By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, New Providence Island; Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas.
In Case You Might Miss…
- Lina Khan out.
- Kamala’s flawless campaign, lol.
- Bird flu carried by dust on the wind.
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
Musk GLP
Nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public.
Nothing else is even close. https://t.co/SNGcxzkcqE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2024
‘We don’t even know who’s running the country’: South Korea’s ruling party stalls for time amid leadership crisis Channel News Asia
“‘A Gift to the Oligarchs’: Trump Pick to Replace Lina Khan Vowed to End ‘War on Mergers’” [Common Dreams]. “President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission vowed in his job pitch to end current chair Lina Khan’s ‘war on mergers,’ a signal to an eager corporate America that the incoming administration intends to be far more lax on antitrust enforcement. Andrew Ferguson was initially nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as a Republican commissioner on the bipartisan FTC, and his elevation to chair of the commission will not require Senate confirmation. In a one-page document obtained by Punchbowl, Ferguson—who previously worked as chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—pitched himself to Trump’s team as the ‘pro-innovation choice’ with ‘impeccable legal credentials’ and ‘proven loyalty’ to the president-elect. Ferguson’s top agenda priority, according to the document, is to ‘reverse Lina Khan’s anti-business agenda’ by rolling back ‘burdensome regulations,’ stopping her ‘war on mergers,’ halting the agency’s ‘attempt to become an AI regulator,’ and ditching ‘novel and legally dubious consumer protection cases.’ Trump announced Ferguson as the incoming administration’s FTC chair as judges in Oregon and Washington state blocked the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons, decisions that one antitrust advocate called a ‘fantastic culmination of the FTC’s work to protect consumers and workers.’” • Dang…
* * * “Crypto Doesn’t Deserve a Tax Exemption” [Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg]. “The most obvious argument against the proposal is simply that uniform taxation is better than selective tax exemptions. If a lower capital gains tax rate is preferable, then the goal should be to make a smaller cut that applies to all assets. Exempting a single kind of asset is likely to lead to abuses. You might think that boosting crypto is important now, but which sector or asset will be selected next for special treatment? It may be one you don’t think deserves it.” And: “Many of the leading supporters of Trump’s campaign were crypto-connected companies. You don’t have to think this tax proposal is some kind of payback to realize that this creates problems of perception. Next time around, companies will offer campaigns financial support in the expectation of more favorable tax and regulatory treatment.” • I still struggle to understand the case for crypto, unless it be that Silicon Valley wants to get into finance, and to compete with Wall Street they need a distinctive competence, which turns out to be fraud (amazing, I know).
* * * “Top Republicans split over strategy to move Trump’s 2025 agenda” [NBC]. “The new Congress will give Trump and Republicans the opportunity to pass major legislation without the need for any Democratic support under a process called ‘reconciliation’ But whether the GOP will try to link all of its top priorities together in a single package early next year or split major issues across two, smaller bills is a major subject of debate among top Republican leaders. The House’s top tax writer, Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., is warning fellow Republicans against breaking the agenda up into two bills, in which border security and energy policy would come in the first and an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cut law could come in the second. Delaying the tax legislation risks jeopardizing it, Smith and his allies warn, so they want one sweeping package.”
* * * “Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors” [Associated Press]. “The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them in 2023. There are pending charges related to the fake electors scheme in state and federal courts in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia. Federal prosecutors, investigating Trump’s conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, said the fake electors scheme originated in Wisconsin. Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, allow their electoral votes to be split between candidates. The Wisconsin complaint details how Troupis, Chesebro and Roman created a document that falsely said Trump had won Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral College votes and then attempted to deliver to to then-Vice President Mike Pence. In the amended complaint filed Tuesday, .” • I’ve always said that the “contingent electors” cases were the important, genuine cases in the Democrat lawfare over 2020 — don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Fani — because the Trump campaign put civilians in the line of fire, as here. So I’m glad to see this case moving forward.
