2:00PM Water Cooler 10/5/2022 | bare capitalism

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Hen Tune of the Day

Diversified Solitaire, Darién, Panama. “Gen. Local weather: Humid. Cowl Density: Medium.”

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Politics

“However what’s authorities itself, however the biggest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“Right here’s meals for thought, had Ahab time to suppose; however Ahab by no means thinks; he solely feels, feels, feels” –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“The logic of the insult and the logic of scientific classification symbolize the 2 excessive poles of what a classification could also be within the social world.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

Biden Administration

“Biden’s Operation Warp Pace revival stumbles out of the gate” [Politico]. “They even had a reputation for the hassle: Mission Covid Protect. However months later, it’s barely taken off — stymied by fading political curiosity in prolonging a conflict in opposition to a pandemic that even the president has declared “over.” Mired in a standoff with Republicans over extra Covid response cash, the administration has but to speculate closely in any of the promising vaccine targets it’s recognized. The delay has compounded concern contained in the White Home over Individuals’ vulnerability to future variants. Extra lately, administration officers have grown alarmed that the U.S. all of the sudden trails rival China within the world pursuit of recent scientific breakthroughs geared toward curbing Covid. ‘The notion we’re going to sit down on the sidelines and watch different nations construct these things needs to be completely anathema to us,’ White Home Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha advised POLITICO. ‘I consider this very a lot as a biosecurity challenge in addition to a pandemic preparedness challenge.’” • Perhaps they need to name within the former man to seek the advice of. No less than he knew the right way to get the job accomplished.

See, no matter is “emotional” is genuine and good:

Normalizing fascism is what that is. Nothing else. I hope these guys had been advised to take off their Accomplice battle flag patches…..

2022

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“Why Vicente Gonzalez will not be protected in his solidly Democratic district” [Texas Tribune]. “In a twist, Gonzalez, a three-term congressman, is just not the incumbent the place he’s operating, since he opted to run in a brand new district after redistricting. That distinction goes to Republican U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, who received her particular election and flipped the district purple in June after a tsunami of help from nationwide Republicans hopeful to make South Texas their new stomping grounds. Emboldened by that win, Republicans are relentlessly going after Gonzalez’s verbal gaffes and portraying him as an out-of-touch creature of Washington. Gonzalez’s aggressive spending within the race exhibits that he’s not taking something without any consideration. His marketing campaign has spent $2.2 million as of the tip of June on a sturdy floor recreation — almost twice the bills of his previous two campaigns mixed — and that’s earlier than he launched his first TV advert in late September. With over $1.4 million in money readily available, he’s on his method to surpassing his 2016 spending of $2.3 million. This yr is his most sturdy operation since he first ran for Congress in 2016, he mentioned. To Republicans, it’s an admission that their forays into the standard Democratic stronghold of South Texas are scaring Democrats and that Flores’ particular election was not the one-time, low season fluke they’ve made it out to be. Flores stresses her message of exhausting work, religion and border safety attraction to the socially conservative values of the area, saying Democrats took South Texas Latinos without any consideration even because the get together turned more and more out of step with their values.” • Hmm.

2024

“Senate Dems face brutal 2024 map with at the very least eight undecided incumbents” [Politics]. “Even because the caucus pushes to develop a 50-50 majority this fall, it’s bracing for a combat to defend 23 seats to the GOP’s 10 within the subsequent election cycle — a lot of them in purple and purple territory. Towards that backdrop, at the very least eight members of Chuck Schumer’s caucus are agonizing over whether or not to run once more, and a pair hail from states which may be misplaced to the GOP if the incumbent bows out. A number of senators are ready to see how the midterms shake out in a month earlier than making any strikes, in line with interviews and statements from 22 of the 23 sitting Democrats up in 2024. And holding the bulk this fall in a troublesome setting may assist hold some incumbents happier about operating for reelection.”

