2:00PM Water Cooler 7/24/2024 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon, Suffolk, New York, United States. “Singing from a rooftop. Mimicry includes Black-capped Chickadee, Killdeer, Carolina Wren, Northern Flicker, American Robin (call), Blue Jay, and possibly a few others of lesser fidelity.”

In Case You Might Miss…

(1) Impeachment articles against Harris (frivolous).

(2) How Harris grabbed Biden’s war chest.

(3) Only Google can search Reddit.

(4) The wheel of emotions.

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

The Constitutional Order (Twenty-Fifth Amendment)

“Tennessee Republican files articles of impeachment against Harris” (The Hill). “Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) filed articles of impeachment against Vice President Harris on Tuesday, as Republicans ramp up attacks while she launches a presidential campaign…. The filing expands on previously introduced articles that target Harris’s record on immigration… He added a second article in the new filing, which claims Harris covered up President Biden’s mental well-being, constituting a ‘breach of public trust.’” • I don’t the immigration stuff is impeachable, so I’ll skip that part. But here are Ogle’ articles of impeachment, and here is the Twenty-Fifth Amendment section, which I have helpfully annotated:

(1) I don’t think failing to act upon a putative “moral obligation” is an impeachable offense “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”).Here once again is the relevant part of the Twenty Fifth Amendment:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

The Twenty Fifth Amendment gives the Vice President (Kamala) the power to “declare” that “that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” but it imposes no duty to do so. “Moral obligation” or no, there’s no Constitutional obligation.

(2) So what?

(3) “Breaches of public trust”, “failing basic expectations,” and “lack of integrity” are not high crimes and misdeameanors either. Nor are they rare in Our Nation’s Capital. “Use every man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape whipping?” –William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

This is frivolous, and it’s no wonder the leadership doesn’t support it.

2024

Less than four months to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Virginia and North Carolina added to the list. NC was never going for Biden Harris, but Virginia? Yikes!

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Biden Defenestration:

“Biden was deathly pale… Air Force One was flying so fast I felt sick: Daily Mail’s reporter on board reveals the incredible inside story of the mad rush to get Joe to Covid isolation – and why she feared for him” (Daily Mail). “When (Biden) finally stepped through the door, his appearance was shocking. He looked pale, weak, exhausted and shuffled slowly across the room. ‘He looks bad,’ one reporter muttered. We all agreed. (Unmasked,) Biden greeted (and potentially infected) the patrons, shaking hands with families at three different tables and posing for selfies. Finally, a colleague got wind of a tip. The president’s next scheduled event at UnidosUS had been canceled. ‘Biden has COVID,’ my colleague shouted. Moments later, we could see Karine Jean-Pierre and other senior Biden staff piling into their vans. Once he was on board, we reporters rushed to find our seats in the back of the plane. And nearly from the moment we lifted off the runway, the fuselage began to shake. It’s not entirely uncommon for Air Force One pilots to drop the hammer. President Trump routinely asked his crew to cut down flight times by going faster. But this break-neck speed was unusual for President Biden…. The normal flight time from Vegas to Delaware is around four and a half hours. We made the trip in three hours and 48 minutes.” • Hmm. Makes you wonder if there were any sequelae from his previous two infections (that we know of).

“Joe Biden’s COVID Hubris is the Nail in His Re-Elect Coffin” (Julia Doubleday, The Gauntlet (PI)). “The truth is that to the DC machine, Joe was, just like the rest of us, ultimately disposable. He served his purpose by serving capital; his maskless face as an elderly man in public was the ultimate propaganda for the disappearance of the virus that ended his career as surely as he claimed to have ended it. He gave his career, his body and his mind to advance the interests of the ruling class, to the detriment of us all. They say life’s a beach, Joe. I guess it is for you, now.” • He claimed to have ended Covid. Then Covid ended him.

