By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Patient readers, I got a late start today. I’ll make it up tomorrow, I swear! –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Brown Thrasher, Long Branch SP and Lake, Macon, Missouri, United States.
In Case You Might Miss…
- Trump transition: Gabbard, Hegseth.
- “That’s quite an act. What do you call it?”
- LA fires.
- Tintin now in the public domain.
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
Capitol Seizure
“Vance says Jan. 6 participants who committed violence ‘obviously’ shouldn’t be pardoned” [Associated Press]. “Vance insisted in an interview on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the pardon question is ‘very simple,’ saying those who ‘protested peacefully’ should be pardoned and ‘if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.’ He later said there was a ‘bit of a gray area’ in some cases.”
Trump Transition
“Democrats want to slow Gabbard confirmation path” [The Hill]. “Democrats are insisting on delaying Gabbard’s confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence, saying they still don’t have the full slate of background checks, ethics disclosures and paperwork on a candidate whose overall qualifications have sparked their concern. ‘We’re going to insist on these documents before we go forward. I mean, that’s just kind of a nonnegotiable. You can’t do ‘advice and consent’ without it,’ Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said. ‘Particularly in the national security context, it’s critical that you have these documents. Maybe it’s not flashy and it’s not viral, but it happens to be how I feel.’ The pushback appears to have successfully delayed a hearing that would normally take place ahead of Trump being sworn into office Jan. 20…. ‘This is an extraordinarily important job,’ [ Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)] continued. ‘A lot of this [is] also about protecting the independence of the intelligence community and making sure we continue to have the ability to share classified information with our allies.’” • Lol, the “independence of the intelligence community.”
“Hegseth’s views on women in combat, infidelity and more — in his own words” [Associated Press]. “If confirmed, [Hegseth] has said there will be no more ‘social justice, politically correct approaches to how we fight and conduct wars.’ Instead, he said, ‘this is about lethality, meritocracy, readiness.’” • Well… OTOH, we don’t want to turn into the IDF, now do we?
“Trump’s Cabinet disruptors soften key views as hearings loom” [Axios]. “Three of President-elect Trump’s most provocative Cabinet picks have reversed key positions ahead of next week’s confirmation hearings, softening their edges for an establishment they’ve been charged with tearing down. For as powerful as MAGA has become, the Senate’s confirmation process remains a significant obstacle — at least nominally — to injecting fringe beliefs directly into the heart of government…. Gabbard told Punchbowl News on Friday that she now supports the Section 702 surveillance program thanks to updated whistleblower and civil liberty protections…. RFK Jr. told reporters on Capitol Hill last month: ‘I’m all for the polio vaccine’” Now do MMR. More: “Hegseth, after an early clash with Army veteran Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), said he supports ‘all women serving in our military today.’” And: “Their maximalist impulses may have been tamed, but that doesn’t mean Gabbard, Kennedy and Hegseth won’t be able to radically transform their agencies in the way MAGA envisions.”
“Bessent to divest from assets on road to leading Treasury” [The Hill]. “President-elect Trump’s Treasury Secretary pick Scott Bessent has plans to divest from funds and other investments as he prepares to take over as the country’s top economic official. In an agreement released Saturday by the Office of Government Ethics ahead of Bessent’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, he outlined his plans. Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, also shared his financial disclosures ahead of the Senate hearing later this week. Top government officials typically are required to disclose their holdings and divest from ones that could cause a conflict of interest. ‘In the event that an actual or potential conflict of interest arises during my appointment, I will consult with an agency ethics official and take the measures necessary to resolve the conflict, such as recusal from the particular matter or divestiture of an asset,’ Bessent wrote. Bessent said he will resign from his position with Key Square Group upon being confirmed by the Senate. He said he would also divest his partnership share in the company ‘as soon as practicable.’ Bessent said he would resign from his positions at other companies and foundations as well.” • Everything going very smoothly with Bessent.
Nice work, Susie:
“Trump posts wildly realistic lip-read of bromance with Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – including brutal dig at Kamala” [Daily Mail]. “The pair laughed and chatted during Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington DC last week. Trump was even questioned about what was so funny following the unusual display of friendliness. The speculation left professional lip readers scrambling to decipher what remarks between two bitter rivals has sparked such joyous laughter. Trump then decided to release his own pseudo-version of events live by posting a wildly creative – and outrageously fake – lip-read video to Instagram.” • Here it is:
[embedded content]
Obama: “I was just as appalled.” Are we sure this is a parody?
