Thursday, November 16, 2023
HomeEconomy2:00PM Water Cooler 11/16/2023 | bare capitalism

2:00PM Water Cooler 11/16/2023 | bare capitalism


By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Chook Tune of the Day

Aztec Thrush, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico. “Audio recording lifer 🙁 Didn’t discover this within the subject, I used to be distracted with recording, after which with flyover Hooded Grosbeak flock.” The standard score of this recording is low, presumably due to the street (?) noise within the background, however I don’t thoughts feels like that; I just like the sense of an actual setting.

* * *

Politics

“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in actual fact a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

The Constitutional Order

“The place efforts to disqualify Trump from 2024 poll stand” [Axios]. Fairly a round-up:

By the numbers: Six circumstances associated to the clause have already been dismissed, together with in Minnesota, New Hampshire, two in Michigan and one other two in Florida, per authorized evaluation by nonprofit publication Lawfare.

I’m assuming most of those are frivolous fits introduced by people…

Biden Administration

Al Shifa hospital doesn’t appear to have been a propaganda win:

And perhaps was by no means going to be:

I stay baffled on the idea that capturing a “command heart” may have strategic significance. Outdated-timers will keep in mind “captured enemy paperwork” from Vietnam. We captured a whole lot of “command facilities” dropping that conflict, too!

Fairly a haul:

2024

Lower than a 12 months to go!

* * *

“Trump’s new Latino technique casts him as sufferer of socialists” [Axios]. “Former President Trump’s workforce is making an attempt to construct on the GOP’s latest positive factors amongst Latinos with a technique in Florida that’s geared toward voters of Cuban, Venezuelan and Colombian descent — and that casts Trump as a sufferer of overzealous socialists. Trump’s efforts to liken his authorized woes and his clashes with Democrats to the difficulties many Latin People have confronted underneath socialist and authoritarian rule signify a flip in his push to enchantment to the fastest-growing section of the U.S. citizens. This technique was an enormous cause why Trump selected Hialeah, Fla., as the location of his counter-programming rally throughout final week’s Republican presidential debate. Hialeah is greater than 95% Hispanic, and the overwhelming majority of these residents are Cuban People, a conservative citizens that identifies extra with Republicans than many different Latino teams. On the rally, Trump portrayed his ‘persecution’ on felony expenses — and what he known as his resistance to communism — as much like what many Cuban People and their households skilled in the course of the communist regime of Fidel Castro… It’s unclear whether or not Trump’s “sufferer” technique that performs properly in Florida will resonate with Mexican People and different Latinos whose households’ backgrounds don’t contain fleeing authoritarian leaders.”

“Trump’s violent discuss reveals indicators of taking on Congress” [The Hill]. “[Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)] noticed that Trump acknowledged earlier than most different politicians the anger brewing in American society and seized on it for political acquire, however he warned it’s a harmful path for the nation’s leaders. ‘I don’t know if he modified [norms] or just responded to what he noticed from different folks. I believe he sensed that the American folks have been permitting this to go on, and he’s taken benefit of it, however it’s not the route that I believe our nation ought to go,’ he mentioned. ‘I actually do consider that the Founding Fathers wished us to get collectively right here in Washington, work out our variations, and they don’t count on us to be caning each other,’ he added.” • So I’m not the one one with the caning of Sumner in thoughts…

* * *

“DeSantis targets China, however takes money from Chinese language-backed firm” [Orlando Sentinel]. “Gov. Ron DeSantis has gone on the offensive towards Chinese language affect in latest months, signing a invoice proscribing what land Chinese language firms and residents should purchase in Florida and suspending state scholarships to 4 Florida colleges over alleged hyperlinks to China. However this August he took a verify for greater than $11,000 from the CEO of a Tampa refrigerant firm with direct backing from China. It was simply the newest in years of monetary assist that the corporate, iGas USA, has given DeSantis. Final 12 months DeSantis held a rally on the Chinese language-backed refrigerant firm’s Tampa advanced. The rally and contributions are a part of a latest wave of political giving by iGas and entities related to its CEO, Xianbin ‘Ben’ Meng. All advised, the businesses and workers have made greater than $1.1 million in federal and state political contributions previously 5 years, with 98% of the cash going to Republican candidates and committees. The largest share of that cash, $340,000, went to DeSantis and committees affiliated with him.” • Oh.