“DeSantis takes over the nationwide dialog” [The Hill]. “Nobody has been on the forefront of the nationwide dialog extra within the final month than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). DeSantis, seen as a prime contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is firmly on the heart of the nationwide information cycle. He made headlines initially by alternative when he had dozens of migrants flown from Texas to Martha’s Winery, Mass., in a bid to grab consideration within the combat over the border. As that controversy continued to unfold, DeSantis discovered himself on the heart over his state’s preparations after which response to Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida exhausting. Since then, DeSantis has remained within the nationwide consciousness with each day information conferences carried dwell on nationwide information networks, piquing the curiosity of viewers who aren’t solely within the aftermath of the storm but additionally within the governor himself. ‘In politics, you need visibility virtually greater than the rest,’ one Democratic strategist acknowledged of the governor’s fixed presence on the political stage in current weeks. ‘And it’s protected to say he’s gotten that visibility greater than virtually any nationwide determine as of late.’ ‘Individuals know who he’s,’ the strategist added. ‘That’s the candy spot.’” • I want I knew what “the nationwide dialog” was. I’ve by no means seen one, or participated in a single.

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, it appears that evidently persons are really studying the back-dated put up! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are various updates. So I must do this. –lambert

I’ve moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Celebration (“the Democrat Celebration is a rotting corpse that may’t bury itself”) to a separate, back-dated put up, to which I’ll periodically add materials, summarizing the addition right here in a “dwell” Water Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It seems that defining the Democrat Celebration is, in reality, a tough downside. I do suppose the paragraph that follows is on level all the best way again to 2016, if not earlier than:

The Democrat Celebration is the political expression of the category energy of PMC, their base (lucidly defined by Thomas Frank in Hear, Liberal!). ; if the Democrat Celebration didn’t exist, the PMC must invent it. . (“PMC” modulo “class expatriates,” after all.) Second, all of the working components of the Celebration reinforce one another. Go away apart characterizing the relationships between parts of the Celebration (ka-ching, however not fully) these parts comprise a community — a Flex Web? An iron octagon? — of funders, distributors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with belongings within the press and the intelligence neighborhood.

Notice, after all, that the category energy of the PMC each expresses and is proscribed by different lessons; oligarchs and American gentry (see ‘industrial mannequin’ of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working class spring to thoughts. Suck up, kick down.

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#COVID19

• ”WashU COVID-19 nasal vaccine know-how licensed to Ocugen” (press launch) [Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis]. The deck: “Intention is for commercialization in U.S., Europe, Japan” Extra: ” A nasal vaccine for COVID-19 – primarily based on know-how developed at Washington College in St. Louis – is on the trail to turning into accessible within the U.S., Europe and Japan. The college has licensed the rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize its proprietary COVID-19 vaccine in the USA, Europe and Japan to Ocugen Inc., a U.S.-based biotechnology firm centered on growing and commercializing novel gene and cell therapies and vaccines…. Ocugen intends to work intently with U.S. authorities businesses tasked with pandemic preparedness and response to provoke medical trials and manufacture the intranasal vaccine. The corporate is also within the potential for the nasal vaccine to be a common booster, no matter an individual’s earlier COVID-19 vaccination historical past…. The Washington College nasal vaccine know-how was beforehand licensed to Bharat Biotech Worldwide Restricted in 2020 for growth in India and restricted components of the world. This September, well being authorities in India accepted the vaccine for emergency use in that nation, making it the world’s first intranasal vaccine for COVID-19 to be accepted.” • In fact, if the eugenicist molasses-brained Biden Administration had constructed on the previous man’s Operation Warp Pace, we’d have made the “photographs in arms” paradigm out of date by now. However then Pfizer wouldn’t like that, would they? So we’ll see how this goes.

