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2:00PM Water Cooler 7/23/2024

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Bird Song of the Day

Northern Mockingbird, Wellington, Ontario, Canada. “Singing up a storm on both sides of the road by 71 Maltby Road. Long tailed grey bird with white outer tail feathers and white wing bars.”

* * *

In Case You Might Miss…

(1) Pelosi and the Twenty Fifth Amendment.

(2) Kamala’s rollout.

(3) Establishment voices at the Atlantic.

(4) Boeing cluster continues.

* * *

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

* * *

The Constitutional Order (Twenty-Fifth Amendment)

“Top Dems threatened to forcibly remove Biden from office unless he dropped out, set him up to fail at Trump debate: sources” [New York Post (Turley)]. Note this is single-sourced. “As calls for him to bow out mounted, Biden insisted he would continue, but party bigwigs threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment allows for the vice president and members of the cabinet to declare the president is unfit to serve and force him to step down, the source added. The White House and representatives from the Democratic National Committee did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.” • Could it be this is Pelosi’s “hard way“? Here in relevant part is the Twenty Fifth Amendment; Section 4:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

So Kamala would have had to initiate the process (which is cumbersome and of uncertain outcome. Nevertheless, I can hear Pelosi saying “Kamala’s going to start making calls.” That would truly be “the hard way.” Other explanations involve yet more leaks. But “the hard way” implies to me a change of state. A Twenty Fifth amendment invocation is that; more leaks are not). However, if this story is confirmed, it implies that the Inner Party is prepared to threaten Constitutional means to get their preferred candidate on the ballot, but if the threat works, they’ll leave a cognitively impaired President in office. Party before country!

Trump Assassination Attempt

“Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle resigns after shocking failures led to Trump assassination attempt” [New York Post]. One more detail: “Crooks was also allowed to enter the rally despite being stopped at the entrance with a rangefinder — a type of eyepiece often used by hunters or golfers to determine far-off distances on the fly.” • Yikes!

2024

Less than four months to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Virginia and North Carolina added to the list. NC was never going for Biden Harris, but Virginia? Yikes!

* * *

Biden Defenestration:

“Biden to address nation tomorrow on decision to drop out of campaign” [New York Post]. “President Biden will address the nation at 8 p.m. Wednesday about his decision to abandon his campaign for a second term amid mounting questions about his mental acuity. ‘Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people,’ Biden, 81, tweeted Tuesday. The president hasn’t been seen in public since last Wednesday when he traveled to his Delaware vacation home to recuperate from COVID-19 and is expected to return to the White House Tuesday afternoon.”

“It’s over! How Dem elites locked in Harris” [Axios]. “Harris’ rollout was as well-choreographed as it was stunning, involving hundreds of phone calls by Harris’ team to senators, House members and governors.” • I’m not sure about that. If we look at Kamala’s Twitter presence, the rollout was a hot mess. When I heard Biden was out, I went immediately to his site. This is what I found:

The Biden site redirects not to a Kamala site with a fresh new identity, but to ActBlue, for an immediate donation. I think that’s a little crass. It also suggests that the process was not entirely gamed out. Here is the ActBlue page, updated with a quote from the letter Biden signed and a picture of Kamala:

Here for reference is an archived version of the Biden site:

I went to the DNC. There’s no link to Kamala’s site, but there’s a ginormous pop-up for DNC fundraising:

‘

“The Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process” is rich; apparently the DNC thought they were going to play a significant role in the transition. No such luck! And here is Kamala’s main Twitter page as of press time:

Amateurish. And Kamala’s “official” rapid response page, also at press time:

The horrid green! The horrid font! And why two different sites in different trade dress? All to day that some aspects of Kamala’s rollout were indeed well-choreographed — as the puff piece in Axios reflexively shows — but certainly not all.

* * *

The Campaign Trail:

Harris (D):

Typically, in any system resembling a democracy, “support” is “earned” by facing the voters in elections. Apparently, that’s no longer important to the Democrat Party or their candidate.