* * *

“Biden Is Tearing His Personal Coalition Aside” [The Nation]. “Joe Biden hasn’t gotten America right into a land conflict in Asia but, however in each different approach he’s repeating LBJ’s mistake of considering weapons and butter go collectively. By means of his infrastructure invoice and the Inflation Discount Act, Biden has admirably returned big-ticket social spending to the White Home agenda. However he has been equally involved to reassert American hegemony, financing the conflict in Ukraine, promising extra money to Israel because it carries out its bombing of Gaza, and pivoting towards a great-power competitors with China that might simply change into a brand new chilly conflict. Just like the Chilly Struggle liberals, Biden has embraced a army Keynesianism that sees weapons and butter as mutually self-supporting. In late October, Politico reported, ‘The White Home has been quietly urging lawmakers in each events to promote the conflict efforts overseas as a possible financial growth at residence. Aides have been distributing speaking factors to Democrats and Republicans who’ve been supportive of continued efforts to fund Ukraine’s resistance to make the case that doing so is sweet for American jobs.’ Nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan has been a significant advocate of this new army Keynesianism.” However: “like LBJ earlier than him, Biden will discover {that a} guns-and-butter consensus is brittle and satisfies nobody. Limitless conflict isn’t in style. Voters are already souring on the concept of sending extra help to Ukraine, and polls present majority assist for a cease-fire in Gaza…. By making an attempt to hammer out a guns-and-butter consensus that only a few outdoors the elite assist, Biden is tearing aside each his personal coalition and American society.”

“Has Biden’s electoral coalition fractured?” [The Hill]. “In response to the ballot, 22 % of Black voters in these battleground states say they’d vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden in subsequent 12 months’s presidential election…. No Democratic presidential candidate for the reason that civil rights period has earned lower than 80 % of the Black vote…. Due to his assist for Israel, President Biden may lose Muslim votes, particularly in Michigan, one of many key battleground states. He may lose progressive voters basically and younger voters particularly — two extra key elements within the Democratic coalition. He would possibly even lose assist of one other bloc that traditionally has voted (overwhelming) for Democratic presidents — Jewish voters, who consider that there are components within the Democratic Get together which might be anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and even pro-Hamas…. Lastly, there’s one other quantity within the ballot that tells us lots about what People are considering. 56 % of registered voters in these six battleground states have both a considerably or very unfavorable view of Joe Biden. As for Donald Trump: He is available in with a 57 % unfavorable quantity. So if it’s a Trump vs. Biden rematch, the one factor we all know with some certainty is that voters want they’d each simply go away.”

* * *

“Joe Manchin says he ‘completely’ would contemplate working for president in 2024: Senator gained’t rule out potential third-party bid that might dent Biden’s probabilities” [Daily Mail]. “Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin mentioned Wednesday he would ‘completely’ contemplate a presidential run, giving himself till round Tremendous Tuesday to determine whether or not to launch a third-party bid for the White Home…. As for Biden, he advised [NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker], ‘I’m afraid that Joe Biden’s been pushed too far to the left.’ ‘Can he come again? We’ll see,’ the senator added. ‘However the backside line is that’s not the Joe Biden that we thought was being elected, to go that far left.’”

“‘No Labels’ chief says group launching 2024 candidate committee: Manchin deserves ‘critical consideration’” [FOX]. “Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — who served as each a Democrat and Unbiased — mentioned Wednesday if 2024 turns into a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, he may see Manchin as a possible candidate for the group to unite round. Nevertheless, he underlined there isn’t a assure ‘No Labels’ will certainly subject a candidate. ‘Joe Manchin is a buddy of mine. He’s a fantastic centrist. He actually has walked the stroll and labored on bipartisan problem-solving in Congress,’ mentioned Lieberman, who was additionally the 2000 presidential running-mate for Al Gore.” • What horrible political judgment Gore had, to make certain. Placing Lieberman on the nationwide stage.

* * *

Centrism:

Merch:

I just like the look!

