\n<\/p>\n
By Lambert Strether.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nBird Song of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins, I put the coordinates into Google Maps, and the site is near a big highway, the Tamiami Trail. Hence the loud roaring of trucks, which the Thrasher <em>almost<\/em> drowns out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/jan\/30\/birds-dying-pristine-amazon-climate-crisis-aoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. Something was happening to the birds at Tiputini. The biodiversity research centre, buried deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has always been special. It is astonishingly remote: a tiny scattering of research cabins in 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) of virgin forest. For scientists, it comes about as close as you can to observing rainforest wildlife in a world untouched by human industry. Almost every year since his arrival in 2000, ecologist John G Blake had been there to count the birds. Rising before the sun, he would record the density and variety of the dawn chorus. Slowly walking the perimeter of the plots, he noted every species he saw. And for one day every year, he and other researchers would cast huge \u201cmist\u201d nets that caught flying birds in their weave, where they would be counted, untangled and freed. For years, these counts captured birds\u2019 annual fluctuations; they had good and bad years, seasons in which nests were disrupted by storms and others when they boomed. But by about 2012, Blake and his collaborators could see something was shifting. The birds were dying: not in masses at once, struck down by a plague, but generation by generation.\u201d And today: \u201cThis week, Wolfe and collaborators published new work directly linking rising temperatures to bird declines. Their research, published in Science Advances, tracked birds living in the forest understory at the BDFFP against detailed climate data. They found that harsher dry seasons significantly reduced the survival of 83% of species. A 1C increase in dry season temperature would reduce the average survival of birds by 63%. Exactly how the heat is causing bird numbers to decline is tricky to pinpoint, Wolfe says, but \u201cthese birds are intrinsically linked to small, small changes in temperature and precipitation\u201d. One of the most immediate ways a heating planet hurts wildlife is by putting them out of step with their food sources: when fewer insects survive dry seasons, or leaves bloom and fruit ripens at different times, birds find themselves unable to forage and feed their young. Their nests begin to fail. Within a few generations, their numbers fall.\u201d \u2022 Like the vanished bug splats.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#elon\">Elon demands access<\/a> to the Federal Government\u2019s check-writing machine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#it\">DOGE\u2019s IT<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#democrats\">The DNC meets<\/a> to pick a new chair.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"helper\"\/><strong>Look for the Helpers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let me leave this in for a second day. If you are in the LA area:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.26953125\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.71875\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free air purifiers in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#LA<\/a> \u2013 retweet please.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd<\/a> continues to donate HEPA +Active Carbon air cleaners to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LADreamCenter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@LADreamCenter<\/a> as part of our online “Buy One, We Donate One” emergency relief program throughout January. Last Saturday a large supply of MA-35 units\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ecEkXoijRb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/ecEkXoijRb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tony Colaneri (@TonyColaneri) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyColaneri\/status\/1884698335698645423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (\u201cHelpers\u201d in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday <em>normal<\/em> incidents and stories of \u201cthe communism of everyday life\u201d are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza).<\/p>\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><a name=\"trump\"\/>Trump Administration<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"53.7282\">\n<p>A spot of of good news:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.3976833976834\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.3436293436293\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very important moment as the Trump antitrust division sues to block a big tech merger, HPE and Juniper. This one should never have gotten out of the board room. Would be catastrophic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885044957284622557\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And now for the rest\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"elon\"\/>\u201cSenior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/omS67\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cDavid A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, announced his retirement Friday in an email to colleagues obtained by The Washington Post. President Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk\u2019s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. .\u201d That\u2019s too bad. Why? \u201cTypically only a small number of career officials control Treasury\u2019s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions\u2026. \u2018This is a mechanical job \u2014 they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It\u2019s not one where there\u2019s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they\u2019re due,\u2019 [Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations] said. \u2018It\u2019s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. \u2026 You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.’\u201d \u2022 Stephanie Kelton pulls out the key quote:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7619047619048\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"12.380952380952\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">“The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has ‘full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,’ which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems\u2026Musk has characterized the\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StephanieKelton\/status\/1885306529844265386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Hmm. Would \u201caccess to\u201d include modifying the software in any way? Maybe I\u2019m foily but I\u2019m picturing Musk, slave of some defunct economist, installing a software version of the \u201cBalanced Budget Amendment\u201d written by some twenty-something tech bro. Or personally approving every check run, keeping a tally and stopping the press when outgo matchedi incoming, like a household.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>NLRB management explains the buyouts:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3290734824281\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.255591054313\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NLRB’s Acting General Counsel just send this memo out to staff saying, “I cannot promise you that everything is going to be OK.”<\/p>\n<p>“I know that the past few days and nights have been extremely scary and distressing for some of us.” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2xje1Tpczi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/2xje1Tpczi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885373774674989567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Klippenstein is doing a great job on this stuff.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"it\"\/>Snark is easy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.2173913043478\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"6.6521739130435\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House digital team deserves an award for what they have been pulling off. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zdkxMHsGy0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/zdkxMHsGy0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charliekirk11\/status\/1885327734995615787\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(and see the Community Note). Email servers are hard:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4948453608247\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7835051546392\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You made the photo<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katerina Dimitratos (@KDimitratos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KDimitratos\/status\/1885204657850523731\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Recall there\u2019s a lawsuit about that unsecured server, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justsecurity.org\/107087\/tracker-legal-challenges-trump-administration-actions\/#post-107087-_v77y7z9g0i03\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jane Does 1-2 v. Office of Personnel Management<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFAA Report on D.C. Plane Crash Is Out\u2014and It\u2019s an Indictment of Trump\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/190964\/faa-report-dc-plane-crash-staffing-indictment-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The New Republic<\/a>]. It\u2019s like every dish of news I order comes with a side of hysteria. More: \u201cAn internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration found that in reality, the tower\u2019s staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) was \u201cnot normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,\u201d according to The New York Times. There was only one air traffic controller to handle both helicopters and planes in the airport\u2019s vicinity, a job usually assigned to two people\u2026. Staffing levels at the airport\u2019s control tower have been below adequate levels for years, like many of the U.S.\u2019s other airports. DCA\u2019s tower only had 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to congressional reports. This is well below the FAA and air traffic controller union\u2019s preferred number of 30, and is due to employee turnover and budget cuts, according to the Times.\u201d \u2022 The headline is deceptive, since DEI is not ruled out. And speaking of the FAA\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Meritocracy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.9389312977099\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.3969465648855\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just sent out a memo directing staff to “give preference to<br \/>communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O1EIxjUPdz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/O1EIxjUPdz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885070288573845735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>But meritorious at what?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nominations<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"23.902240325866\">\n<p>\u201cGabbard in danger after views on Snowden rankle GOP senators\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/5117815-tulsi-gabbard-snowden-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hill<\/a>]. Republican senators pressed Gabbard to declare Snowden a \u2018traitor\u2019 and to acknowledge that he \u2018harmed\u2019 U.S. national security, but Gabbard refused to do so, raising alarm among Republicans who will be voting on her nomination in the weeks ahead. \u2018People are holding their cards pretty close to the vest, but that nomination is in trouble,\u2019 said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Gabbard\u2019s chances of getting through the Senate\u2026. A key moment during Thursday\u2019s hearing came when Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked whether Gabbard views Snowden as a \u2018traitor,\u2019 advising her that members of the Intelligence panel would feel a lot better about her nomination if she would do so. Instead, Gabbard sidestepped two questions about whether Snowden betrayed the nation, telling lawmakers she is \u2018focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,\u2019 referring to Snowden\u2019s theft of secret documents. Lankford, who earlier this month said he would support Gabbard, said after the hearing that he was \u2018surprised\u2019 by her response. \u2018I was surprised, because that doesn\u2019t seem like a hard question on that. It wasn\u2019t intended to be a trick question by any means,\u2019 Lankford said. The Oklahoma senator said it should have been an \u2018easy question\u2019 to say it\u2019s \u2018universally accepted when you steal a million pages of top-secret documents and you hand it to the Russians, that\u2019s a traitorous act.’