\n<\/p>\n
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nPatient readers, I am now going to take a nap. Enjoy!<\/p>\nBird Song of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt National Park \u2013 Upper Talkington Trail, Billings, North Dakota, United States.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#trump\">Trump\u2019s pivot<\/a>to the Northern Hemisphere.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#zeitgeist\">LA Palisades Fire<\/a>: This is fine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#photos\">Photos<\/a>: Workers working.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<li><a href=\"#mate\">\u201cFBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate\u201d<\/a>: Aaron Mat\u00e9. <\/li>\n<p><strong>Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Trump Transition<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"99.382277834525\">\n<p>\u201cScoop: Trump\u2019s 100 executive orders\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/trump-immigration-executive-orders-stephen-miller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cPresident-elect Trump and top advisers previewed ambitious plans for 100 executive orders during a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday night, Axios has learned. While Congress debates the next moves on their own aggressive legislative plans, Trump let them know he is ready to roll \u2014 especially on immigration. Senators were given previews of some of what they were told would be 100 executive orders, two sources who were in the room told Axios. Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s longtime immigration adviser, dove into how they intend to use executive power to address the border and immigration starting Day 1. It\u2019s unclear if all will be technical executive orders, or more broadly executive actions taken by Trump or federal agencies.\u201d \u2022 \u201cA preview,\u201d \u201c100.\u201d Pure marketing! The difference between 2016 and 2020 is night and day.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cElon Musk says DOGE probably won\u2019t find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/elon-musk-says-doge-probably-wont-find-2-trillion-federal-budget-cuts-rcna186924\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NBC News<\/a>]. \u201cMusk told political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that the $2 trillion figure was a \u2018best-case outcome\u2019 and that he thought there was only a \u2018good shot\u2019 at cutting half that. \u201d So a \u201cgood shot\u201d to Mars would be getting halfway there? More: \u201cMusk\u2019s lowered estimate is a significant downgrade from his earlier view. At a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27, Musk said he\u2019d be able to cut the federal budget by \u2018at least $2 trillion.\u2019\u2026. Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is co-leading the DOGE budget-slashing effort, which Trump named in reference to an internet meme. The advisory panel has no official authority and is expected to make recommendations to the White House after Trump is sworn in for a second term. Experts have said Musk and Ramaswamy would need to propose cuts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/12\/06\/doges-musk-ramaswamy-try-to-sell-congress-on-huge-spending-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mandatory programs such as Medicaid<\/a>, the health care program for the poor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2024\/10\/29\/elon-musk-2-trillion-budget-cuts-trump-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to achieve significant savings<\/a>. Musk himself has warned that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/economy\/economy-if-trump-wins-second-term-could-mean-hardship-for-americans-rcna177807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cuts could mean \u2018hardship\u2019 for some<\/a>.\u201d \u2022 But nobody who is anybody!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"trump\"\/>\u201cKremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/kremlin-trump-remarks-greenland-canada-says-russia-has-arctic-interests-2025-01-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked about Trump\u2019s comments about Greenland and Canada, the Kremlin said that Russia, which has the largest Arctic coastline, was closely watching the \u2018dramatic development\u2019 of the situation. \u2018The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests,\u2019 Peskov said. \u2018We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone.\u2019 \u2018We are watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely, but so far, thank God, at the level of statements.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDanish officials fear Trump is much more serious about acquiring Greenland than in first term\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2025\/01\/08\/politics\/danish-officials-trump-greenland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. \u201cWhen President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea \u201cabsurd\u201d and rebuffed him outright. Now, Danish officials are being warned by Trump allies and advisers that he is serious, multiple Danish officials told CNN. And they\u2019re carefully weighing how to respond without sparking a major rupture with a close ally and fellow NATO member\u2026. Trump said on Tuesday that \u2018we need Greenland for national security purposes.\u2019 \u2018People really don\u2019t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security,\u2019 he said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.\u201d \u2022 \u201cWe need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanadian leaders say Trump\u2019s talk about Canada becoming the 51st state isn\u2019t funny anymore\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/canada-trump-us-state-131dcff58a8f56116765f160d9f35460\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cDominic LeBlanc, the country\u2019s point person for U.S-Canada relations, said Trump was smiling when he first made the comment during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in late November. \u2018The joke is over,\u2019 said LeBlanc. \u2018It\u2019s a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.\u2019 Trump keeps floating the idea that Canada should join the United States as the 51st state, saying Tuesday he would not use military force to invade the country, which is home to more than 40 million people and is a founding NATO partner. Instead, Trump said he would rely on \u2018economic force\u2019 as he erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada \u2014 a natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oil \u2014 as a subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHawaii Gov: RFK Jr.\u2019s Anti-Vax Misinformation Left Dozens Of Kids Dead In Samoa\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/hawaii-governor-josh-green-rfk-jr-vaccines-hhs_n_677ebc3ce4b0f751b99402ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HuffPo<\/a>]. I wish RFK was straightening out the food supply; that is what I hoped MAHA would do, and it\u2019s worth doing. But there we are: \u201c[Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D)] traveled to Washington this week specifically to meet with Republican and Democratic senators to urge them to oppose Kennedy\u2019s nomination \u2014 the same week Kennedy is on Capitol Hill making his case to Democratic senators about why they should support him. He\u2019s offering his perspective on a well-known \u2018tragedy\u2019 that took place in Samoa in 2019, after two children died due to human error on the part of nurses administering their vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella. The mistake led to some people losing confidence in vaccines, and right around this time, Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccination activist, visited the Pacific island state and campaigned against vaccines on social media\u2026. As Kennedy pushed his anti-vaccination campaign\u2026 the inoculation rate plummeted to 31% and the measles virus spread. Samoan leaders asked the Hawaii governor for help, so he went to their island with dozens of health care providers to help vaccinate as many people as possible. By this time, there were approximately 5,000 confirmed cases of measles, Green said, and the outbreak would lead to more than 80 deaths, most of them among children\u2026. Ultimately, Green and other medical professionals helped vaccinate 37,000 people throughout the country. They staved off more deaths, but he said thousands of people suffered and countless others likely developed encephalopathy, a condition that can cause inflammation in the nervous system that can lead to hearing loss, blindness or intellectual disability. At the time, Kennedy blamed the dozens of measles deaths on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/robert-kennedy-jr-shocking-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the vaccine itself.<\/a> There was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/measles-in-samoa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">no evidence for his claim<\/a>\u2026. Green urged President-elect Donald Trump to rethink Kennedy\u2019s nomination and instead consider him for a different post. \u2018There may be a very good place for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,\u2019 he said. \u2018This is not partisan. This is not political. This is medical.’\u201d \u2022 But\u2013<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatchdog group accuses RFK Jr. of voter fraud\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/rfk-voter-ny-accusations-00196984\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201cA complaint filed by the left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US on Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with POLITICO, alleged that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. committed felony election fraud when he voted in the 2024 election\u2026. The complaint states that Kennedy voted by mail and his ballot was received by the Westchester County board of elections on Nov. 2. The primary residence listed on the ballot was to a home in Katonah \u2014 an address about 45 miles outside of New York City that has been central to previous court challenges from Democratic-leaning groups arguing Kennedy did not actually live there and should not be eligible to be on the ballot in the state when he ran as an independent candidate.\u201d In a previous case \u201cKennedy had argued he\u2019d been renting a room from a childhood friend in Katonah, but that friend\u2019s spouse testified that Kennedy had only spent one night at the residence.\u201d \u2022 More lawfare, though. Seems to me this undercuts Green\u2019s effort, which is far more important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawfare<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"13.872561768531\">\n<p>\u201cTrump is laying out his legal takeover this week \u2014 before he even takes office\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawdork.com\/p\/trump-is-laying-out-his-legal-takeover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LawDork<\/a>]. \u201cOn Wednesday, Trump\u2019s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend \u2018a sitting President\u2019s complete immunity from criminal prosecution\u2019 to the \u2018Presidential transition\u2019 period or, at the least, to stop the sentencing while appeals continue. And, in another matter now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, they asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday to block the current Justice Department from issuing any final report from Special Counsel Jack Smith because it would \u2018interfer[e] with President Trump\u2019s transition efforts and harm[] the institution of the Presidency, all to the detriment of the American people.’\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Wizard of Kalorama\u2122<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"3.9432989690722\">\n<p>Sharing a laugh with Hitler:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.630303030303\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.5151515151515\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We need to get Jackie G to do some lip reading here. <\/p>\n<p>What did Trump say to make Obama laugh. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lKRGgd36rt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lKRGgd36rt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@yashar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yashar\/status\/1877380589315105084\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"12.832797427653\">\n<p>\u201cWith Bass abroad, even Democrats are slamming LA mayor over wildfires\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/los-angeles-fires-mayor-karen-bass-handling-criticized-00197137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201c[M]oderate Democrat Rick Caruso, a real estate mogul who lost his mayoral bid to Bass in 2022, spent the morning making local TV appearances blasting Bass for traveling to Ghana, despite reports as early as last week about an impending wind storm\u2026. Bass\u2019 decision to not return from Ghana sooner drew criticism Wednesday from even the left flank of political media\u2026. Bass is still flying back to Los Angeles, and her spokespeople didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment about her current location.\u201d \u2022 Oopsie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Republican Funhouse<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"31.208356239692\">\n<p>\u201cFalsehoods around the L.A. fires are proliferating on the right\u201d [Philip Bump, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/8qoWo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cWe should begin by noting that most of the criticisms \u2014 about the hydrants or water diversion or the LAFD itself \u2014 have nothing to do with why the fires erupted and spread so quickly. Instead, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds quickly spread small fires across areas that were unusually dry. Wildfires have long been a challenge in California; what\u2019s unfolding in Los Angeles is an overlap of factors that increase the risks of wildfires spreading\u2026 It\u2019s 2020 election denialism wearing a different outfit.\u201d \u2022 I think Bump has the politics wrong, or at least not completely right. California is a one-party state, run by Democrats. On the Democrat side, that leads to corruption, backscratching, and whatever the political party equivalent of inbreeding is. As for the Republicans, they\u2019re desperate to regain power. Everything gets viewed through that lens, and hence the extreme display of \u201cany stick to beat a dog\u201d on display this week. For example:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3512658227848\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.313291139241\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: The Los Angeles Fire Department has resorted to using handbags to throw water on the fires.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles is the 2nd largest city in the wealthiest country in the world and their fire department is fighting fires with women\u2019s purses.<\/p>\n<p>Wild.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nUxcgCal2o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/nUxcgCal2o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1877391747040293068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I like Rugg well enough, but this is wrong and worse, lazy. Plus \u201chandbag\u201d is obvious feminization, designed to induce\u2026 Well, I\u2019m having a hard time integrating \u201cknee-jerk\u201d and \u201cknuckle-dragging\u201d into the same sentence, so I will just move along. This whole California Republican discourse forgets, or represses, that Los Angeles was built on a desert, so you expect dry tinder filling the canyons, water problems, wind\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"28.690666666667\">\n<p>\u201cThe Luigi Mangione effect may supercharge the need for security guards, which just made LinkedIn\u2019s fastest-growing jobs list for the first time\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/01\/09\/security-guards-linkedin-fastest-growing-jobs-ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fortune<\/a>]. \u201cLinkedIn\u2019s 2025 Jobs on the Rise report details the fastest-growing positions in the U.S. over the past three years. As expected with the A.I. boom, advanced technology roles were the most popular. But surprisingly, security guards have ranked as the tenth fast-growing job in the U.S. right now\u2026. Andrew Seaman, news editor for jobs and career development at LinkedIn, tells Fortune this could reflect reduced police forces, the cannabis industry\u2019s need for guards, and a rise of in-person activities\u2026. \u2018We\u2019re getting calls from everybody,\u2019 Glen Kucera, president of enhanced protection services at Allied Universal, told Fortune last month. \u2018Demand for the security business follows events. If there\u2019s a specific incident, then companies say, \u2018I need to protect my executives. I need to protect my employees from this happening again.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExclusive: Young Americans sympathize more with CEO shooting suspect than victim\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/luigi-mangione-approval-poll-gen-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked with whom they sympathize more, 45% of respondents chose suspect Luigi Mangione, 17% chose Thompson, and 37% said neither. 