PMC gatekeeping, as regular:


* * *

“Governor JB Pritzker outlines plans for migrant consumption heart, funds for shelter” [ABC7]. “Governor JB Pritzker laying out new emergency steps as 1000’s of migrants await shelter in Chicago…. The governor saying the coverage and the funding Thursday, saying they needed to step in an present this help with temperatures anticipated to plummet subsequent week. ‘To get folks off of the streets as we head into winter, the state of Illinois will make investments an extra $160 million through the Division of Human Companies, particularly to handle these bottlenecks,’ Governor Pritzker mentioned. A part of the cash, $30 million shall be to arrange an consumption heart for when the migrants first arrive in Chicago to both assist them discover a place to remain, or get them to their subsequent vacation spot in one other metropolis.” And: “RELATED: Chicago migrants may have 60-day restrict to shelter stays, Mayor Johnson declares.”

Democrats en Déshabillé

Affected person readers, plainly persons are truly studying the back-dated submit! However I’ve not up to date it, and there are a lot of updates. So I should try this. –lambert

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

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

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

* * *

“The Squad Is About to Battle for Its Political Life” [Slate]. “One of many greatest, bitterest, and costliest political battles of the 2024 election cycle has emerged: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of the vital highly effective, best-funded affect operations in Washington, is planning to go all out to knock the famed “Squad”—the small group of extremely seen and in style progressive legislators of colour, most of them girls—out of workplace…. Critically, all of them reject big-money backing, surviving on simply grassroots assist and small-dollar fundraising… Within the 2022 midterms, the Israel foyer turned the most important single-issue outdoors spender in Democratic primaries, pouring in practically $30 million through the tremendous PAC the United Democracy Mission, and thousands and thousands extra through the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. It was an astronomical sum of money, principally directed at knocking progressives out of the primaries, largely in open and redrawn seats. Regardless of there being fewer vacancies in 2024, that cash determine is anticipated to no less than triple.” It will be helpful to have an evidence of why AIPAC’s marketing campaign isn’t election interference by a overseas energy. Extra: “Thus far, [lol]. Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries—who took extra money from the Israel foyer in 2022 than from another group and is featured prominently on the lobbying group’s web site (alongside Home Republican management)—hasn’t tried to dissuade the primarying of those progressive Democratic incumbents. He may simply publicly disavow such spending and make it clear to candidates that accepting such assist is towards caucus coverage; in 2019, Home Democrats made it an official coverage to blacklist any Democratic guide or political group who aided a progressive challenger towards a sitting Democratic incumbent forward of the 2020 elections. However to this point Jeffries has solely managed to say: ‘. I believe Home Democrats are going to proceed to assist one another.’” • Odd. Jeffries appears to suppose the Democrat Get together is a few form of cash laundering operation.

Realignment and Legitimacy

“The panel charged with recommending adjustments to Massachusetts’s seal and motto simply disbanded. It didn’t provide particular substitutes for both.” [Boston Globe]. • Amusing portrait of a totally dysfunctional committee.

#COVID19

“I’m in earnest — I can’t equivocate — I can’t excuse — I can’t retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide knowledge). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Basic Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the deal with given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater stories); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful readers: 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, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

* * *

Covid is Airborne

Dentists v. docs:

I believe the distinction is that dentistry — cleansing, drilling, extracting — as an aerosol-generating process, and so dentists are aerosol-conscious. In contrast, docs are used to considering of aerosols as being generated in working theatres, and as merely produced by respiratory, speaking, shouting, and many others. There’s little skilled excuse for this, in fact, however “one funeral at a time.”

“What are the issues with hermetic properties?” [National Post]. “Nevertheless, there are air-purification methods that neutralize the air utilizing . These units present air purification and odour elimination across the clock — protecting your indoor air clear and contemporary.” • No no no no no:

Maskstravaganza

Since masks appear like medical home equipment, it’s no shock folks affiliate them with sickness, not security, not to mention collective security:

“One thing Terrible”

Lambert right here: I’m getting the sensation that the “One thing Terrible” is likely to be a sawtooth sample — variant after variant — that averages out to a completely excessive plateau. Plenty of exceptionally nasty sequelae, almost certainly deriving from immune dysregulation (says this layperson). To which we would add mind harm, together with character adjustments therefrom.