Harris (D): “Harris earns $231 million in donations on first day of presidential campaign” [New York Daily News]. “Vice President Kamala Harris claimed a stunning $231 million[1] from small and big donors in the first 24 hours since she launched her presidential campaign. In a huge vote of confidence for her still-nascent campaign, Harris won $81 million[2] in small-dollar donations and reportedly scored an additional $150 million[3] “money bomb” from big donors in what amounted to the biggest one-day haul of the 2024 election cycle.” • [1] The story at NBC has $46.7 million at ActBlue, which is good, but 46.7 is not equal to 231. [2] Harris campaign press release, not sure whether this includes ActBlue or not. [3] Nothing in this article indicates “$150 million” has been scored. Normally, I wouldn’t get into the minutiae of campaign finances, but after our collective experience with Democrat’s years-long denial of Biden’s obvious cognative issues, we know that they’ll lie about literally anything. So here we are!

Harris (D): “Scoop: Biden doubted Harris’ election chances” [Axios]. “Harris’ time as vice president has been occasionally rocky, defined in part by large staff turnover, retreating from politically risky responsibilities, and mocking from some Beltway insiders. Much of Harris’ staff has turned over in the past 3½ years.About half of the vice president’s staff is paid by the Senate, which requires regular disclosures. Of the 47 Harris staffers listed in 2021, only five still worked for her as of this spring, according to the disclosures. Her full staff list is not publicly disclosed.

During Obama’s first term, then-Vice President Biden had far more staff stability, as 17 of 38 of his aides stayed with him over a similar period, according to the disclosures for staff paid by the Senate. Former Harris aides told Axios the high turnover is partly because of how the vice president treats her staff. Some former aides said Harris had high standards that some did not want to keep up with, but others felt that she frequently grilled them the way she grilled Trump officials, such as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when she represented California in the U.S. Senate. Former aides often refer to it as Harris’ ‘prosecuting the staff.’ During the 2020 campaign, Biden aides recall watching Harris interrogate her then-chief of staff Karine Jean-Pierre to the point that it made others uncomfortable. After the election, Jean-Pierre moved to the White House’s press team.” • To the press team’s detriment. That said, Biden’s reciprocal loyalty to staff served him well.

* * *

Straight down the yellow stripe in the middle of the road:

“Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged” [Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic]. • Consider the source; Applebaum is signaling Kamala is more likely to continue the war in Ukraine than Trump.

“Can Harris Reassemble Obama’s Coalition?” [Ron Brownstein, The Atlantic]. • No, because all the Obots are now eight years older, are saddled with college debt, and can’t afford to buy houses. And no, because there was never an “Obama coalition” in the first place. But Brownstein has been writing this piece for years, and so he writes it again.

“The Harris Gamble” [David Frum, The Atlantic]. “Earlier this month, Trump posted on Truth Social an advance warning of the campaign he’ll run against Harris: ‘Also, respects to our potentially new Democrat Challenger, Laffin’ Kamala Harris. She did poorly in the Democrat Nominating process, starting out at Number Two, and ending up defeated and dropping out, even before getting to Iowa, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a ‘highly talented’ politician! Just ask her Mentor, the Great Willie Brown of San Francisco.’ In case you missed Trump’s hint, he’s referencing an old internet smear that Harris slept her way to political success.” • The Harris team had better scrub Kamala’s Wikipedia page, then, or explain Brown’s truly remarkable act of selfless generosity to, as it turns out, his girlfriend:

In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission. Harris took a six-month leave of absence in 1994 from her duties, then afterward resumed working as prosecutor during the years she sat on the boards. Harris’s connection to Brown was noted in media reportage as part of a pattern of California political leaders appointing ‘friends and loyal political soldiers’ to lucrative positions on the commissions.

And it does seem that getting appointed as a ‘friends and loyal political soldier’ hasn’t been a happy event for Harris only one time. Come on. Are we little children of six?