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• A layered technique:

Two nits: I’m not so certain about “non-contact” providers, if which means cost. Money cost make the road transfer quicker, and which means much less shared are. Additionally, “masks” and “respirators” are handled as two separate issues, complicated, I consider, to the layperson. In any other case, sure. Extra like this! (And I feel we are able to safely get rid of an precise picture of Swiss Cheese? I perceive the metaphor that if the virus will get by a gap in a single layer, the subsequent layer received’t have a gap in the identical place, however I feel it’s a bit of strained. Nothing works 100% of the time and I feel folks know this. I suppose, although, that that is on a par with “the dreaded way of life change” mentioned to assist folks drop some pounds. However we should strive, and modifications like this do occur (see smoking), although slowly.

• Maskstravaganza: “A number of Massachusetts faculties lengthen masks mandates indefinitely” [New York Post]. “Three Massachusetts faculties are extending their COVID-19 masks mandate — and a fourth is placing it to a vote — whilst masking necessities are disappearing across the nation. Mount Holyoke Faculty, Smith Faculty and Hampshire Faculty have all prolonged their masks mandates indefinitely, in line with releases made prior to now month. ‘I’m sorry to say that due to the comparatively excessive confirmed COVID-19 case counts on campus (roughly 50 per week for the reason that begin of the semester) we might want to proceed our indoor masks mandate till additional discover,’ Mt. Holyoke’s president, Beverly Daniel Tatum, mentioned in an open letter final week. ‘It’s clear that the present ranges of an infection have taxed our campus well being care system and residential providers to the restrict.’” • Is sensible, given wastewater and hospitalization knowledge.

• Maskstravaganza:


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• “Attempting to find Pi – the subsequent variant after Omicron – in the bathroom” [GAVI]. “Illness detectives are looking out for the subsequent variant of COVID-19 and for the reason that virus remains to be in such excessive circulation worldwide the virus is continually mutating. This implies it may very well be evolving to raised evade vaccines and assault our immune programs. Though Omicron was milder than the variants got here earlier than it, scientists have warned the subsequent variant – which is able to in all probability be known as Pi – may very well be much more lethal…. As SARS-CoV-2 will be shed in faecal matter for weeks after the respiratory signs clear, wastewater is an apparent place to search for new variants…. Dr Marc Johnson, a virologist on the College of Missouri in Columbia, is working with O’Connor to hint wastewater lineages in Wisconsin. With their colleagues, they’re looking so-called ‘cryptic lineages’, that are viral lineages in wastewater that didn’t match something in world databases of thousands and thousands of sequences. These cryptic lineages had been important in that they usually had a number of mutations within the spike protein that SARS-CoV-2 makes use of to enter our cells – and which our immune system targets. Dr O’Connor advised Nature that such lineages may assist forecast macro traits in SARS-CoV-2 evolution, which may in flip assist the event of variant-proof vaccines and coverings. For these virologists, rather a lot is driving on early detection of the subsequent main COVID-19 variant. ‘A number of the lineages we’re discovering make Omicron look pedestrian,’ mentioned Dr Johnson.” • Oh.

The virus is attempting exhausting to flee:

To date, it’s had good success. And the final time Biden declared the pandemic was over, Omicron occurred. That’s why I proceed to observe these things….

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• Took lengthy sufficient. And the tweet remains to be up, persevering with to wreck and kill:


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• Don’t fear, be completely satisfied:


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• ”Excessive-Contact Object and Floor Contamination in a Family of Individuals with Monkeypox Virus An infection — Utah, June 2022″ [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC]. Case examine from a two-person family. “Among the many 30 specimens, 21 (70%) yielded constructive real-time PCR outcomes, together with these from all three porous gadgets (i.e., material furnishings and blankets), 17 of 25 (68%) nonporous surfaces (e.g., handles and switches), and certainly one of two combined floor sorts (i.e., chair) (Desk). No specimen yielded a constructive viral tradition outcome. In the course of the interval of isolation each residents of the house reported showering a few times every day, performing hand hygiene roughly 10 instances each day, laundering bedding and clothes weekly, and performing routine family cleansing (e.g., mopping and each day use of a multisurface spray on most high-contact surfaces). The cleansing spray used was not listed on the Environmental Safety Company’s Checklist of Disinfectants for Rising Viral Pathogens. Monkeypox virus DNA was detected from many objects and surfaces sampled indicating that some stage of contamination occurred within the family setting.” • In order that’s fomites. Now do aerosols.

