By Lambert Strether.

Lambert right here: Glad I checked the Twitter earlier than doing orts and scraps. It’s been a vigorous afternoon! –lambert

Chicken Tune of the Day

Brown Thrasher, Burlington–Metropolis View Park, Halton, Ontario, Canada

* * *

In Case You May Miss…

  1. Hakeem shrugged.
  2. The spooks and Trump’s first impeachment.
  3. Dr. Bronner’s ditches B Corp Program (too lax).
  4. Coach Nick Sirianni To Eagles Followers.

* * *

Politics

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

* * *

Spook Nation

So, CIA subsequent on the menu?

* * *

“US company sends Trump plan to launch paperwork on JFK assassination” [Reuters]. “Trump signed an order during his first week in office related to the release and also promised to release documents concerning the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, both of whom were killed in 1968. Trump has allowed more time to come up with a plan for those releases….. [ODNI] sent recommendations last week to President Donald Trump on which classified documents he should release to the public related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.”

“Scoop: FBI finds secret JFK assassination records after Trump order” [Axios]. “The FBI just discovered about 2,400 records tied to President Kennedy’s assassination that were never provided to a board tasked with reviewing and disclosing the documents, Axios has learned…. The existence of the new documents was disclosed Friday to the White House, when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted its plan to disclose the assassination records under Trump’s order. The contents of the newly found records are closely held secrets. The three sources who relayed their existence to Axios said they hadn’t seen the documents…. But the discovery of thousands of records on one of the most scrutinized events in U.S. history is likely to raise questions about the procedures for vetting and releasing information across the entire government.” • Indeed.

* * *

“US cyber agency puts election security staffers who worked with the states on leave” [Associated Press]. “In recent days, 17 employees of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who have worked with election officials to provide assessments and trainings dealing with a range of threats — from cyber and ransomware attacks to physical security of election workers — have been placed on leave pending a review, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly. Ten of those employees are regional election security specialists hired as part of an effort to expand field staff and election security expertise ahead of the 2024 election. The regional staffers were told the internal review would examine efforts to combat attempts by foreign governments to influence U.S. elections, duties that were assigned to other agency staff, according to the person.” • Hmm. For more on CISA and election security, see NC here.

Trump Administration

So long, DOE?

And CFPB?

Until the Massive Banks need to get eaten alive by Silicon fraudsters utilizing apps, they need to be defending CFPB with every part they’ve acquired.

* * *

“SEC’s Peirce Says Company Desires New Method to Crypto Coverage” [Bloomberg]. “‘Through the previous a number of years, enforcement circumstances have been used as a method to make regulatory coverage; that may be very atypical,’ Peirce stated Tuesday throughout a ‘Bloomberg Crypto’ TV interview. ‘We’re attempting to get again to a path the place we’re actually utilizing our different instruments to make coverage.’ The SEC on Monday filed a request to pause litigation towards Binance, the world’s largest crypto change. The regulator sued Binance and co-founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao in 2023, alleging the agency mishandled buyer funds, misled buyers and regulators and broke securities legal guidelines. The SEC requested for a short keep of 60 days, citing pending growth of a regulatory framework for digital property.” • “Digital property” my Candy Aunt Fanny. How do you regulate an asset that does’nt exist, absent fraud?

DOGE

Choose Vargas will get to work on State of New York, et al., v. Donald J. Trump (order; evaluation of preliminary order at NC right here):

* * *

Democrats en déshabillé

I suppose we’ll have to attend till the midterms:

Perhaps we must always take “Minority Chief” and cross out the “Chief” half.

Then once more:

No masks, please, we’re liberals:

I grant that Indivisible has a construction, processes, documentation. They know the right way to run a gathering and arrange an occasion. But when it’s simply one other NGO feeding money and votes to, effectively, Hakeem Jeffries, I don’t see the purpose. Or quite, I do.