\u201d \u2022 It isn\u2019t (Snowden\u2019s documents revealed illegal and unconstitutional behavior) and wasn\u2019t (the documents were vetted by journalists to make sure nothing that would injure national security got out). Good job, knuckledragged, you might have sunk the nomination of the only person in the Beltway willing to throw a net over the spooks. Of course, if that was the objective\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a name=\"democrats\"\/>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"73.315281668223\">\n<p>\u201cThe DNC\u2019s outgoing chair says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in 2024\u201d (interview) [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jaime-harrison-democrats-dnc-chair-biden-election-7845ba0e43c3f4c18a4ed5a6b7b5e5ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cAs the Democratic National Committee prepares to elect a new chair, its departing leader says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in the 2024 race\u2026. He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday.\u201d From the interview: \u201c<em>Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?<\/em> [HARRISON: \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it\u2019s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there.\u2019 \u2018The gap in which she lost wasn\u2019t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it\u2019s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, to how she lost in some of those states.’\u201d \u2022 Harrison has learned nothing. It was also his party\u2019s job <em>to find those \u201clittle nicks\u201d<\/em>, as clearly the Republicans were able to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats are voting in a new party leader \u2014 but it\u2019s not enough to right the ship\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/30\/opinion\/democrats-new-party-leader-wont-be-able-to-right-the-ship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Post<\/a>]. \u201cThe race for DNC chair could matter if the party\u2019s woes were purely a matter of campaign mechanics: The central party helps to maintain voter contact databases and provides technological infrastructure that all its candidates can access. If the Democrats\u2019 November defeats were due to poorly maintained databases or outdated voter modeling software, the new chair could fix those and propel the party to victory. That, however, is clearly not the case: Democrats are losing because of their message, not their tactics or techniques\u2026. A new party chair cannot turn such a precipitous decline around. That is the job of elected Democrats.\u201d \u2022 Of course, the Post\u2019s advice is that Democrats should be more like Republicans. Conveniently, many Democrats believe the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Wikler<\/em>. Endorsed by Third Way:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.8242574257426\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.0693069306931\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Third Way has endorsed Ben Wikler for DNC chair, have asked him if he agrees with this advice for 2028 (will post if I get answer) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Weigel (@daveweigel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveweigel\/status\/1885377027101831267\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Weirdly, but appropriately:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stoller comments:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5315315315315\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.7117117117117\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And Ben Wikler says this screed against ‘oligarchy’ while financed and partnering with billionaire monopolist Reid Hoffman, who worked hard to have an investigation into his own business shut down by lobbying fire Lina Khan. Just a clown show embarrassment. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885356039173771770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I remember those \u201cBold\u201d \u201cProgessives,\u201d but only because they used to word \u201cbold\u201d a lot, which I came to dislike.<\/p>\n<p><em>Faiz Shakir<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/04\/10\/inside-bernies-sanders-campaign-nosedive-179576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Remember him<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"643\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png 500w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir-233x300.png 233w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sounds like Shakir took the lessons of being badly burned by the Sanders 2020 staff to heart; they had pushed Sanders off the clean, clear economic message of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>And: <\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.6555118110236\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.850393700787\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Faiz says the goal is the working class defeating oligarchy, and the DNC is built for another purpose. <\/p>\n<p>So let’s redo the DNC to serve that purpose. <\/p>\n<p>Makes a ton of sense to me. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZephyrTeachout\/status\/1885337069653815741\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBernie Sanders\u2019s ex-campaign manager wants to rebuild Democratic party: \u2018What new ideas are we bringing?’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jan\/30\/dnc-chair-election-faiz-shakir?CMP=share_btn_url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. \u201cIn the wake of Democrats\u2019 losses in November, it has become conventional wisdom that the party has a \u2018media problem\u2019, but Shakir frames the issue as more of a platform and messaging problem. He accused the DNC of over relying on gimmicky language rather than presenting a concrete strategy to confront an unjust economy, and he pointed to More Perfect Union\u2019s coverage of efforts to cancel medical debt and unionize Starbucks employees as a potential template for how the party can use content to send a pro-worker message to voters.\u201d \u2022 I confess I like the More Perfect Union stuff when it comes across my feed. Still, the extent to which Shakir wants to remake the Democrats into a working class party is an exact measure of how much the Party will oppose him.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Sunrise Movement not being especially helpful, assuming help is possible:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.458064516129\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.5096774193548\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There have now been so many protests that officials & moderators are discussing ways to try to keep the forum going \u2013 with DNC officials possibly leaving \u2013 or halt it altogether. <\/p>\n<p>At least a dozen students have been removed so far. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lZKgcdzveE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lZKgcdzveE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MegKinnardAP\/status\/1885139423601332546\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the level of disruption was such that interactions between the candidates were curtailed. Which may or may not matter to you.<\/p>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"26.696449704142\">\n<p>\u201cTrump and the Collapse of the Old Order\u201d [Peggy Noonan, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/MP7lI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wall Street Journal<\/a>]. An aria in three parts. One: \u201cWhen Mr. Trump fires the inspector general, when ICE gets the illegal-immigrant child molester, when Mr. Trump tries to get rid of the federal workforce\u2014he\u2019s settling all family business. His second term can be understood as an attempt to change his image from Sonny to Michael.\u201d Two: \u201cI saw a broad and growing sense in Washington that American domestic politics, or at least that part of its politics that comes from Washington, is at a similar inflection point. That the second rise of Donald Trump is a total break with the past\u2014that stable order, healthy expectations, a certain moderation, and a strict adherence to the law aren\u2019t being \u201ctraduced\u201d; they are ending. That something new has begun. People aren\u2019t sure they\u2019re right about this and no one has a name for the big break, but they know we have entered something different\u2014something more emotional, more tribal and visceral. There is the strong man, and the cult of personality, and the leg-breakers back home who keep the congressional troops in line.\u201d Three: \u201cA word to Democrats trying to figure out how to save their party. The most eloquent of them, of course, think the answer is finding the right words. <em>We need to talk more like working people, we need Trump\u2019s touch with popular phrasing.<\/em> The answer isn\u2019t to talk but do.\u201d And: \u201cMost of all, make something work. You run nearly every great city in the nation. Make one work\u2014clean it up, control crime, smash corruption, educate the kids. You want everyone in the country to know who you are? Save a city.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\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>Lambert here: As I have indicated with handy \u201cNo\u201d logos, everything\u2019s gone dark except for trusty New York State hospitalization (daily), Walgreen\u2019s positivity (weekly), and the Cleveland Clinic (?). Readers, do you have any suggestions about alternatives at state level? Thank you! How I wish we had Biobot back. (Sorry for the inartistic positioning of the logos. It was the best I could do. UPDATE Darn it, I thought those checkerboards signified \u201ctransparent.\u201d I will fix Monday. UPDATE I missed a couple. I guess this outage has me more ticked off than I thought.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"10.853293413174\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6190476190476\">\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> January 13<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"418\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2-300x209.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6417910447761\">\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> January 18<\/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> January 11<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"460\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"318\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl-300x159.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.8961038961039\">\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 30:<\/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> January 24:<\/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-12.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12-300x196.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2-288x300.png 288w\" 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=\"2.5714285714286\">\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 27:<\/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 18:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\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-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2-300x189.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2-300x198.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 30:<\/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 30<\/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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2.png 608w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"419\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.76\">\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> January 11:<\/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> January 11:<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"348\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"117.64177143504\">\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>Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Chicago PMI\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/chicago-pmi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, rose to 39.5 in January 2025, up from a six-month low of 36.9 in the prior month, but missing market expectations of 40. This is the first increase after three consecutive months of decline, though the index remains below both the level of November 2024 and the 2024 average.