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Lambert right here: Walgreens, it appears, is useless. That’s unlucky as a result of now there’s no knowledge on positivity and no test on CDC’s variant knowledge. The interagency entity that produced speedy riser counties and hospitalization knowledge is decreasing publication to as soon as per week. Johns Hopkins may even reduce on its feeds. I suppose that is how a pandemic ends, with websites merely going darkish with no clarification? I’m bummed. In any case, on the finish of the week, I’ll must reconfigure this part, sadly. This part is loads of work, however I did really feel it was an effort that may carry some security to readers of their “private danger administration.” So it goes.

Case Depend

Case rely for the USA:

Instances are undercounted, one supply saying by an element of six, Gottlieb pondering we solely decide up one in seven or eight.) Therefore, I take the nominal case rely and multiply it by six to approximate the true stage of instances, and draw the DNC-blue “Biden Line” at that time. The earlier rely was ~45,800. At present, it’s ~43,300 and 43,300 * 6 = a Biden line at 259,800. (Bear in mind these knowledge factors are weekly averages, so each day fluctuations are smoothed out.) The black “Fauci Line” is a counter to triumphalism, because it compares present ranges to previous crises. If you happen to have a look at the Fauci line, you will note that regardless of the bleating and yammering about Covid being “over,” we have now solely only in the near past reached the (nominal) case stage of the primary surge in New York, within the spring of 2020 (after which the Occasions printed the photographs of the 100,000 who died, contemplating that a big quantity, because it was on the time).

Regional case rely for 4 weeks:

The South:

Florida’s japery continues.

The South (minus Texas and Florida):

Frankly. the regular drop amongst all this smallish Southern states collectively offers me extra hope than the rest.

The West:

This drop is the explanation the nationwide figures dropped. Each time there’s been a drop this massive, it’s been revised away.

Wastewater

Wastewater knowledge (CDC), October 1:

Lambert right here: I’m happy to see that there are actually some dwell websites in New York Metropolis.

For grins, September 30:

An alert reader recommended having a look at the MWRA knowledge from the Boston space, and lo and behold:

Lambert right here: Notice that this rise is per an increase in hospitalization within the Northeast.

It is a seven-day common, thoughts you, so the rise isn’t any fluke. (MRWA is split into north and south sewersheds. Each are rising.) Allow us to additionally do not forget that the Boston space is just not solely the house of many, many college students, it’s additionally a PMC heart, and we have now already seen one ginormous superspreader occasion from the convention in Boston. Boston additionally has a serious worldwide airport, one other reason for unfold.

Positivity

SITE DOWN From the Walgreen’s check positivity tracker, September 21:

-0.5%. Not a lot down, as fluky. One thing appears to have nuked the format.

Transmission

NOTE: I shall most actually not be utilizing the CDC’s new “Neighborhood Degree” metric. As a result of CDC has mixed a number one indicator (instances) with a lagging one (hospitalization) their new metric is a poor warning signal of a surge, and a poor method to assess private danger. As well as, Covid is a illness you don’t need to get. Even in case you are not hospitalized, you may undergo from Lengthy Covid, vascular points, and neurological points. For these causes, case counts — identified to be underestimated, on account of house check kits — deserve to face alone as a quantity to be tracked, irrespective of how a lot the political operatives in CDC management want to obfuscate it. That the “inexperienced map” (which Topol calls a “capitulation” and a “deception”) remains to be up and being taken critically verges on the felony. Use the neighborhood transmission instantly under.

Right here is CDC’s interactive map by county set to neighborhood transmission. (That is the map CDC needs solely hospitals to have a look at, not you.)

Lambert right here: I’ve to say, I’m seeing extra yellow and extra blue, which continues to please. However is the pandemic “over”? Effectively….