“Incoming Trump Team Is Questioning National Security Council Staff Over Loyalty” [Associated Press]. • Ick, but after RussiaGate you can see why; Gal 6:7.
Lawfare
“Special counsel Jack Smith resigns from DOJ” [Politico]. • First Smith butchered his case against McAuliffe; then Smith butchered his cases against Trump. I expect we’ll be hearing from him again!
“Cannon allows for release of Smith report on Trump election interference” [The Hill]. “U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday allowed the release of the volume of special counsel Jack Smith’s report dealing with President-elect Trump’s efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power. In a five-page ruling, Cannon denied an effort by Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case to block the release of both volumes of the report, noting that prosecutors argued the election inference report has little to do with the ongoing trial against the two men…. However, Cannon ordered a Jan. 17 hearing on whether to release the Mar-a-Lago report, something Attorney General Merrick Garland said he planned to keep sealed from the public given the ongoing prosecution into valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos de Oliveira. The ruling is a victory for the Justice Department, who have been pushing for the release of the report recapping the Jan. 6 investigation in two different courts.”
“Redacted Russiagate docs show the feds are STILL lying about Trump and their putsch attempt” [New York Post]. “The feds are still lying and obfuscating about the Russiagate conspiracy against Donald Trump: Witness the recent release, years late and heavily redacted, of a document about the origin of the FBI probe. This comes to light thanks only to the dogged efforts of the folks at RealClearInvestigations. The biggest thing the Bureau is still hiding: The ‘articulable factual basis’ on which its 2017 probe of Trump’s alleged role as a Russian intelligence asset was legitimated.” Then follows an excellent timeline. Conclusion: “[Y]ou don’t have to be Picasso (or Vassily Kandinsky) to connect the dots about what the FBI is still hiding and why. No one can know for sure until the Bureau tells the truth, but it’s beyond likely that the redacted ‘articulable factual basis’ of the 2017 probe is both non-factual and non-actionable.” • Yup.
2024 Post Mortem
Not complicated:
Note that everybody who masterminded the Kamala 2024 campaign retains hegemony (though we shall see with the DNC election).
Democrats en déshabillé
“Exclusive: DNC taps Harris’ viral wizards for new social media push” [Axios]. “The Democratic National Committee is tapping veterans of the wildly popular @KamalaHQ social media team for a new rapid response push ahead of Donald Trump’s return to office, Axios learned. The push is the latest sign of the party’s efforts to rebrand and bring in new audiences after a disappointing 2024 cycle. The new rapid response @FactPostNews initiative will try to combat online misinformation and respond to Trump administration actions by pushing out memes, videos and graphics. The account will be run by many of the same people who led the @KamalaHQ social media account during the 2024 campaign. @FactPostNews will start on X, Threads, and Bluesky and will eventually expand to TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
‘The Republican disinformation machine is powerful, but we believe a stronger weapon is giving people the facts about how Trump and his administration are screwing over the American people,’ DNC chief mobilization officer Shelby Cole said in a statement. Between the lines: The account will also take a branding cue from social media accounts that have huge, loyal followings, such as PopCrave and PopBase.” • See, Cole used language like “screwing over.” That proves they’re authentic.
“We’re DNC Members. Here’s What We Need From the Next Party Chair” [David Atkins and Michael Kapp, Washington Monthly]. “As the party tries to stem its losses among non-white and non-college voters, fixing the DNC’s culture and structure must be at the top of the list of priorities.” • Conceptualizing the Democrats problems as “losses among non-white and non-college voters” erases the concept of the working class entirely. Perhaps that’s the problem?
“Have the past 10 years of Democratic politics been a disaster?” (interview) [Matthew Yglesias, Vox]. Interviewer Eric Levitz. Throwing a flag on the Betteridge’s Law violation here; how does losing to Donald Trump twice count as anything but a disaster? Anyhow, trying to find a raisin in this bowl of mush: “The big picture thing is: Starting in the 2016 campaign and continuing afterwards, Democrats talked a lot about the idea of Donald Trump as an outlier threat to the country — but in practice, they treated his flaws as an opportunity to be more boldly and aggressively progressive across a whole bunch of fronts.” • Like Medicare for All, to take but one example. Or normalizing genocide. How come Biden never gets credit for that?