* * *

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren’t tiptoeing towards autocracy” [Normal Ornstein, The Contrarian]. ” If Senate Democrats all of a sudden had self-discipline, spine and a willingness to remain on weekends and sometimes at night time, to disclaim unanimous consent for all or practically all government nominations, and to placed on blanket holds, it may hold a lot of the second- and third- tier nominees from being confirmed, not less than including to their problem hijacking the companies and departments, and limiting their skill to make use of the Vacancies Act to fill high posts. In fact, Senate Republicans may effectively change all the principles, radically lowering the facility of the minority. But when we do one way or the other handle to get by way of this and keep our democracy, we won’t have to fret about a few recalcitrant senators, like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, to change the principles; they’ll already be in place. And Democrats can resolve which of them to make use of to implement their very own agenda. So what to do? It’s time for Home Democrats, particularly, to make use of their greatest energy, their votes in a physique that’s intently divided and with a Republican majority incapable of uniting by itself to move budgets and spending payments and to boost the debt ceiling.”

Syndemics

“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

* * *

Covid Assets, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; contains many counties; Wastewater Scan, contains drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “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 at liberty to contact me on the tackle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Assets, 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 reviews); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (wastewater); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

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

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

Hat tricks to useful 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, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, thump, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep protected on the market!

* * *

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Wastewater
★ This week[1] CDC February 3 Last week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC February 1 ★ Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC February 1

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data February 10: National [6] CDC February 7:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens February 10: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic February 8:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC January 20: Variants[10] CDC January 20

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11] CDC January 25: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12] CDC January 25:

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) Down, nothing new at major hubs.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) XEC takes over. That WHO label, “Ommicron,” has done a great job normalizing successive waves of infection.

[4] (ED) A little uptick.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Definitely jumped, but no exponential growth either, Odd.

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). Leveling out.

[7] (Walgreens) Leveling out.

[8] (Cleveland) Continued upward trend since, well, Thanksgiving.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Leveling out.

[10] (Travelers: Variants). Positivity is new, but variants have not yet been released.

[11] Deaths low, positivity leveling out.

[12] Deaths low, ED leveling out.

Stats Watch

There are no official statistics of interest today.

* * *

Marketing: “Dr. Bronner’s Is Ditching B Corp Program Because Bar Is Too Low” [Bloomberg]. “Cult soap brand Dr. Bronner’s is quitting a well-known corporate responsibility program because its executives say the standards are too weak, marking a departure from companies watering down their goals to appease conservative activists. The Vista, California-based brand won’t renew its B Corp certification when it expires in September after years of lobbying B Lab, the nonprofit behind the program, for more stringent requirements, according to a statement Tuesday… Dr. Bronner’s main complaint about B Lab is that it doesn’t require corporations to prove through third-party certifications or other tests that their supply chains protect human rights and the environment. Companies can attain the certification in part by focusing on other efforts, such as providing financial security to employees and monitoring its waste output, according to B Lab’s guidelines. That approach, Dr. Bronner’s argues, allows for greenwashing because it fails to capture the impact of large corporations with sprawling supply chains that often involve crops plagued with human rights and environmental concerns, such as palm oil.” • Not wrong!

Tech: “I Dated Multiple AI Partners at Once. It Got Real Weird” [Wired]. “[E]ver since the arrival of Covid-19 people just don’t mingle like they used to. It’s not surprising, then, that some romance seekers are skipping human companions and turning to AI. People falling in love with their AI companions is no longer the stuff of Hollywood tales about futuristic romance. But while it may feel uncanny to some, as a video game reporter the concept doesn’t seem so foreign to me. Dating sims, or games where you can otherwise date party members, are a popular genre. Players grow affection for and attachment to characters; some want to have sex with those characters. After its release, Baldur’s Gate 3 die-hards were even speedrunning sex with the game’s cast.

Still, I’ve wondered what drives average people to fall head over heels for generative AI, so I did what any curious person would: set myself up on dates with a few to feel them out.”

Tech: “BuzzFeed’s New Plan: An AI-Powered Social Media Platform to Help ‘Spread Joy’” [Hollywood Reporter]. A letter from the CEO: “If the early internet was serving beer and wine that brought people together, today’s internet is dealing crack and fentanyl that tears people apart. The consumer isn’t winning when they are addicted to a product that makes them unhappy, and when they are spending hours each day using products they would pay money to make disappear. Any theory of business competition needs to be updated with deeper analysis drawn from addiction psychology and behavioral economics. People haven’t realized it yet, but the AI-powered platforms have already shipped the dystopian AI future many people are worried might come in the future.” • Hmm.