Harris Rollout:

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The Campaign Trail:

Harris (D): “Biden dropped his reelection plans. What happens to his campaign war chest?” (interview) (Sean Cooksey, NPR). Cooksey is the Republican Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). “Well, I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer. I mean, we take a step back to consider the situation – this is really unprecedented in terms of modern political history, and certainly in terms of campaign finance law. We have a presidential nominee or a presumptive nominee dropping out just weeks before his party convention. And he’s – what he’s attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets…. (o)ver to another person.” Q: We get that. So can she use that money? Well, again, I think it’s going to have to go through a process through the FEC. I think I expect there’s going to be probably challenges to that at the agency and probably in the courts, as well… Yeah. I think there’s a number of different avenues that I could expect different parties to challenge this attempted transfer, this attempted change to the presidential committees. There’s a process in which private parties can file complaints with the Federal Election Commission. There’s also a process in which they prospectively ask for advisory opinions. One of the problems with those processes is they can take a lot of time, and we don’t have a lot of time until the election, I think we’re at 106 days out. And so I think there’s going to be a lot of challenges in the courts as well.” • Whether or not there are grounds for injunction, I don’t know. (Though now I wonder if redirecting Biden’s site to ActBlue immediately upon his defenestration is one of the moving parts here.) Cooksey tweeted the relevant campaign finance law:

11 C.F.R. § 110.1(b)(3):

“If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated …, or reattributed …, as appropriate.”

— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 21, 2024

And got a nastygram in return:

11 C.F.R. § 110.1(b)(3):

“If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated …, or reattributed …, as appropriate.”

— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 21, 2024

We don’t actually have even the sketchiest sort of evidence of Biden “giving” Harris “all his campaign cash.” It seems that Harris just took it; the process did seem a bit brusque. I think the matter turns on the two words “redesignated” or “reattributed” in 11 C.F.R. § 110.1. I am not a campaign finance law maven, but if either implies a process at the FEC, potential litigants might have a point (based on strict textual reading):

The Biden-Harris campaigns could have asked for an expedited legal advisory opinion from the FEC before acting. Given the unprecedented nature of the situation, that would have been the ethical thing to do. Instead, they took advantage of the slow timeline to resolve complaints…

— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) July 24, 2024

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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 (dashboard); 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, 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: Covid

“Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva, stool, and urine samples of COVID-19 patients in Bihar, India Open Access” (Microbiology Research). From the Abstract: “Besides inhalation as a route for transmission, feco-oral has also been proposed. Its transmission to sewage systems is a growing public health issue…. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted from January 2021 to March 2022 on human non-respiratory samples. A total of 345samples including saliva (116), stool (97), and urine (132) were collected from 143 COVID-19 cases. Samples were analysed for SARS-CoV-2 by multiplex RT-PCR targeted against E, ORF 1ab, and RdRp genes. In this study, out of 143cases, a total of 107 (74.8%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in at least one of the nonrespiratory samples. There is a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in non-respiratory samples.” And: “The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the faeces of COVID-19 patients indicates potential feco-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In addition to this, the excretion of SARS-CoV-2 in human stool and saliva is a concern of public health importance, especially in developing countries like India where open defecation and spitting in public is a rampant practice. Also, stray animals may get infected and might serve as a source of infection for humans. The sewage system might also be a potential source of viral outbreaks, community spread, and a future surveillance strategy. However, these potential routes of transmission need further investigation.”

Maskstravaganza

Masks while swimming (!), a thread:

It’s pool and beach season! Will a respirator work for swimming and water parks (or shower sans hair washing)?

Using my PortaCount 8020A, I tested the most accessible & affordable water-resistant respirator, 3M Aura 1870+, after 6 and 8 hours of wear at the pool (1.5hrs total of… pic.twitter.com/xwx00hGI8V

— Stealthy Jess 🇨🇦 💜 (@AdvancedTweaker) July 24, 2024

Celebrity Watch

Winning gold in the FAFO Olympics:

Yesterday: Australia’s Olympic team chief said one water polo player had covid but they were ‘treating covid no differently to other bugs….this isn’t Tokyo.”

Today: pic.twitter.com/4uHwfWHG34

— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) July 24, 2024

Elite Maleficence

Another sure-to-be maskless conference, coming up:

Please tell me the pandemic preparation community has learnt something from the disastrous WHO AIRBORNE disinformation response to SARS-CoV-2??

