2:00PM Water Cooler 2/11/2025 | naked capitalism

By Lambert Strether.

Bird Song of the Day

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

In Case You Might 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 Fans.

Politics

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

Spook Country

So, CIA next on the menu?

Democrats en déshabillé

I guess we’ll have to wait until the midterms:

“What leverage do we have?” says Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency; it’s their government.” pic.twitter.com/GAI1LYQJM7

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 9, 2025

Maybe we should take “Minority Leader” and cross out the “Leader” part.

Then again:

the first month of Indivisible’s existence in Dec 2016 we knew that something big was building because we were getting reports from all over the country of massively-attended organizing meetings. then we’d try to explain that this mattered to journalists/politicos and they mostly…

— Leah Greenberg (@Leahgreenb) February 11, 2025

No masks, please, we’re liberals:

the first month of Indivisible’s existence in Dec 2016 we knew that something big was building because we were getting reports from all over the country of massively-attended organizing meetings. then we’d try to explain that this mattered to journalists/politicos and they mostly…

— Leah Greenberg (@Leahgreenb) February 11, 2025

I grant that Indivisible has a structure. But if it’s just another NGO feeding cash and votes to, well, Hakeem Jeffries, I don’t see the point. Or rather, I do.

Syndemics

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, but national data). “Infection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts” (especially on hospitalization by city).

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 “COVID” in the subject line. Thank you!

Resources, United States (Local): 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 reports); 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).

Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).

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

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).

Stay safe out there!

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

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 like the gatherings of Hong Kong “helpers”?

News of the Wired

Contact information for plants: 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) here. From Stephen V:

Stephen V writes: “African Basil blooming its heart out in November. It blooms continuously because it produces no seeds.”

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