By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Bird Song of the Day
Brown Thrasher, Hammonasset Beach SP, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
- Trump to change “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.”
- “FBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate”: Aaron Maté.
- HPMV in China.
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
Trump Transition
“Coming soon: Gulf of America” [Politico]. “‘We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory,’ Trump said. ‘The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.’ It marked Trump’s latest pledge to expand the United States’ reach throughout the world, following statements about annexing Canada and Greenland.” • Monroe would be proud. I am not sure how toponyms are standardized in the United States, or internationally, but no doubt there is an entity to which Trump could address his concerns.
“Trump’s Going Places With Energy, but Biden’s the Backseat Driver” [RealClearInvestigations], “Trump has made it clear he wants to realign U.S. energy policy toward cheap, abundant energy and away from expensive, emerging renewable sources, many of which rely on government subsidies. But experts say his options may be limited in cases where Congress approved spending bills, contracts were signed, or even where he encounters pushback from reluctant ‘green’ enterprises that have relied on government largesse in the push for a ‘NetZero’ future. ‘Congress would have to repeal some of that,’ said Travis Fisher, the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, referring to hundreds of billions in climate-relate funding, including in the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation passed during the last four years. ‘The question in some cases will be, ‘Do you try to improve what’s been done or repeal it?’ And then, if there are grants that have already gone out the door, those would be hard to claw back. But there are still a lot of targets for quick changes on day one.’ Some Trump supporters think the avenues that are open to a new administration, as well as Trump’s track record, give cause for optimism for those who want to reduce government spending or let the markets determine energy prices and accessibility. ‘When Trump promises something he usually delivers, and I would expect to see significant changes in energy policy with him,’ said Geoffrey Pohanka, the 2023 chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association.” • Automobile dealers. Classic American gentry.
I’m so old I remember when “our democracy” was at stake!
Is there a single person in DC or media acting as if Literal Adolf Hitler is about to assume power in 2 weeks in order to end American democracy, install fascism, and create a white supremacist dictatorship?
Is it possible those who said this for years never believed it?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 6, 2025
Lawfare
“FBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate, Newly Released Document Shows” [Aaron Maté, RealClearInvestigations]. “In response to a Freedom of Information request filed by RealClearInvestigations in August 2022, the FBI on Dec. 31, more than two years later, released a heavily redacted copy of the document that opened an explosive and unprecedented counterintelligence probe of the sitting president as an agent of the Russian government…. The Electronic Communication, dated May 16, 2017, claimed to have an ‘articulable factual basis’ to suspect that Trump ‘wittingly or unwittingly’ was illegally acting on behalf of Russia, and accordingly posing ‘threats to the national security of the United States.’” So Trump could have been “unwittingly” a Russian spy? Isn’t that a little over-broad? “The investigation of Trump was undertaken at the behest of then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, one week after Trump had fired his former boss and mentor, James B. Comey…. According to the declassified document, McCabe’s decision was approved by FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap, who had also signed off on the opening of Crossfire Hurricane; and Jim Baker, the FBI general counsel. Baker was a longtime friend of Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and a key figure in the dissemination of Clinton-funded disinformation to the FBI that falsely tied Trump to Russia… After leaving the FBI, Baker served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, where he backed the company’s censorship of reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, based on yet another conspiracy theory that the laptop files were Russian disinformation.” • And that’s just the beginning of the story.
2026
“Outgoing US transport chief says Boeing has more to do after 737 MAX” [Reuters]. “Buttigieg, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, has said he has not made any plans for future jobs, but is viewed by some Democrats as a potential candidate for Michigan governor in 2026.” • Michigan? Buttigieg is going to carpetbag Michigan?
