By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Blissful Friday the Thirteenth to those that have a good time! –lambert
Fowl Tune of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, Siboney; BIOECO Estacion Ecologica Siboney-Jutici, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. “That is all one steady minimize even by my announcement.” Seize a cup of espresso. Eighteen minutes (although the final two minutes or so are the “announcement.”
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In Case You Would possibly Miss…
RFK, Trump, and vax.
Covid “viral reservoir” principle recieves assist.
The place oil income went.
New Covid charts: Excellent news, however positivity uptick.
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Politics
“So most of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in reality a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles
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Capitol Seizure
“Watchdog finds FBI intelligence missteps earlier than Jan. 6 riot, however no undercover brokers have been current” [Associated Press]. “The report from the Justice Division inspector normal’s workplace knocks down a fringe conspiracy principle superior by some Republicans in Congress that the FBI performed a job in instigating the occasions that day, when rioters decided to overturn Republican Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden stormed the constructing in a violent conflict with police. The evaluation, launched practically 4 years after a darkish chapter in historical past that shook the bedrock of American democracy, was slender in scope, however aimed to make clear gnawing questions which have dominated public discourse, together with whether or not main intelligence failures preceded the riot and whether or not the FBI not directly provoked the violence.” • I’d be quite a bit happier if I may cross two oddities off my record for the day: No person is aware of who constructed the gallows or took them away; and no person is aware of who left the pipe bombs on the DNC (when Kamala was there). For these two tales, take the Justice Division story as learn: It wasn’t the FBI. So, who was it?
“DOJ IG reveals 26 FBI informants have been current on Jan. 6” [FOX]. “Justice Division Inspector Basic Michael Horowitz mentioned there have been greater than two dozen confidential human sources (CHSs) within the crowd exterior the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, however solely three have been assigned by the FBI to be current for the occasion, whereas stressing that not one of the sources was approved or directed by the bureau to ‘break the regulation’ or ‘encourage others to commit unlawful acts,’ Fox Information has discovered.” • “We have been simply informanting. We weren’t agent provocateuring in any respect, completely.” OK, superb.
Trump Transition
“RFK Jr key adviser petitioned regulators to revoke approval of polio vaccine” [Ed Pilkington, Guardian]. “A key authorized adviser to Robert Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s choose for well being secretary, is on the heart of efforts to push federal drug regulators to revoke approval for the polio and hepatitis B vaccines and block distribution of 13 different vital vaccines. Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has been serving to Kennedy choose prime well being directors as a part of the Trump transition course of, is deeply embedded in longstanding efforts to drive the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) to withdraw a raft of vaccines which have saved the lives and well being of thousands and thousands of Individuals.” • I don’t thoughts having an excellent religion dialogue about rolling again the childhood vaccination schedule; heck, it seems to be like a spreadsheet. However my concern has at all times been that the anti-vaxxers wish to roll again all vaccines, together with the unique Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR), i.e., those I used to be given as a baby, and an excellent factor, too. And now a RFK’s authorized operating buddy needs to roll again polio vaccines, so my “lack of fine religion” priors are closely strengthened. A bridge too far, for me. Perhaps give attention to MAHA? Except eliminating polio vaccines is MAHA, in fact.
“Trump to debate ending childhood vaccination applications with RFK Jr.” [Reuters]. “He (Kennedy) doesn’t disagree with vaccinations, all vaccinations. He disagrees in all probability with some,” Trump mentioned.” • “Most likely” is doing numerous work there. And if Kennedy wished to preseve polio vaccines, then his mimion wouldn’t be making an attempt to revoke their approval. And if you wish to eliminate the polio vaccines, then you definately would possibly as properly “disagree” with “all vaccinations.” Trump ought to put RFK again in his field on this one.
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“Trump Transition Workforce Needs To Finish Crash Report Requirement Opposed By Tesla, Report Says” [Forbes]. “President-elect Donald Trump’s transition staff needs to scrap a regulatory order requiring automakers to report crashes involving autos with automated driving techniques, Reuters reported Friday, aligning with opposition to the rule by Elon Musk’s Tesla, which accounts for many crashes reported beneath the requirement thus far.” • Oh.
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“SEC fees Cantor Fitzgerald, led by Trump’s Commerce choose, with breaking securities legal guidelines” [CNBC]. • If we hadn’t simply had 4 years of Democrat lawfare, I’d be aghast.