48% said they view the killing as totally or somewhat justified. Those findings chime with an Emerson College <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/17\/united-healthcare-ceo-killing-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">poll<\/a> which found that 41% of voters under 30 found the killing \u2018acceptable,\u2019 far more than in any other age group.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Syndemics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk&null=Risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>); Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>, <del><a href=\"https:\/\/biobot.io\/data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Biobot<\/a><\/del>; includes many counties; <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wastewater Scan<\/a>, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/businesssolutions\/covid-19-index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a>); \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/iowacovid19tracker.org\/hospitals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Iowa COVID-19 Tracker<\/a>\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/icemsg.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts<\/a>\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>Resources, United States (Local): AK (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AR (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/633006d0782b4544bd5113a314f6268a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AZ (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.azdhs.gov\/covid19\/data\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); CA (<a href=\"https:\/\/skylab.cdph.ca.gov\/calwws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.marinhhs.org\/surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marin, dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/healthalerts.stanford.edu\/covid-19\/wastewater-dashboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stanford, wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/?v=SC2_N&l=Oakland%2C+CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Oakland, wastewater<\/a>); CO (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.colorado.gov\/data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/d79cf93c3938470ca4bcc4823328946b#utility=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); CT (<a href=\"https:\/\/data.ct.gov\/stories\/s\/COVID-19-data\/wa3g-tfvc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); DE (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.delaware.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); FL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/5b9d75ba683849928dc1a49c39ab0b1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); GA (<a href=\"https:\/\/dph.georgia.gov\/ga-nwss-wastewater-surveillance-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); HI (<a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); IA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmmwra.org\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater reports<\/a>); ID (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Boise; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/?plantId=1056f05c-0e46-4e3d-b007-c0453ba7dc0d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Central Idaho; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/#:SARS-CoV-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Coeur d\u2019Alene; dashboard, <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.srhd.org\/topics\/spokane-county-case-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spokane County<\/a>); IL (<a href=\"https:\/\/iwss.uillinois.edu\/wastewater-treatment-plants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); IN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.in.gov\/indiana-covid-19-dashboard-and-map\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); KS (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov\/160\/COVID-19-in-Kansas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/4456bae8a38f4b6180e008477382fff9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Lawrence); KY (<a href=\"https:\/\/louisville.edu\/envirome\/thecoimmunityproject\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Louisville); LA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldh.la.gov\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/info-details\/covid-19-wastewater-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MD (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.maryland.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); ME (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maine.gov\/dhhs\/mecdc\/infectious-disease\/epi\/airborne\/coronavirus\/data.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/stats\/wastewater-surveillance\/dashboard\/sentinel-wastewater-epidemiology-evaluation-project-sweep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/gisportal.state.mi.us\/portal\/apps\/insights\/index.html#\/view\/52bbb104ed574887918f990af9f3debe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/coronavirus\/stats\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MO (<a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/f7f5492486114da6b5d6fdc07f81aacf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MS (<a href=\"https:\/\/msdh.ms.gov\/page\/14,0,420.html#Mississippi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>MT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; NC (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.ncdhhs.gov\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard)<\/a>; ND (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NE (<a href=\"https:\/\/atlas-dhhs.ne.gov\/Atlas\/Respiratory_Illness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NH (<a href=\"https:\/\/wisdom.dhhs.nh.gov\/wisdom\/dashboard.html?topic=covid-19&subtopic=recurring-updates&indicator=covid-19-wastewater#tabnavbarid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NJ (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.nj.gov\/forms\/datadashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NM (<a href=\"https:\/\/cvprovider.nmhealth.org\/public-dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NV (<a href=\"https:\/\/nvhealthresponse.nv.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/empower.unlv.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Southern NV); NY (<a href=\"https:\/\/mbcolli.shinyapps.io\/SARS2EWSP\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OH (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.ohio.gov\/dashboards\/other-resources\/wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OK (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/51657c21386d4f1a962b1853c76ec589\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>OR (<a href=\"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/app\/profile\/oregon.health.authority.covid.19\/viz\/OregonsCOVID-19DataDashboards-TableofContents\/TableofContentsStatewide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; PA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.pa.gov\/topics\/disease\/coronavirus\/pages\/Cases.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); RI (<a href=\"https:\/\/ri-department-of-health-covid-19-data-rihealth.hub.arcgis.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SC (<a href=\"https:\/\/scdhec.gov\/index.php\/covid19\/covid-19-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SD (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.sd.gov\/COVID\/Dashboard.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/health\/cedep\/ncov\/data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TX (<a href=\"https:\/\/txdshsea.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/4ae43eefd0f641d59d35c3df82ee59cc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); UT (<a href=\"https:\/\/avrpublic.dhhs.utah.gov\/uwss\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/coronavirus\/sars-cov-2-in-wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthvermont.gov\/disease-control\/covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WA (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.wa.gov\/emergencies\/covid-19\/data-dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.bfhd.wa.gov\/cases-and-roadmap-to-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.wisconsin.gov\/covid-19\/wastewater.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); WV (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/oehs.wvdhhr.org\/news\/oehs-coivd-19-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>); WY (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/covidwastewatermonitor.wyo.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/health-infobase.canada.ca\/covid-19\/wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Government of Canada<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/en\/Data-and-Analysis\/Infectious-Disease\/COVID-19-Data-Surveillance\/Wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); QC (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inspq.qc.ca\/covid-19\/donnees\/eaux-usees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><em>les eaux us\u00e9es<\/em><\/a>); BC (<a href=\"https:\/\/bccdc.shinyapps.io\/respiratory_wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); BC, Vancouver (<a href=\"https:\/\/metrovancouver.org\/services\/liquid-waste\/testing-for-the-covid-19-virus-in-wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>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). <\/p>\n<p>Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"11.314341846758\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.625\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> This week[1] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 30<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Last week[2] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> (until next week):<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-300x187.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" style=\"align: left; margin-left: 0px !important; padding: 9px 0 9px 0;\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6521739130435\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong> Variants<\/strong> [3] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 21<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> <strong>Emergency Room Visits<\/strong>[4] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#trends_select_7dayeddiagnosed_00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 28<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Hospitalization<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7560975609756\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> New York[5] <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.health.ny.gov\/daily-hospitalization-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York State<\/a>, data January 8:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> National [6] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/covidnetdashboard\/de\/powerbi\/dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> Janurary 2, 2005:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-296x300.png 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Positivity<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"2.5294117647059\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> National[7] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/healthcare-solutions\/covid-19-index\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a> January 6:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Ohio[8] <a href=\"https:\/\/clevelandcliniclabs.com\/respiratory-virus-surveillance-statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cleveland Clinic<\/a> January 4:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Travelers Data<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5932203389831\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Positivity[9] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Variants[10] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Deaths<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.7647058823529\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronadisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"172.49713637817\">\n<p><strong>LEGEND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) <span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n<p>2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs. <\/p>\n<p>[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n<p>[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, \u201cOmmicron,\u201d has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.<\/p>\n<p>[4] (ED) A little uptick.<\/p>\n<p>[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.<\/p>\n<p>[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<p>[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.<\/p>\n<p>[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stats Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Challenger Job Cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/challenger-job-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS employers announced 38,792 job cuts in December 2024, the least in five months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing: \u201cBoeing 747 Wing Panel Was Found At Heathrow Months After Falling Off\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/boeing-747-wing-panel-found-heathrow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Simple Flying<\/a>]. \u201cA wing panel that fell off a Boeing 747 freighter upon landing was discovered in a grass area next to the runway at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). After inquiries were made, it was discovered that the panel had been there for over two months, having detached from a One Air 747-400 freighter that landed in early January 2024. London Heathrow has a sophisticated FOD radar detection system that is capable of picking up debris as small as a screw. However, this system only scans the hard runway surface, not the grass areas surrounding the runways, which explains why this piece was missed for two months. LHR\u2019s operator, Heathrow Airport Holdings, added that because it was winter, the grass areas were not mown as frequently, but if they had been, then the missing part would have been discovered sooner.\u201d \u2022 Makes you wonder how many other aircraft parts there are, scattered about.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 32 Fear (previous close: 32 Fear) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 26 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 8 at 8:59:48 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Poetry Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace\u201d (facsimile) [<a href=\"https:\/\/jgc.org\/awobmolg-1967.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Richard Brautigan<\/a>] (1967):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"726\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan-248x300.png 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not going to happen, is it? It\u2019s the very last thing that would happen\u2026 <\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Book<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"photos\"\/>\u201cThe Honorable Parts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scopeofwork.net\/the-honorable-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scope of Work<\/a>]. \u201c[Christopher Payne] will apparently return to the same factory dozens of times, waiting for the moment when a production run lines up just right, or the material being processed is just the right color, or \u2014 I don\u2019t know \u2014 his subject finally lifts their hand in a particularly elegant way. Payne is an artist, and his art documents, explains, and valorizes manufacturing, fabrication, and maintenance work. Aspects of Payne\u2019s work might be categorized as genre art. He captures moments in everyday time; he captures human intention and effort; he captures the infrastructure required to make stuff. His subjects are often highly engineered (he has photographed ASML\u2019s EUV machines, Boeing\u2019s 787 assembly line, and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System), but just as often they\u2019re highly soulful (Payne published a book about Steinway pianos; he has also photographed Martin\u2019s guitar factory and Zildjian\u2019s cymbal production process). Regardless of what he\u2019s shooting, Payne\u2019s photographs often feel just as carefully assembled as the objects in them.\u201d \u2022 I don\u2019t like all of it, but some of it I <em>really<\/em> like (Image courtesy of Christopher Payne):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Uses and Abuses of Manet\u2019s Olympia\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nonsite.org\/the-uses-and-abuses-of-manets-olympia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nonsite.org<\/a>]. Review of Darcy Grigsby\u2019s new book, Creole: Portraits of France\u2019s Foreign Relations During the Long Nineteenth Century (2022). On Laure, the Black maid (model) in Manet\u2019s Olympia: \u201cAs Grigsby declares, the \u2018\u2018freedom\u2019 [of black women] to earn money as models inevitably, insidiously, connoted slavery and their incapacity to do so; their modernity was recast as a sham.\u2019 According to this New Jim Crow-type account, slavery was prohibited in name only. Thus, we reach Grigsby\u2019s extraordinary thesis, that the singular \u2018value of Manet\u2019s picture reside[s] in its refusal to sentimentalize the inequities of modernity, including the subordinate status of the black working-class woman to her white counterpart.