Our Famously Free Press
“Elon Musk Cusses Out Student Who Called Him a Fake News Machine” [Daily Beast]. “‘Elon Musk is rapidly becoming the largest spreader of disinformation in human history, hijacking political debates in the process,’ wrote Joni Askola, a Finnish graduate student and activist for defense of Ukraine. ‘The EU must take action!’ ‘F u retard,’ came Musk’s response, containing a slur used against people who have mental disabilities. He then replied saying ‘yes’ to another person who said: ‘We could have avoided a lot of disasters by simply telling leftist retards to stfu.’” I get a lot of hope from the idea that conservatives don’t “know their enemies” at all; there’s no way a pro-Ukrainian activist calling for moar EU is on the left. More: “Musk appears to have made a conscious choice to reintroduce the word [“f*ck] into right-wing parlance of late, often using it on his X platform. An analysis of his X posts and replies shows that he has used the term or a variant of it 15 times since Dec. 20, having never used it before that.” Back in the day, we in the blogosphere (“foul-mouthed bloggers of the left” –Davd Broder) thought of “f*ck” as transgressive, a sign of the birth of a new media, etc. It was just boring, as boring as Musk’s antics are becoming. More: “This is despite [Musk’s] Dec. 29 plea for more ‘positivity’ on the platform. ‘Please post a bit more positive, beautiful or informative content on this platform,’ he said. That post came just days after he used his new favorite slur against Americans during a wild meltdown over H-1B visas.” • The Twitter firehose gets fed right into xAI’s training sets. Should be amusing to see the outcomes, given that many (a majority?) of Twitter users are proud of surviving the hellscape, don’t want it to change, and are gaming Mush’s requests (and xAI’s training sets) with heavily ironiic positivity.
“Elon Musk ‘locks reporter from X’ after article sheds light on Tesla owner’s alleged alter ego Adrian Dittman” [Daily Mail]. “A bizarre conspiracy claiming Elon Musk uses an alias to praise himself on his own social media network took an unexpected turn when a journalist who debunked the theory was banned from the platform. Jacqueline Sweet appeared to be restricted on X after she published an investigation that proved Adrian Dittmann was an actual person living in Fiji – and not Musk operating under the pseudonym in order to praise himself. Shortly after Sweet’s article – outing Dittmann as a German entrepreneur – was published in The Spectator World, Musk responded a predictably cryptic post on X.” • I’m glad Musk occupying his beautiful mind with nonsense like this.
Democrats en déshabillé
“DNC chair hopeful Martin O’Malley says Dems will continue to lose if party doesn’t connect with working class” [FOX]. • This won’t help:
Learned nothing, forgotten nothing:
The NYT proudly says Biden’s award of presidential medals of freedom to people like Hillary, George Soros, The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein “signals his support for the establishment Trump wants to tear down.”
In other news, the NYT asks why Dems “lost the working class.” pic.twitter.com/VeIQ2hKk0h
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 5, 2025
Gawd knows I’m all for civilty and against violence…
But I wish Sanders had punched her out. Kamala, after her butchery of the 2024 campaign, has no standing to make fun of anybody.
“Bernie Sanders Plans to Force Vote on H-1B Reforms” [Lee Fang]. “Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans to shake things up with a new political fight over the controversial H-1B visa program. What began as a dispute on social media over the last week will soon hit the halls of Congress. A source close to his office told me that the senator is drafting several amendments to improve the program radically – including raising income levels for foreign workers taking jobs through the H-1B visa and hiking the application fees for corporations utilizing the program. The push is a reprisal of similar 2007 amendments Sanders offered during the debate over the Bush immigration bill. During that period, he worked closely with his Republican colleagues. The new amendments will be attached to major legislation offered over the coming weeks — essentially forcing lawmakers to go on the record. Sanders is currently in talks with potential cosponsors and expects to bring a unique pro-American labor coalition of Democrats and Republicans together to crack down on H-1B abuse. The Vermont senator, now a ranking member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, may benefit from a reshuffle in committee assignments. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., two Republican opponents of visa programs used by corporations to import foreign workers, have joined the committee this year.” • A Sanders-Tuberville H-1B reform alliance wasn’t on my Bingo card….
“New Dem additions to a plum panel are spurring private angst” [Politico]. “An under-the-radar decision to add Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and about half a dozen other members to the House Energy and Commerce is causing some angst among House Democrats, according to three people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to detail private discussions. In an unusual move, the Steering and Policy panel filled six out of the seven open slots on the Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday morning and left the last position open for a 10-way race. The spots were highly competitive, and some lawmakers are questioning why certain members like Ocasio-Cortez were selected while others were left to compete for the last open spot…. Since [2020], Ocasio-Cortez has claimed an inside track in the caucus, paying dues to the caucus’ campaign arm and making up with other lawmakers. She also backed away from support for primary challenges when she mounted an unsuccessful bid to be the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee last month. The committee has broad jurisdiction over health care, energy, technology and other policy areas that will be in the spotlight in the new Congress, as the GOP takes full control of Washington. The panel chaired by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) has a long tradition of bipartisanship.”