Tech: “At work, a quiet AI revolution is under way” [Financial Times]. “On a recent flight to France, I got talking to the woman next to me and ChatGPT came up. She worked as a bank clerk, and said she now used the chatbot to write the majority of her correspondence with colleagues and customers. She explained that writing had never been her strong point, and the app was able to generate text that captured what she wanted to say better than she could. I joked that she would be using it to write messages to friends and family before she knew it, and she rather sheepishly replied that she already had, asking for help with a recent birthday text. Her unease suggested that she felt what she was doing was in some way wrong. Yet like many others, she is now using generative AI to produce vast swaths of personal and professional communication, unbeknown to those who receive these AI-generated messages.” • Are we sure it’s that unknown? Like, is everything a bulleted list? (Idea: App to rate text for the likelihood it’s AI generated.)

Manufacturing: “Boeing delivered 45 commercial jets last month, a decent start to 2025” [Seattle Times]. “As Boeing tries to recover and increase airplane production, it delivered 45 jets last month, the highest monthly total since December 2023, according to company data released Tuesday. The January delivery total included 40 Renton-built 737 MAXs. Remarks last month by Chief Financial Officer Brian West suggest at least 10 of those were MAXs that came out of long-term storage where they had been awaiting completion of rework.” And: “On the sales front, Airbus did better with 51 net new orders in January, compared to 36 for Boeing. Separately, Boeing orders for seven widebody 787s that had previously been removed from the official backlog as insufficiently firm were restored in January, while at the same time an order for one MAX was removed.”

Manufacturing: “Elon Musk effect? Boeing warns that hundreds of workers involved in NASA’s Artemis Moon rocket project may face layoffs in the coming months” [Economic Times]. “Boeing layoffs in NASA’s Artemis program are making headlines as around 400 jobs may be cut by April 2025. The decision comes as the Artemis Moon mission faces budget constraints and uncertainty. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been critical of Artemis, is pushing for a shift toward Mars exploration. While NASA insists Artemis is still essential, internal discussions within the White House and NASA suggest possible changes ahead. With President Donald Trump advocating for Mars missions, the future of Artemis remains unclear.”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 46 Neutral (previous close: 45 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 39 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 11 at 1:35:11 PM ET.

Sports Desk

“Nick Sirianni To Eagles Fans: ‘I Hate All Of You, Fuck You’” [The Onion]. • I thought this was real. Gritty is the way.

Gallery

I don’t understand the context:

Is a Parisian Nannies Promenade just like the gatherings of Hong Kong “helpers”?

Class Warfare

I feel Blanc is right:

Examine what the Indivisible sorts are saying above. Why aren’t union halls as lively?

Information of the Wired

Metadata has been round for a very long time:


* * *

Contact info for vegetation: Readers, be at liberty to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) learn how to ship me a examine in case you are allergic to PayPal and (b) to learn how to ship me pictures of vegetation. Greens are high-quality! Fungi, lichen, and coral are deemed to be honorary vegetation! If you need 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 Stephen V:

Stephen V writes: “African Basil blooming its coronary heart out in November. It blooms constantly as a result of it produces no seeds.”

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not lined by the annual NC fundraiser. Materials right here is Lambert’s, and doesn’t categorical the views of the Bare Capitalism web site. In the event you see a hyperlink you particularly like, or an merchandise you wouldn’t see anyplace else, please don’t hesitate to specific your appreciation in tangible kind. Bear in mind, a tip jar is for tipping! Common optimistic suggestions each makes me really feel good and lets me know I’m heading in the right direction with protection. Once I get no donations for 3 or 4 days I get fearful. Extra tangibly, a relentless trickle of donations helps me with bills, and I consider that trickle when setting fundraising objectives:

Right here is the display screen that can seem, which I’ve helpfully annotated:

In the event you hate PayPal, you’ll be able to electronic mail me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will provide you with instructions on the right way to ship a examine. Thanks!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email





Source link

Previous articleExamine Level groups with Wiz to problem Palo Alto
Next articleKen Griffin says Trump’s ‘bombastic’ commerce rhetoric is a mistake that is eroding belief within the U.S.
Lambert Strether

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here