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Op Democrats Hesitate Again on Medicare for All

Written By Monday 4 April 2022 Add Comment Edit

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Vocal of the 24-hour interval

Highway dissonance, but a lovely chorus anyhow!

* * *

Politics

"But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?" –James Madison, Federalist 51

"They had learned null, and forgotten aught." –Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." –Hunter Thompson

Capitol Seizure

"January. 6 defendant asks to subpoena Trump as trial witness" [The Hill]. "Chaser Samuel Shamansky on Friday submitted court filings on behalf of his client, Jan. 6 defendant Dustin Thompson, request for a judge to let them to amendment Trump and others to show as witnesses in Thompson'due south trial. 'Defendant submits that the individuals he seeks to subpoena are in exclusive possession of information relevant to this case. Moreover, their testimony is necessary to ensure that Defendant'southward ramble correct to present a consummate defense force is safeguarded,' according to the courtroom filings. 'Information technology is anticipated that, when chosen every bit a witness, Donald J. Trump will testify that he and others orchestrated a carefully crafted plot to telephone call into question the integrity of the 2020 presidential election and the validity of President Biden'south victory,' the filings add. 'Moreover, it will be established at trial that Mr. Trump and his conspirators engaged in a concerted try to deceive the public, including Defendant, into believing that American democracy was at pale if Congress was permitted to certify the election results.'" Here the charge: "According to Thompson'southward statement of facts and complaint, security footage inside the Capitol allegedly showed him within the building property a bottle of bourbon. The court filings besides criminate that he ran away from constabulary enforcement after he was found with a glaze rack that officials believed was inside the Capitol." • A bottle of bourbon and a glaze rack… Bolsheviks these guys were non.

Biden Adminstration

"The nation'southward elevation wellness official has been a background player for much of his tenure. He says that's about to change." [CNN]. "Becerra and his allies in the administration are embarking on an endeavor to majority up the secretary's function, from having a substantive meeting with Biden, which he has never washed, to actualization at White Firm news briefings, which he has also never done." Oh. More: "Even before his first day on the job, Becerra was behind. During the transition, Biden officials had zeroed in on Gina Raimondo, the and so-governor of Rhode Island, known as a technocrat, who had fabricated a surprisingly strong impression on candidate Biden'due south running mate vetting team. Biden called to talk through options, and though he didn't commit, the conversation left her telling people she idea she'd go the offer, according to three people told about the call. Co-ordinate to two people familiar with the transition, Biden's team had to rapidly recalibrate following a letter from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that had called out a lack of Latino representation in Biden'southward Cabinet after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham dropped out of favor for the job. That letter, combined with pushback from progressives about putting the business-friendly Raimondo in that spot, scrapped the governor's chances for the part. Biden aides scrambled. Becerra, a former congressman who was then the California attorney full general, had hoped to exist considered for US attorney general but was never given much consideration for that job. The mean solar day before he was announced as health and man services secretary, Becerra was unaware the chore was an actual possibility. He was appear on the same day in December 2020 that Zients, who had helped oversee the selection process, was named as caput of the White Business firm'due south Covid-19 task strength and given the true ability over the administration's pandemic response. Raimondo was shifted to Commerce, setting off a minor shuffle of other Cabinet jobs. Lujan Grisham turned down her own follow-up offer to be interior secretary." • Well, Becerra'due south HHS certain "looks similar America" in the quality of its response to Covid. So at that place'southward that.

"Gov't watchdog slams federal COVID response, puts HHS on 'high risk' list" [Ars Technica]. "The United states Health and Human Service Department has botched multiple aspects of its COVID-19 pandemic response, and those failures can be linked back to longstanding leadership and preparedness deficiencies the department has failed to accost for more than a decade, according to a new report past the Government Accountability Function. 'These deficiencies accept hindered the nation'southward response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of by threats, including other infectious diseases—such as the H1N1 influenza pandemic, Zika, and Ebola—and extreme atmospheric condition events, such every bit hurricanes,' the GAO ended." • Klain was Ebola Czar, so he knew near all this stuff. What did he do about it?