\u2019 Olympia, in other words, is both an instance of, and a commentary on, white privilege: \u2018one model was more vulnerable and subject to violence; one was more likely to be treated as yet another object, as if slavery lingered. One woman connoted such dehumanization and dispossession\u2014the black woman whom many art historians failed to see.\u2019 In Grigsby\u2019s world, the real battle is not between capital and labor, but between white and black workers. This is the ideal scenario for capital: divide and conquer, worker against worker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"zeitgeist\"\/><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistoric Los Angeles wildfires are anything but \u2018unprecedented’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wildfire Today<\/a>]. \u201cThese fires may well be the most destructive for L.A., but are only considered unprecedented by those who have forgotten the past history of fire in the area \u2013 or forgotten the precedents of the Camp Fire of 2018 or the Australian Black Summer Fires of 2019-20 or Greece of 2023, and others. The wildfire risks for these parts of L.A. have been well documented over many years, and a similar conflagration happened in the city less than two decades earlier. One of the most read articles on Wildfire Today this week \u2013 possibly mistakenly due to their similarities \u2013 is <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2019\/10\/30\/roundup-of-new-southern-california-wildfires-october-30-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a round-up of the 2019 fires around L.A<\/a>.\u201d And: \u201cApart from the \u2018perfect storm\u2019 scenarios of the Palisades and Sayre, experts have known for decades that <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">much of California\u2019s land is dependent on fire<\/a>. Nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0111414\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">10 years ago, researchers concluded<\/a> that : \u2018adequate planning of the changes in the built environment\u2026is going to be vital for managing risk from fire under future climates.\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/documents\/Alexander_2004_conflagrations.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Almost 20 years ago<\/a>, experts drew on studies from the early 1970s on ways to specifically stop conflagrations from burning in Southern California, saying \u2018Through strategic fuel management planning, we could influence the total number and size of the (conflagration) occurrences as well as their geographic distribution and thereby mitigate the impacts of too much of the \u2018wrong kind of fire.’\u201d \u2022 Well, yeah, but that woiuld interfere with real estate development, and who wants that? (See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/06\/are-the-canadian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Canadian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters?<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/07\/are-the-californian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Californian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters? <\/a>at NC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnatomy of L.A. fire catastrophe: Embers that traveled for miles, \u2018chaotic\u2019 winds and terrible timing\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/anatomy-of-la-fire-catastrophe-embers-that-traveled-for-miles-chaotic-winds-and-terrible-timing\/ar-BB1r9u2t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MSN<\/a>]. \u201cSanta Ana winds are infamous for driving fast-moving fires in Southern California, pushing embers well beyond a blaze\u2019s boundary and into neighborhoods and across major roadways. But officials say the winds that fueled devastating fires in three parts of Los Angeles County were much more erratic and unpredictable than a typical dry offshore wind pattern \u2014 and struck areas unaccustomed to such events. The life-threatening windstorm that prompted several days of dire warnings exploded into a crisis even worse than firefighters predicted, with embers flying an estimated two to three miles ahead of the established fire and in every direction. The extraordinary winds have created extreme fire behavior almost impossible to anticipate, confounding efforts to establish secure containment lines or utilize firefighting aircraft. They have also led to major structure losses, widespread evacuations and ongoing destruction. \u2018Normally, under a sustained Santa Ana condition, we have fires that are long and narrow,\u2019 said Anthony Marrone, Los Angeles County Fire Chief. \u2018However, with these erratic winds and this PDS, or particularly dangerous situation, the winds were constantly changing.’\u201d \u2022 PDF = particularly dangerous situation. What a great acronym!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirefighters continue to battle blazes as L.A. braces for more days of fire weather\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/live\/pacific-palisades-fire-updates-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>]. \u201cWind speeds weakened across the Los Angeles region Thursday morning, with isolated gusts reaching 35 miles per hour in the Malibu area and 58 miles per hour in the San Gabriel Mountains, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Oxnard. But after a lull throughout the day, winds are expected to strengthen Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cScientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/DLoVI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Science<\/a>]. \u201cScientists think sleep is the brain\u2019s rinse cycle, when fluid percolating through the organ flushes out chemical waste that accumulated while we were awake. But what propels this circulation has been uncertain. A study of mice, reported today in Cell, suggests regular contractions of blood vessels in the brain, stimulated by the periodic release of a chemical cousin of adrenaline, push the fluid along.\u201d \u2022 Not <em>that<\/em> kind of brainwashing!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact information for plants<\/strong>: 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) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-2-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From JG:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"535\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple-269x300.jpeg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>JG writes: \u201cHere\u2019s a photo of our little Japanese Maple. It\u2019s difficult to capture the luminosity and sometimes looks nearly magenta with the sun shining through it. Wonder why the tips of the leaves are white? Luckily the deer haven\u2019t been rubbing their antlers on it as they have some of our other maples.\u201d Normally I prefer pictures that are minimum of 600px wide, but this photo is so very <em>very<\/em> red!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"donate\"\/><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Water Cooler is a standalone entity <em>not<\/em> covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! <em>Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage<\/em>. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n<p>Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"606\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png 606w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF & Email\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow:none; padding:0; margin:0\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF & Email\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .entry-content --><\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\tThis entry was posted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/guest-post\" rel=\"category tag\">Guest Post<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-9-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-09T14:00:26-05:00\">January 9, 2025<\/time><\/a><span class=\"by-author\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/author\/lambert-strether\" title=\"View all posts by Lambert Strether\" rel=\"author\">Lambert Strether<\/a><\/span><\/span>.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-info\" wp_automatic_readability=\"20.197005056398\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-avatar --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-description\" wp_automatic_readability=\"35.467911318553\">\n<h2>About Lambert Strether<\/h2>\n<p>Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (\u201cBecause markets\u201d). I don\u2019t much care about the \u201cism\u201d that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don\u2019t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. <br \/>\n <br \/>\nTo me, the key issue \u2014 and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me \u2014 is the tens of thousands of excess \u201cdeaths from despair,\u201d as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics \u2014 even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton\u2019s wars created \u2014 bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow \u2014 currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press \u2014 a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let\u2019s call such voices \u201cthe left.\u201d Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn\u2019t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I\u2019ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-link\t-->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-description -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-info --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><br \/>\n\t<!-- #post --><\/p>\n<nav class=\"nav-single\">\n<h3 class=\"assistive-text\">Post navigation<\/h3>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-previous list-posts-older\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/beware-the-faux-populism-of-corporate-democrats.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Beware the Faux Populism of Corporate Democrats<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-next list-posts-newer\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/nav>\n<p><!-- .nav-single --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #comments .comments-area --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #content --><br \/>\n<!-- #primary --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #secondary --><\/p>\n<footer id=\"colophon\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- .site-info --><br \/>\n\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- #colophon --><br \/>\n\t\t<!-- #main.wrapper --><br \/>\n<!-- #page --><br \/>\n<!-- .mobile-menu-wrap --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Blog Reader Pooling - removed 09\/16\/2015 by M. 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Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-spotlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Patient readers, I am now going to take a nap. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt National Park \u2013 Upper Talkington Trail, Billings, North Dakota, United States.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#trump\">Trump\u2019s pivot<\/a>to the Northern Hemisphere.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#zeitgeist\">LA Palisades Fire<\/a>: This is fine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#photos\">Photos<\/a>: Workers working.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<li><a href=\"#mate\">\u201cFBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate\u201d<\/a>: Aaron Mat\u00e9. <\/li>\n<p><strong>Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Trump Transition<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"99.382277834525\">\n<p>\u201cScoop: Trump\u2019s 100 executive orders\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/trump-immigration-executive-orders-stephen-miller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cPresident-elect Trump and top advisers previewed ambitious plans for 100 executive orders during a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday night, Axios has learned. While Congress debates the next moves on their own aggressive legislative plans, Trump let them know he is ready to roll \u2014 especially on immigration. Senators were given previews of some of what they were told would be 100 executive orders, two sources who were in the room told Axios. Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s longtime immigration adviser, dove into how they intend to use executive power to address the border and immigration starting Day 1. It\u2019s unclear if all will be technical executive orders, or more broadly executive actions taken by Trump or federal agencies.\u201d \u2022 \u201cA preview,\u201d \u201c100.\u201d Pure marketing! The difference between 2016 and 2020 is night and day.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cElon Musk says DOGE probably won\u2019t find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/elon-musk-says-doge-probably-wont-find-2-trillion-federal-budget-cuts-rcna186924\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NBC News<\/a>]. \u201cMusk told political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that the $2 trillion figure was a \u2018best-case outcome\u2019 and that he thought there was only a \u2018good shot\u2019 at cutting half that. \u201d So a \u201cgood shot\u201d to Mars would be getting halfway there? More: \u201cMusk\u2019s lowered estimate is a significant downgrade from his earlier view. At a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27, Musk said he\u2019d be able to cut the federal budget by \u2018at least $2 trillion.\u2019\u2026. Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is co-leading the DOGE budget-slashing effort, which Trump named in reference to an internet meme. The advisory panel has no official authority and is expected to make recommendations to the White House after Trump is sworn in for a second term. Experts have said Musk and Ramaswamy would need to propose cuts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/12\/06\/doges-musk-ramaswamy-try-to-sell-congress-on-huge-spending-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mandatory programs such as Medicaid<\/a>, the health care program for the poor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2024\/10\/29\/elon-musk-2-trillion-budget-cuts-trump-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to achieve significant savings<\/a>. Musk himself has warned that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/economy\/economy-if-trump-wins-second-term-could-mean-hardship-for-americans-rcna177807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cuts could mean \u2018hardship\u2019 for some<\/a>.\u201d \u2022 But nobody who is anybody!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"trump\"\/>\u201cKremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/kremlin-trump-remarks-greenland-canada-says-russia-has-arctic-interests-2025-01-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked about Trump\u2019s comments about Greenland and Canada, the Kremlin said that Russia, which has the largest Arctic coastline, was closely watching the \u2018dramatic development\u2019 of the situation. \u2018The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests,\u2019 Peskov said. \u2018We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone.\u2019 \u2018We are watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely, but so far, thank God, at the level of statements.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDanish officials fear Trump is much more serious about acquiring Greenland than in first term\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2025\/01\/08\/politics\/danish-officials-trump-greenland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. \u201cWhen President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea \u201cabsurd\u201d and rebuffed him outright. Now, Danish officials are being warned by Trump allies and advisers that he is serious, multiple Danish officials told CNN. And they\u2019re carefully weighing how to respond without sparking a major rupture with a close ally and fellow NATO member\u2026. Trump said on Tuesday that \u2018we need Greenland for national security purposes.\u2019 \u2018People really don\u2019t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security,\u2019 he said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.\u201d \u2022 \u201cWe need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanadian leaders say Trump\u2019s talk about Canada becoming the 51st state isn\u2019t funny anymore\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/canada-trump-us-state-131dcff58a8f56116765f160d9f35460\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cDominic LeBlanc, the country\u2019s point person for U.S-Canada relations, said Trump was smiling when he first made the comment during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in late November. \u2018The joke is over,\u2019 said LeBlanc. \u2018It\u2019s a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.\u2019 Trump keeps floating the idea that Canada should join the United States as the 51st state, saying Tuesday he would not use military force to invade the country, which is home to more than 40 million people and is a founding NATO partner. Instead, Trump said he would rely on \u2018economic force\u2019 as he erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada \u2014 a natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oil \u2014 as a subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHawaii Gov: RFK Jr.