NY: “The Democratic Panic in New York” [Washington Magazine]. “Torres, an outspoken critic of ‘woke politics,’ has become the most interesting politician in New York. He has positioned himself as a centrist alternative for governor in 2026, lambasting Hochul as ‘the new Joe Biden’ for being soft on crime and endangering public safety. In a post-election interview with Hanna Rosin of The Atlantic, Torres identified himself as pro-immigration but blamed the Biden administration for letting the border crisis get out of control. ‘So we can blame the voters. We can claim that the voters are misogynist and white supremacist. We could blame Fox News and the New York Post. But those institutions have always been with us in recent political history,’ he said. When pressed on his vision for Democrats, Torres replied, ‘Economically populist, right? We have to convey the sense that we’re fighting for working people and that we’re holding powerful interests accountable, right?… People do care about border security. People do care about public safety. We have to ensure that we’re on the center of those issues while doubling down on economic populism.’” • Any New Yorkers want to comment on Torres?
Realignment and Legitimacy
“State governments by party control, 2025” [Axios]. “‘Republicans notched the two biggest legislative victories’” of Election Day 2024, per Cook’s Matthew Klein: Flipping Michigan’s House of Representatives and splitting the Minnesota House.” • Handy map:
“Luigi Mangione Court Case Hit With Delay” [Newsweek]. “On Monday, prosecutors and defense attorneys jointly requested additional time to prepare the case for trial, further delaying proceedings. Attorneys for both sides agreed in a letter to the court to extend the deadline for indicting the accused, Luigi Mangione, from January 18 to February 17. Mangione, 26, is currently charged through a criminal complaint, a preliminary document filed against individuals before a formal indictment is issued. Prosecutors stated that they consulted with the defense team and agreed on the need to extend the indictment deadline, citing the importance of allowing “both parties adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings and the trial itself.’ • The Federal case, which presumably the incoming administration needs to get a handle on.
“Luigi Mangione visited gun range on Thailand vacation months before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killing: report” [New York Post]. “Accused killer Luigi Mangione hit up an expensive gun range during a trip to Thailand — just months before he allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the Big Apple, his travel friends have claimed. The 26-year-old accused assassin visited the gun range after leaving the US on a solo Asia trip early last year, two German tourists who met him during his travels told TMZ’s new ‘Luigi Mangione: The Mind of a Killer‘ documentary. Mangione opted to skip a beach day and head to the range instead, according to the friends — who were only identified as Paul and Max… The pair, who said they traveled extensively with Mangione through Asia, also claimed he was obsessed with Indian author Jash Dholani’s book “Hit Reverse: New Ideas From Old Books,” which examines philosophical viewpoints from a range of authors. He even apparently purchased 400 copies of the book and flew to Mumbai to try to give the author his personal feedback, the German travelers said.” • Hmm.
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!
Transmission: HPMV
“China’s latest virus surge is the human metapneumovirus (HMPV), which has also seen spikes in the U.S. Here are the symptoms and whether it could be the next pandemic” [Fortune]. “But HMPV is not new, and the U.S. has also seen spikes, which receded, most recently in spring of 2023. HMPV is ‘probably much more common than we know,’ Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, previously told Fortune. ‘We are finding it more often because we are testing people for respiratory diseases post-COVID and RSV,’ he says. Human metapneumovirus is a leading cause of acute respiratory infection, according to the American Lung Association. As with RSV, most humans have been infected with HMPV by age 5. While the vast majority will fare fine at home, as many as 10% of pediatric hospitalizations are due to lower respiratory infections caused by the virus, according to the National Library of Medicine. A 2010 study found that it was the one of the most common viruses among 256 children hospitalized with respiratory ailments, second only to RSV. When it comes to elderly adults, about 22 in every 10,000 are hospitalized with the virus each year—particularly seniors with cardiovascular disease, according to a 2013 article in the journal Viruses. Symptoms are pretty much identical to other respiratory viruses, and testing is necessary to tell them apart. As with its relative, RSV, HMPV has the potential to hit harder for the young and the elderly, as well as for those with weakened immune systems.”