"U.S. to spend $725 mln this twelvemonth on abandoned coal mine cleanup" [Reuters]. " The Biden administration on Monday said $725 million in federal funds would exist bachelor to states this year to clean upward abandoned coal mines, one of several initiatives aimed at reducing pollution from decades of fossil fuel development. The money represents a portion of the $11.3 billion allocated to mining site restoration in the infrastructure constabulary that Congress passed final twelvemonth…. Pennsylvania is eligible for the about funding, near $245 million, followed by W Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio." • So Biden did have leverage over Manchin… Now do oil. Except that may be harder–

"Earthquakes in Texas doubled in 2021. Scientists cite years of oil companies injecting sludgy water undercover." [Texas Tribune]. "The record-setting seismic action is largely concentrated in West Texas' Permian Basin, the most productive oil and gas region in the state. Scientific studies show that the fasten in earthquakes is almost certainly a consequence of disposing huge quantities of contaminated, salty water deep clandestine — a common practice past oil companies at the end of the hydraulic fracturing process that can awaken dormant fault lines. During hydraulic fracking, oil companies shoot a mixture of fluids and sand through ancient shale formations, fracturing the rock to free the flow of oil. But oil isn't the only thing that'due south been trapped underground for millions of years: Between three and 6 barrels of salty, polluted water besides come up to the surface with every barrel of oil. The cheapest, and virtually commonly used, way to dispose of this "produced h2o" is to drill another well and inject it into porous rock formations deep hugger-mugger." • Since injection wells are the cheapest, that's what we did.

Democrats en Déshabillé

I have moved my standing remarks on the Democrat Party ("the Democrat Party is a rotting corpse that can't bury itself") to a divide, back-dated mail service, to which I will periodically add material, summarizing the addition hither in a "live" H2o Cooler. (Hopefully, some Bourdieu.) It turns out that defining the Democrat Party is, in fact, a hard problem. I do think the paragraph that follows is on point all the mode back to 2016, if non earlier:

The Democrat Party is the political expression of the class power of PMC, their base (lucidly explained past Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal!). It follows that the Democrat Party is every bit "unreformable" every bit the PMC is unreformable; if the Democrat Party did not exist, the PMC would have to invent it. If the Democrat Political party fails to govern, that'due south because the PMC lacks the capability to govern. ("PMC" modulo "form expatriates," of grade.) Second, all the working parts of the Party reinforce each other. Leave bated characterizing the relationships betwixt elements of the Party (ka-ching, but not entirely) those elements comprise a network — a Flex Net? An iron octagon? — of funders, vendors, apparatchiks, electeds, NGOs, and miscellaneous mercenaries, with assets in the press and the intelligence community.

Note, of course, that the class ability of the PMC both expresses and is limited by other classes; oligarchs and American gentry (run into 'industrial model' of Ferguson, Jorgensen, and Jie) and the working grade spring to listen. Suck upward, kick down.

* * *

"Memo To Dems: Stop Taking These Maskless Pictures" [The Bulwark]. "Over the by ii weeks, several Democratic politicians have found themselves in the Twitter barrel as a result of photographs featuring their maskless (gasp!) faces in situations where either a) officials from their party had instituted a mandate on masks or b) the plebeians who surrounded them were unable to bear witness their pearly whites due to the stringent social covenant in their environs." • I don't see the bespeak. Inventing circuitous algorithms for others and then exempting yourself from them is the essence of what it means to exist a liberal Democrat. How would anybody know who the dominant figure in the photo op is if everybody were wearing a mask, for compassion'due south sake? Let's be reasonable.

"Data-driven mask policies are a smart approach to managing the pandemic" [Julia Raifman, Linsey Marr, and Alexandra Skinner, The Hill]. "Vaccines and mask policies are among the virtually effective public wellness tools for addressing the virus, and these strategies work all-time in concert. Vaccines remain effective for reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, fifty-fifty with the Delta variant. At the aforementioned time, 42 percent of Americans remain unvaccinated and the Delta variant presents a formidable challenge that makes vaccines less constructive for preventing transmission. Outbreaks at college campuses, dinner parties and concerts show that the virus tin can spread widely, even in highly vaccinated populations. Mask policies can protect vaccinated and unvaccinated people and reduce COVID-19 cases and deaths during surges. As policymakers consider when to crave masks now that vaccines are available, information-driven mask policies such as Nevada's are a practical and effective approach. The state's uncomplicated policy is based on the CDC's guidance. The policy requires anybody, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks indoors in areas with 'substantial' or 'high' levels of COVID-19 transmission, every bit defined by the CDC. The policy is implemented at the state level and is linked to local, county-level data. Counties tin can lift indoor mask requirements in one case COVID-19 transmission rates drop to 'low' or 'moderate' levels for seven days." • Marr is certainly a highly competent droplets scientist and fighting the good fight. Perhaps I'm too pessimistic, just this reads to me like a drastic attempt to get liberal Democrats to salve masking at all, in the face up of a bad-faith libertarian onslaught many of them secretly agree with (having abandoned the notion of "public health," or even of a public). The trigger is "smart," a putative value in which liberal Democrats deeply believe; in practise, it means complication and deference to gatekeepers, equally hither. If, a year agone, the Biden Administration had mounted a public relations effort on the scale of "This is your encephalon on drugs," universal masking wouldn't even be a trouble.