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inflation: \u201cUnited States PCE Price Index Annual Change\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/pce-price-index-annual-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe headline annual PCE inflation rate in the US edged up to 2.6% in December 2024, the highest rate in seven months, from 2.4% in November and in line with expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Personal Income: \u201cUnited States Personal Income\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/personal-income\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS personal income rose 0.4% month-over-month in December 2024, in line with market expectations and following a 0.3% increase in November. Employee compensation grew by 0.4%, compared with the 0.5% gain in the previous month, driven by private wages and salaries (0.4% vs. 0.5%).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>The Bezzle:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.6101694915254\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.1525423728814\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The JP Morgan analyst has had enough LOL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gSdKFD2Ehe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/gSdKFD2Ehe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \uea00 Q-Cap \uea00 (@qcapital2020) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/qcapital2020\/status\/1885325305100849617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And this guy wants to get his hands on the government printing press\u2026.. <\/p>\n<p>Tech: I hate notifications too:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4705882352941\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7058823529412\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">real <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KE6a9iUeZN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/KE6a9iUeZN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Images AI Could Never Recreate (@imagesaicouldnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/imagesaicouldnt\/status\/1884798691883573385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 47 Neutral (previous close: 45 Neutral) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 45 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 30 at 12:42:01 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A literal nook:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.8333333333333\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.5\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">7. Keith Richards’ home library, Connecticut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6d4of0zRu2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/6d4of0zRu2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CLT (@CLT_Exam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CLT_Exam\/status\/1883915805341241658\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Makes a Great Mocktail?\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/cocktail-science-mocktail-how-to-replicate-the-taste-of-alcohol-in-a-nonalcoholic-drink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Serious Eats<\/a>]. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if you could sip a mocktail that looks and tastes just like the real thing? Today, we\u2019ll look at the science of how alcohol actually tastes, how to mimic it, and whether this is a good idea. Later this week, we\u2019ll look at the flavors that appear in great spirits and how to mimic them with some actual recipes. The prevailing knowledge seems to argue that you can\u2019t recreate the taste of alcohol without actually using it. Is that true? Let\u2019s step back. Maybe a better first question would be: What, exactly, does alcohol taste like? The answer to this question may not be as obvious as you think.\u201d Answer: \u201c[T]ingly, drying, bitter, and sweet.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Feral?<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.7647058823529\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.6029411764706\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Albert Dumouchel (1916-1971), The Horrible Snow Cat, 1969, woodcut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DwHx9NHWmN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/DwHx9NHWmN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marysia (@marysia_cc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marysia_cc\/status\/1885299490451542109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Musical Interlude<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I saw Marianne Faithfull years ago in a small room at the Montreal Jazz Festival, full of blue light. Wonderful <em>chanteuse<\/em>, despite or perhaps because of the cigarette and the whiskey glass; charisma like a supernova. With Garth Hudson:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Marianne Faithfull "Strange Weather" (Live 1989)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wr5cIafv0B0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSigns Of Life In A Desert Of Death\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/signs-of-life-in-a-desert-of-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Noema<\/a>]. \u201cA hundred miles to the north is the site of one of the modern world\u2019s worst ecocides. I have come to Uzbekistan to visit a vanished sea.\u201d Cutting to the chase: \u201cThe tiny crustacean bodies wriggling in the brine are a clear example that if the apocalypse has come, life has managed to carry on\u2026. A hardy, woody shrub called saxaul is another form of new life.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Worth reading in full; great topic, good photos, good writing.<\/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-1-24-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From BB:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"485\" height=\"1080\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg 485w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-135x300.jpeg 135w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-460x1024.jpeg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>BB writes: \u201cCosmos. There are several different species. I don\u2019t know which this one is, but it is about 7 feet tall.\u201d My goodness!<\/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\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-31T14:00:56-05:00\">January 31, 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\/kelp-farming-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Kelp Farming Isn\u2019t As Green As It Seems<\/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. Lacourse --><br \/>\n<!-- <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"nc-hide\" src=\"http:\/\/t.blogreaderproject.com\/t.gif?c9a0f3c0f2425bc76f3b4c3baf750ea8\" alt=\"\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\"> --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp footer --><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lambert Strether. Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90418,"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-90417","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\/90417","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=90417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Bird Song of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins, I put the coordinates into Google Maps, and the site is near a big highway, the Tamiami Trail. Hence the loud roaring of trucks, which the Thrasher <em>almost<\/em> drowns out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/jan\/30\/birds-dying-pristine-amazon-climate-crisis-aoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. Something was happening to the birds at Tiputini. The biodiversity research centre, buried deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has always been special. It is astonishingly remote: a tiny scattering of research cabins in 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) of virgin forest. For scientists, it comes about as close as you can to observing rainforest wildlife in a world untouched by human industry. Almost every year since his arrival in 2000, ecologist John G Blake had been there to count the birds. Rising before the sun, he would record the density and variety of the dawn chorus. Slowly walking the perimeter of the plots, he noted every species he saw. And for one day every year, he and other researchers would cast huge \u201cmist\u201d nets that caught flying birds in their weave, where they would be counted, untangled and freed. For years, these counts captured birds\u2019 annual fluctuations; they had good and bad years, seasons in which nests were disrupted by storms and others when they boomed. But by about 2012, Blake and his collaborators could see something was shifting. The birds were dying: not in masses at once, struck down by a plague, but generation by generation.\u201d And today: \u201cThis week, Wolfe and collaborators published new work directly linking rising temperatures to bird declines. Their research, published in Science Advances, tracked birds living in the forest understory at the BDFFP against detailed climate data. They found that harsher dry seasons significantly reduced the survival of 83% of species. A 1C increase in dry season temperature would reduce the average survival of birds by 63%. Exactly how the heat is causing bird numbers to decline is tricky to pinpoint, Wolfe says, but \u201cthese birds are intrinsically linked to small, small changes in temperature and precipitation\u201d. One of the most immediate ways a heating planet hurts wildlife is by putting them out of step with their food sources: when fewer insects survive dry seasons, or leaves bloom and fruit ripens at different times, birds find themselves unable to forage and feed their young. Their nests begin to fail. Within a few generations, their numbers fall.\u201d \u2022 Like the vanished bug splats.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#elon\">Elon demands access<\/a> to the Federal Government\u2019s check-writing machine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#it\">DOGE\u2019s IT<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#democrats\">The DNC meets<\/a> to pick a new chair.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"helper\"\/><strong>Look for the Helpers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let me leave this in for a second day. If you are in the LA area:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.26953125\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.71875\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free air purifiers in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#LA<\/a> \u2013 retweet please.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd<\/a> continues to donate HEPA +Active Carbon air cleaners to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LADreamCenter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@LADreamCenter<\/a> as part of our online “Buy One, We Donate One” emergency relief program throughout January. Last Saturday a large supply of MA-35 units\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ecEkXoijRb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/ecEkXoijRb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tony Colaneri (@TonyColaneri) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyColaneri\/status\/1884698335698645423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (\u201cHelpers\u201d in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday <em>normal<\/em> incidents and stories of \u201cthe communism of everyday life\u201d are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza).<\/p>\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><a name=\"trump\"\/>Trump Administration<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"53.7282\">\n<p>A spot of of good news:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.3976833976834\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.3436293436293\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very important moment as the Trump antitrust division sues to block a big tech merger, HPE and Juniper. This one should never have gotten out of the board room. Would be catastrophic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885044957284622557\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And now for the rest\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"elon\"\/>\u201cSenior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/omS67\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cDavid A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, announced his retirement Friday in an email to colleagues obtained by The Washington Post. President Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk\u2019s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. .