The #Resistance
“Democratic governors quietly prep intensive plans to counter Trump” [CNN]. “Diplomatic and depressed as they’ve been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over easy methods to stability the politics of pushing again on what they’re anticipating from President-elect Donald Trump’s subsequent flip within the White Home. Since lengthy earlier than the election, they’ve been poring by Undertaking 2025 — it’s useful, a number of Democratic governors instructed CNN, to have a blueprint in public. They’ve been learning their very own government powers and state legal guidelines…. They’ve been stockpiling the abortion remedy mifepristone [(!!)] in secret warehouses and rehearsing their solutions for if and when the incoming White Home tries to nationalize their state police or Nationwide Guard models to be used in deportation raids; some are planning to flat out refuse, whereas others intend to argue that the officers are busy with different work preserving the folks of their states secure. (None have totally wrapped their heads round how it might work if models from different states are despatched in and set themselves up for showdowns on the state borders.)” And: “A number of have been operating tabletop workouts behind closed doorways for months, typically with state attorneys normal and different related officers concerned. Officers in a number of governors’ places of work instructed CNN the circles have been tight to maintain the incoming White Home from with the ability to put together for their very own responses, or for the proactive improvements they’re wanting into.” • Price studying in full for the element. And what’s it with Democrats and these “tabletop workouts”? They hold operating them, they usually don’t appear to be doing a lot good.
Democrats en déshabillé
“Democrats’ drawback with working-class voters is greater than free commerce” [Eric Levitz, Vox]. “In gentle of deindustrialization’s most pernicious results, Democrats ought to make American employees’ entry to remunerative employment and collective bargaining rights much less contingent in the marketplace’s whims, whereas rebuilding the get together’s status for sound financial administration.” • Daring! The issue is easy, from a 30,000-foot stage (the place certainly most issues are easy). The Democrats are the get together of the PMC. Because the governing class, they’re within the enterprise of working the various and diversified rental extraction schemes that dominate our financialized economic system, and which enrich the (propertied) ruling class on the expense of the (enwaged) working class (medical health insurance being one such). Subsequently, the category pursuits of the Democrats and the working class are diametrically opposed. The Democrat Get together founders on this contradiction. “A home divided in opposition to itself can’t stand…. I don’t count on the home to fall — however I do count on it’ll stop to be divided. It’s going to turn into all one factor, or all the opposite.” –Abraham Lincoln.
Republican Funhouse
“Home Republicans launch investigation into CVS Caremark for potential antitrust violations” [The Hill]. “Home Republicans wish to know whether or not pharmacy profit supervisor (PBM) CVS Caremark violated federal antitrust legal guidelines by threatening unbiased pharmacies to maintain them from utilizing money-saving instruments exterior the PBM’s community. In a letter to CVS obtained by The Hill, Home Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) requested the corporate for paperwork and communications about pharmaceutical hubs, a sort of digital pharmacy service that may streamline the method of accessing and managing advanced, high-cost specialty drugs for sufferers. Jordan expressed concern that CVS prevents unbiased pharmacies from taking part in hub preparations, as a result of the corporate needs to go off potential competitors. If an unbiased pharmacy works with a hub exterior the PBM, it might be excluded from the PBMs community.” • Good.
Syndemics
“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison
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Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).
Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the handle given with the crops. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!
Assets, United States (Native): 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 reviews); 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).
Assets, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).
Assets, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).
Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).
Keep secure on the market!
Airborne Transmission
Phrase of the day (or the last decade):
WORD OF THE WEEK:
Ca•cough•ony
A portmanteau of the phrases ‘cacophony’ + ‘cough’.
An disagreeable refrain of loud of coughing.
Usually skilled throughout carol concert events, nativities, pantomimes, college assemblies & different indoor mass gatherings simply earlier than Xmas.@susie_dent pic.twitter.com/nDyRqpBfQB
— Cat within the Hat 🐈⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 (@_CatintheHat) December 13, 2024
Maskstravaganza
“Days after Period Tour ends, Taylor Swift spreads vacation cheer at Kids’s Mercy Hospital in KC” [Knox News]. • And that’s not all she’s spreading, is it?