“CNA Explains: What is HMPV, why are cases rising in China and should you be worried?” [Channel News Asia]. “Professor Paul Tambyah, a Senior Consultant at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) Division of Infectious Diseases, noted that Chinese health officials have greatly stepped up surveillance of acute respiratory infections with better diagnostics and deployment of technology. ‘It is not surprising that more HMPV infections are being picked up. This does happen in China every winter on a regular basis, especially in northern China,’ Prof Tambyah said. ‘The bottom line is that we should not be overly concerned as there are no reports of a major public health impact from the increased detection in Northern China (but) of course, all this could change with more data,’ he added. Public health experts have noted significant differences between both [HMPV and SARS-CoV-2], with HMPV generally less severe with a lower mortality rate.”
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
Lambert: New York City hospitalization is one of oldest and most consistent datasets, and it’s going up; approaching “jump” territory after the holidays. I don’t like that at all, and I like the New York state data even less:
| Wastewater | |
| This week[1] CDC December 30 | Last week[2] CDC (until next week): |
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| Variants [3] CDC December 21 | Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC December 28 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data January 6: | National [6] CDC Janurary 2, 2005: |
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| Positivity | |
| ★ National[7] Walgreens January 6: | ★ Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| Positivity[9] CDC December 16: | Variants[10] CDC December 16 |
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| Deaths | |
| Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC November 20: | Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC November 20: |
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LEGEND 1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated. 2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.” NOTES [1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but 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) Slow and small but steady increase. [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 Supply Chain: “United States LMI Logistics Managers Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Logistics Manager’s Index dropped to 57.3 in December 2024 from 58.4 in November, the lowest in four months. This slowdown was largely driven by a seasonal decrease in Inventory Levels, which fell by 6.1 points to 50.0, signaling no overall change. However, this masks the underlying trends: upstream firms like manufacturers and wholesalers saw inventory levels rise to 57.9 due to increased imports, while downstream retailers experienced a significant decline in inventory levels, dropping to 33.9, as expected during the holiday season.” Employment Situation: “United States Job Openings” [Trading Economics]. “The number of job openings increased by 259,000 to 8,098 million in November 2024, from an upwardly revised 7.839 million in October and above market expectations of 7.70 million. The number of job openings increased in professional and business services (+273,000), finance and insurance (+105,000), and private educational services (+38,000) but decreased in information (-89,000).” Manfacturing: “Boeing needs to start designing a new plane soon to help turn things around, former CEO says” [Business Insider]. “Phil Condit, who led the planemaker from 1996 to 2003, told The Wall Street Journal, ‘You’ve got to get people excited about what they’re doing. You don’t come to work just for a paycheck. You come to work because you care about what you’re doing.’” • Not sure I would give a whole lot of weight to a former Boeing CEO’s views on labor….. Manufacturing: “Boeing progresses on manufacturing improvement plan” [Manufacturing Dive]. “‘As the strike ended, I spoke directly with the CEO [Kelly Ortberg] about the importance of adhering to safety-management principles as Boeing resumed production,’ outgoing FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in the agency’s Jan. 3 blog post reflecting on the year since the Alaska Airlines incident. ‘It’s clear that message hit home, as Boeing spent a full month post-strike making sure the necessary safety steps were taken before restarting production.’” • “A whole month”….. Tech: “Uber And Lyft Will Roll Out Robotaxis This Year. But There’s A Problem” [InsideEVs]. “The robotaxis, however, have a mountain to climb in terms of safety, public trust and logistics. Waymo riders are facing a new form of harassment as people have been hostile towards self-driving cars—vandalising, threatening passengers and obstructing the vehicles. General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi division suspended operations last year after one of its Chevrolet Bolt EVs dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco.” • Oh, Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 26 Fear (previous close: 27 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 33 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 2 at 1:24:36 PM ET. Rapture Index: Closes down one on drought. “Rain chips away at general drought conditions” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 181. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Hard to believe the Rapture Index isn’t at an all-time high. Doesn’t the collapse of Syria bring the Third Temple closer? Do these people know something we don’t? Gallery Awwwww! Musical Interlude Flubs and all, from a live performance: [embedded content] Quite the rhythm section, Wyman and Watts. Wyman is generally buried so far down in the mix you don’t hear him… Public Health “Fluoride Exposure and Children’s IQ Scores: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” [News of the Wired “Mistletoe” [ Wukchimni writes: “Dusty the Adventure Dog eyeing the eastern Sierra.” Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert’s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. 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