2024 Post Mortem
“No, Kamala Harris Staffers Did Not Run a “Flawless” Campaign” [Jeet Heer, The Nation]. “For anyone who followed the presidential election of 2024 and regards the victory of Donald Trump as an enormous tragedy for the United States and the world, the great foe of serenity is listening to interviews with Democratic Party strategists. This is a group that has displayed a mind-boggling unwillingness to accept any accountability for losing—for the second time in eight years—to Trump.” Heer seems surprised, as if this were new behavior. More: “Stephanie Cutter told Pod Save America that “the convention demonstrated a lot of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris, a lot of freshness, future oriented, bringing a variety of coalitions together. We had independents, Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, sports figures, everybody coming together around a new way forward and finally turning the page.” It is incredibly revealing that Cutter thinks a winning Democratic coalition consists of “independents, Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, sports figures” rather than being a multiracial coalition of union members, the broader working class, young people, civil rights activists, feminists environmentalists, and anti-war activists. Hers is a profoundly depoliticized view of the Democratic Party as a vehicle of the bipartisan establishment rather than a coalition fighting to change America. This depoliticized ideology permeated the Harris campaign—and doomed it to failure.” • Driving the knife home…
Democrats en déshabillé
“Newsom’s Big Choice: Single Payer Or His Insurance Donors?” [The Lever]. From 2022. “The current push for single-payer may be doomed to the same fate as its predecessors. Even if the bill manages to pass the assembly before the end of the day Monday and passes the state senate, there is no guarantee Newsom will sign it into law. Despite his campaign promise, the California governor has long been allied with insurance companies opposing the reform…. UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, is also opposing the single-payer bill, and has been pressing its employees to lobby California lawmakers against passing the legislation. The insurance giant has contributed $130,000 to Newsom’s campaigns since 2011, and $513,000 to the state Democratic party since 2007. In 2019, UnitedHealth Group and one of its subsidiaries donated $100,000 to Newsom’s inaugural fund. Now, whether Newsom’s relationship with Blue Shield, Anthem, and UnitedHealth will impact his decision-making on CalCare is an open question, says Court at Consumer Watchdog.” • Social murder has many accomplices….
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!
Transmission: H5N1
“Central Valley is ground zero for bird flu outbreak” [Sun-Gazette]. “The Central Valley is the epicenter for the bird flu epidemic drastically reducing the state’s poultry supply and slightly dropping its milk supply…. The two farm animal businesses are some of the state’s most important ag industries, clustered in the Central Valley, often just down the road from each other. The names of the affected facilities are not made public. But when more than half of the state’s dairies are quarantined due to the virus and some 8 million chickens in the state had to be destroyed – including over 5 million egg layers representing about half of the egg laying flock in the Golden State – Californians will no doubt feel the shortages at the grocery store…. While the state is not releasing the location of the dairies, all 32 of the state’s confirmed cases of bird flu in humans were in the Central Valley, California’s nation’s top dairy producing region…. Both industries are on a similar viral infection timeline which also coincides with the annual wild bird migration, which many experts agree is the original source for the disease.” And eighteen paragraphs down, the buried lead: “Now there is concern the rapid rise in infections at both confined animal facilities may be linked, with one affecting the other. Research shows that , says the industry publication EggNews.” • Oh.
Lambert: CDC’s wastewater page loaded. No Thanksgiving surge that I can see.
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC December 2 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC December 7 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC November 30 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data December 10: | National [6] CDC December 5: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens December 9: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic November 23: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC November 19: | Variants[10] CDC November 4: |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20: |
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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) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.
[4] (ED) Down.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.
[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) Leveling out.
[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.
[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.
[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.
Stats Watch
Inflation: “United States Consumer Price Index (CPI)” [Trading Economics]. “Consumer Price Index CPI in the United States decreased to 315.49 points in November from 315.66 points in October of 2024. The annual inflation rate in the US rose to 2.7% in November, from 2.6% in October and matching markets expectations. On a monthly basis, the CPI increased by 0.3%, the most since April,
Manufacturing: “Boeing wins $450.5M contract for Japan’s F-15 Super Interceptor upgrades” [Aerotime]. “Boeing has been awarded a $450.5 million contract by the US Air Force (USAF) to support the F-15 Japan Super Interceptor Program. Under this contract, , Boeing will acquire the systems needed to upgrade the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-15J fleet.” • Industrial policy….