"Affliction, Disability, and Paternalism in the Fight for Medicare for All" [Monthly Review]. "The U.S. for-profit health care system is and so assisting, in fact, that information technology spares no expense to ensure that our politicians parrot industry propaganda. The health care lobby is not just pulling the strings on Republican policy. According to the Middle for Responsive Politics, Democrats raked in 63 per centum of the lobby'south $452 million in individual and political action committee contributions in the 2020 ballot alone. Including shady soft money contributions, the health care industry spent a total of $639 one thousand thousand on political influence in the nearly recent ballot cycle. Since the ballot, the president and Congress accept reaffirmed their fealty to the health intendance foyer by subsidizing the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Human activity rather than guaranteeing health care for all of us. After all, no candidate accustomed more coin from the health care antechamber in the 2020 ballot than Joe Biden." • Oh.

"California'southward single-payer healthcare effort is expressionless. Why it isn't going away" [Los Angeles Times]. "Newsom has since focused on a more attainable path to universal healthcare by offering coverage to the largest uninsured population in the state — people living in the country illegally." • That should play well in 2024.

2022

* * *

"Crossing lines, Manchin endorses Murkowski's Senate campaign" [Associated Press]. "Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Lord's day endorsed Republican colleague Lisa Murkowski for reelection, crossing party lines to back the incumbent from Alaska who faces a primary challenger supported by former President Donald Trump. The conservative West Virginia lawmaker said he has teamed well with Murkowski in the 50-50 Senate to build bipartisan support for legislation such as President Joe Biden's infrastructure law. He said Alaska and the Senate are well-served with her in role. 'It's hypocritical to basically piece of work with a person twenty-four hour period in and day out and then, when they're in cycle, yous're supposed to be against them because they have an R or D past their name,' said Manchin, who appeared with Murkowski on CNN's 'Land of the Union' to promote the values of bipartisanship." • "In wheel." I've never heard that phrase.

Republican Funhouse

"DeSantis refuses to say with whom he sides in Trump-Pence rift" [The Hill]. "Former President Trump has repeatedly asserted that Pence had the authority to toss out the election results. Pence, notwithstanding, sharply rebuked that idea, saying at a Federalist Society event in Florida on Fri that it is 'united nations-American' to recollect that one person could overturn the will of the voters.'In that location are those in our party who believe that as the presiding officeholder over the articulation session of Congress, I possessed unilateral potency to decline Electoral College votes. And I heard this week that President Trump said I had the correct to 'overturn the election," Pence said. 'President Trump is incorrect,' he connected. 'I had no right to overturn the ballot.' Asked on Mon about where he stands on the issue, DeSantis declined to weigh in. 'I'yard not. I …' DeSantis said, according to NBC News. Subsequently being pressed on the question past reporters, the Florida governor abruptly changed topics, saying that he had a 'great working relationship' with the Trump assistants." • Which is no longer an Administration.

Realignment and Legitimacy

"Signaling Virtuous Victimhood as Indicators of Dark Triad Personalities" (PDF) [Journal of Personality and Social Psychology]. From 2020, still germane. "Nosotros investigate the consequences and predictors of emitting signals of victimhood and virtue. In our first three studies, nosotros show that the virtuous victim signal tin can facilitate nonreciprocal resource transfer from others to the signaler. Next, nosotros develop and validate a victim signaling scale that we combine with an established measure of virtue signaling to operationalize the virtuous victim construct. We show that individuals with Night Triad traits—Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy—more than ofttimes signal virtuous victimhood, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables that are commonly associated with victimization in Western societies. In Study 5, nosotros show that a specific dimension of Machiavellianism—amoral manipulation—and a form of narcissism that reflects a person'southward belief in their superior prosociality predict more frequent virtuous victim signaling. Studies three, 4, and 6 test our hypothesis that the frequency of emitting virtuous victim betoken predicts a person's willingness to engage in and endorse ethically questionable behaviors, such as lying to earn a bonus, intention to purchase counterfeit products and moral judgments of counterfeiters, and making exaggerated claims about being harmed in an organizational context." • Hmm. Certainly gives an business relationship of Successor Ideology. Perhaps some readers can evaluate the methodology?