\u201d That\u2019s too bad. Why? \u201cTypically only a small number of career officials control Treasury\u2019s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions\u2026. \u2018This is a mechanical job \u2014 they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It\u2019s not one where there\u2019s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they\u2019re due,\u2019 [Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations] said. \u2018It\u2019s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. \u2026 You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.’\u201d \u2022 Stephanie Kelton pulls out the key quote:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7619047619048\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"12.380952380952\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">“The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has ‘full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,’ which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems\u2026Musk has characterized the\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StephanieKelton\/status\/1885306529844265386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Hmm. Would \u201caccess to\u201d include modifying the software in any way? Maybe I\u2019m foily but I\u2019m picturing Musk, slave of some defunct economist, installing a software version of the \u201cBalanced Budget Amendment\u201d written by some twenty-something tech bro. Or personally approving every check run, keeping a tally and stopping the press when outgo matchedi incoming, like a household.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>NLRB management explains the buyouts:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3290734824281\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.255591054313\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NLRB’s Acting General Counsel just send this memo out to staff saying, “I cannot promise you that everything is going to be OK.”<\/p>\n<p>“I know that the past few days and nights have been extremely scary and distressing for some of us.” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2xje1Tpczi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/2xje1Tpczi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885373774674989567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Klippenstein is doing a great job on this stuff.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"it\"\/>Snark is easy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.2173913043478\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"6.6521739130435\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House digital team deserves an award for what they have been pulling off. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zdkxMHsGy0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/zdkxMHsGy0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charliekirk11\/status\/1885327734995615787\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(and see the Community Note). Email servers are hard:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4948453608247\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7835051546392\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You made the photo<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katerina Dimitratos (@KDimitratos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KDimitratos\/status\/1885204657850523731\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Recall there\u2019s a lawsuit about that unsecured server, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justsecurity.org\/107087\/tracker-legal-challenges-trump-administration-actions\/#post-107087-_v77y7z9g0i03\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jane Does 1-2 v. Office of Personnel Management<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFAA Report on D.C. Plane Crash Is Out\u2014and It\u2019s an Indictment of Trump\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/190964\/faa-report-dc-plane-crash-staffing-indictment-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The New Republic<\/a>]. It\u2019s like every dish of news I order comes with a side of hysteria. More: \u201cAn internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration found that in reality, the tower\u2019s staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) was \u201cnot normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,\u201d according to The New York Times. There was only one air traffic controller to handle both helicopters and planes in the airport\u2019s vicinity, a job usually assigned to two people\u2026. Staffing levels at the airport\u2019s control tower have been below adequate levels for years, like many of the U.S.\u2019s other airports. DCA\u2019s tower only had 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to congressional reports. This is well below the FAA and air traffic controller union\u2019s preferred number of 30, and is due to employee turnover and budget cuts, according to the Times.\u201d \u2022 The headline is deceptive, since DEI is not ruled out. And speaking of the FAA\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Meritocracy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.9389312977099\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.3969465648855\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just sent out a memo directing staff to “give preference to<br \/>communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O1EIxjUPdz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/O1EIxjUPdz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885070288573845735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>But meritorious at what?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nominations<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"23.902240325866\">\n<p>\u201cGabbard in danger after views on Snowden rankle GOP senators\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/5117815-tulsi-gabbard-snowden-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hill<\/a>]. Republican senators pressed Gabbard to declare Snowden a \u2018traitor\u2019 and to acknowledge that he \u2018harmed\u2019 U.S. national security, but Gabbard refused to do so, raising alarm among Republicans who will be voting on her nomination in the weeks ahead. \u2018People are holding their cards pretty close to the vest, but that nomination is in trouble,\u2019 said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Gabbard\u2019s chances of getting through the Senate\u2026. A key moment during Thursday\u2019s hearing came when Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked whether Gabbard views Snowden as a \u2018traitor,\u2019 advising her that members of the Intelligence panel would feel a lot better about her nomination if she would do so. Instead, Gabbard sidestepped two questions about whether Snowden betrayed the nation, telling lawmakers she is \u2018focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,\u2019 referring to Snowden\u2019s theft of secret documents. Lankford, who earlier this month said he would support Gabbard, said after the hearing that he was \u2018surprised\u2019 by her response. \u2018I was surprised, because that doesn\u2019t seem like a hard question on that. It wasn\u2019t intended to be a trick question by any means,\u2019 Lankford said. The Oklahoma senator said it should have been an \u2018easy question\u2019 to say it\u2019s \u2018universally accepted when you steal a million pages of top-secret documents and you hand it to the Russians, that\u2019s a traitorous act.’\u201d \u2022 It isn\u2019t (Snowden\u2019s documents revealed illegal and unconstitutional behavior) and wasn\u2019t (the documents were vetted by journalists to make sure nothing that would injure national security got out). Good job, knuckledragged, you might have sunk the nomination of the only person in the Beltway willing to throw a net over the spooks. Of course, if that was the objective\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a name=\"democrats\"\/>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"73.315281668223\">\n<p>\u201cThe DNC\u2019s outgoing chair says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in 2024\u201d (interview) [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jaime-harrison-democrats-dnc-chair-biden-election-7845ba0e43c3f4c18a4ed5a6b7b5e5ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cAs the Democratic National Committee prepares to elect a new chair, its departing leader says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in the 2024 race\u2026. He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday.\u201d From the interview: \u201c<em>Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?<\/em> [HARRISON: \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it\u2019s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there.\u2019 \u2018The gap in which she lost wasn\u2019t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it\u2019s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, to how she lost in some of those states.’\u201d \u2022 Harrison has learned nothing. It was also his party\u2019s job <em>to find those \u201clittle nicks\u201d<\/em>, as clearly the Republicans were able to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats are voting in a new party leader \u2014 but it\u2019s not enough to right the ship\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/30\/opinion\/democrats-new-party-leader-wont-be-able-to-right-the-ship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Post<\/a>]. \u201cThe race for DNC chair could matter if the party\u2019s woes were purely a matter of campaign mechanics: The central party helps to maintain voter contact databases and provides technological infrastructure that all its candidates can access. If the Democrats\u2019 November defeats were due to poorly maintained databases or outdated voter modeling software, the new chair could fix those and propel the party to victory. That, however, is clearly not the case: Democrats are losing because of their message, not their tactics or techniques\u2026. A new party chair cannot turn such a precipitous decline around. That is the job of elected Democrats.\u201d \u2022 Of course, the Post\u2019s advice is that Democrats should be more like Republicans. Conveniently, many Democrats believe the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Wikler<\/em>. Endorsed by Third Way:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.8242574257426\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.0693069306931\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Third Way has endorsed Ben Wikler for DNC chair, have asked him if he agrees with this advice for 2028 (will post if I get answer) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Weigel (@daveweigel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveweigel\/status\/1885377027101831267\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Weirdly, but appropriately:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stoller comments:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5315315315315\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.7117117117117\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And Ben Wikler says this screed against ‘oligarchy’ while financed and partnering with billionaire monopolist Reid Hoffman, who worked hard to have an investigation into his own business shut down by lobbying fire Lina Khan. Just a clown show embarrassment. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885356039173771770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I remember those \u201cBold\u201d \u201cProgessives,\u201d but only because they used to word \u201cbold\u201d a lot, which I came to dislike.<\/p>\n<p><em>Faiz Shakir<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/04\/10\/inside-bernies-sanders-campaign-nosedive-179576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Remember him<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"643\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png 500w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir-233x300.png 233w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sounds like Shakir took the lessons of being badly burned by the Sanders 2020 staff to heart; they had pushed Sanders off the clean, clear economic message of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>And: <\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.6555118110236\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.850393700787\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Faiz says the goal is the working class defeating oligarchy, and the DNC is built for another purpose. <\/p>\n<p>So let’s redo the DNC to serve that purpose. <\/p>\n<p>Makes a ton of sense to me. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZephyrTeachout\/status\/1885337069653815741\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBernie Sanders\u2019s ex-campaign manager wants to rebuild Democratic party: \u2018What new ideas are we bringing?’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jan\/30\/dnc-chair-election-faiz-shakir?CMP=share_btn_url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. \u201cIn the wake of Democrats\u2019 losses in November, it has become conventional wisdom that the party has a \u2018media problem\u2019, but Shakir frames the issue as more of a platform and messaging problem. He accused the DNC of over relying on gimmicky language rather than presenting a concrete strategy to confront an unjust economy, and he pointed to More Perfect Union\u2019s coverage of efforts to cancel medical debt and unionize Starbucks employees as a potential template for how the party can use content to send a pro-worker message to voters.\u201d \u2022 I confess I like the More Perfect Union stuff when it comes across my feed. Still, the extent to which Shakir wants to remake the Democrats into a working class party is an exact measure of how much the Party will oppose him.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Sunrise Movement not being especially helpful, assuming help is possible:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.458064516129\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.5096774193548\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There have now been so many protests that officials & moderators are discussing ways to try to keep the forum going \u2013 with DNC officials possibly leaving \u2013 or halt it altogether. <\/p>\n<p>At least a dozen students have been removed so far. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lZKgcdzveE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lZKgcdzveE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MegKinnardAP\/status\/1885139423601332546\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the level of disruption was such that interactions between the candidates were curtailed. Which may or may not matter to you.<\/p>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"26.696449704142\">\n<p>\u201cTrump and the Collapse of the Old Order\u201d [Peggy Noonan, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/MP7lI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wall Street Journal<\/a>]. An aria in three parts. One: \u201cWhen Mr. Trump fires the inspector general, when ICE gets the illegal-immigrant child molester, when Mr. Trump tries to get rid of the federal workforce\u2014he\u2019s settling all family business. His second term can be understood as an attempt to change his image from Sonny to Michael.\u201d Two: \u201cI saw a broad and growing sense in Washington that American domestic politics, or at least that part of its politics that comes from Washington, is at a similar inflection point. That the second rise of Donald Trump is a total break with the past\u2014that stable order, healthy expectations, a certain moderation, and a strict adherence to the law aren\u2019t being \u201ctraduced\u201d; they are ending. That something new has begun. People aren\u2019t sure they\u2019re right about this and no one has a name for the big break, but they know we have entered something different\u2014something more emotional, more tribal and visceral. There is the strong man, and the cult of personality, and the leg-breakers back home who keep the congressional troops in line.\u201d Three: \u201cA word to Democrats trying to figure out how to save their party. The most eloquent of them, of course, think the answer is finding the right words. <em>We need to talk more like working people, we need Trump\u2019s touch with popular phrasing.<\/em> The answer isn\u2019t to talk but do.\u201d And: \u201cMost of all, make something work. You run nearly every great city in the nation. Make one work\u2014clean it up, control crime, smash corruption, educate the kids. You want everyone in the country to know who you are? Save a city.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\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>Lambert here: As I have indicated with handy \u201cNo\u201d logos, everything\u2019s gone dark except for trusty New York State hospitalization (daily), Walgreen\u2019s positivity (weekly), and the Cleveland Clinic (?). Readers, do you have any suggestions about alternatives at state level? Thank you! How I wish we had Biobot back. (Sorry for the inartistic positioning of the logos. It was the best I could do. UPDATE Darn it, I thought those checkerboards signified \u201ctransparent.\u201d I will fix Monday. UPDATE I missed a couple. I guess this outage has me more ticked off than I thought.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"10.853293413174\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6190476190476\">\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> January 13<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"418\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2-300x209.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6417910447761\">\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> January 18<\/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> January 11<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"460\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"318\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl-300x159.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.8961038961039\">\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 30:<\/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> January 24:<\/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-12.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12-300x196.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2-288x300.png 288w\" 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=\"2.5714285714286\">\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 27:<\/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 18:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\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-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2-300x189.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2-300x198.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 30:<\/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 30<\/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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2.png 608w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"419\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.76\">\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> January 11:<\/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> January 11:<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"348\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"117.64177143504\">\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>Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Chicago PMI\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/chicago-pmi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, rose to 39.5 in January 2025, up from a six-month low of 36.9 in the prior month, but missing market expectations of 40. This is the first increase after three consecutive months of decline, though the index remains below both the level of November 2024 and the 2024 average.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inflation: \u201cUnited States PCE Price Index Annual Change\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/pce-price-index-annual-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe headline annual PCE inflation rate in the US edged up to 2.6% in December 2024, the highest rate in seven months, from 2.4% in November and in line with expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Personal Income: \u201cUnited States Personal Income\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/personal-income\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS personal income rose 0.4% month-over-month in December 2024, in line with market expectations and following a 0.3% increase in November. Employee compensation grew by 0.4%, compared with the 0.5% gain in the previous month, driven by private wages and salaries (0.4% vs. 0.5%).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>The Bezzle:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.6101694915254\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.1525423728814\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The JP Morgan analyst has had enough LOL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gSdKFD2Ehe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/gSdKFD2Ehe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \uea00 Q-Cap \uea00 (@qcapital2020) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/qcapital2020\/status\/1885325305100849617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And this guy wants to get his hands on the government printing press\u2026.. <\/p>\n<p>Tech: I hate notifications too:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4705882352941\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7058823529412\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">real <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KE6a9iUeZN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/KE6a9iUeZN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Images AI Could Never Recreate (@imagesaicouldnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/imagesaicouldnt\/status\/1884798691883573385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 47 Neutral (previous close: 45 Neutral) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 45 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 30 at 12:42:01 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A literal nook:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.8333333333333\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.5\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">7. Keith Richards’ home library, Connecticut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6d4of0zRu2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/6d4of0zRu2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CLT (@CLT_Exam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CLT_Exam\/status\/1883915805341241658\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Makes a Great Mocktail?\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/cocktail-science-mocktail-how-to-replicate-the-taste-of-alcohol-in-a-nonalcoholic-drink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Serious Eats<\/a>]. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if you could sip a mocktail that looks and tastes just like the real thing? Today, we\u2019ll look at the science of how alcohol actually tastes, how to mimic it, and whether this is a good idea. Later this week, we\u2019ll look at the flavors that appear in great spirits and how to mimic them with some actual recipes. The prevailing knowledge seems to argue that you can\u2019t recreate the taste of alcohol without actually using it. Is that true? Let\u2019s step back. Maybe a better first question would be: What, exactly, does alcohol taste like? The answer to this question may not be as obvious as you think.\u201d Answer: \u201c[T]ingly, drying, bitter, and sweet.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Feral?<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.7647058823529\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.6029411764706\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Albert Dumouchel (1916-1971), The Horrible Snow Cat, 1969, woodcut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DwHx9NHWmN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/DwHx9NHWmN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marysia (@marysia_cc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marysia_cc\/status\/1885299490451542109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Musical Interlude<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I saw Marianne Faithfull years ago in a small room at the Montreal Jazz Festival, full of blue light. Wonderful <em>chanteuse<\/em>, despite or perhaps because of the cigarette and the whiskey glass; charisma like a supernova. With Garth Hudson:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Marianne Faithfull "Strange Weather" (Live 1989)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wr5cIafv0B0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSigns Of Life In A Desert Of Death\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/signs-of-life-in-a-desert-of-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Noema<\/a>]. \u201cA hundred miles to the north is the site of one of the modern world\u2019s worst ecocides. I have come to Uzbekistan to visit a vanished sea.