Speedy Riser knowledge, by county (CDC), October 4:

Earlier Speedy Riser knowledge:

Hospitalization knowledge, by state (CDC), October 4:

See the NOTE under. It’s mind-boggling that this report is being reduce at a time when hospitalization is rising within the Northeast. I imply, I believed hospitalization was what these guys cared about?

NOTE: From CDC: “Efficient September 23, 2022, the Neighborhood Profile Report will solely be up to date as soon as per week, on Fridays. We apologize for any inconvenience brought on by the delayed add for 09/30/2022.” At prime proper, the Obtain is labeled “Up to date: October 4, 2022.” The file identify: “Community_Profile_Report_20220929.pfd.” Even within the smallest issues, CDC simply lies and lies. To be truthful, this file is admittedly produced by “an interagency group with representatives from a number of businesses and places of work (together with the USA Division of Well being and Human Companies, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and the Indian Well being Service. In order that they’re all mendacity, not simply the CDC. “The way in which to regulate and direct a mentat, Nefud, is thru his data. False data–false outcomes”. -Baron Harkonnen.

Variants

Lambert right here: It’s past irritating how sluggish the variant knowledge is. I regarded for extra charts: California doesn’t to a BA.4/BA.5 breakdown. New York does but it surely, too, is on a molasses-like two-week cycle. Does no one within the public well being institution get a promotion for monitoring variants? Are there no grants? Is there a single lab that does this work, and all people will get the outcomes from them? Further sources from readers welcome [grinds teeth, bangs head on desk].

SITE DOWN Variant knowledge, nationwide (Walgreens), September 10:

Nonetheless no signal of BA.2.75 at Walgreens, regardless of its look in CDC knowledge under.

Variant knowledge, nationwide (CDC), September 10 (Nowcast off):

Deaths

Loss of life fee (Our World in Information):

Complete: 1,085,366 – 1,085,060 = 306 (306 * 365 = 111,690, which is at the moment’s LivingWith™* quantity (fairly a bit greater than the minimizers would love, although they’ll discuss themselves into something. Fluctuates fairly a bit, however even the low numbers are dangerous). I’ve added an anti-triumphalist black Fauci Line.

It’s good that for deaths I’ve a easy, each day chart that simply retains chugging alongside, in contrast to every part else CDC and the White Home are screwing up or letting go darkish, good job.

Stats Watch

Companies: “United States ISM Non Manufacturing PMI” [Trading Economics]. “The ISM Companies PMI got here in at 56.7 in September of 2022, falling from 56.9 in August however beating market forecasts of 56, and nonetheless pointing to the expansion above the historic common of 55.”

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Tech: “Newest Updates: Elon Musk, Twitter Proceed Talks About Closing Deal” [Wall Street Journal]. “Elon Musk has provided to shut his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter Inc. on the phrases he initially agreed to. Twitter confirmed receipt of the proposal and mentioned it intends to shut the transaction on the authentic worth of $54.20 a share. Ought to the events agree to take action, the proposal would allow them to avert a five-day nonjury trial set to start Oct. 17. There are not any ensures they may attain a deal and the trial may nonetheless go ahead as deliberate.” • Ya know, for all of the liberal Democrat sneering at Rumble, and Fact Social, Gab, Parler, and many others., at the very least the proper wing loons bootstrapped the platforms. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if liberal Democrat aghastitude if, say, Musk offers Trump his Twitter account again will prod liberals into doing the identical. I’m guessing now; liberal Democrats will proceed to depend on censorship.

The Bezzle: I discovered this collection of interviews by Mark Blyth (see right here and right here) the opposite day:

Effectively value a pay attention!

Manufacturing: “Engine components makers should cross ‘valley of loss of life’ to achieve EV period” [Reuters]. “Auto engine components makers eyeing the promising electric-vehicle market are coping with a extreme case of delayed gratification. Till EVs actually take off, engine components makers face a deadly few years the place they need to make investments closely in new equipment, whereas scuffling with falling gross sales of fossil-fuel vehicles.”