Trusting the scientific discipline:

Nice shot of Monica Ghandi. Notice what'due south attached to the ribbon for the "ribbon cutting anniversary":

Kid, listening to the story: "And and then what happened?" Adult: "The ghouls won, sweetie. Just just temporarily."

#COVID19

Instance count by United States regions:

I accept added an anti-triumphalist "Fauci Line" to highlight that the peak created past Biden and his squad — Klain, Zeints, Fauci, Walensky — was and then enormous that even at present, afterward rapid turn down, the case (under-)count is still higher than the best the sometime guy could exercise. This is an impressive achievement by the adults in the room! (Rise like a rocket, and fall similar a stick; the slope of the downward curve is more or less the aforementioned as the upward bend. Previous peaks — how minor the early ones look at present — have been roughly symmetrical on either side. But the scale of this peak, and the penetration into the population, is unprecedented.) I wonder if at that place volition be plateau when BA.two takes hold. Since the Northeast has class, that is probably the region to watch for this behavior first.

The official narrative was "Covid is behind usa," and that the pandemic will be "over by January" (Gottlieb), and "I know some people seem to non want to surrender on the wonderful pandemic, but y'all know what? It's over" (Bill Maher) was completely exploded. What a surprise!

MWRA (Boston-area) wastewater detection:

Continues encouraging. No bound from the render of the students yet, which is even more encouraging, particularly if you're in "Waiting for BA.two" fashion.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) service area includes 43 municipalities in and around Boston, including not only multiple schoolhouse systems merely several big universities. Since Boston is and so very education-heavy, then, I think information technology could be a good leading indicator for Covid spread in schools generally.

A proficient question:

From CDC Community Profile Reports (PDFs), "Rapid Riser" counties:

Continued comeback (Remember that these are rapid riser counties. A county that moves from cherry-red to green is not covid-costless; the case count merely isnt, well, rise quickly.)

The previous release:

Hospitalization (CDC Community Profile):

Guam finallly gets it together, and so I can make the joke I've been waiting forever to brand: "Heaven of blue And sea of green In our yellow Submarine (submarine, ya-haa!" (Note trend, whether up or down, is marked by the pointer, at top. Admissions are presented in the graph, at the bottom. So it'due south possible to take an upward trend, but from a very depression baseline.)

Just a reminder:

As with everything else, considering the U.s.a. is not a serious country, our hospitalization data is bad. Here the baseilne is off:

Death rate (Our Globe in Information):

Total: 928,879 926,029. I sure hope we break a million before Biden'south Country of the Wedlock speech communication.

Covid cases in top us travel destinations (Statista):

Good news here too. For the fourth dimension being.

Stats Spotter

Minor Concern Optimism: "U.s. NFIB Business concern Optimism Alphabetize" [Trading Economics]. "The NFIB Small Business organisation Optimism Index in the United states fell to an 11-month low of 97.1 in January of 2022, compared to 98.nine in December, as labour shortages and high prices weighed. "More small-scale business organization owners started the New Year raising prices in an endeavour to pass on higher inventory, supplies, and labor costs. Supply-chain disruptions and labor shortages will limit the ability of many firms to meet increased demand of their products and services," NFIB Chief Economist Beak Dunkelberg said."

* * *

The Bezzle: Amazon, the sucking vampire:

A third seems rather a lot, specially when (a) Amazon will steal your projection and brand information technology their ain and (b) their marketplace is entirely unregulated and a cesspit of counterfitting and fraud.

Tne Bezzle: "Why the Hell Is the Earth Wild fauna Fund Selling Animal NFTs?" [The New Republic]. "WWF's entry into the cryptocurrency space raises a number of questions, including: "Why?" and, "Aren't animals definitionally non-fungible?" Information technology's easy to skewer this equally a shameless fundraising gimmick, because that's exactly what it is. Just information technology'due south likewise function of a broader movement toward financializing nature and its protection: NFTs for conservation are the natural extension of a philosophy that suggests asset buying can save the planet. Ecology economists have long argued that assigning a more accurate value to greenhouse gas emissions—namely through various sorts of carbon pricing—will allow markets to meliorate reflect their costs, sending a bespeak to companies and consumers to weed out planet-killing activities. In recent years that logic has created an enthusiasm among finance types for so-called "nature-based assets" that monetize the protection of endangered species and biodiversity, amid other things. That's included a push to assign prices to traditionally gratuitous ecological processes that maintain civilities similar make clean air and water, transforming them into "natural capital" and then that markets tin can recognize their worth. In 2019, for instance, the International Monetary Fund estimated the value of a whale at $2 million, thank you to the amount of carbon dead whales capture."