* * *

* * *

Lambert right here: Plenty of indicators up, beginning with wastewater. (The one I fear about probably the most is ER visits, since I believe that knowledge is difficult to sport, and who desires to go to the ER, anyhow?) I believe it’s time to ship the kin these clippings you saved on mind harm (additionally, in fact, the 2022 clippings: right here, right here. And the 2020 one).

Case Information

NOT UPDATED From BioBot wastewater knowledge, November 13:

Lambert right here: Instances up, simply in time for Thanksgiving (and tinfoil hat time: That is the, er, inflection level CDC was making an attempt to hide once they gave the contract to Verily and didn’t guarantee a seamless transition).

Regional knowledge:

In all places!

Variants

NOT UPDATED From CDC, November 11:

Lambert right here: Prime of the leaderboard: HV.1, EG.5 a powerful second, with FL.1.15.1 and XBB.1.1.16.6 trailing. No BA.2.86 (though that has confirmed up in CDC’s airport testing). Nonetheless a Bouillabaisse…

From CDC, October 28:

Lambert right here: I certain hope the volunteers doing Pangolin, on which this chart relies upon, don’t all transfer on the inexperienced fields and pastures new (or have their entry to services lower by directors of ailing intent).

CDC: “As of Could 11, genomic surveillance knowledge shall be reported biweekly, based mostly on the supply of constructive take a look at specimens.” “Biweeekly: 1. occurring each two weeks. 2. occurring twice per week; semiweekly.” Appears like CDC has chosen sense #1. In essence, they’re telling us variants are nothing to fret about. Time will inform.

Covid Emergency Room Visits

NOT UPDATED From CDC NCIRD Surveillance, November 11:

Lambert right here: Slight will increase in some age teams, conforming to wastewater knowledge. Solely per week’s lag, so this can be our greatest present nationwide, present indicator till Verily will get its home so as (and dealing class-centric, since I’d doubt the higher crust goes to the ER).

NOTE “Charts and knowledge offered by CDC, updates Wednesday by 8am. For the previous 12 months, utilizing a rolling 52-week interval.” So not your complete pandemic, FFS (the implicit message right here being that Covid is “identical to the flu,” which is why the seasonal “rolling 52-week interval” is acceptable for eachMR SUBLIMINAL I hate these folks a lot. Discover additionally that this chart reveals, no less than for its time interval, that Covid is not seasonal, despite the fact that CDC is making an attempt to get us to consider that it’s, presumably to allow them to piggyback on the present institutional equipment for injections.

Hospitalization

Bellwether New York Metropolis, knowledge as of November 15:

Decline flattens. (I hate this metric as a result of the lag makes it misleading, though the hospital-centric public well being institution loves it, hospitalization and deaths being the one metrics that matter [snort]).

NOT UPDATED Right here’s a special CDC visualization on hospitalization, nationwide, not by state, however with a date, no less than. November 4:

Lambert right here: “Maps, charts, and knowledge offered by CDC, updates weekly for the earlier MMWR week (Sunday-Saturday) on Thursdays (Deaths, Emergency Division Visits, Check Positivity) and weekly the next Mondays (Hospitalizations) by 8 pm ET†”. So the place the heck is the replace, CDC?

Positivity

NOT UPDATED From Walgreens, November 13:

-1.4%. However bouncing round. (It will be fascinating to survey this inhabitants typically; these are individuals who, regardless of a tsunami of official propaganda and massive peer strain, went and bought examined anyhow.)

NOT UPDATED From Cleveland Clinic, November 11:

Lambert right here: Enhance (with backward revision; guess they thought it was over). I do know that is simply Ohio, however the Cleveland Clinic is sweet*, and we’re starved for knowledge, so…. NOTE * Even when hospital an infection management is making an attempt to kill sufferers by eliminating common masking with N95s.

From CDC, traveler’s knowledge, October 29:

Down, albeit within the rear view mirror. And listed here are the variants for vacationers, nonetheless from October 23:

Sudden large BA.2.86 look. This variant chart has not been up to date, which makes me marvel if CDC is gaming the information, and BA.2.86 is worse than we predict.

Deaths

Complete: 1,182,163 – 1,181,963 = 200 (200 * 365 = 73,000 deaths per 12 months, as we speak’s YouGenicist™ quantity for “dwelling with” Covid (fairly a bit greater than the minimizers would really like, although they’ll discuss themselves into something. If the YouGenicist™ metric retains chugging alongside like this, I could need to determine that is what the powers-that-be contemplate “mission achieved” for this explicit tranche of dying and illness). 