Is the focus still just on vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, and surveillance?

Is no one discussing the lesson about the vital… https://t.co/jnjR8KgarD pic.twitter.com/AgkRAAPJgw

— John Johnston (@JOHNJOHNSTONED) July 24, 2024

“Is no one discussing the lesson about the vital role of transmission mitigation strategies and the fundamental importance of getting the mode of transmission right?” Until the powers-that-be can figure out how to charge rent for the air, the “mode of transmission” will not be of “fundamental importance,” no.

Lambert here: Looks like the holiday travel dumped accelerant on the pre-existing surge; see especially the growth in wastewater “hot spots.” Stay safe out there!

Tech: “CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage” (TechCrunch). “CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one…. ‘To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!’”

Tech: “Google Is the Only Search Engine That Works on Reddit Now Thanks to AI Deal” (404 Media). “Google is now the only search engine that can surface results from Reddit, making one of the web’s most valuable repositories of user generated content exclusive to the internet’s already dominant search engine. If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where the links go or why, instead only saying that ‘We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.’ Older results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer able to crawl’ Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward. Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid search engine that buys part of its search index from Google. The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its search results. And while neither Reddit or Google responded to a request for comment, it appears that the exclusion of other search engines is the result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products. They’re (Reddit) killing everything for search but Google,’ Colin Hayhurst, CEO of the search engine Mojeek told me on a call.” • And of course, as usual, Google “scraping” Reddit means stealing the labor of hundreds of thousands of users. “Original accumulation,” as the Bearded One calls it. All for a power-hungry bullshit generator nobody ever asked for, but the Bros thought would be a great idea!

Tech: Hat tip, Silicon Valley:

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 55 Neutral) (CNN). One week ago: 58 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 24 at 12:37:17 PM ET.

Zeitgeist Watch

Interesting graphic:

Interesting idea but I’m not sure I accept the categories or the method (Spinoza distinguishes between emotions and feelings, though without the text to hand I can’t say why. But I’m not sure this wheel does). Meanwhile, a fraction within the Democrat Party is clearly feeling strong emotions, collectively, after Kamala’s annunciation. I don’t know where to place them on this wheel (nor do I understand them in the first place).

Class Warfare

“Extreme wealth has a deadening effect on the super-rich – and that threatens us all” (George Monbiot, Guardian). “Extreme wealth can severely hamper enjoyment. As Michael Mechanic documents in his book, Jackpot, there are two groups of people who have to think about money all the time: the very poor and the very rich. Immense wealth possesses you just as much as you possess it: managing it becomes a full-time job. You don’t know whom to trust; you can start to imagine your friends aren’t friends at all; it can dominate and poison your family relationships. It can hollow you out, socially, intellectually and morally. But I think there might be a further corroding aspect of wealth that hasn’t been widely discussed. Great wealth flattens the world. If you can go anywhere and do anything, everything is over the horizon. You speed past the local and the particular, towards an endlessly escalating ideal of luxury: the better marina, the bigger yacht, the private jet, the super-home. The satisfaction horizon can retreat before you. Place has no meaning, other than as a setting that might impress the friends you no longer trust. But anyone who is impressed by money is not worth impressing.”

News of the Wired

“Relationships are coevolutionary loops” (Escaping Flatland). “This is what I infer when I see someone who is comfortable in their unique strangeness, too. There probably exists someone who enabled that evolution of personality. A parent, a friend group, a spouse. It is rare for people to come into themselves if no one is excited and curious about their core, their potential. We need someone who gives us space to unfold…. For me, this is Johanna. We first met when she was 21 and I was 22 and later became a couple. What is me in me has unfolded primarily in her company. This has been a mutual unfolding; we spoke each other into being. This essay is about how we made our first home together. By home I don’t mean just the physical structure, but the emotional space in which the coevolutionary loop plays out.” • Hmm.

Nevertheless, progress still does occur:

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 timotheus:

Timotheus writes: “Tobacco as decoration.”

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