\u201d Cutting to the chase: \u201cThe tiny crustacean bodies wriggling in the brine are a clear example that if the apocalypse has come, life has managed to carry on\u2026. A hardy, woody shrub called saxaul is another form of new life.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Worth reading in full; great topic, good photos, good writing.<\/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-1-24-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From BB:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"485\" height=\"1080\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg 485w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-135x300.jpeg 135w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-460x1024.jpeg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>BB writes: \u201cCosmos. There are several different species. I don\u2019t know which this one is, but it is about 7 feet tall.\u201d My goodness!<\/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\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-31T14:00:56-05:00\">January 31, 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\/kelp-farming-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Kelp Farming Isn\u2019t As Green As It Seems<\/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. Lacourse --><br \/>\n<!-- <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"nc-hide\" src=\"http:\/\/t.blogreaderproject.com\/t.gif?c9a0f3c0f2425bc76f3b4c3baf750ea8\" alt=\"\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\"> --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp footer --><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lambert Strether. Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90418,"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-90417","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\/90417","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=90417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins, I put the coordinates into Google Maps, and the site is near a big highway, the Tamiami Trail. Hence the loud roaring of trucks, which the Thrasher <em>almost<\/em> drowns out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/jan\/30\/birds-dying-pristine-amazon-climate-crisis-aoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. Something was happening to the birds at Tiputini. The biodiversity research centre, buried deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, has always been special. It is astonishingly remote: a tiny scattering of research cabins in 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) of virgin forest. For scientists, it comes about as close as you can to observing rainforest wildlife in a world untouched by human industry. Almost every year since his arrival in 2000, ecologist John G Blake had been there to count the birds. Rising before the sun, he would record the density and variety of the dawn chorus. Slowly walking the perimeter of the plots, he noted every species he saw. And for one day every year, he and other researchers would cast huge \u201cmist\u201d nets that caught flying birds in their weave, where they would be counted, untangled and freed. For years, these counts captured birds\u2019 annual fluctuations; they had good and bad years, seasons in which nests were disrupted by storms and others when they boomed. But by about 2012, Blake and his collaborators could see something was shifting. The birds were dying: not in masses at once, struck down by a plague, but generation by generation.\u201d And today: \u201cThis week, Wolfe and collaborators published new work directly linking rising temperatures to bird declines. Their research, published in Science Advances, tracked birds living in the forest understory at the BDFFP against detailed climate data. They found that harsher dry seasons significantly reduced the survival of 83% of species. A 1C increase in dry season temperature would reduce the average survival of birds by 63%. Exactly how the heat is causing bird numbers to decline is tricky to pinpoint, Wolfe says, but \u201cthese birds are intrinsically linked to small, small changes in temperature and precipitation\u201d. One of the most immediate ways a heating planet hurts wildlife is by putting them out of step with their food sources: when fewer insects survive dry seasons, or leaves bloom and fruit ripens at different times, birds find themselves unable to forage and feed their young. Their nests begin to fail. Within a few generations, their numbers fall.\u201d \u2022 Like the vanished bug splats.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/strong> <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#elon\">Elon demands access<\/a> to the Federal Government\u2019s check-writing machine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#it\">DOGE\u2019s IT<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#democrats\">The DNC meets<\/a> to pick a new chair.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"helper\"\/><strong>Look for the Helpers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let me leave this in for a second day. If you are in the LA area:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.26953125\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.71875\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Free air purifiers in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#LA<\/a> \u2013 retweet please.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/ti2lNcypAd<\/a> continues to donate HEPA +Active Carbon air cleaners to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LADreamCenter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@LADreamCenter<\/a> as part of our online “Buy One, We Donate One” emergency relief program throughout January. Last Saturday a large supply of MA-35 units\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/NEGN7WvJd5<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ecEkXoijRb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/ecEkXoijRb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tony Colaneri (@TonyColaneri) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyColaneri\/status\/1884698335698645423\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (\u201cHelpers\u201d in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday <em>normal<\/em> incidents and stories of \u201cthe communism of everyday life\u201d are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza).<\/p>\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><a name=\"trump\"\/>Trump Administration<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"53.7282\">\n<p>A spot of of good news:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.3976833976834\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.3436293436293\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very important moment as the Trump antitrust division sues to block a big tech merger, HPE and Juniper. This one should never have gotten out of the board room. Would be catastrophic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/BzpBGMrurD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885044957284622557\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And now for the rest\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"elon\"\/>\u201cSenior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/omS67\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WaPo<\/a>]. \u201cDavid A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, announced his retirement Friday in an email to colleagues obtained by The Washington Post. President Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week. Lebryk had a dispute with Musk\u2019s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. .\u201d That\u2019s too bad. Why? \u201cTypically only a small number of career officials control Treasury\u2019s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions\u2026. \u2018This is a mechanical job \u2014 they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It\u2019s not one where there\u2019s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they\u2019re due,\u2019 [Mark Mazur, who served in senior treasury roles during the Obama and Biden administrations] said. \u2018It\u2019s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. \u2026 You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.’\u201d \u2022 Stephanie Kelton pulls out the key quote:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7619047619048\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"12.380952380952\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">“The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has ‘full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,’ which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems\u2026Musk has characterized the\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StephanieKelton\/status\/1885306529844265386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Hmm. Would \u201caccess to\u201d include modifying the software in any way? Maybe I\u2019m foily but I\u2019m picturing Musk, slave of some defunct economist, installing a software version of the \u201cBalanced Budget Amendment\u201d written by some twenty-something tech bro. Or personally approving every check run, keeping a tally and stopping the press when outgo matchedi incoming, like a household.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>NLRB management explains the buyouts:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.3290734824281\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.255591054313\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NLRB’s Acting General Counsel just send this memo out to staff saying, “I cannot promise you that everything is going to be OK.”<\/p>\n<p>“I know that the past few days and nights have been extremely scary and distressing for some of us.” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2xje1Tpczi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/2xje1Tpczi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885373774674989567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Klippenstein is doing a great job on this stuff.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p><a name=\"it\"\/>Snark is easy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.2173913043478\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"6.6521739130435\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House digital team deserves an award for what they have been pulling off. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zdkxMHsGy0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/zdkxMHsGy0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charliekirk11\/status\/1885327734995615787\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(and see the Community Note). Email servers are hard:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4948453608247\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7835051546392\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You made the photo<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/yxHJfYOkPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Katerina Dimitratos (@KDimitratos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KDimitratos\/status\/1885204657850523731\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>(Recall there\u2019s a lawsuit about that unsecured server, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justsecurity.org\/107087\/tracker-legal-challenges-trump-administration-actions\/#post-107087-_v77y7z9g0i03\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jane Does 1-2 v. Office of Personnel Management<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFAA Report on D.C. Plane Crash Is Out\u2014and It\u2019s an Indictment of Trump\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/190964\/faa-report-dc-plane-crash-staffing-indictment-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The New Republic<\/a>]. It\u2019s like every dish of news I order comes with a side of hysteria. More: \u201cAn internal report from the Federal Aviation Administration found that in reality, the tower\u2019s staffing at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) was \u201cnot normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,\u201d according to The New York Times. There was only one air traffic controller to handle both helicopters and planes in the airport\u2019s vicinity, a job usually assigned to two people\u2026. Staffing levels at the airport\u2019s control tower have been below adequate levels for years, like many of the U.S.