Extra Deaths

The Economist, November 16:

Lambert right here: Primarily based on a machine-learning mannequin.

Stats Watch

Employment Scenario: “United States Preliminary Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The variety of People submitting for unemployment advantages rose by 13,000 to 231,000 on the week ending November eleventh, the very best in practically three months, and properly above market expectations of 220,000. Within the meantime, persevering with claims rose by 18,000 to 1,865,000 within the earlier week, the very best in practically two years and sharply above market forecasts of 1,847,000, suggesting that jobseekers are having a tougher time find appropriate employment.”

Manufacturing: “United States Industrial Manufacturing” [Trading Economics]. “US industrial manufacturing declined by 0.7% year-on-year in October 2023, following a revised 0.2% contraction within the earlier month.”

Manufacturing: “United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index within the US elevated 3.1 factors however remained adverse at -5.9 in November 2023, higher than market forecasts of -9. That is the index’s sixteenth adverse studying previously 18 months.”

Manufacturing: “United States Kansas Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The Kansas Metropolis Fed’s Manufacturing Manufacturing index was at -3 in November of 2023, enhancing from -8 within the earlier month however sustaining the adverse territory for the third consecutive interval. Each sturdy items and nondurable items manufacturing indices ticked up barely within the interval, though the previous remained under zero.”

* * *

Tech: “Mother and pop outlets are chopping software program spending, creating jitters on Wall Road” [CNBC]. “Analysts are seeing a pullback in software program spending by eating places, retailers, and different native and regional companies, that are responding to weaker client tendencies…. Over the previous twenty years, small companies have accounted for 40% of U.S. gross home product, in response to the Chamber of Commerce. In addition they make use of 46% of the American workforce…. Buyers throughout the sector are attempting to determine if SMB spending has bottomed or if companies are nonetheless in search of alternatives to slim down their software program portfolio ought to the financial image dampen additional.”

Tech: “Dangerous Bots Account for 73% of Web Site visitors: Evaluation” [Security Week]. “The highest 5 classes of Dangerous Bot assaults are faux account creation, account takeovers, scraping, account administration, and in-product abuse. These haven’t modified from Q2, apart from in-product abuse changing card testing. The largest will increase in assaults from Q2 to Q3 are SMS toll fraud (up 2,141%), account administration (up 160%), and faux account creation (up 23%). The highest 5 focused industries are expertise (Dangerous Bots comprise 76% of its web visitors); gaming (29% of visitors); social media (46%), e-commerce (65%), and monetary providers (45%). If a bot fails in its objective, there’s a rising tendency for the criminals to change to human operated fraud farms. Arkose estimates there have been greater than 3 billion fraud farm assaults in H1 2023…. .” Oh. Extra: “Crime-as-a-service allows wannabe criminals who might have the intent however not the abilities to interact in cybercrime. “The large rise of CaaS has utterly modified the economics for adversaries” continued Gosschalk. ‘It’s less expensive to assault firms and the assaults are simply higher as a result of it’s a dev store that’s doing the assaults as a substitute of simply particular person cybercriminals.’ The persevering with enhance within the quantity of Dangerous Bots suggests they continue to be worthwhile for the criminals. The arrival of gen-AI will enhance the efficiency of Dangerous Bots, whereas the expansion of CaaS will enhance the variety of Dangerous Bot operators; so, it can worsen. The one resolution is Dangerous Bot detection and mitigation to restrict the entry of the bots to their human or system targets.” • Thanks, Silicon Valley. “Crime as a Service” looks as if a William Gibson theme, although amazingly he didn’t invent the phrase. Laborious to consider the mind geniuses who invented AI didn’t see this coming…. However perhaps not!