\u2019s Anti-Vax Misinformation Left Dozens Of Kids Dead In Samoa\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/hawaii-governor-josh-green-rfk-jr-vaccines-hhs_n_677ebc3ce4b0f751b99402ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HuffPo<\/a>]. I wish RFK was straightening out the food supply; that is what I hoped MAHA would do, and it\u2019s worth doing. But there we are: \u201c[Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D)] traveled to Washington this week specifically to meet with Republican and Democratic senators to urge them to oppose Kennedy\u2019s nomination \u2014 the same week Kennedy is on Capitol Hill making his case to Democratic senators about why they should support him. He\u2019s offering his perspective on a well-known \u2018tragedy\u2019 that took place in Samoa in 2019, after two children died due to human error on the part of nurses administering their vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella. The mistake led to some people losing confidence in vaccines, and right around this time, Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccination activist, visited the Pacific island state and campaigned against vaccines on social media\u2026. As Kennedy pushed his anti-vaccination campaign\u2026 the inoculation rate plummeted to 31% and the measles virus spread. Samoan leaders asked the Hawaii governor for help, so he went to their island with dozens of health care providers to help vaccinate as many people as possible. By this time, there were approximately 5,000 confirmed cases of measles, Green said, and the outbreak would lead to more than 80 deaths, most of them among children\u2026. Ultimately, Green and other medical professionals helped vaccinate 37,000 people throughout the country. They staved off more deaths, but he said thousands of people suffered and countless others likely developed encephalopathy, a condition that can cause inflammation in the nervous system that can lead to hearing loss, blindness or intellectual disability. At the time, Kennedy blamed the dozens of measles deaths on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/robert-kennedy-jr-shocking-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the vaccine itself.<\/a> There was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/measles-in-samoa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">no evidence for his claim<\/a>\u2026. Green urged President-elect Donald Trump to rethink Kennedy\u2019s nomination and instead consider him for a different post. \u2018There may be a very good place for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,\u2019 he said. \u2018This is not partisan. This is not political. This is medical.’\u201d \u2022 But\u2013<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatchdog group accuses RFK Jr. of voter fraud\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/rfk-voter-ny-accusations-00196984\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201cA complaint filed by the left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US on Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with POLITICO, alleged that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. committed felony election fraud when he voted in the 2024 election\u2026. The complaint states that Kennedy voted by mail and his ballot was received by the Westchester County board of elections on Nov. 2. The primary residence listed on the ballot was to a home in Katonah \u2014 an address about 45 miles outside of New York City that has been central to previous court challenges from Democratic-leaning groups arguing Kennedy did not actually live there and should not be eligible to be on the ballot in the state when he ran as an independent candidate.\u201d In a previous case \u201cKennedy had argued he\u2019d been renting a room from a childhood friend in Katonah, but that friend\u2019s spouse testified that Kennedy had only spent one night at the residence.\u201d \u2022 More lawfare, though. Seems to me this undercuts Green\u2019s effort, which is far more important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawfare<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"13.872561768531\">\n<p>\u201cTrump is laying out his legal takeover this week \u2014 before he even takes office\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawdork.com\/p\/trump-is-laying-out-his-legal-takeover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LawDork<\/a>]. \u201cOn Wednesday, Trump\u2019s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend \u2018a sitting President\u2019s complete immunity from criminal prosecution\u2019 to the \u2018Presidential transition\u2019 period or, at the least, to stop the sentencing while appeals continue. And, in another matter now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, they asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday to block the current Justice Department from issuing any final report from Special Counsel Jack Smith because it would \u2018interfer[e] with President Trump\u2019s transition efforts and harm[] the institution of the Presidency, all to the detriment of the American people.’\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Wizard of Kalorama\u2122<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"3.9432989690722\">\n<p>Sharing a laugh with Hitler:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.630303030303\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.5151515151515\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We need to get Jackie G to do some lip reading here. <\/p>\n<p>What did Trump say to make Obama laugh. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lKRGgd36rt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lKRGgd36rt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@yashar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yashar\/status\/1877380589315105084\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"12.832797427653\">\n<p>\u201cWith Bass abroad, even Democrats are slamming LA mayor over wildfires\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/los-angeles-fires-mayor-karen-bass-handling-criticized-00197137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201c[M]oderate Democrat Rick Caruso, a real estate mogul who lost his mayoral bid to Bass in 2022, spent the morning making local TV appearances blasting Bass for traveling to Ghana, despite reports as early as last week about an impending wind storm\u2026. Bass\u2019 decision to not return from Ghana sooner drew criticism Wednesday from even the left flank of political media\u2026. Bass is still flying back to Los Angeles, and her spokespeople didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment about her current location.\u201d \u2022 Oopsie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Republican Funhouse<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"31.208356239692\">\n<p>\u201cFalsehoods around the L.A. fires are proliferating on the right\u201d [Philip Bump, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/8qoWo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cWe should begin by noting that most of the criticisms \u2014 about the hydrants or water diversion or the LAFD itself \u2014 have nothing to do with why the fires erupted and spread so quickly. Instead, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds quickly spread small fires across areas that were unusually dry. Wildfires have long been a challenge in California; what\u2019s unfolding in Los Angeles is an overlap of factors that increase the risks of wildfires spreading\u2026 It\u2019s 2020 election denialism wearing a different outfit.\u201d \u2022 I think Bump has the politics wrong, or at least not completely right. California is a one-party state, run by Democrats. On the Democrat side, that leads to corruption, backscratching, and whatever the political party equivalent of inbreeding is. As for the Republicans, they\u2019re desperate to regain power. Everything gets viewed through that lens, and hence the extreme display of \u201cany stick to beat a dog\u201d on display this week. For example:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3512658227848\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.313291139241\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: The Los Angeles Fire Department has resorted to using handbags to throw water on the fires.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles is the 2nd largest city in the wealthiest country in the world and their fire department is fighting fires with women\u2019s purses.<\/p>\n<p>Wild.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nUxcgCal2o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/nUxcgCal2o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1877391747040293068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I like Rugg well enough, but this is wrong and worse, lazy. Plus \u201chandbag\u201d is obvious feminization, designed to induce\u2026 Well, I\u2019m having a hard time integrating \u201cknee-jerk\u201d and \u201cknuckle-dragging\u201d into the same sentence, so I will just move along. This whole California Republican discourse forgets, or represses, that Los Angeles was built on a desert, so you expect dry tinder filling the canyons, water problems, wind\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"28.690666666667\">\n<p>\u201cThe Luigi Mangione effect may supercharge the need for security guards, which just made LinkedIn\u2019s fastest-growing jobs list for the first time\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/01\/09\/security-guards-linkedin-fastest-growing-jobs-ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fortune<\/a>]. \u201cLinkedIn\u2019s 2025 Jobs on the Rise report details the fastest-growing positions in the U.S. over the past three years. As expected with the A.I. boom, advanced technology roles were the most popular. But surprisingly, security guards have ranked as the tenth fast-growing job in the U.S. right now\u2026. Andrew Seaman, news editor for jobs and career development at LinkedIn, tells Fortune this could reflect reduced police forces, the cannabis industry\u2019s need for guards, and a rise of in-person activities\u2026. \u2018We\u2019re getting calls from everybody,\u2019 Glen Kucera, president of enhanced protection services at Allied Universal, told Fortune last month. \u2018Demand for the security business follows events. If there\u2019s a specific incident, then companies say, \u2018I need to protect my executives. I need to protect my employees from this happening again.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExclusive: Young Americans sympathize more with CEO shooting suspect than victim\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/luigi-mangione-approval-poll-gen-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked with whom they sympathize more, 45% of respondents chose suspect Luigi Mangione, 17% chose Thompson, and 37% said neither. 48% said they view the killing as totally or somewhat justified. Those findings chime with an Emerson College <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/17\/united-healthcare-ceo-killing-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">poll<\/a> which found that 41% of voters under 30 found the killing \u2018acceptable,\u2019 far more than in any other age group.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Syndemics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk&null=Risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>); Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>, <del><a href=\"https:\/\/biobot.io\/data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Biobot<\/a><\/del>; includes many counties; <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wastewater Scan<\/a>, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/businesssolutions\/covid-19-index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a>); \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/iowacovid19tracker.org\/hospitals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Iowa COVID-19 Tracker<\/a>\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/icemsg.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts<\/a>\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>Resources, United States (Local): AK (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AR (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/633006d0782b4544bd5113a314f6268a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AZ (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.azdhs.gov\/covid19\/data\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); CA (<a href=\"https:\/\/skylab.cdph.ca.gov\/calwws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.marinhhs.org\/surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marin, dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/healthalerts.stanford.edu\/covid-19\/wastewater-dashboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stanford, wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/?v=SC2_N&l=Oakland%2C+CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Oakland, wastewater<\/a>); CO (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.colorado.gov\/data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/d79cf93c3938470ca4bcc4823328946b#utility=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); CT (<a href=\"https:\/\/data.ct.gov\/stories\/s\/COVID-19-data\/wa3g-tfvc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); DE (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.delaware.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); FL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/5b9d75ba683849928dc1a49c39ab0b1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); GA (<a href=\"https:\/\/dph.georgia.gov\/ga-nwss-wastewater-surveillance-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); HI (<a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); IA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmmwra.org\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater reports<\/a>); ID (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Boise; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/?plantId=1056f05c-0e46-4e3d-b007-c0453ba7dc0d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Central Idaho; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/#:SARS-CoV-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Coeur d\u2019Alene; dashboard, <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.srhd.org\/topics\/spokane-county-case-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spokane County<\/a>); IL (<a href=\"https:\/\/iwss.uillinois.edu\/wastewater-treatment-plants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); IN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.in.gov\/indiana-covid-19-dashboard-and-map\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); KS (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov\/160\/COVID-19-in-Kansas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/4456bae8a38f4b6180e008477382fff9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Lawrence); KY (<a href=\"https:\/\/louisville.edu\/envirome\/thecoimmunityproject\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Louisville); LA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldh.la.gov\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/info-details\/covid-19-wastewater-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MD (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.maryland.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); ME (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maine.gov\/dhhs\/mecdc\/infectious-disease\/epi\/airborne\/coronavirus\/data.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/stats\/wastewater-surveillance\/dashboard\/sentinel-wastewater-epidemiology-evaluation-project-sweep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/gisportal.state.mi.us\/portal\/apps\/insights\/index.html#\/view\/52bbb104ed574887918f990af9f3debe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/coronavirus\/stats\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MO (<a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/f7f5492486114da6b5d6fdc07f81aacf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MS (<a href=\"https:\/\/msdh.ms.gov\/page\/14,0,420.html#Mississippi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>MT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; NC (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.ncdhhs.gov\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard)<\/a>; ND (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NE (<a href=\"https:\/\/atlas-dhhs.ne.gov\/Atlas\/Respiratory_Illness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NH (<a href=\"https:\/\/wisdom.dhhs.nh.gov\/wisdom\/dashboard.html?topic=covid-19&subtopic=recurring-updates&indicator=covid-19-wastewater#tabnavbarid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NJ (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.nj.gov\/forms\/datadashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NM (<a href=\"https:\/\/cvprovider.nmhealth.org\/public-dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NV (<a href=\"https:\/\/nvhealthresponse.nv.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/empower.unlv.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Southern NV); NY (<a href=\"https:\/\/mbcolli.shinyapps.io\/SARS2EWSP\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OH (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.ohio.gov\/dashboards\/other-resources\/wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OK (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/51657c21386d4f1a962b1853c76ec589\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>OR (<a href=\"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/app\/profile\/oregon.health.authority.covid.19\/viz\/OregonsCOVID-19DataDashboards-TableofContents\/TableofContentsStatewide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; PA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.pa.gov\/topics\/disease\/coronavirus\/pages\/Cases.