The Financial system: “Most CEOs are already making ready for a recession, with plans together with shedding workers and slicing spending on environmental points, a serious survey exhibits” [Business Insider]. “Most CEOs are already making ready for a recession, which they suppose will slash earnings and stunt progress, in line with a brand new survey by KPMG. Measures corporations plan to take to climate the recession embody slicing ESG spending and shedding workers, the survey, which canvassed the opinions of the CEOs of 400 American corporations with annual revenues of at the very least $500 million, confirmed. The overwhelming majority of CEOs – 91% – mentioned they thought there could be a recession inside the subsequent yr, and solely a 3rd mentioned it might be delicate and brief. 80% mentioned they thought it might have an effect on their group’s anticipated progress over the subsequent three years. Goldman Sachs analysts mentioned in August that there was a 30% likelihood that the US would enter a recession over the subsequent 12 months, however {that a} recession within the Euro space was twice as possible. However knowledge from the Bureau of Financial Evaluation exhibits that Individuals have already spent virtually a 3rd of their pent-up financial savings, which Pantheon Macroeconomics mentioned exhibits ‘the danger of recession is greater than we beforehand thought.’”

* * *

At present’s Concern & Greed Index: 32 Concern (earlier shut: 30 Concern) [CNN]. One week in the past: 19 (Excessive Concern). (0 is Excessive Concern; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Oct 5 at 1:46 PM EDT.

Photograph E-book

“‘A standard floor for the development of pictures’: Aperture celebrates 70 years” [Christies]. “This September, Aperture celebrates 70 years since its institution in 1952. The founders had been a consortium of photographers, thinkers and champions of the medium, together with Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, Nancy and Beaumont Newhall, and Minor White. The mission, as said within the inaugural challenge of the journal, nonetheless resonates at the moment: “‘Aperture has been originated to speak with severe photographers and artistic folks in every single place, whether or not skilled, newbie or pupil… Aperture is meant to be a mature journal through which photographers can discuss straight to one another, focus on the issues that face pictures as career and artwork, share their experiences, touch upon what goes on, descry the brand new potentials. We, who’ve based this journal, invite others to make use of Aperture as a typical floor for the development of pictures.’” • I keep in mind when my favourite bookstore on Brattle Avenue had an entire shelf of Aperture Books, squarish, with white covers. Robert Frank. André Kertèsz. Weegee. Many others. Wonderful stuff. Anyhow, an attention-grabbing interview.

Sports activities Desk

“Pair accused in fishing scandal received 1000’s of {dollars}, boat in string of wins” [The Hill]. “The world of aggressive fishing, the place anglers battle for money and prizes, is being rocked by a dishonest scandal that unfolded at a event in Cleveland on Saturday. The event to crown the most effective walleye fishermen on Lake Erie took a scandalous flip when the native event director found that the 2 fishermen thought-about the group to beat inflated the burden of their catch by stuffing the fish with lead sinkers after which padding the within of the walleye with fillets, stopping judges from discovering the added weight. Cleveland fisherman John Stewart witnessed the cheaters being caught purple handed. ‘That was the surprising half, like ‘oh wow, you actually did that.’ Like, it was simply so blatant. It was similar to they didn’t have a care on the planet,’ Stewart mentioned.” • First chess, now fishing. What subsequent?

Zeitgeist Watch

“Why Everybody Is All of a sudden Slamming Vitality Drinks” [Wall Street Journal]. “Vitality-drink gross sales within the U.S. had been 17% greater in August in contrast with a yr in the past, and up 56% since summer time 2019, in line with analytics agency NielsenIQ.” • The next re-assuring photograph seems with the article:

Down, boy!

Video games

I’m stunned it took so lengthy for one thing like this to seem:

Or possibly I simply missed it?

Groves of Academe

Right, unhappy to say:

My impulse is to roll every part again. I want I knew what a “roll ahead” would seem like. As a result of that’s what’s going to occur.

Police State Watch

All is just not nicely in Newton, MA:

Zoom in on that “sufferer assertion” at left.