Tech: “Europe’s hidden safety disaster” [Irish Council for Civil Liberties]. “Our investigation highlights a widespread commerce in knowledge about delicate European personnel and leaders that exposes them to blackmail, hacking and compromise, and undermines the safety of their organisations and establishments. These knowledge circulation from Actual-Time Bidding (RTB), an promoting expertise that’s energetic on virtually all web sites and apps. RTB entails the broadcasting of delicate knowledge about folks utilizing these web sites and apps to massive numbers of different entities, with out safety measures to guard the information. This happens billions of instances a day. Our examination of tens of 1000’s of pages of RTB knowledge reveals that EU army personnel and political resolution makers are focused utilizing RTB. This report additionally reveals that Google and different RTB corporations ship RTB knowledge about folks within the U.S. to Russia and China, the place nationwide legal guidelines allow safety companies to entry the information. RTB knowledge are additionally broadcast broadly throughout the EU in a free-for-all, which implies that overseas and non-state actors can not directly acquire them, too. RTB knowledge usually embrace location knowledge or time-stamps or different identifiers that make it comparatively straightforward for unhealthy actors to hyperlink them to particular people. Overseas states and non-state actors can use RTB to spy on track people’ monetary issues, psychological state, and compromising intimate secrets and techniques. Even when goal people use safe units, knowledge about them will nonetheless circulation through RTB from private units, their buddies, household, and compromising private contacts.” • Thanks, Silicon Valley.

Tech: Love the “make actual” button:

For some definition of “actual”…..

* * *

Immediately’s Worry & Greed Index: 55 Impartial (earlier shut: 53 Impartial) [CNN]. One week in the past: 38 (Worry). (0 is Excessive Worry; 100 is Excessive Greed). Final up to date Nov 16 at 12:28:03 PM ET. Primarily based on what? Arms dealing?

The Gallery

‘Tis the season:

I keep in mind a portray of snow by Pisarro on the Boston MFA that captured the glittery whiteness of contemporary snow on crisp, sunny day. Whiteness, no less than from just a few ft away; shut up, the snow was tiny dots of various shiny colours: pink, blue, yellow…

Class Warfare

“UAW-Basic Motors contract has sufficient votes for ratification” [Politico]. “United Auto Employees members at Basic Motors had sufficient votes Thursday to ratify their contract with the corporate, in response to a tracker maintained by the union, checking the primary of three bins wanted to formally finish the strike towards the Detroit automakers…. Votes at Ford and Stellantis have been nonetheless ongoing as ofThursday morning.

“Starbucks staff strike at 200 union shops on Purple Cup Day” [Axios]. • Good. Additionally good:

Information of the Wired

“The Fact is At all times Product of Particulars” [Raptitude]. “In case you have been instructed to attract a leaf, you would possibly draw a inexperienced, vaguely eye-shaped factor with a stem. However while you examine an actual leaf, say an elm leaf, it’s bought far more occurring than that drawing. It has rounded serrations alongside its edges, and the tip of every serration is the tip of a raised vein, which runs from the stem within the center. Tiny ripples span the channels between the veins, and small capillaries divide every section into little “counties” with irregular borders. I may go on for pages….. The Info Age is clearly pushing us in the direction of low-res conclusions on questions that warrant deep, lengthy, high-res consideration. Think about our poor hominid brains, making an attempt to kind a coherent worldview out of monetized feeds fabricated from low-resolution takes on probably the most advanced subjects possible — financial methods, local weather, illness, race, intercourse and gender. Unsurprisingly, amidst the unbelievable quantity of knowledge coming at us, there’s been a surge in low-res, ideologically-driven views: the world is like this, these persons are like that, X is sweet, Y is unhealthy, A causes B. Not difficult, bro…. …. I can’t assist however suppose we’d profit from a acutely aware intention to see issues when it comes to their particulars once more, dialing up the default decision at which we have interaction with each our experiences and our concepts. The world exists in infinite decision, and that’s what we’re constructed for. The reality is fabricated from particulars, they usually go all the best way down. Any concepts about it simply relaxation on the highest.” • Clearly a congenial set of concepts for me. Effectively price a learn!

* * *

Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be happy to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a verify if you’re allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me photographs of vegetation. Greens are nice! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! In order for you your deal with to look as a credit score, please place it in the beginning of your mail in parentheses: (thus). In any other case, I’ll anonymize by utilizing your initials. See the earlier Water Cooler (with plant) right here. From griffen:

griffen writes: “I dont have a bucket record however in late September visited parks in SD, and right here at Devils Tower in Wyoming. Fairly unbelievable go to, hikes.”

* * *

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