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); RI (<a href=\"https:\/\/ri-department-of-health-covid-19-data-rihealth.hub.arcgis.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SC (<a href=\"https:\/\/scdhec.gov\/index.php\/covid19\/covid-19-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SD (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.sd.gov\/COVID\/Dashboard.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/health\/cedep\/ncov\/data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TX (<a href=\"https:\/\/txdshsea.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/4ae43eefd0f641d59d35c3df82ee59cc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); UT (<a href=\"https:\/\/avrpublic.dhhs.utah.gov\/uwss\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/coronavirus\/sars-cov-2-in-wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthvermont.gov\/disease-control\/covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WA (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.wa.gov\/emergencies\/covid-19\/data-dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.bfhd.wa.gov\/cases-and-roadmap-to-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.wisconsin.gov\/covid-19\/wastewater.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); WV (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/oehs.wvdhhr.org\/news\/oehs-coivd-19-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>); WY (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/covidwastewatermonitor.wyo.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/health-infobase.canada.ca\/covid-19\/wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Government of Canada<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/en\/Data-and-Analysis\/Infectious-Disease\/COVID-19-Data-Surveillance\/Wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); QC (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inspq.qc.ca\/covid-19\/donnees\/eaux-usees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><em>les eaux us\u00e9es<\/em><\/a>); BC (<a href=\"https:\/\/bccdc.shinyapps.io\/respiratory_wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); BC, Vancouver (<a href=\"https:\/\/metrovancouver.org\/services\/liquid-waste\/testing-for-the-covid-19-virus-in-wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>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). <\/p>\n<p>Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"11.314341846758\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.625\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> This week[1] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 30<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Last week[2] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> (until next week):<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-300x187.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" style=\"align: left; margin-left: 0px !important; padding: 9px 0 9px 0;\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6521739130435\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong> Variants<\/strong> [3] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 21<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> <strong>Emergency Room Visits<\/strong>[4] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#trends_select_7dayeddiagnosed_00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 28<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Hospitalization<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7560975609756\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> New York[5] <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.health.ny.gov\/daily-hospitalization-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York State<\/a>, data January 8:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> National [6] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/covidnetdashboard\/de\/powerbi\/dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> Janurary 2, 2005:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-296x300.png 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Positivity<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"2.5294117647059\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> National[7] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/healthcare-solutions\/covid-19-index\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a> January 6:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Ohio[8] <a href=\"https:\/\/clevelandcliniclabs.com\/respiratory-virus-surveillance-statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cleveland Clinic<\/a> January 4:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Travelers Data<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5932203389831\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Positivity[9] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Variants[10] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Deaths<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.7647058823529\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronadisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"172.49713637817\">\n<p><strong>LEGEND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) <span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n<p>2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs. <\/p>\n<p>[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n<p>[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, \u201cOmmicron,\u201d has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.<\/p>\n<p>[4] (ED) A little uptick.<\/p>\n<p>[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.<\/p>\n<p>[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<p>[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.<\/p>\n<p>[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stats Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Challenger Job Cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/challenger-job-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS employers announced 38,792 job cuts in December 2024, the least in five months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing: \u201cBoeing 747 Wing Panel Was Found At Heathrow Months After Falling Off\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/boeing-747-wing-panel-found-heathrow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Simple Flying<\/a>]. \u201cA wing panel that fell off a Boeing 747 freighter upon landing was discovered in a grass area next to the runway at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). After inquiries were made, it was discovered that the panel had been there for over two months, having detached from a One Air 747-400 freighter that landed in early January 2024. London Heathrow has a sophisticated FOD radar detection system that is capable of picking up debris as small as a screw. However, this system only scans the hard runway surface, not the grass areas surrounding the runways, which explains why this piece was missed for two months. LHR\u2019s operator, Heathrow Airport Holdings, added that because it was winter, the grass areas were not mown as frequently, but if they had been, then the missing part would have been discovered sooner.\u201d \u2022 Makes you wonder how many other aircraft parts there are, scattered about.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 32 Fear (previous close: 32 Fear) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 26 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 8 at 8:59:48 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Poetry Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace\u201d (facsimile) [<a href=\"https:\/\/jgc.org\/awobmolg-1967.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Richard Brautigan<\/a>] (1967):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"726\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan-248x300.png 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not going to happen, is it? It\u2019s the very last thing that would happen\u2026 <\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Book<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"photos\"\/>\u201cThe Honorable Parts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scopeofwork.net\/the-honorable-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scope of Work<\/a>]. \u201c[Christopher Payne] will apparently return to the same factory dozens of times, waiting for the moment when a production run lines up just right, or the material being processed is just the right color, or \u2014 I don\u2019t know \u2014 his subject finally lifts their hand in a particularly elegant way. Payne is an artist, and his art documents, explains, and valorizes manufacturing, fabrication, and maintenance work. Aspects of Payne\u2019s work might be categorized as genre art. He captures moments in everyday time; he captures human intention and effort; he captures the infrastructure required to make stuff. His subjects are often highly engineered (he has photographed ASML\u2019s EUV machines, Boeing\u2019s 787 assembly line, and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System), but just as often they\u2019re highly soulful (Payne published a book about Steinway pianos; he has also photographed Martin\u2019s guitar factory and Zildjian\u2019s cymbal production process). Regardless of what he\u2019s shooting, Payne\u2019s photographs often feel just as carefully assembled as the objects in them.\u201d \u2022 I don\u2019t like all of it, but some of it I <em>really<\/em> like (Image courtesy of Christopher Payne):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Uses and Abuses of Manet\u2019s Olympia\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nonsite.org\/the-uses-and-abuses-of-manets-olympia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nonsite.org<\/a>]. Review of Darcy Grigsby\u2019s new book, Creole: Portraits of France\u2019s Foreign Relations During the Long Nineteenth Century (2022). On Laure, the Black maid (model) in Manet\u2019s Olympia: \u201cAs Grigsby declares, the \u2018\u2018freedom\u2019 [of black women] to earn money as models inevitably, insidiously, connoted slavery and their incapacity to do so; their modernity was recast as a sham.\u2019 According to this New Jim Crow-type account, slavery was prohibited in name only. Thus, we reach Grigsby\u2019s extraordinary thesis, that the singular \u2018value of Manet\u2019s picture reside[s] in its refusal to sentimentalize the inequities of modernity, including the subordinate status of the black working-class woman to her white counterpart.\u2019 Olympia, in other words, is both an instance of, and a commentary on, white privilege: \u2018one model was more vulnerable and subject to violence; one was more likely to be treated as yet another object, as if slavery lingered. One woman connoted such dehumanization and dispossession\u2014the black woman whom many art historians failed to see.\u2019 In Grigsby\u2019s world, the real battle is not between capital and labor, but between white and black workers. This is the ideal scenario for capital: divide and conquer, worker against worker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"zeitgeist\"\/><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistoric Los Angeles wildfires are anything but \u2018unprecedented’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wildfire Today<\/a>]. \u201cThese fires may well be the most destructive for L.A., but are only considered unprecedented by those who have forgotten the past history of fire in the area \u2013 or forgotten the precedents of the Camp Fire of 2018 or the Australian Black Summer Fires of 2019-20 or Greece of 2023, and others. The wildfire risks for these parts of L.A. have been well documented over many years, and a similar conflagration happened in the city less than two decades earlier. One of the most read articles on Wildfire Today this week \u2013 possibly mistakenly due to their similarities \u2013 is <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2019\/10\/30\/roundup-of-new-southern-california-wildfires-october-30-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a round-up of the 2019 fires around L.A<\/a>.\u201d And: \u201cApart from the \u2018perfect storm\u2019 scenarios of the Palisades and Sayre, experts have known for decades that <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">much of California\u2019s land is dependent on fire<\/a>. Nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0111414\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">10 years ago, researchers concluded<\/a> that : \u2018adequate planning of the changes in the built environment\u2026is going to be vital for managing risk from fire under future climates.\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/documents\/Alexander_2004_conflagrations.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Almost 20 years ago<\/a>, experts drew on studies from the early 1970s on ways to specifically stop conflagrations from burning in Southern California, saying \u2018Through strategic fuel management planning, we could influence the total number and size of the (conflagration) occurrences as well as their geographic distribution and thereby mitigate the impacts of too much of the \u2018wrong kind of fire.’\u201d \u2022 Well, yeah, but that woiuld interfere with real estate development, and who wants that? (See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/06\/are-the-canadian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Canadian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters?<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/07\/are-the-californian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Californian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters? <\/a>at NC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnatomy of L.A. fire catastrophe: Embers that traveled for miles, \u2018chaotic\u2019 winds and terrible timing\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/anatomy-of-la-fire-catastrophe-embers-that-traveled-for-miles-chaotic-winds-and-terrible-timing\/ar-BB1r9u2t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MSN<\/a>]. \u201cSanta Ana winds are infamous for driving fast-moving fires in Southern California, pushing embers well beyond a blaze\u2019s boundary and into neighborhoods and across major roadways. But officials say the winds that fueled devastating fires in three parts of Los Angeles County were much more erratic and unpredictable than a typical dry offshore wind pattern \u2014 and struck areas unaccustomed to such events. The life-threatening windstorm that prompted several days of dire warnings exploded into a crisis even worse than firefighters predicted, with embers flying an estimated two to three miles ahead of the established fire and in every direction. The extraordinary winds have created extreme fire behavior almost impossible to anticipate, confounding efforts to establish secure containment lines or utilize firefighting aircraft. They have also led to major structure losses, widespread evacuations and ongoing destruction. \u2018Normally, under a sustained Santa Ana condition, we have fires that are long and narrow,\u2019 said Anthony Marrone, Los Angeles County Fire Chief. \u2018However, with these erratic winds and this PDS, or particularly dangerous situation, the winds were constantly changing.’\u201d \u2022 PDF = particularly dangerous situation. What a great acronym!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirefighters continue to battle blazes as L.A. braces for more days of fire weather\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/live\/pacific-palisades-fire-updates-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>]. \u201cWind speeds weakened across the Los Angeles region Thursday morning, with isolated gusts reaching 35 miles per hour in the Malibu area and 58 miles per hour in the San Gabriel Mountains, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Oxnard. But after a lull throughout the day, winds are expected to strengthen Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cScientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/DLoVI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Science<\/a>]. \u201cScientists think sleep is the brain\u2019s rinse cycle, when fluid percolating through the organ flushes out chemical waste that accumulated while we were awake. But what propels this circulation has been uncertain. A study of mice, reported today in Cell, suggests regular contractions of blood vessels in the brain, stimulated by the periodic release of a chemical cousin of adrenaline, push the fluid along.\u201d \u2022 Not <em>that<\/em> kind of brainwashing!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact information for plants<\/strong>: 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) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-2-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From JG:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"535\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple-269x300.jpeg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>JG writes: \u201cHere\u2019s a photo of our little Japanese Maple. It\u2019s difficult to capture the luminosity and sometimes looks nearly magenta with the sun shining through it. Wonder why the tips of the leaves are white? Luckily the deer haven\u2019t been rubbing their antlers on it as they have some of our other maples.\u201d Normally I prefer pictures that are minimum of 600px wide, but this photo is so very <em>very<\/em> red!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"donate\"\/><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Water Cooler is a standalone entity <em>not<\/em> covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! <em>Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage<\/em>. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n<p>Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"606\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png 606w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF & Email\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow:none; padding:0; margin:0\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF & Email\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .entry-content --><\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\tThis entry was posted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/guest-post\" rel=\"category tag\">Guest Post<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-9-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-09T14:00:26-05:00\">January 9, 2025<\/time><\/a><span class=\"by-author\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/author\/lambert-strether\" title=\"View all posts by Lambert Strether\" rel=\"author\">Lambert Strether<\/a><\/span><\/span>.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-info\" wp_automatic_readability=\"20.197005056398\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-avatar --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-description\" wp_automatic_readability=\"35.467911318553\">\n<h2>About Lambert Strether<\/h2>\n<p>Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (\u201cBecause markets\u201d). I don\u2019t much care about the \u201cism\u201d that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don\u2019t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. <br \/>\n <br \/>\nTo me, the key issue \u2014 and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me \u2014 is the tens of thousands of excess \u201cdeaths from despair,\u201d as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics \u2014 even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton\u2019s wars created \u2014 bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow \u2014 currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press \u2014 a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let\u2019s call such voices \u201cthe left.\u201d Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn\u2019t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I\u2019ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-link\t-->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-description -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-info --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><br \/>\n\t<!-- #post --><\/p>\n<nav class=\"nav-single\">\n<h3 class=\"assistive-text\">Post navigation<\/h3>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-previous list-posts-older\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/beware-the-faux-populism-of-corporate-democrats.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Beware the Faux Populism of Corporate Democrats<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-next list-posts-newer\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/nav>\n<p><!-- .nav-single --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #comments .comments-area --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #content --><br \/>\n<!-- #primary --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #secondary --><\/p>\n<footer id=\"colophon\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- .site-info --><br \/>\n\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- #colophon --><br \/>\n\t\t<!-- #main.wrapper --><br \/>\n<!-- #page --><br \/>\n<!-- .mobile-menu-wrap --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Blog Reader Pooling - removed 09\/16\/2015 by M. 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Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-spotlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt National Park \u2013 Upper Talkington Trail, Billings, North Dakota, United States.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#trump\">Trump\u2019s pivot<\/a>to the Northern Hemisphere.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#zeitgeist\">LA Palisades Fire<\/a>: This is fine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#photos\">Photos<\/a>: Workers working.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<li><a href=\"#mate\">\u201cFBI Is Still Hiding Details of Russiagate\u201d<\/a>: Aaron Mat\u00e9. <\/li>\n<p><strong>Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Trump Transition<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"99.382277834525\">\n<p>\u201cScoop: Trump\u2019s 100 executive orders\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/trump-immigration-executive-orders-stephen-miller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cPresident-elect Trump and top advisers previewed ambitious plans for 100 executive orders during a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday night, Axios has learned. While Congress debates the next moves on their own aggressive legislative plans, Trump let them know he is ready to roll \u2014 especially on immigration. Senators were given previews of some of what they were told would be 100 executive orders, two sources who were in the room told Axios. Stephen Miller, Trump\u2019s longtime immigration adviser, dove into how they intend to use executive power to address the border and immigration starting Day 1. It\u2019s unclear if all will be technical executive orders, or more broadly executive actions taken by Trump or federal agencies.\u201d \u2022 \u201cA preview,\u201d \u201c100.\u201d Pure marketing! The difference between 2016 and 2020 is night and day.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cElon Musk says DOGE probably won\u2019t find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/elon-musk-says-doge-probably-wont-find-2-trillion-federal-budget-cuts-rcna186924\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NBC News<\/a>]. \u201cMusk told political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that the $2 trillion figure was a \u2018best-case outcome\u2019 and that he thought there was only a \u2018good shot\u2019 at cutting half that. \u201d So a \u201cgood shot\u201d to Mars would be getting halfway there? More: \u201cMusk\u2019s lowered estimate is a significant downgrade from his earlier view. At a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27, Musk said he\u2019d be able to cut the federal budget by \u2018at least $2 trillion.\u2019\u2026. Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, is co-leading the DOGE budget-slashing effort, which Trump named in reference to an internet meme. The advisory panel has no official authority and is expected to make recommendations to the White House after Trump is sworn in for a second term. Experts have said Musk and Ramaswamy would need to propose cuts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/12\/06\/doges-musk-ramaswamy-try-to-sell-congress-on-huge-spending-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mandatory programs such as Medicaid<\/a>, the health care program for the poor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2024\/10\/29\/elon-musk-2-trillion-budget-cuts-trump-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to achieve significant savings<\/a>. Musk himself has warned that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/economy\/economy-if-trump-wins-second-term-could-mean-hardship-for-americans-rcna177807\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cuts could mean \u2018hardship\u2019 for some<\/a>.\u201d \u2022 But nobody who is anybody!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"trump\"\/>\u201cKremlin, on Trump remarks on Greenland and Canada, says Russia has Arctic interests\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/kremlin-trump-remarks-greenland-canada-says-russia-has-arctic-interests-2025-01-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked about Trump\u2019s comments about Greenland and Canada, the Kremlin said that Russia, which has the largest Arctic coastline, was closely watching the \u2018dramatic development\u2019 of the situation. \u2018The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests,\u2019 Peskov said. \u2018We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone.\u2019 \u2018We are watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely, but so far, thank God, at the level of statements.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDanish officials fear Trump is much more serious about acquiring Greenland than in first term\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2025\/01\/08\/politics\/danish-officials-trump-greenland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. \u201cWhen President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea \u201cabsurd\u201d and rebuffed him outright. Now, Danish officials are being warned by Trump allies and advisers that he is serious, multiple Danish officials told CNN. And they\u2019re carefully weighing how to respond without sparking a major rupture with a close ally and fellow NATO member\u2026. Trump said on Tuesday that \u2018we need Greenland for national security purposes.\u2019 \u2018People really don\u2019t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security,\u2019 he said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.\u201d \u2022 \u201cWe need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanadian leaders say Trump\u2019s talk about Canada becoming the 51st state isn\u2019t funny anymore\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/canada-trump-us-state-131dcff58a8f56116765f160d9f35460\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cDominic LeBlanc, the country\u2019s point person for U.S-Canada relations, said Trump was smiling when he first made the comment during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in late November. \u2018The joke is over,\u2019 said LeBlanc. \u2018It\u2019s a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.\u2019 Trump keeps floating the idea that Canada should join the United States as the 51st state, saying Tuesday he would not use military force to invade the country, which is home to more than 40 million people and is a founding NATO partner. Instead, Trump said he would rely on \u2018economic force\u2019 as he erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada \u2014 a natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oil \u2014 as a subsidy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHawaii Gov: RFK Jr.\u2019s Anti-Vax Misinformation Left Dozens Of Kids Dead In Samoa\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/hawaii-governor-josh-green-rfk-jr-vaccines-hhs_n_677ebc3ce4b0f751b99402ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HuffPo<\/a>]. I wish RFK was straightening out the food supply; that is what I hoped MAHA would do, and it\u2019s worth doing. But there we are: \u201c[Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D)] traveled to Washington this week specifically to meet with Republican and Democratic senators to urge them to oppose Kennedy\u2019s nomination \u2014 the same week Kennedy is on Capitol Hill making his case to Democratic senators about why they should support him. He\u2019s offering his perspective on a well-known \u2018tragedy\u2019 that took place in Samoa in 2019, after two children died due to human error on the part of nurses administering their vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella. The mistake led to some people losing confidence in vaccines, and right around this time, Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccination activist, visited the Pacific island state and campaigned against vaccines on social media\u2026. As Kennedy pushed his anti-vaccination campaign\u2026 the inoculation rate plummeted to 31% and the measles virus spread. Samoan leaders asked the Hawaii governor for help, so he went to their island with dozens of health care providers to help vaccinate as many people as possible. By this time, there were approximately 5,000 confirmed cases of measles, Green said, and the outbreak would lead to more than 80 deaths, most of them among children\u2026. Ultimately, Green and other medical professionals helped vaccinate 37,000 people throughout the country. They staved off more deaths, but he said thousands of people suffered and countless others likely developed encephalopathy, a condition that can cause inflammation in the nervous system that can lead to hearing loss, blindness or intellectual disability. At the time, Kennedy blamed the dozens of measles deaths on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/story\/robert-kennedy-jr-shocking-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the vaccine itself.<\/a> There was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/measles-in-samoa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">no evidence for his claim<\/a>\u2026. Green urged President-elect Donald Trump to rethink Kennedy\u2019s nomination and instead consider him for a different post. \u2018There may be a very good place for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,\u2019 he said. \u2018This is not partisan. This is not political. This is medical.’\u201d \u2022 But\u2013<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatchdog group accuses RFK Jr. of voter fraud\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/rfk-voter-ny-accusations-00196984\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201cA complaint filed by the left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US on Wednesday morning and shared exclusively with POLITICO, alleged that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. committed felony election fraud when he voted in the 2024 election\u2026. The complaint states that Kennedy voted by mail and his ballot was received by the Westchester County board of elections on Nov. 2. The primary residence listed on the ballot was to a home in Katonah \u2014 an address about 45 miles outside of New York City that has been central to previous court challenges from Democratic-leaning groups arguing Kennedy did not actually live there and should not be eligible to be on the ballot in the state when he ran as an independent candidate.\u201d In a previous case \u201cKennedy had argued he\u2019d been renting a room from a childhood friend in Katonah, but that friend\u2019s spouse testified that Kennedy had only spent one night at the residence.\u201d \u2022 More lawfare, though. Seems to me this undercuts Green\u2019s effort, which is far more important.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawfare<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"13.872561768531\">\n<p>\u201cTrump is laying out his legal takeover this week \u2014 before he even takes office\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawdork.com\/p\/trump-is-laying-out-his-legal-takeover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LawDork<\/a>]. \u201cOn Wednesday, Trump\u2019s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to extend \u2018a sitting President\u2019s complete immunity from criminal prosecution\u2019 to the \u2018Presidential transition\u2019 period or, at the least, to stop the sentencing while appeals continue. And, in another matter now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, they asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday to block the current Justice Department from issuing any final report from Special Counsel Jack Smith because it would \u2018interfer[e] with President Trump\u2019s transition efforts and harm[] the institution of the Presidency, all to the detriment of the American people.’\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Wizard of Kalorama\u2122<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"3.9432989690722\">\n<p>Sharing a laugh with Hitler:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.630303030303\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.5151515151515\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We need to get Jackie G to do some lip reading here. <\/p>\n<p>What did Trump say to make Obama laugh. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lKRGgd36rt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lKRGgd36rt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@yashar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yashar\/status\/1877380589315105084\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"12.832797427653\">\n<p>\u201cWith Bass abroad, even Democrats are slamming LA mayor over wildfires\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/08\/los-angeles-fires-mayor-karen-bass-handling-criticized-00197137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico<\/a>]. \u201c[M]oderate Democrat Rick Caruso, a real estate mogul who lost his mayoral bid to Bass in 2022, spent the morning making local TV appearances blasting Bass for traveling to Ghana, despite reports as early as last week about an impending wind storm\u2026. Bass\u2019 decision to not return from Ghana sooner drew criticism Wednesday from even the left flank of political media\u2026. Bass is still flying back to Los Angeles, and her spokespeople didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment about her current location.\u201d \u2022 Oopsie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Republican Funhouse<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"31.208356239692\">\n<p>\u201cFalsehoods around the L.A. fires are proliferating on the right\u201d [Philip Bump, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/8qoWo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cWe should begin by noting that most of the criticisms \u2014 about the hydrants or water diversion or the LAFD itself \u2014 have nothing to do with why the fires erupted and spread so quickly. Instead, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds quickly spread small fires across areas that were unusually dry. Wildfires have long been a challenge in California; what\u2019s unfolding in Los Angeles is an overlap of factors that increase the risks of wildfires spreading\u2026 It\u2019s 2020 election denialism wearing a different outfit.