The Bezzle: "NFTs Are the Ticket to New York's Newest Social Clubs" [Bloomberg]. "When Maxwell Tribeca opens its doors in July, it will have all the elements that define a certain kind of guild: a prestigious accost, swanky decor, exclusive perks for members, and a well-heeled and well-connected founding team. But that's not enough for David Litwak, founder and former chief executive officer of the tech travel platform Mozio. To become a member, you lot'll also need to go involved in one of the buzziest corners of the crypto market place. The 8,000 square-foot space, which will be located at 135 Watts Street, is modeled after the eating clubs known every bit txokos of San Sebastian, Spain. Entry volition crave owning a so-called nonfungible token, or NFT—a kind of crypto nugget being touted past everyone from Tom Brady to Melania Trump. NFTs are digital tokens that act like certificates of authenticity for, and in some cases correspond ownership of, assets that range from expensive illustrations of apes to collectibles like celebrity autographs and physical goods similar a case of rare whisky. Increasingly, equally is the example with Maxwell Tribeca, they operate as a kind of passport to rarefied spaces and experiences—access that in this case includes your own liquor lockers." • If Jeffrey Epstein had owned some NFTs he would be live today….

The Bezzle: "Celebrities and NFTs Are a Match Made in Hell" [The Atlantic]. "If Hilton and Fallon and their glory friends are going to go out there and pump-and-dump their fashion to additional wealth, they could at least do the remainder of us the courtesy of beingness a little more discreet about it. Instead, they sound similar they recall this is stupid, and similar they call up the residual of us might be stupid enough to buy in."

The Bezzle: "Tesla Subpoenaed by SEC Almost Complying With Musk Settlement" [Bloomberg]. "Tesla Inc. received another subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about a subject that keeps coming up: Elon Musk's tweeting in 2018 that he was considering taking the carmaker private. The SEC issued the subpoena Nov. 16, seeking data about Tesla's governance processes and compliance with a settlement reached with the agency in September 2018, the company said in a regulatory filing. Tesla had agreed to put in place controls to oversee Musk's communications — including his tweets — after the SEC alleged the chief executive officer committed securities fraud by saying he had secured funding for the visitor to go private. Musk and the SEC have been at loggerheads ever since."

Tech: "Mac malware spreading for ~14 months installs backstairs on infected systems" [Ars Technica]. "Mac malware known as UpdateAgent has been spreading for more than a year, and information technology is growing increasingly malevolent equally its developers add new bells and whistles. The additions include the pushing of an aggressive second-stage adware payload that installs a persistent backdoor on infected Macs…. Microsoft said UpdateAgent masquerades as legitimate software, such as video apps or support agents, that is spread through pop-ups or ads on hacked or malicious websites. Microsoft didn't explicitly say and then, just users plainly must exist tricked into installing UpdateAgent, and during that process, Gatekeeper works as designed."

* * *

Today's Fear & Greed Index: 36 Fright (previous close: 34 Fear) [CNN]. 1 week ago: 34 (Fright). (0 is Extreme Fearfulness; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated February 8 at 1:29pm. Been stuck in the mid-30s for awhile. This is deadening!

Health Intendance

Adept question. Recall when liberal Democrats wanted us to exist "smart shoppers" for ObamaCare? In other words, to "do our ain research"?

So why shouldn't nosotros be "smart shoppers" for vaccines, NPIs, and treatments, such as they are? (The existent reply is that it's a heck of a lot easier to buy an insurance policy, horrid though the feel is, than information technology is to became a layperson expert on Covid. That'southward what Yves and I and many readers take done here, and information technology takes a lot of time and dedication, and we had to become it because the CDC, the Administration, and the PMC weren't doing their jobs (supposing their jobs to be saving lives, instead of alternative the population).

MMT

Correct:

Apparently the Lisa Melt hearing didn't go so well either….

Zeitgeist Watch

How it started:

How it'south going:

Class Warfare

From one of our very few labor reporters:

News of the Wired

Public service declaration:

* * *

Contact data for plants: Readers, feel gratuitous to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, to (a) find out how to send me a check if yous are allergic to PayPal and (b) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you desire your handle to announced as a credit, please place it at the first of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I volition anonymize by using your initials. Encounter the previous Water Libation (with plant) here. Today'southward plant (Carla):

Carla writes: "Shaker Lakes Nature Eye, Cleveland, OH." Non daisies, but asters? That's a lovely exposure, besides!

* * *

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