Vaccines: Covid
“COVID-19 vaccination and short-term mortality danger: a nationwide self-controlled case sequence examine in The Netherlands” (preprint) [medRxiv]. From the Summary: “We carried out a retrospective data-linkage examine together with all Dutch inhabitants to analyze the impression of COVID-19 vaccination on extra mortality utilizing a modified self-controlled case sequence technique. We discovered a 44% decrease relative incidence of all-cause deaths within the first three weeks after the first vaccination in comparison with greater than three weeks after vaccination (IRR 0.56, 95percentCI 0.54-0.57). This decrease incidence was constant throughout vaccine varieties, doses, genders, age teams, and people with or with out prior SARS-CoV-2 an infection or comorbidities, and for non-COVID-19 associated deaths. For booster vaccinations, the relative incidence was comparable (IRR 0.49, 95percentCI 0.49-0.50). Compared, we noticed a 16-fold increased incidence of all-cause deaths within the three weeks following a registered optimistic SARS-CoV-2 an infection in comparison with greater than three weeks after an infection (IRR 16.19, 95percentCI 15.78-16.60). A decrease relative incidence of short-term deaths following COVID-19 vaccination assist that COVID-19 vaccination is just not related to the noticed extra mortality.” • “Not related” for that (comparatively quick) time frame, as they certainly say.
Variants: H5N1
“Novel human-type receptor-binding H5N1 virus in reside poultry markets, China” [The Lancet]. “In January, 2024, findings from a surveillance examine close to Poyang Lake in southern China revealed a excessive prevalence of novel H5N1 viruses that confirmed enhanced binding affinity for human-type sialic acid receptors…. Given the established function of [Live poultry markets (LPMs)] as a serious supply of human H5N1 infections, we spotlight the pressing want for enhanced surveillance and public well being interventions to mitigate the widespread transmission potential of those novel human-type receptor-binding H5N1 viruses in these markets.” • “Novel” within the headline and repeated within the textual content doesn’t sound good. Maybe a sort reader can translate your complete summary.
Sequelae: Covid
“Multi-Organ Unfold and Intra-Host Variety of SARS-CoV-2 Assist Viral Persistence, Adaptation, and a Mechanism That Will increase Evolvability” [Journal of Medical Virology (Jason Boxman). The Abstract:
Intra-host diversity is an intricate phenomenon related to immune evasion, antiviral resistance, and evolutionary leaps along transmission chains. SARS-CoV-2 intra-host variation has been well-evidenced from respiratory samples. However, data on systemic dissemination and diversification are relatively scarce and come from immunologically impaired patients. Here, the presence and variability of SARS-CoV-2 were assessed among 71 tissue samples obtained from multiple organs including lung, intestine, heart, kidney, and liver from 15 autopsies with positive swabs and no records of immunocompromise. The virus was detected in most organs in the majority of autopsies. All organs presented intra-host single nucleotide variants (iSNVs) with low, moderate, and high abundances. The iSNV abundances observed within different organs indicate that the virus can mutate at one host site and subsequently spread to other parts of the body. In agreement with previous data from respiratory samples, our lung samples presented no more than 10 iSNVs each. But interestingly, when analyzing different organs we were able to detect between 11 and 45 iSNVs per case. Our results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can replicate, and evolve in a compartmentalized manner, in different body sites, which agrees with the “viral reservoir” theory. We elaborate on how compartmentalized evolution in multiple organs may contribute to SARS-CoV-2 evolving so rapidly despite the virus having a proofreading mechanism.
Yikes.
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TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
Lambert: After repeated attempts, this is what I get for CDC’s wastewater page:
I conclude that CDC doesn’t know how to run a server, along with everything else they don’t know how to do.
Wastewater
This week[1] CDC December 2
Final week[2] CDC (till subsequent week):
Variants [3] CDC December 7
★Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC December 7
Hospitalization
★New York[5] New York State, information December 12:
★ Nationwide [6] CDC December 12:
Positivity
Nationwide[7] Walgreens December 9:
★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic December 7:
Vacationers Knowledge
★Positivity[9] CDC November 25:
★Variants[10] CDC November 25:
Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20:
Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20:
LEGEND
1) ★ for charts new right this moment; all others should not up to date.
2) For a full-size/full-resolution picture, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Home windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open picture in new tab.”
NOTES
[1] (CDC) Excellent news!
[2] (CDC) Final week’s wastewater map.