\u201d \u2022 I think Bump has the politics wrong, or at least not completely right. California is a one-party state, run by Democrats. On the Democrat side, that leads to corruption, backscratching, and whatever the political party equivalent of inbreeding is. As for the Republicans, they\u2019re desperate to regain power. Everything gets viewed through that lens, and hence the extreme display of \u201cany stick to beat a dog\u201d on display this week. For example:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3512658227848\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.313291139241\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: The Los Angeles Fire Department has resorted to using handbags to throw water on the fires.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles is the 2nd largest city in the wealthiest country in the world and their fire department is fighting fires with women\u2019s purses.<\/p>\n<p>Wild.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nUxcgCal2o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/nUxcgCal2o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CollinRugg\/status\/1877391747040293068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 9, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I like Rugg well enough, but this is wrong and worse, lazy. Plus \u201chandbag\u201d is obvious feminization, designed to induce\u2026 Well, I\u2019m having a hard time integrating \u201cknee-jerk\u201d and \u201cknuckle-dragging\u201d into the same sentence, so I will just move along. This whole California Republican discourse forgets, or represses, that Los Angeles was built on a desert, so you expect dry tinder filling the canyons, water problems, wind\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"28.690666666667\">\n<p>\u201cThe Luigi Mangione effect may supercharge the need for security guards, which just made LinkedIn\u2019s fastest-growing jobs list for the first time\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/01\/09\/security-guards-linkedin-fastest-growing-jobs-ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fortune<\/a>]. \u201cLinkedIn\u2019s 2025 Jobs on the Rise report details the fastest-growing positions in the U.S. over the past three years. As expected with the A.I. boom, advanced technology roles were the most popular. But surprisingly, security guards have ranked as the tenth fast-growing job in the U.S. right now\u2026. Andrew Seaman, news editor for jobs and career development at LinkedIn, tells Fortune this could reflect reduced police forces, the cannabis industry\u2019s need for guards, and a rise of in-person activities\u2026. \u2018We\u2019re getting calls from everybody,\u2019 Glen Kucera, president of enhanced protection services at Allied Universal, told Fortune last month. \u2018Demand for the security business follows events. If there\u2019s a specific incident, then companies say, \u2018I need to protect my executives. I need to protect my employees from this happening again.’\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExclusive: Young Americans sympathize more with CEO shooting suspect than victim\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/01\/09\/luigi-mangione-approval-poll-gen-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Axios<\/a>]. \u201cWhen asked with whom they sympathize more, 45% of respondents chose suspect Luigi Mangione, 17% chose Thompson, and 37% said neither. 48% said they view the killing as totally or somewhat justified. Those findings chime with an Emerson College <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/12\/17\/united-healthcare-ceo-killing-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">poll<\/a> which found that 41% of voters under 30 found the killing \u2018acceptable,\u2019 far more than in any other age group.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Syndemics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=all_counties&data-type=Risk&null=Risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>); Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>, <del><a href=\"https:\/\/biobot.io\/data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Biobot<\/a><\/del>; includes many counties; <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wastewater Scan<\/a>, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/businesssolutions\/covid-19-index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a>); \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/iowacovid19tracker.org\/hospitals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Iowa COVID-19 Tracker<\/a>\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/icemsg.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts<\/a>\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n<p>Resources, United States (Local): AK (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/6d2771faa9da4a2786a509d82c8cf0f7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AR (<a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/633006d0782b4544bd5113a314f6268a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); AZ (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.azdhs.gov\/covid19\/data\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); CA (<a href=\"https:\/\/skylab.cdph.ca.gov\/calwws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.marinhhs.org\/surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marin, dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/healthalerts.stanford.edu\/covid-19\/wastewater-dashboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stanford, wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/?v=SC2_N&l=Oakland%2C+CA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Oakland, wastewater<\/a>); CO (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.colorado.gov\/data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/cdphe.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/d79cf93c3938470ca4bcc4823328946b#utility=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); CT (<a href=\"https:\/\/data.ct.gov\/stories\/s\/COVID-19-data\/wa3g-tfvc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); DE (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.delaware.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); FL (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/5b9d75ba683849928dc1a49c39ab0b1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); GA (<a href=\"https:\/\/dph.georgia.gov\/ga-nwss-wastewater-surveillance-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); HI (<a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); IA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmmwra.org\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater reports<\/a>); ID (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Boise; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahopublichealth.com\/district-2\/novel-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/data.wastewaterscan.org\/?plantId=1056f05c-0e46-4e3d-b007-c0453ba7dc0d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Central Idaho; <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.verily.com\/#:SARS-CoV-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Coeur d\u2019Alene; dashboard, <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.srhd.org\/topics\/spokane-county-case-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spokane County<\/a>); IL (<a href=\"https:\/\/iwss.uillinois.edu\/wastewater-treatment-plants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); IN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.in.gov\/indiana-covid-19-dashboard-and-map\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); KS (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov\/160\/COVID-19-in-Kansas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/4456bae8a38f4b6180e008477382fff9\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Lawrence); KY (<a href=\"https:\/\/louisville.edu\/envirome\/thecoimmunityproject\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>, Louisville); LA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ldh.la.gov\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.gov\/info-details\/covid-19-wastewater-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MD (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.maryland.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); ME (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maine.gov\/dhhs\/mecdc\/infectious-disease\/epi\/airborne\/coronavirus\/data.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/coronavirus\/stats\/wastewater-surveillance\/dashboard\/sentinel-wastewater-epidemiology-evaluation-project-sweep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/gisportal.state.mi.us\/portal\/apps\/insights\/index.html#\/view\/52bbb104ed574887918f990af9f3debe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/coronavirus\/stats\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); MO (<a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/f7f5492486114da6b5d6fdc07f81aacf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); MS (<a href=\"https:\/\/msdh.ms.gov\/page\/14,0,420.html#Mississippi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>MT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; NC (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.ncdhhs.gov\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard)<\/a>; ND (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.nd.gov\/health\/coronavirus\/cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NE (<a href=\"https:\/\/atlas-dhhs.ne.gov\/Atlas\/Respiratory_Illness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NH (<a href=\"https:\/\/wisdom.dhhs.nh.gov\/wisdom\/dashboard.html?topic=covid-19&subtopic=recurring-updates&indicator=covid-19-wastewater#tabnavbarid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); NJ (<a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.nj.gov\/forms\/datadashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NM (<a href=\"https:\/\/cvprovider.nmhealth.org\/public-dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); NV (<a href=\"https:\/\/nvhealthresponse.nv.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/empower.unlv.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>, Southern NV); NY (<a href=\"https:\/\/mbcolli.shinyapps.io\/SARS2EWSP\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OH (<a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.ohio.gov\/dashboards\/other-resources\/wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); OK (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/51657c21386d4f1a962b1853c76ec589\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); <del>OR (<a href=\"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/app\/profile\/oregon.health.authority.covid.19\/viz\/OregonsCOVID-19DataDashboards-TableofContents\/TableofContentsStatewide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>)<\/del>; PA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.pa.gov\/topics\/disease\/coronavirus\/pages\/Cases.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); RI (<a href=\"https:\/\/ri-department-of-health-covid-19-data-rihealth.hub.arcgis.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SC (<a href=\"https:\/\/scdhec.gov\/index.php\/covid19\/covid-19-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); SD (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.sd.gov\/COVID\/Dashboard.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TN (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tn.gov\/health\/cedep\/ncov\/data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); TX (<a href=\"https:\/\/txdshsea.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/dashboards\/4ae43eefd0f641d59d35c3df82ee59cc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); UT (<a href=\"https:\/\/avrpublic.dhhs.utah.gov\/uwss\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VA (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/coronavirus\/sars-cov-2-in-wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); VT (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthvermont.gov\/disease-control\/covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WA (<a href=\"https:\/\/doh.wa.gov\/emergencies\/covid-19\/data-dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/covid19.bfhd.wa.gov\/cases-and-roadmap-to-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dashboard<\/a>); WI (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.wisconsin.gov\/covid-19\/wastewater.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); WV (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/oehs.wvdhhr.org\/news\/oehs-coivd-19-information\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>); WY (<del><a href=\"https:\/\/covidwastewatermonitor.wyo.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a><\/del>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (<a href=\"https:\/\/health-infobase.canada.ca\/covid-19\/wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Government of Canada<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealthontario.ca\/en\/Data-and-Analysis\/Infectious-Disease\/COVID-19-Data-Surveillance\/Wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); QC (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inspq.qc.ca\/covid-19\/donnees\/eaux-usees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><em>les eaux us\u00e9es<\/em><\/a>); BC (<a href=\"https:\/\/bccdc.shinyapps.io\/respiratory_wastewater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>); BC, Vancouver (<a href=\"https:\/\/metrovancouver.org\/services\/liquid-waste\/testing-for-the-covid-19-virus-in-wastewater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wastewater<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>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). <\/p>\n<p>Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"11.314341846758\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.625\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> This week[1] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 30<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Last week[2] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#wastewater-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> (until next week):<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-300x187.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" style=\"align: left; margin-left: 0px !important; padding: 9px 0 9px 0;\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-4-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6521739130435\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong> Variants<\/strong> [3] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 21<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> <strong>Emergency Room Visits<\/strong>[4] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#trends_select_7dayeddiagnosed_00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 28<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-variants-natl-1-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-er-natl-1-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Hospitalization<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7560975609756\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> New York[5] <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.health.ny.gov\/daily-hospitalization-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York State<\/a>, data January 8:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> National [6] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/covidnetdashboard\/de\/powerbi\/dashboard.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> Janurary 2, 2005:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-3-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-296x300.png 296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Positivity<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"2.5294117647059\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> National[7] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walgreens.com\/healthcare-solutions\/covid-19-index\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Walgreens<\/a> January 6:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Ohio[8] <a href=\"https:\/\/clevelandcliniclabs.com\/respiratory-virus-surveillance-statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cleveland Clinic<\/a> January 4:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-1-300x170.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-1-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Travelers Data<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5932203389831\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Positivity[9] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Variants[10] <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#traveler-genomic-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> December 16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284944\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-variants-travelers-300x212.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Deaths<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.7647058823529\">\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronavirusdisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"> Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] <a href=\"https:\/\/health.hawaii.gov\/coronadisease2019\/what-you-should-know\/current-situation-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC<\/a> November 20:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-positivity-natl-1-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-284303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/covid-cdc-deaths-ed-natl-1-300x183.