By Lambert Strether.
Bird Song of the Day
Brown Thrasher, Indian Springs WMA, two-track road, Washington, Maryland, United States. “Adult male Brown Thrasher singing from lower branches of a Sycamore tree near the road.”
In Case You Might Miss…
- Court filing: Who’s in charge at DOGE? If not Musk, who?
- Ed Zitron: “The Generative AI Con.”
- The value of note-taking.
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
DOGE
“Declaration of Joshua Fisher” (PDF) [State of New Mexico, et al., v. Elon Musk, in his official capacity, et al., United States District Court for the District of Columbia]. Fisher is director of the White House Office of Administration. Amazing stuff:
A few days ago, we showed how Trump’s Executive Orders establishes DOGE teams as a Bolshevik-style parallel structure to existing goverment agencies. And now we learn that DOGE has nobody in charge? No “service administrator”? Bolsheviks, but no Lenin? Or does Fisher know who the extremely transparent DOGE’s boss is, but he’s just not telling us? Certainly President Trump believes Musk is in charge:
Well, this is awkward. https://t.co/M2QfO8w5q0
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) February 18, 2025
So who is in charge of DOGE? Big Balls?
“Who’s in charge of DOGE? Not Elon Musk, White House says” [Politico]. “The technical designation does not mean Musk is not, for all practical purposes, the key decision-maker for DOGE, which has been staffed full of his allies and may still ultimately be fueled by his influence in the White House. Musk has eagerly touted DOGE’s work, described his influence over its operations and appeared alongside Trump to talk about its mission. Trump himself has credited Musk with leading DOGE. ‘I’m going to tell [Elon Musk] very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education,’ Trump said in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier. ‘He’s going to find the same thing … Then I’m going to go, go to the military. Let’s check the military.’ But the Fisher filing suggests a technical degree of separation that raises new questions about accountability for DOGE’s operations — a breakneck effort that has alarmed federal employees and raised fears about data breaches in some of the federal government’s most closely guarded databases.” • Recall once more (cited here) Madison’s fundamental architectural principle for devising checks and balances: “The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.” And I wrote: “[T]he President’s actions in creating DOGE and setting it in motion run counter to Madison’s principle; ‘places’ [offices] are unclear, hence interests are unclear, hence checks are unclear, hence ‘interior structure of the government’ is out of whack.” Here we have a place (“Services Administrator”) with no “man” in it. And yet that Service is putatively auditing the Federal Government! It’s extraordinary.
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, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Stay safe out there!
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC February 10 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC February 15 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC February 8 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data February 14: | National [6] CDC February 13: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens February 17: | ★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic February 8: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC January 27: | ★ Variants[10] CDC January 27 |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 25: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 25: |
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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) Down, nothing new at major hubs.
[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) A little uptick.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped, but no exponential growth either, Odd.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.
[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
Manufacturing: “United States NY Empire State Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index surged 18.3 points to +5.7 in February 2025, easily surpassing market expectations of -1 and signaling a slight rebound in business activity across New York State. New orders and shipments saw moderate growth, while employment levels declined.”
Housing: “United States NAHB Housing Market Index” [Trading Economics]. “The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index in the US fell to 42 in February 2025, the lowest in five months, compared to 47 in January, and below forecasts of 47, dragged down by concerns on tariffs, elevated mortgage rates and high housing costs. The gauge measuring current sales conditions fell four points to 46, the component measuring sales expectations in the next six months plunged 13 points to 46, and the gauge charting traffic of prospective buyers posted a three-point decline to 29.”
Manufacturing: “Judge gives Boeing and DOJ another month to negotiate 737 Max fraud plea” [FlightGlobal]. “Boeing and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have received an extra month to negotiate a possible revised guilty plea by the company to federal fraud charges related to certification the 737 Max. US federal judge Reed O’Connor has delayed to 14 March a deadline by which Boeing and the DOJ must update the court about their efforts to reach a deal that would head off a trial, according to a 17 February court order. The company and DOJ had previously been required to submit an update by 16 February. But both requested an extension, citing the recent administration change in Washington.”
Manufacturing: “Boeing’s Air Force One program could be delayed until 2029, or later, White House official says” [Reuters]. “The Air Force One program may be further delayed until 2029 or years later, a senior administration official said, citing supply chain issues and changing requirements, after the White House said the project failed to deliver a new plane on time over the weekend. The delays are frustrating, but not much can be done to speed delivery, the official told Reuters, noting that Boeing faced problems getting components since some manufacturers had gone out of business. Some requirements for the aircraft had also changed, given evolving potential threats, the official said.”
Tech: “The Generative AI Con” [Ed Zitron, Where’s Your Ed At?]. “This isn’t the early days of shit. The Attention Is All You Need paper that started the whole transformer-based architecture movement was published in June 2017. We’re over two years in, hyperscalers have sunk over 200 billion dollars in capital expenditures into generative AI, AI startups took up a third of all venture capital investment in 2024, and almost every single talented artificial intelligence expert is laser-focused on Large Language Models. And even then, we still don’t have a killer app! There is no product that everybody loves, and there is no iPhone moment!” • Well, Ed? How about the government? (Note I am not suggesting that whatever DOGE’s little schemers have in mind will be better than our current experience; worse, if anything, because you’ll never ever reach a human.)
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 44 Fear (previous close: 46 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 38 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 14 at 6:59:56 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes down one on Food Supply. “The lack of activity has downgraded this category” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 180. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • This is a tough crowd. Surely Trump’s first month brought the Rapture closer?
Gallery
Plus ça change…
In the town of Novgorod, they sometimes come across preserved birch bark. People used this bark to write on, including Onfim! Archaeologists have found 17 pieces of bark marked with his homework. But what do these inscriptions reveal? A young boy who disliked school! 2/ pic.twitter.com/04FPOVkFvH
— Dr Hugh Thomas (@hughs_news) February 16, 2025
Musical Interlude
Reaction is where we’re at, for sure:
Which works two ways:
The Workplace
“The Ideal Candidate Will Be Punched In the Stomach” [Scott Smitelli]. • The workplace…
Especiallly for any DOGE-adjacent readers (full thread):
And:
News of the Wired
“Why can’t we remember our lives as babies or toddlers?” [Guardian]. “Ironically, for parenting influencers who post about elaborate holidays in the name of creating ‘core memories’, the early events that children retain can be surprisingly mundane – ‘things that most parents would never reminisce elaboratively about’, [Prof Elaine Reese at the University of Otago] says. ‘The classic example from my own research is a child who remembers seeing a worm on the footpath one time.’” • Hmm.
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 AM:
AM writes: “December 29, 2024 in Roger Williams Park. 50 degree air + ice on pond = fog. Not the most attractive tree, but atmospheric nonetheless.”
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