[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has achieved an amazing job normalizing successive waves of an infection.
[4] (ED) A bit of uptick.
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Leveled out.
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.
[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.
[8] (Cleveland) Up!
[9] (Vacationers: Positivity) Leveling out.
[10] (Vacationers: Variants). Positivity is new, however variants haven’t but been launched.
[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.
[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.
Stats Watch
There aren’t any official statistics of curiosity right this moment.
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Manufacturing: “Boeing Plans $1 Billion Enlargement in South Carolina” [Industrial Equipment News]. “Boeing yesterday introduced plans to speculate $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades at its Charleston County, South Carolina website. The growth will create 500 new jobs over the subsequent 5 years. The announcement was made by the South Carolina Division of Commerce (SCDC). Boeing South Carolina is dwelling to your complete 787 Dreamliner manufacturing cycle and fabricates, assembles, and delivers the 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10. The manufacturing facility has been in operation for greater than ten years.” • That’s non-unionized South Carolina.
Manufacturing: “Boeing, Airbus nonetheless battle with provide chains and personnel shortages” [Leeham News & Analysis]. “Michael Haidinger, president of Boeing’s European and Center Japanese areas, and Juergen Westermeier, chief procurement officer for Airbus, agree challenges stay within the close to future. ‘There may be at all times a scarcity of expert aerospace expertise intensified by the pandemic,’ Haidinger mentioned this month on the annual Aviation Discussion board (2024) in Munich, Germany. ‘As all of the professionals retired, fewer new staff entered the sphere. Our trade wants extra individuals who not solely convey experience but additionally embrace the mission of advancing aerospace.’ Haidinger added, ‘The deficit of expert engineers, technicians, and different aerospace employees has made ramping up manufacturing more difficult. Attracting and retaining expertise has turn into a prime precedence for us. [We are] with many corporations investing in workforce improvement, partnerships with universities, coaching applications, and apprenticeship applications.’”
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Right this moment’s Worry & Greed Index: 50 Impartial (earlier shut: 48 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 52 (Impartial). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Dec 13 at 2:43:33 PM ET.
Musical Interlude
Toe-tapping goodness:
Groves of Academe
“Comparative lit class can be first in Humanities Division to make use of UCLA-developed AI system” (press launch) [Newsroom, UCLA]. “The textbook: AI-generated. Class assignments: AI-generated. Instructing assistants’ assets: AI-generated.” After I ran a Literary Hub put up on this story, alert reader and demanding thinker PJay requested an amazing query: “Are we certain this isn’t a Sokal-type hoax?” So I went and dug up this press launch; the percentages of hoaxdom are vanishingly small. Right here once more, to your reference. is the AI artwork for the textbook. Put down your espresso:
The course is Comp Lit 2BW within the UCLA School Division of Humanities [sic]. Would some variety soul with a UCLA connection have the ability to throw copies of the educating materials over the transom? I’m certain the readership would take pleasure in them. My e mail handle is down by the crops.
Annals of Faith
“How a Story of Demonic Possession Predicted the Decline of an Early Medieval Empire” [Smithsonian]. “Historians can look again and see the tensions that resulted within the coup of 830, and the way its lack of decision led to a different coup try in 833 and finally to a brutal civil battle within the 840s. However all through all of the homicide, treason and plotting, most historic sources, from the Annals of Fulda to the Annals of St. Bertin, stay dedicated to the parable of stability, inevitability and God’s blessing.” • Plus ça change….
Healthcare
“UnitedHealth Group C.E.O.: The Well being Care System Is Flawed. Let’s Repair It.” [Andrew Witty, New York Times]. Witty is the chief government officer of UnitedHealth Group, the dad or mum firm of UnitedHealthcare. “He believed selections about well being care ought to begin with the person and championed plans wherein customers may see prices and protection choices upfront, so they may determine what’s greatest for themselves and their households.” • Oh.
“Brian Thompson, Not Luigi Mangione, Is the Actual Working-Class Hero” [Bret Stephens, New York Times]. “Thompson’s life might have been minimize brutally quick, however it’ll stay a mannequin for a way a proficient and decided man from humble roots can nonetheless rise to the highest of company life with out the good thing about wealthy mother and father and an Ivy League diploma.”