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"172.49713637817\">\n<p><strong>LEGEND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1) <span style=\"font-size: 10pt; color: gold;\">\u2605<\/span> for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n<p>2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[1] (CDC) Seeing more red and more orange, but nothing new at major hubs. <\/p>\n<p>[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n<p>[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, \u201cOmmicron,\u201d has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.<\/p>\n<p>[4] (ED) A little uptick.<\/p>\n<p>[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped.<\/p>\n<p>[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<p>[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.<\/p>\n<p>[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.<\/p>\n<p>[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stats Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Challenger Job Cuts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/challenger-job-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS employers announced 38,792 job cuts in December 2024, the least in five months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing: \u201cBoeing 747 Wing Panel Was Found At Heathrow Months After Falling Off\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/boeing-747-wing-panel-found-heathrow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Simple Flying<\/a>]. \u201cA wing panel that fell off a Boeing 747 freighter upon landing was discovered in a grass area next to the runway at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). After inquiries were made, it was discovered that the panel had been there for over two months, having detached from a One Air 747-400 freighter that landed in early January 2024. London Heathrow has a sophisticated FOD radar detection system that is capable of picking up debris as small as a screw. However, this system only scans the hard runway surface, not the grass areas surrounding the runways, which explains why this piece was missed for two months. LHR\u2019s operator, Heathrow Airport Holdings, added that because it was winter, the grass areas were not mown as frequently, but if they had been, then the missing part would have been discovered sooner.\u201d \u2022 Makes you wonder how many other aircraft parts there are, scattered about.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 32 Fear (previous close: 32 Fear) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 26 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 8 at 8:59:48 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Poetry Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace\u201d (facsimile) [<a href=\"https:\/\/jgc.org\/awobmolg-1967.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Richard Brautigan<\/a>] (1967):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"726\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/brautigan-248x300.png 248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not going to happen, is it? It\u2019s the very last thing that would happen\u2026 <\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Book<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"photos\"\/>\u201cThe Honorable Parts\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scopeofwork.net\/the-honorable-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Scope of Work<\/a>]. \u201c[Christopher Payne] will apparently return to the same factory dozens of times, waiting for the moment when a production run lines up just right, or the material being processed is just the right color, or \u2014 I don\u2019t know \u2014 his subject finally lifts their hand in a particularly elegant way. Payne is an artist, and his art documents, explains, and valorizes manufacturing, fabrication, and maintenance work. Aspects of Payne\u2019s work might be categorized as genre art. He captures moments in everyday time; he captures human intention and effort; he captures the infrastructure required to make stuff. His subjects are often highly engineered (he has photographed ASML\u2019s EUV machines, Boeing\u2019s 787 assembly line, and NASA\u2019s Space Launch System), but just as often they\u2019re highly soulful (Payne published a book about Steinway pianos; he has also photographed Martin\u2019s guitar factory and Zildjian\u2019s cymbal production process). Regardless of what he\u2019s shooting, Payne\u2019s photographs often feel just as carefully assembled as the objects in them.\u201d \u2022 I don\u2019t like all of it, but some of it I <em>really<\/em> like (Image courtesy of Christopher Payne):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"313\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/payne-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Uses and Abuses of Manet\u2019s Olympia\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nonsite.org\/the-uses-and-abuses-of-manets-olympia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">nonsite.org<\/a>]. Review of Darcy Grigsby\u2019s new book, Creole: Portraits of France\u2019s Foreign Relations During the Long Nineteenth Century (2022). On Laure, the Black maid (model) in Manet\u2019s Olympia: \u201cAs Grigsby declares, the \u2018\u2018freedom\u2019 [of black women] to earn money as models inevitably, insidiously, connoted slavery and their incapacity to do so; their modernity was recast as a sham.\u2019 According to this New Jim Crow-type account, slavery was prohibited in name only. Thus, we reach Grigsby\u2019s extraordinary thesis, that the singular \u2018value of Manet\u2019s picture reside[s] in its refusal to sentimentalize the inequities of modernity, including the subordinate status of the black working-class woman to her white counterpart.\u2019 Olympia, in other words, is both an instance of, and a commentary on, white privilege: \u2018one model was more vulnerable and subject to violence; one was more likely to be treated as yet another object, as if slavery lingered. One woman connoted such dehumanization and dispossession\u2014the black woman whom many art historians failed to see.\u2019 In Grigsby\u2019s world, the real battle is not between capital and labor, but between white and black workers. This is the ideal scenario for capital: divide and conquer, worker against worker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"zeitgeist\"\/><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistoric Los Angeles wildfires are anything but \u2018unprecedented’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wildfire Today<\/a>]. \u201cThese fires may well be the most destructive for L.A., but are only considered unprecedented by those who have forgotten the past history of fire in the area \u2013 or forgotten the precedents of the Camp Fire of 2018 or the Australian Black Summer Fires of 2019-20 or Greece of 2023, and others. The wildfire risks for these parts of L.A. have been well documented over many years, and a similar conflagration happened in the city less than two decades earlier. One of the most read articles on Wildfire Today this week \u2013 possibly mistakenly due to their similarities \u2013 is <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2019\/10\/30\/roundup-of-new-southern-california-wildfires-october-30-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a round-up of the 2019 fires around L.A<\/a>.\u201d And: \u201cApart from the \u2018perfect storm\u2019 scenarios of the Palisades and Sayre, experts have known for decades that <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/2025\/01\/09\/los-angeles-wildfires-palisades-fire-most-destructive-history-was-anything-but-unprecedented\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">much of California\u2019s land is dependent on fire<\/a>. Nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0111414\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">10 years ago, researchers concluded<\/a> that : \u2018adequate planning of the changes in the built environment\u2026is going to be vital for managing risk from fire under future climates.\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/wildfiretoday.com\/documents\/Alexander_2004_conflagrations.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Almost 20 years ago<\/a>, experts drew on studies from the early 1970s on ways to specifically stop conflagrations from burning in Southern California, saying \u2018Through strategic fuel management planning, we could influence the total number and size of the (conflagration) occurrences as well as their geographic distribution and thereby mitigate the impacts of too much of the \u2018wrong kind of fire.’\u201d \u2022 Well, yeah, but that woiuld interfere with real estate development, and who wants that? (See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/06\/are-the-canadian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Canadian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters?<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2023\/07\/are-the-californian-wildfires-really-natural-disasters.html\">Are the Californian Wildfires Really \u201cNatural\u201d Disasters? <\/a>at NC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnatomy of L.A. fire catastrophe: Embers that traveled for miles, \u2018chaotic\u2019 winds and terrible timing\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/topstories\/anatomy-of-la-fire-catastrophe-embers-that-traveled-for-miles-chaotic-winds-and-terrible-timing\/ar-BB1r9u2t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MSN<\/a>]. \u201cSanta Ana winds are infamous for driving fast-moving fires in Southern California, pushing embers well beyond a blaze\u2019s boundary and into neighborhoods and across major roadways. But officials say the winds that fueled devastating fires in three parts of Los Angeles County were much more erratic and unpredictable than a typical dry offshore wind pattern \u2014 and struck areas unaccustomed to such events. The life-threatening windstorm that prompted several days of dire warnings exploded into a crisis even worse than firefighters predicted, with embers flying an estimated two to three miles ahead of the established fire and in every direction. The extraordinary winds have created extreme fire behavior almost impossible to anticipate, confounding efforts to establish secure containment lines or utilize firefighting aircraft. They have also led to major structure losses, widespread evacuations and ongoing destruction. \u2018Normally, under a sustained Santa Ana condition, we have fires that are long and narrow,\u2019 said Anthony Marrone, Los Angeles County Fire Chief. \u2018However, with these erratic winds and this PDS, or particularly dangerous situation, the winds were constantly changing.’\u201d \u2022 PDF = particularly dangerous situation. What a great acronym!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirefighters continue to battle blazes as L.A. braces for more days of fire weather\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/live\/pacific-palisades-fire-updates-los-angeles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>]. \u201cWind speeds weakened across the Los Angeles region Thursday morning, with isolated gusts reaching 35 miles per hour in the Malibu area and 58 miles per hour in the San Gabriel Mountains, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Oxnard. But after a lull throughout the day, winds are expected to strengthen Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cScientists uncover how the brain washes itself during sleep\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/DLoVI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Science<\/a>]. \u201cScientists think sleep is the brain\u2019s rinse cycle, when fluid percolating through the organ flushes out chemical waste that accumulated while we were awake. But what propels this circulation has been uncertain. A study of mice, reported today in Cell, suggests regular contractions of blood vessels in the brain, stimulated by the periodic release of a chemical cousin of adrenaline, push the fluid along.\u201d \u2022 Not <em>that<\/em> kind of brainwashing!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Contact information for plants<\/strong>: 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) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-2-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From JG:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"535\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/japanese_maple-269x300.jpeg 269w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>JG writes: \u201cHere\u2019s a photo of our little Japanese Maple. It\u2019s difficult to capture the luminosity and sometimes looks nearly magenta with the sun shining through it. Wonder why the tips of the leaves are white? Luckily the deer haven\u2019t been rubbing their antlers on it as they have some of our other maples.\u201d Normally I prefer pictures that are minimum of 600px wide, but this photo is so very <em>very<\/em> red!<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"donate\"\/><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Water Cooler is a standalone entity <em>not<\/em> covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. If you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! <em>Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage<\/em>. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n<p>Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-226891\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"606\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution.png 606w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/contribution-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF & Email\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none; -moz-box-shadow: none; box-shadow:none; padding:0; margin:0\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/print-button-gray.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF & Email\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .entry-content --><\/p>\n<footer class=\"entry-meta\">\n\t\t\tThis entry was posted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/guest-post\" rel=\"category tag\">Guest Post<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/category\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-9-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-09T14:00:26-05:00\">January 9, 2025<\/time><\/a><span class=\"by-author\"> by <span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/author\/lambert-strether\" title=\"View all posts by Lambert Strether\" rel=\"author\">Lambert Strether<\/a><\/span><\/span>.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-info\" wp_automatic_readability=\"20.197005056398\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-avatar --><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-description\" wp_automatic_readability=\"35.467911318553\">\n<h2>About Lambert Strether<\/h2>\n<p>Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (\u201cBecause markets\u201d). I don\u2019t much care about the \u201cism\u201d that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don\u2019t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. <br \/>\n <br \/>\nTo me, the key issue \u2014 and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me \u2014 is the tens of thousands of excess \u201cdeaths from despair,\u201d as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics \u2014 even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton\u2019s wars created \u2014 bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow \u2014 currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press \u2014 a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let\u2019s call such voices \u201cthe left.\u201d Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn\u2019t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I\u2019ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- .author-link\t-->\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-description -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!-- .author-info --><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --><br \/>\n\t<!-- #post --><\/p>\n<nav class=\"nav-single\">\n<h3 class=\"assistive-text\">Post navigation<\/h3>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-previous list-posts-older\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/beware-the-faux-populism-of-corporate-democrats.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Beware the Faux Populism of Corporate Democrats<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"nav-next list-posts-newer\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/nav>\n<p><!-- .nav-single --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #comments .comments-area --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #content --><br \/>\n<!-- #primary --><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- #secondary --><\/p>\n<footer id=\"colophon\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- .site-info --><br \/>\n\t\t<\/footer>\n<p><!-- #colophon --><br \/>\n\t\t<!-- #main.wrapper --><br \/>\n<!-- #page --><br \/>\n<!-- .mobile-menu-wrap --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Blog Reader Pooling - removed 09\/16\/2015 by M. 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Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Theodore Roosevelt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-spotlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}