“Election math looks like it’s just going to get easier for the GOP” [The Hill]. “It’s going to get tougher and tougher for Democrats to win the Electoral College and the White House if present trends hold, new projections from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest. Democratic strongholds like California and New York appear likely to lose population and multiple electoral votes, while GOP-leaning states like Texas and Florida are likely to pick up votes. That would lead to a shift in 2030. Those changes could help expand the map for the GOP, unless Democrats can figure out ways to win Texas, Florida or some other states they lost to President-elect Trump.” And: “Taken altogether, if the estimated new map was in place for 2024, Trump would have won 10 additional electoral votes, while Vice President Harris would’ve won 10 fewer.” • So the solution is better messaging. Alrighty then.
Realignment and Legitimacy
“A time for truth and reconciliation” [Peter Thiel, Financial Times]. “In 2016, President Barack Obama told his staff that Donald Trump’s election victory was “not the apocalypse”. By any definition, he was correct. But understood in the original sense of the Greek word apokálypsis, meaning ‘unveiling’, Obama could not give the same reassurance in 2025. Trump’s return to the White House augurs the apokálypsis of the ancien regime‘s secrets. The new administration’s revelations need not justify vengeance — reconstruction can go hand in hand with reconciliation. But for reconciliation to take place, there must first be truth.” After a summary of JFK, Epstein, Fauci, debanking cryptoids (one of these is not like the others): “South Africa confronted its apartheid history with a formal commission, but answering the questions above with piecemeal declassifications would befit both Trump’s chaotic style and our internet world, which processes and propagates short packets of information. The first Trump administration shied away from declassifications because it still believed in the rightwing deep state of an Oliver Stone movie. This belief has faded.” And: “Our ancien regime, like the aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France, thought the party would never end. 2016 shook their historicist faith in the arc of the moral universe but by 2020 they hoped to write Trump off as an aberration. In retrospect, 2020 was the aberration, the rearguard action of a struggling regime and its struldbrugg ruler. There will be no reactionary restoration of the pre-internet past.” • Good shot with “struldbrugg.” Commentary:
I haven’t read up on Thiel. But from what I have read, I find myself in agreement with Loomer. Which is a little unnerving, to say the least.
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!
Airborne Transmission
Almost five years after Newton, but good anyhow:
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
| 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 January 4 |
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| Hospitalization | |
| ★ New York[5] New York State, data January 10: | National [6] CDC Janurary 9, 2005: |
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| Positivity | |
| National[7] Walgreens January 13: | Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic January 4: |
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| Travelers Data | |
| ★ Positivity[9] CDC December 23: | ★ Variants[10] CDC December 23 |
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| Deaths | |
| ★ Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 4: | ★ Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 4: |
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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) Definitely jumped. [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 There are no official statistics of interest today. Manufacturing: “AerCap CEO warns tariffs could delay Boeing cash recovery” [Reuters]. “AerCap, the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, said on Monday that potential new trade tariffs floated by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could hit supply chains and hinder planemaker Boeing’s (BA.N), opens new tab efforts to restore much-needed cash… ‘We’ll have to wait and see … what’s in the detail. A lot of parts that are supplied to Boeing, Airbus, and Embraer aircraft are common,” [AerCap CEO Aengus Kelly] told Reuters on the sidelines of the Airline Economics conference. ‘What would you do with an engine that’s partly made in France? Are you going to put a tariff of 20% on that engine? Is that counterproductive?’ Kelly added.” Manufacturing: “Boeing Stock Would Benefit from a Breakup, Specialist Says” [Barron’s]. ‘”It’s time for Boeing ‘s management to wake up and start creating value,’ says Jim Osman…. Boeing shareholders are long-suffering. Through Friday trading, shares were down almost 50% over the past five years while the S&P 500 was up almost 80%. The reasons for the underperformance have been well documented: catastrophic design decisions, a pandemic, management turnover, questionable capital allocation, and poor production quality. Osman is campaigning for a full breakup. He wants to see Boeing split into its three main divisions: commercial aerospace, defense, and services.” Manufacturing: “Troubled Boeing Offers To Assist Nigerian Airlines Secure Aircraft Insurance” [Sahara Reporters]. “Boeing International Corporation has expressed its willingness to support Nigerian airlines in securing sufficient aircraft insurance coverage. This assistance will be facilitated through partnerships with financially stable lessors and global financiers. Moore Ibekwe, Boeing’s Sales Director for the Africa Region Commercial Airlines, made this announcement in Dublin, Ireland, at the inaugural meeting of the ‘Boeing Lessor Forum’, which takes place from January 12 to 15.” • At least the sales department is in there punching. Tech: Elon’s mercurial pesonality: Something going on here. Perhaps we should invoke the Twenty Fifth Amendment? Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 25 Extreme Fear (previous close: 26 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 37 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 13 at 1:33:14 PM ET. Rapture Index: Closes up one on Wild Weather. “The fires in California are the result of very wild weather” [Rapture Ready]. Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 181. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • “Wild Weather” (#38) as opposed to Climate (#43). Zeitgeist Watch “Trump’s team is discussing a trip to survey the L.A. wildfire devastation” [NBC]. “President-elect Donald Trump’s team is engaged in conversations about his visiting Los Angeles to view the wildfire damage, two sources familiar with the discussions said. Trump, who has repeatedly criticized local and state officials for their response to the fire, has been invited out by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Rep Judy Chu, also a Democrat, said Sunday on CBS News she intended to invite both Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as well. Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined to comment on the trip discussions. It’s unclear whether Trump would go before or after his Jan. 20 inauguration…. On ‘Fox News Sunday’ this weekend, Vice President-elect JD Vance said he knew Trump ‘wants to visit California,’ but offered no further details.”• It’s a trap! “Narrow Roads, Deep Canyons: L.A. Firefighters Confront Nature’s Perfect Firetrap” [Wall Street Journal]. “It is here, among the cliffs and crevices of Topanga Canyon, that crews face a real dogfight in some of the most complex firefighting topography in the world. Firefighters’ biggest mission is to protect the property and lives of the roughly 10,000 residents, many whose homes cling to steep terrain off winding, tree-lined streets so narrow that two vehicles can’t pass in places. While small in population, Topanga looms large in Angeleno lore as a getaway for Hollywood stars in the 1920s, and home in the 1960s to rockers Neil Young, Jim Morrison and Linda Ronstadt, along with serial killer Charles Manson and his family. Wedged in the Santa Monica Mountains, the canyon has seen numerous blazes over the years—although none as menacing in the 57 years that Armida Madrid has lived here.” • Worth a read for the local color. “LA’s rich & famous hiring $2,000-an-hour private firefighters to protect million-dollar homes & businesses” [The U.S. Sun]. “One wealthy source said: ‘This week’s events have shown you can’t trust the city to protect your property.’ The source added: ‘I have the money, so why not?’ Private firefighters are not uncommon in LA with Kim Kardashian using private crews to save her home in Hidden Hills California in the 2013 wildfires.” • And all these lovely people will seek places to live that are “unspoiled.” “Editorial: From the city that used fire as a catalyst for reinvention, good wishes for Los Angeles” [Chicago Tribune]. “Here in Chicago, historians see a fire in which one-third of people in this city lost their homes and at least 300 died as a unique catalyst for growth and reinvention, although it it is often forgotten that the city got a lot of help from people outside its borders. Within little more than year, a visitor to Chicago could not see many visible signs of the prior destruction, and the roaring city had gained a fierce and lasting reputation for resilience and new opportunity. Once the fires are out and losses mourned, LA will have a similar chance to look hard at the changing environment in which it lives, improve its services with the benefit of bitter experience and build back better. For now, though, we stand with its people through the painful slog of recovery.” “The psychological toll of California’s catastrophic fires” [Axios]. “People exposed to California’s deadliest wildfire, the 2018 Camp Fire, showed greater chronic symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to research published in 2023. ‘These findings dovetail with significant psychological impacts noted after extreme climate events,’ researchers wrote. ‘Warming temperatures have been further linked to greater suicide rates.’ Another News of the Wired “Celebrating the Timeless Allure of Tintin’s Aesthetics” [ 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! 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