“The Disaster of Elite Indifference to Company Mass Homicide” [Nathan Newman, Left Future]. The deck: “And a Modest Proposal to License No Greater than 10 CEO Murders Every Yr to Enhance Company Accountability” NOTE: Satire. Type of like Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. Because the writer mentions!
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UPDATE A usually sensible thread by Moe Tkacik:
The homicide of the UnitedHealth CEO by a man who underwent spinal fusion surgical procedure for debilitating ache has unleashed a livid debate about US well being care, most of it dumbThankfully I discovered a whistleblower swimsuit filed by a surgeon UHC employed to disclaim spinal fusion surgical procedure protection.. pic.twitter.com/Ekivc1k75l
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) December 13, 2024
It’s actually making an attempt to be a weblog put up, and it’s too lengthy to display screen seize, however right here is the whistleblower (“skilled witness”) half:
The skilled witness surgeon was aghast, however when he took his proof to his overlords at UnitedHealth, they…. made him take de-escalation coaching. In the meantime, Durrani fled to Lahore, the place he’s…presently performing pointless surgical procedures. pic.twitter.com/oi9zN3kJvV
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) December 13, 2024
Price a clickthrough, although I assume the complete article will seem shortly.
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“Luigi Mangione’s Mom Spent Months Looking for a Son Who Didn’t Wish to Be Discovered” [Wall Street Journal]. “Over the previous 12 months, the household was at a loss for the place Luigi was or what he was doing, in line with the folks near the Mangiones. Within the fall, his kinfolk emailed lots of his buddies to hunt their assist. One good friend posted to Luigi on X, ‘Hey, are you okay? No person has heard from you in months, and apparently your loved ones is on the lookout for you.’ In November, his mom reportedly referred to as the San Francisco Police Division to report her son lacking. ‘She would have achieved every little thing to seek out her son and couldn’t,’ mentioned a kind of near the Mangiones.” • Hmm.
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“Lakeland girl threatens insurance coverage firm, says ‘Delay, Deny, Depose’: police” [WFLA]. “A Lakeland girl was charged Tuesday after police mentioned she ended a name to an insurance coverage firm with the phrases, ‘Delay, Deny, Depose.’ In an arrest affidavit, the Lakeland Police Division mentioned officers have been contacted by the FBI on Tuesday, Dec. 10 concerning an alleged risk remodeled the cellphone. Briana Boston, 42, had reportedly positioned a name to BlueCross BlueShield concerning current medical insurance coverage claims she was denied. The complete cellphone name was recorded, in line with the affidavit…. Police made contact with Boston at her dwelling in Lakeland, the place she reportedly admitted to utilizing these phrases throughout the name, telling detectives that ‘healthcare corporations performed video games and deserved karma from the world as a result of they’re evil.’ ‘My consumer is 42, married mom of three. By no means had any legal fees or convictions. Might you launch her on her personal recognizance,’ her lawyer Jim Headley mentioned to a choose throughout her first look in court docket. Nevertheless, the choose set her bond at $100,000, stating, ‘I do discover that the bond of $100,000 is acceptable contemplating the standing of our nation at this level.’ Boston was charged with threats to conduct a mass capturing or an act of terrorism, in line with the affidavit.” • Hoo boy.
“Lady threatens BlueCross BlueShield, saying ‘delay, deny, depose’, then will get arrested” [WHAM]. “Boston is charged with one depend “Written Risk to Kill or Injure- Conduct a mass capturing or an act of terrorism.” • This seems to be just like the related Florida statute;
However cellphone calls are exempt, and Boston made the alleged risk over the cellphone. Maybe a authorized skilled from Florida can weigh in?
Guillotine Watch
“BioLab units deadline for claims over Conyers chemical plant fireplace” [FOX5]. “Time is operating out to file reimbursement claims in connection to the BioLab chemical plant fireplace in Conyers. The fires in September despatched chemical-filled smoke into the air for days, resulting in complaints a couple of robust chemical odor and haze and forcing hundreds to shelter in place. The corporate is already going through a number of lawsuits, together with one filed by Rockdale County commissioners. The fee chair says that the lawsuit is presently in course of. As cleanup started, BioLab opened an internet site for residents to file a declare for bills incurred because of the hearth. The corporate says it has responded to greater than 29,000 calls and 9,000 emails, and helped 4,000 folks by its Neighborhood Help Middle since Oct. 8. With the excessive quantity of claims steadily lowering, BioLab has set a deadline for New Yr’s Eve for any new submissions. After that, the corporate will not settle for new claims.”• The put up offers instructions on submitting a declare, which is helpful. Nonetheless, what about long run results?