Manufacturing: “Boeing Stock Is Taking Off. Here’s Why.” [Barron’s]. If you play the ponies…. “Wall Street expects Boeing to reach 360 deliveries for all of 2024, according to FactSet. That isn’t enough to make money. At the start of 2024, before the door plug incident, Wall Street projected 2024 deliveries of about 700 jets and net income of about $3.5 billion. The Street has since revised that estimate to a loss of $8.9 billion. Tuesday’s gains leave Boeing shares down about 37% for the year and about 34% since the Alaska Air incident. Shares were up about 1% from just before the strike, when 737 MAX production was paused.”
Manufacturing: “Is China ready to take on Airbus and Boeing? Not just yet” [Business Times]. “One of its selling points [of the COMAC C919] is that it is more environmently friendly than its European and American counterparts. Comac designed its C919 with environmental sustainability as an objective – the jet made its first commercial flight on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in September. The biofuel can be made from algae or agricultural, forestry, food or even municipal waste. It is claimed to cut carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent compared with petroleum-based jet fuel. It has been reported that GallopAir, a Brunei-based startup airline, has placed an order for the C919. Vietnam Airlines, Indonesia’s TransNusa, Air Asia and Brazil’s Total Linhas Aereas have expressed interest.” • “919” reminds me of “707,” but 9 is an auspicious number in China.
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 51 Neutral (previous close: 48 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 56 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Dec 11 at 1:27:47 PM ET.
Healthcare
Clarifying:
‘No matter how ruthlessly’. That should work both ways then. pic.twitter.com/VFLO253yFy
— Priyamvada Gopal © (@PriyamvadaGopal) December 10, 2024
“SF tech CEO’s billboards are ‘dystopian.’ That’s how he wants it” [SFGATE]. “Thursday afternoon in San Francisco: On one side of Mission Street, hotel workers chanted and banged on a drum outside the Marriott Marquis, part of a monthslong strike for higher wages and more jobs. On the other, a tech company’s billboard proclaimed, ‘Stop hiring humans.’ Various versions of the provocative advertisements are emblazoned across the city on rotating screen displays on bus shelters and on classic vinyl billboards on poles and buildings, plugging the San Francisco startup Artisan. SFGATE spoke with Artisan’s CEO about the campaign. The company has just 30 employees and is less than 2 years old; its only existing product is an artificial intelligence ‘sales agent’ called Artisan, built to automate the work of finding and messaging potential customers. It’s a classic AI-age idea, one of many such tools flooding the tech world. But the billboards in San Francisco are less routine. Bleak might be a better word, or mean-spirited. And in a city laden with jargony advertisements, these are easy to understand. Most feature a dark-haired, purple-eyed persona and a few rows of text. Some critique humans and remote work: ‘Artisans won’t complain about work-life balance’ and ‘Artisan’s Zoom cameras will never ‘not be working’ today.’ Others are more direct: ‘Hire Artisans, not humans.’ Several include the line, ‘The era of AI employees is here.’ The gist is crystal clear: Artisan is selling automation to employers. In a video spot about the ‘sales agent’ tool online, Artisan says it works with ‘no human input’ and ‘costs 96% less than hiring someone to do her job..’” “Artisan.” Of all the names to choose.
“That Healing Sound” [Nautilus]. “Music boosts the immune system, in particular immunoglobulin IgA, a substance that travels to the site of mucosal infections by reducing cortisol. When you’re stressed, cortisol shuts down the immune system, because cortisol usually spikes in response to an explicit proximal threat, like a lion running toward you. Over thousands of years of evolution, the cortisol system figured out that if you’re going to have to fight a lion, you’ve got to preserve all your resources to fight or to flee…. So, what does preserving your resources mean at a physiological and metabolic level? It means shutting down your digestive system. That can wait till later. Shutting down your libido, because you don’t have time for that now. Shutting down your immune system. That’s why people with chronic stress have compromised immune systems. And if you can reduce psychological and physical stress, you’re enabling your body’s immune system to do what it’s meant to do. Music can promote IgA levels. They can promote cytokine production, the production of natural killer cells, T cells, plus, they can increase serotonin, which boosts your mood, which in turn, can create this cascade of neurochemical activity.” • Hmm. Not to go all woo woo, but Long Covid?
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