\u2019s other airports. DCA\u2019s tower only had 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, according to congressional reports. This is well below the FAA and air traffic controller union\u2019s preferred number of 30, and is due to employee turnover and budget cuts, according to the Times.\u201d \u2022 The headline is deceptive, since DEI is not ruled out. And speaking of the FAA\u2013<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Meritocracy:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.9389312977099\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.3969465648855\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just sent out a memo directing staff to “give preference to<br \/>communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O1EIxjUPdz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/O1EIxjUPdz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1885070288573845735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>But meritorious at what?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Nominations<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"23.902240325866\">\n<p>\u201cGabbard in danger after views on Snowden rankle GOP senators\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/5117815-tulsi-gabbard-snowden-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Hill<\/a>]. Republican senators pressed Gabbard to declare Snowden a \u2018traitor\u2019 and to acknowledge that he \u2018harmed\u2019 U.S. national security, but Gabbard refused to do so, raising alarm among Republicans who will be voting on her nomination in the weeks ahead. \u2018People are holding their cards pretty close to the vest, but that nomination is in trouble,\u2019 said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Gabbard\u2019s chances of getting through the Senate\u2026. A key moment during Thursday\u2019s hearing came when Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) asked whether Gabbard views Snowden as a \u2018traitor,\u2019 advising her that members of the Intelligence panel would feel a lot better about her nomination if she would do so. Instead, Gabbard sidestepped two questions about whether Snowden betrayed the nation, telling lawmakers she is \u2018focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,\u2019 referring to Snowden\u2019s theft of secret documents. Lankford, who earlier this month said he would support Gabbard, said after the hearing that he was \u2018surprised\u2019 by her response. \u2018I was surprised, because that doesn\u2019t seem like a hard question on that. It wasn\u2019t intended to be a trick question by any means,\u2019 Lankford said. The Oklahoma senator said it should have been an \u2018easy question\u2019 to say it\u2019s \u2018universally accepted when you steal a million pages of top-secret documents and you hand it to the Russians, that\u2019s a traitorous act.’\u201d \u2022 It isn\u2019t (Snowden\u2019s documents revealed illegal and unconstitutional behavior) and wasn\u2019t (the documents were vetted by journalists to make sure nothing that would injure national security got out). Good job, knuckledragged, you might have sunk the nomination of the only person in the Beltway willing to throw a net over the spooks. Of course, if that was the objective\u2026 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a name=\"democrats\"\/>Democrats <em>en d\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"73.315281668223\">\n<p>\u201cThe DNC\u2019s outgoing chair says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in 2024\u201d (interview) [<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jaime-harrison-democrats-dnc-chair-biden-election-7845ba0e43c3f4c18a4ed5a6b7b5e5ae\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Associated Press<\/a>]. \u201cAs the Democratic National Committee prepares to elect a new chair, its departing leader says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in the 2024 race\u2026. He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday.\u201d From the interview: \u201c<em>Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?<\/em> [HARRISON: \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it\u2019s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there.\u2019 \u2018The gap in which she lost wasn\u2019t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it\u2019s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, to how she lost in some of those states.’\u201d \u2022 Harrison has learned nothing. It was also his party\u2019s job <em>to find those \u201clittle nicks\u201d<\/em>, as clearly the Republicans were able to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats are voting in a new party leader \u2014 but it\u2019s not enough to right the ship\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/30\/opinion\/democrats-new-party-leader-wont-be-able-to-right-the-ship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Post<\/a>]. \u201cThe race for DNC chair could matter if the party\u2019s woes were purely a matter of campaign mechanics: The central party helps to maintain voter contact databases and provides technological infrastructure that all its candidates can access. If the Democrats\u2019 November defeats were due to poorly maintained databases or outdated voter modeling software, the new chair could fix those and propel the party to victory. That, however, is clearly not the case: Democrats are losing because of their message, not their tactics or techniques\u2026. A new party chair cannot turn such a precipitous decline around. That is the job of elected Democrats.\u201d \u2022 Of course, the Post\u2019s advice is that Democrats should be more like Republicans. Conveniently, many Democrats believe the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Wikler<\/em>. Endorsed by Third Way:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.8242574257426\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"8.0693069306931\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Third Way has endorsed Ben Wikler for DNC chair, have asked him if he agrees with this advice for 2028 (will post if I get answer) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/QxyxKMrJhA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Weigel (@daveweigel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daveweigel\/status\/1885377027101831267\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Weirdly, but appropriately:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/third-way_404-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stoller comments:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.5315315315315\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.7117117117117\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And Ben Wikler says this screed against ‘oligarchy’ while financed and partnering with billionaire monopolist Reid Hoffman, who worked hard to have an investigation into his own business shut down by lobbying fire Lina Khan. Just a clown show embarrassment. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/SJLEUICChf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewstoller\/status\/1885356039173771770\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>I remember those \u201cBold\u201d \u201cProgessives,\u201d but only because they used to word \u201cbold\u201d a lot, which I came to dislike.<\/p>\n<p><em>Faiz Shakir<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/04\/10\/inside-bernies-sanders-campaign-nosedive-179576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Remember him<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"643\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir.png 500w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/shakir-233x300.png 233w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sounds like Shakir took the lessons of being badly burned by the Sanders 2020 staff to heart; they had pushed Sanders off the clean, clear economic message of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>And: <\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"4.6555118110236\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"11.850393700787\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Faiz says the goal is the working class defeating oligarchy, and the DNC is built for another purpose. <\/p>\n<p>So let’s redo the DNC to serve that purpose. <\/p>\n<p>Makes a ton of sense to me. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/t.co\/iU5rT0yHSB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZephyrTeachout\/status\/1885337069653815741\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBernie Sanders\u2019s ex-campaign manager wants to rebuild Democratic party: \u2018What new ideas are we bringing?’\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jan\/30\/dnc-chair-election-faiz-shakir?CMP=share_btn_url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Guardian<\/a>]. \u201cIn the wake of Democrats\u2019 losses in November, it has become conventional wisdom that the party has a \u2018media problem\u2019, but Shakir frames the issue as more of a platform and messaging problem. He accused the DNC of over relying on gimmicky language rather than presenting a concrete strategy to confront an unjust economy, and he pointed to More Perfect Union\u2019s coverage of efforts to cancel medical debt and unionize Starbucks employees as a potential template for how the party can use content to send a pro-worker message to voters.\u201d \u2022 I confess I like the More Perfect Union stuff when it comes across my feed. Still, the extent to which Shakir wants to remake the Democrats into a working class party is an exact measure of how much the Party will oppose him.<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Sunrise Movement not being especially helpful, assuming help is possible:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"3.458064516129\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"9.5096774193548\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There have now been so many protests that officials & moderators are discussing ways to try to keep the forum going \u2013 with DNC officials possibly leaving \u2013 or halt it altogether. <\/p>\n<p>At least a dozen students have been removed so far. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lZKgcdzveE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/lZKgcdzveE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MegKinnardAP\/status\/1885139423601332546\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the level of disruption was such that interactions between the candidates were curtailed. Which may or may not matter to you.<\/p>\n<p>Realignment and Legitimacy<\/p>\n<blockquote wp_automatic_readability=\"26.696449704142\">\n<p>\u201cTrump and the Collapse of the Old Order\u201d [Peggy Noonan, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/MP7lI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wall Street Journal<\/a>]. An aria in three parts. One: \u201cWhen Mr. Trump fires the inspector general, when ICE gets the illegal-immigrant child molester, when Mr. Trump tries to get rid of the federal workforce\u2014he\u2019s settling all family business. His second term can be understood as an attempt to change his image from Sonny to Michael.\u201d Two: \u201cI saw a broad and growing sense in Washington that American domestic politics, or at least that part of its politics that comes from Washington, is at a similar inflection point. That the second rise of Donald Trump is a total break with the past\u2014that stable order, healthy expectations, a certain moderation, and a strict adherence to the law aren\u2019t being \u201ctraduced\u201d; they are ending. That something new has begun. People aren\u2019t sure they\u2019re right about this and no one has a name for the big break, but they know we have entered something different\u2014something more emotional, more tribal and visceral. There is the strong man, and the cult of personality, and the leg-breakers back home who keep the congressional troops in line.\u201d Three: \u201cA word to Democrats trying to figure out how to save their party. The most eloquent of them, of course, think the answer is finding the right words. <em>We need to talk more like working people, we need Trump\u2019s touch with popular phrasing.<\/em> The answer isn\u2019t to talk but do.\u201d And: \u201cMost of all, make something work. You run nearly every great city in the nation. Make one work\u2014clean it up, control crime, smash corruption, educate the kids. You want everyone in the country to know who you are? Save a city.\u201d \u2022 Hmm.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\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>Lambert here: As I have indicated with handy \u201cNo\u201d logos, everything\u2019s gone dark except for trusty New York State hospitalization (daily), Walgreen\u2019s positivity (weekly), and the Cleveland Clinic (?). Readers, do you have any suggestions about alternatives at state level? Thank you! How I wish we had Biobot back. (Sorry for the inartistic positioning of the logos. It was the best I could do. UPDATE Darn it, I thought those checkerboards signified \u201ctransparent.