Class Warfare
“Musk’s Charitable Basis Despatched Most of Its Hundreds of thousands to His Personal Entities” [Bloomberg]. “Elon Musk’s charitable basis ballooned to $9.5 billion in belongings final 12 months whereas handing out $237 million in presents, most of which went to different entities managed by the world’s richest individual. The figures are a part of the Musk Basis’s newest tax submitting, obtained Thursday by Bloomberg Information…. The nonprofits Musk controls are a part of his huge and rising empire, which counts a carmaker, rocket firm, social media platform and, now, a serious political equipment…. Although Musk has widened his lead because the richest individual ever, his philanthropy stays muted…. The IRS mandates that foundations deploy, on common, 5% of belongings a 12 months. Musk has repeatedly missed that bar. Through the years, whilst the inspiration has grown in wealth, he has saved the staff small. Its newest submitting lists the identical handful of individuals, together with himself and his fixer, Jared Birchall.” • Lol, “muted.” “Fixer” can be fairly a robust phrase to make use of, particularly for Bloomberg. I imply, “fixer” is a Third World idea, no?
“Distributional implications and share possession of report oil and gasoline income” (PDF) [University of Massachusetts, Amherst]. “We estimate that globally, internet earnings in publicly listed oil and gasoline corporations reached US$916 billion in 2022. The US was the largest beneficiary receiving US$301 billion in fossil gasoline income each from home extraction and thru international shareholding, greater than U.S. investments of US$267 billion within the low carbon economic system that 12 months. Analyzing the U.S. distribution together with privately held US corporations, 51% of income went to the wealthiest 1%, predominantly by direct shareholdings and personal firm possession. In distinction the underside 50% solely acquired 1%. The incremental fossil-fuel income in 2022 over these in 2021 have been sufficient to extend the disposable earnings of the wealthiest Individuals a number of p.c and compensate a considerable a part of their buying energy loss from inflation that 12 months, thereby exacerbating inflation inequality. File fossil-fuel income additionally reinforce present racial and ethnic inequalities and inequalities between teams with completely different academic attainments. Our outcomes additionally present that solely a small share of general income advantages establishments that serve the broader public similar to pension funds.” • Helpful chart:
NEW PAPER: The 2022 fossil gasoline worth jumps brought about an oil and gasoline revenue explosion. We present the US reaped the most important revenue improve (USD 275bn) of any nation. Massive Oil claims this advantages the American folks. The truth is, 51% went to the richest 1%, just one% to the underside 50%. A 🧵 pic.twitter.com/2p1SVQqImO
— Isabella M. Weber (@IsabellaMWeber) December 12, 2024
“Man alleges Sean Combs drugged and raped him throughout a gathering at a New York lodge” [NBC]. • Been awhile since we heard from Diddy!
Information of the Wired
“People who find themselves good at studying have completely different brains” [The Conversation]. “Clearly, mind construction can inform us quite a bit about studying expertise. Importantly, although, the mind is malleable — it modifications once we study a brand new talent or apply an already acquired one. As an illustration, younger adults who studied language intensively elevated their cortical thickness in language areas. Equally, studying is prone to form the construction of the left Heschl’s gyrus and temporal pole. So, if you wish to hold your Heschl’s thick and thriving, choose up an excellent e-book and begin studying. Lastly, it’s price contemplating what would possibly occur to us as a species if expertise like studying turn into much less prioritised. Our capability to interpret the world round us and perceive the minds of others would absolutely diminish. In different phrases, that cosy second with a e-book in your armchair isn’t simply private – it’s a service to humanity.”
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Contact info for crops: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photos of crops. Greens are superb! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! In order for you your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it firstly of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From timotheus:
Timotheus writes: “I took this photograph of a monarch on a bee blossom bush in early September within the park in entrance of my constructing and solely simply now realized (by blowing it up) that it was tagged. I reported the quantity to MonarchWatch.org, which was straightforward. They mentioned thanks.”
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This entry was posted in Water Cooler on December 13, 2024.
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