Class Warfare

“Railroad executives need to get rid of conductors — and exhausted rail employees are terrified” [Freight Waves]. “Norfolk Southern, like most Class I railroads within the U.S., is trying to whittle down crews to at least one particular person. Most freight trains within the U.S. presently have a conductor and engineer on board. The conductor usually screens and levels freight vehicles, whereas the engineer screens the velocity and situation of the engines pulling these vehicles.” One man operating a mile-long practice? That is nuts. Extra: “A current examine commissioned by the AAR explored these instances to indicate that one-person crews will be protected. Taking a look at collisions, derailments, and different worker accidents or fatalities, the examine concluded that ‘main European operators utilizing single-person crews gave the impression to be as protected as Class I multiple- particular person crew operations.’ Nonetheless, there are key variations between these trains and Class I freight trains that make the latter doubtlessly tougher to function with only one employee. These trains are not often so long as the ever-expanding Class 1 freight trains. And people trains are typically far lighter, too — with the typical European practice round a sixth of the standard weight of a U.S. practice.” • Freight Waves on the aspect of the angels, right here. The article consists of this photograph:

“Maine Lobster Union Factors the Means for Organizing Gig Financial system Employees” [Bloomberg]. “Lobstering is an inherently individualistic pursuit. Most boats are crewed by simply two or three folks, and a few captains go it alone. They depart harbor earlier than daybreak, spend the day hauling traps up from the seafloor , then motor again to the dock to promote the creatures for the most effective worth they’ll get. It’s exhausting work that pulls rugged, self-reliant folks—in different phrases, not your typical union members. That’s what makes Native 207—the one lobstering union within the US—so uncommon. The last decade-old group in Maine represents about 200 lobstermen (as males and most girls within the enterprise name themselves). The union members personal three 18-wheel vans, a pair of smaller automobiles for hauling the produce from wharves, and a so-called tank room, a warehouse full of tubs of refrigerated ocean water through which the crustaceans spend a last few days in one thing resembling their house setting earlier than reaching their final destiny: a fast plunge right into a vat of boiling water. ‘We work for the fisherman,’ says Jason Rizzitano, supervisor of the tank room close to Bar Harbor. The lobster union gives a possible mannequin for gig economic system employees searching for to push again in opposition to massive corporations that siphon off the majority of earnings in lots of trades, says Rebecca Lurie, a professor of Labor Research on the Metropolis College of New York. By working collectively, such teams have organized Uber drivers, house health-care employees, and cable-internet technicians. Furthermore, they’ll get an enormous enhance from organized labor, which ‘gives unparalleled help, in addition to an air of legitimacy,’ she says. The union—extra sometimes called “Lobster 207”—obtained its begin after a crash in costs 10 years in the past.” • Dirigo!

“NYC’s Monetary District now blighted with spiking crime, vagrants” [New York Post]. “As soon as one of many hottest neighborhood in NYC, the Monetary District is now merely a dumpster fireplace, residents and employees advised The Publish. In early September at the very least 4 trash fires had been set alongside Cliff, William and Water streets.” • Sure, now the trash is on the skin. That’s the downside.

Class battle will be fractal:

Information of the Wired

Wow:


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Contact data for crops: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn the way to ship me a test in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn the way to ship me photographs of crops. Greens are nice! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary crops! If you need your deal with to seem as a credit score, please place it in the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize through the use of your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From JU:

JU writes: “Fall colours, Three Rivers, CA.”

Readers, I may nonetheless use extra plant photographs (and honorary plant photographs, like fungi or coral). Fall colours, backyard yield, no matter you’ve obtained!

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not coated by the annual NC fundraiser. So when you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see anyplace else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible type. Bear in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common constructive suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. After I get no donations for 5 or ten days I get fearful. Extra tangibly, a continuing trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I consider that trickle when setting fundraising targets:

Right here is the display that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

If you happen to hate PayPal, you may e-mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I gives you instructions on the right way to ship a test. Thanks!

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