\u201d I will fix Monday. UPDATE I missed a couple. I guess this outage has me more ticked off than I thought.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"table\"\/><strong>TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody wp_automatic_readability=\"10.853293413174\">\n<tr colspan=\"2\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><strong>Wastewater<\/strong><\/td>\n<td\/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6190476190476\">\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> January 13<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"418\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-ww-natl-2-300x209.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-ww-natl-1-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr colspan=\"2\" wp_automatic_readability=\"3.6417910447761\">\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> January 18<\/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> January 11<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"460\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-natl-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"318\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-ccd-ed-natl-300x159.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.8961038961039\">\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 30:<\/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> January 24:<\/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-12.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-ny-hospitalization-nyc-12-300x196.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-hospitalization-natl-2-288x300.png 288w\" 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=\"2.5714285714286\">\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 27:<\/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 18:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\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-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-walgreens-positivity-states-2-300x189.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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-286162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cleveland-positivity-oh-2-300x198.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 30:<\/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 30<\/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-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"310\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-285676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2.png 608w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/covid-cdc-positivity-travelers-2-300x161.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<span class=\"Apple-tab-span\">\t<img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"419\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-variants-travelers-2-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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=\"3.76\">\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> January 11:<\/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> January 11:<\/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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"354\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-positivity-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (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 loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"348\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed.png 600w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/no_covid-cdc-death-ed-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td wp_automatic_readability=\"117.64177143504\">\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>Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Chicago PMI\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/chicago-pmi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, rose to 39.5 in January 2025, up from a six-month low of 36.9 in the prior month, but missing market expectations of 40. This is the first increase after three consecutive months of decline, though the index remains below both the level of November 2024 and the 2024 average.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inflation: \u201cUnited States PCE Price Index Annual Change\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/pce-price-index-annual-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cThe headline annual PCE inflation rate in the US edged up to 2.6% in December 2024, the highest rate in seven months, from 2.4% in November and in line with expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Personal Income: \u201cUnited States Personal Income\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/tradingeconomics.com\/united-states\/personal-income\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trading Economics<\/a>]. \u201cUS personal income rose 0.4% month-over-month in December 2024, in line with market expectations and following a 0.3% increase in November. Employee compensation grew by 0.4%, compared with the 0.5% gain in the previous month, driven by private wages and salaries (0.4% vs. 0.5%).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>The Bezzle:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.6101694915254\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.1525423728814\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The JP Morgan analyst has had enough LOL <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gSdKFD2Ehe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/gSdKFD2Ehe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \uea00 Q-Cap \uea00 (@qcapital2020) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/qcapital2020\/status\/1885325305100849617\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>And this guy wants to get his hands on the government printing press\u2026.. <\/p>\n<p>Tech: I hate notifications too:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.4705882352941\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"4.7058823529412\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">real <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KE6a9iUeZN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/KE6a9iUeZN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Images AI Could Never Recreate (@imagesaicouldnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/imagesaicouldnt\/status\/1884798691883573385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\n<center>* * *<\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 47 Neutral (previous close: 45 Neutral) [<a href=\"https:\/\/money.cnn.com\/data\/fear-and-greed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CNN<\/a>]. One week ago: 45 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jan 30 at 12:42:01 PM ET.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Nook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A literal nook:<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"1.8333333333333\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" wp_automatic_readability=\"5.5\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">7. Keith Richards’ home library, Connecticut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6d4of0zRu2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/6d4of0zRu2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CLT (@CLT_Exam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CLT_Exam\/status\/1883915805341241658\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Zeitgeist Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Makes a Great Mocktail?\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/cocktail-science-mocktail-how-to-replicate-the-taste-of-alcohol-in-a-nonalcoholic-drink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Serious Eats<\/a>]. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if you could sip a mocktail that looks and tastes just like the real thing? Today, we\u2019ll look at the science of how alcohol actually tastes, how to mimic it, and whether this is a good idea. Later this week, we\u2019ll look at the flavors that appear in great spirits and how to mimic them with some actual recipes. The prevailing knowledge seems to argue that you can\u2019t recreate the taste of alcohol without actually using it. Is that true? Let\u2019s step back. Maybe a better first question would be: What, exactly, does alcohol taste like? The answer to this question may not be as obvious as you think.\u201d Answer: \u201c[T]ingly, drying, bitter, and sweet.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Feral?<\/p>\n<p><center wp_automatic_readability=\"2.7647058823529\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" wp_automatic_readability=\"7.6029411764706\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Albert Dumouchel (1916-1971), The Horrible Snow Cat, 1969, woodcut <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DwHx9NHWmN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/DwHx9NHWmN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marysia (@marysia_cc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marysia_cc\/status\/1885299490451542109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">January 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Musical Interlude<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I saw Marianne Faithfull years ago in a small room at the Montreal Jazz Festival, full of blue light. Wonderful <em>chanteuse<\/em>, despite or perhaps because of the cigarette and the whiskey glass; charisma like a supernova. With Garth Hudson:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Marianne Faithfull "Strange Weather" (Live 1989)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wr5cIafv0B0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"wired\"\/><strong>News of the Wired<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSigns Of Life In A Desert Of Death\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.noemamag.com\/signs-of-life-in-a-desert-of-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Noema<\/a>]. \u201cA hundred miles to the north is the site of one of the modern world\u2019s worst ecocides. I have come to Uzbekistan to visit a vanished sea.\u201d Cutting to the chase: \u201cThe tiny crustacean bodies wriggling in the brine are a clear example that if the apocalypse has come, life has managed to carry on\u2026. A hardy, woody shrub called saxaul is another form of new life.\u201d \u2022\u00a0Worth reading in full; great topic, good photos, good writing.<\/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-1-24-2025.html\">here<\/a>. From BB:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"485\" height=\"1080\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-286392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos.jpeg 485w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-135x300.jpeg 135w, https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cosmos-460x1024.jpeg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>BB writes: \u201cCosmos. There are several different species. I don\u2019t know which this one is, but it is about 7 feet tall.\u201d My goodness!<\/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\/water-cooler\" rel=\"category tag\">Water Cooler<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\" title=\"2:00 pm\" rel=\"bookmark\"><time class=\"entry-date updated\" datetime=\"2025-01-31T14:00:56-05:00\">January 31, 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\/kelp-farming-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems.html\" rel=\"prev\"><span class=\"meta-nav\">\u2190<\/span> Kelp Farming Isn\u2019t As Green As It Seems<\/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. Lacourse --><br \/>\n<!-- <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"nc-hide\" src=\"http:\/\/t.blogreaderproject.com\/t.gif?c9a0f3c0f2425bc76f3b4c3baf750ea8\" alt=\"\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\"> --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp footer --><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/2025\/01\/200pm-water-cooler-1-31-2025.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lambert Strether. Bird Song of the Day Brown Thrasher, Seagate Park, 4926 West Blvd, Naples US-FL 26.20687, -81.80395, Collier, Florida, United States. For grins,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90418,"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-90417","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\/90417","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=90417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}