs, it won’t be through eking out 2% higher turnout in the suburbs. It will be through transforming the Democratic Party into an organization that once again can compete in both urban and rural counties.” • Yep!
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!
Sequelae: Covid
“Nearly half of NYC’s aspiring drivers failed their DMV road tests this year” [Gothamist]. “: Nearly half the Big Apple’s would-be motorists have failed their driving tests so far this year. That failure rate — 48% — is higher than the statewide average of 43%, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The odds of flunking the test within the city has risen steadily since the COVID-19 pandemic: In 2021, the failure rate in the city was 41%, the data shows.” • Odd!
I wonder why these Google Trends results:
‘Tis a mystery!
Elite Maleficence
I guess we have our answer on why the teacher’s unions were silent on school ventilation and masking:
For more on the Great Barrington Declaration, see here.
“A look back at what COVID was really like” [Kevin Drum]. “Epidemiologists initially said that COVID was spread by droplets. That’s because the evidence pointed that way[1]. When evidence piled up that aerosol transmission was also important, they changed their public statements[2]. But their safety guidance didn’t change, because in most cases it didn’t matter how the virus was spread[3]. Standard epidemic hygiene was mostly the same either way[4].” • I rarely see so much error crammed into a single paragraph. Links on request, but I think readers know all this stuff. [1]. No. There was never any evidence for droplet dogma in general, or for Covid in particular. The epidemiologists spoke from ideology, not science. [2]. No. They fought changing public statements tooth and nail, as the recent UK hearings showed; at least one wrong WHO tweet is still up (last I checked, and I’ve been checking for years. [3] Of course it matters how the virus is spread. If the virus does not “spread like smoke” you don’t have to open the windows! Or use a Corsi-Rosenthal box. [4] No. In the beginning, and in the more beknighted facilities still, handwashing is recommended against Covid. But Covid is not transmitted by fomites. Somebody tell Drum to stay in his lane.
Lambert here: Even though the Covid numbers seem low, please remember that the data is not nearly as good as it once was, that it lags, and that the downside risks of catching Covid are considerable. For those who have developed their own personal protocols, I wouldn’t relax them. Maybe next year.
| Wastewater | |
| ★This week[1] CDC November 25 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC November 23 | ★Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 23 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data November 29: | National [6] CDC November 28: |
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| Positivity | |
| ★ National[7] Walgreens November 25: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 23: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC November 4: | Variants[10] CDC November 4: |
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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
Manufacturing: “United States ISM Manufacturing PMI” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Manufacturing PMI for the US increased to 48.4 in November 2024 from 46.5 in October, beating forecasts of 47.5. The reading pointed to another albeit softer contraction in the manufacturing sector.”
The Bezzle: “Trump’s Return Heralds Litigation Peace for Crypto” [Wall Street Journal]. “The Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase and Kraken last year, accusing the platforms of dealing assets that are illegal to trade without regulatory supervision. Crypto executives had refused to comply with financial rules that they said were a bad fit for digital currencies.
The SEC, under the leadership of Chair Gary Gensler, mounted the legal campaign in lieu of the industry’s request to craft new crypto-specific regulations that embraced a lighter touch. Had the commission won in court, the victories would have compelled the freewheeling market to follow longstanding agency rules that protect investors who buy securities. But litigation can take many years to resolve, and with Donald Trump’s election to a second term, Gensler has run out of time before his biggest cases reach the finish line.
Trump’s return to the White House will mean a new era for crypto—with fewer government hurdles. The president-elect, shedding previous skepticism of crypto, has pledged support for the digital-asset industry [sic].” • Lordie. Cf. Veblen’s distinction between business and industry; crypto is all business.
The Bezzle: “Enter the ‘ether,’ where scammers weaponize your emotions” [WaPo]. “[Fraud prevention experts] Shadel and Pratkanis said the levers used to swindle Judith out of nearly $600,000 followed a template of sorts; a three-part strategy that swindlers customize to each potential victim…. The first step is to gain their trust…. To build this level of intimacy, scammers spend hours on the phone with their victims or bombard them with email or texts. The exchanges are intended to extract personal details to build rapport ahead of any request for money…. The second step of the fraud playbook is to get victims “under the ether,” the frenzied state in which they suspend reason…. Lastly, the impostors try to create a sense of urgency. For example, they might tell a victim that if they don’t move their money out of their accounts, the people who stole their Social Security number will take it all, or the funds will be frozen as part of a criminal prosecution. ‘It’s baked into our brains to respond to threats,’ Shadel said. ‘You’ve got to create a reason for them to do something now.’ Criminals construct a wonderland of the mind, a reality that appears authentic to the scam target. This is why the oft-used maxim, ‘If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,’ isn’t the most effective way to fight fraud.” • Seems like these methods are more universal than fraud.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 67 Greed (previous close: 66 Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 64 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 2 at 1:53:27 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes unchanged [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 183. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Hard to believe the Rapture Index is going down. Do these people know something we don’t?
Gallery
Pablo Picasso, The Roofs of Barcelona in the Moonlight pic.twitter.com/c3aRz3UYDX
— Impressions (@impression_ists) November 30, 2024
“Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom” [Frontiers in Psychology]. “As traditional handwriting is progressively being replaced by digital devices, it is essential to investigate the implications for the human brain. Brain electrical activity was recorded in 36 university students as they were handwriting visually presented words using a digital pen and typewriting the words on a keyboard. Connectivity analyses were performed on EEG data recorded with a 256-channel sensor array. When writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard, as shown by widespread theta/alpha connectivity coherence patterns between network hubs and nodes in parietal and central brain regions. Existing literature indicates that connectivity patterns in these brain areas and at such frequencies are crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, are beneficial for learning. Our findings suggest that the spatiotemporal pattern from visual and proprioceptive information obtained through the precisely controlled hand movements when using a pen, contribute extensively to the brain’s connectivity patterns that promote learning.” • Interesting. IIRC, KLG doesn’t think much of “Frontiers in” Whatever; perhaps a reader would like to take a crack at the methodology.
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:
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