“Democrats Are Making a Huge Mistake” [Graeme Wood, The Atlantic]. “The error is not the choice of Kamala Harris. It is the sudden rallying behind her, the torrent of endorsements, right after Biden’s self-removal. Biden’s senescence was only part of the party’s crisis. The other part was the impression that Democratic politics felt like a game rigged by insiders to favor a candidate of their choice, and to isolate that candidate from the risk associated with campaigning. For 27 minutes, between the time Biden announced his withdrawal and the time he broke the seal on Harris endorsements by bestowing his, the contest felt thrillingly, bracingly wide-open.” • It felt that way because it was that way.

* * *

My timeline is a sordid mess (1):

My timeline is a sordid mess (2):

My timeline is a sordid mess (3):

* * *

Democrats en Déshabillé

“A Historian of the Democratic Party Sees Crisis and Opportunity” [Politico]. “But Democrats will first have to address the reasons why so many people with working-class backgrounds voted twice for Donald Trump and seem ready to do so again. That’s not just members of the white working class who have departed the party in droves in recent decades; polls have shown Trump poised to scoop up working-class Black and Latino voters in potentially historic proportions. Trump and his vice presidential pick JD Vance have eagerly embraced the populist mantle and sought to co-opt some progressive critiques of the free market, even if they’d surely govern in service of plutocrats. Too often, Democrats have failed to articulate a coherent vision of where to take the nation, apart from tolerating cultural differences and moving toward a greener economy, and neither goal speaks to those who have struggled to make ends meet. With Kamala Harris as their candidate, they have an opportunity to begin to change that image. The danger is that they may believe that the crisis they have gone through can be resolved by shifting candidates without addressing the discontents that roil the nation.” • The difficulty, as Thomas Frank shows, is that the Democrat PMC base hates the working class. The only way that will change is if the Democrats lose in 2024, badly. And again in 2028, because they always double down on failure. That’s a long time to wait. Commentary:

Would anyone like to make book on Kamala giving Lina Khan a bear hug?

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 (dashboard); 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, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, square coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Stay safe out there!

* * *

Maskstravaganza

Because many N95s have a metal nosewire:

* * *

Lambert here: Looks like the holiday travel dumped accelerant on the pre-existing surge; see especially the growth in wastewater “hot spots.” Stay safe out there!

TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC July 15: Last Week[2] CDC July 8 (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC July 20 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC July 13

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data July 19: National [6] CDC June 29:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens July 22: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic July 13:
Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC July 1: Variants[10] CDC July 1:

Deaths
★ Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC July 13: ★ Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC July 13:

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) This week’s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular.

[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Keeps up steady increase. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.

[7] (Walgreens) An optimist would see a peak.

[8] (Cleveland) Still going up!

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.

[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads.

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.

[12] Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

Manufacturing: “United States Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index” [Trading Economics]. “The composite manufacturing index in the US Fifth District declined for a second consecutive month to -17 in July 2024, the lowest level since May 2020.”

* * *

Manufacturing: “Boss of biggest 777X customer wants Boeing fixed — with union help” [Seattle Times]. “Tim Clark, who runs Gulf carrier Emirates and is an essential and exacting customer of both Airbus and Boeing, is waiting for delivery of more than 200 giant 777Xs with both optimism and worry. He doesn’t expect to get the first ones until mid-2026, he said in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show. He knows Boeing has a difficult time ahead to fix its manufacturing problems. And he believes Boeing management needs the company’s front-line workers and their union on its side to get the job done. ‘The guys on the shop floor, the engineers, the machinists, they know what to do,’ said Clark. ‘They can get it sorted.’ ‘Don’t forget the workforce. Make sure they get a good deal. Make sure that you look after them,’ he added. ‘Make sure you recognize the criticality of what they do.’ If that makes Clark sound like a socialist, he’s not. A 74-year-old Englishman, he runs one of the richest airlines in the world from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He does believe in Boeing’s legacy of engineering and manufacturing prowess, and he wants it restored because he needs it for his business. Emirates has a giant fleet of 271 big commercial jets, including 118 Airbus superjumbo A380s, and more than 140 Boeing 777s. The A380 is discontinued after it failed to make money for Airbus. So Clark needs the 777X to renew his fleet. He has placed almost half the total orders for the jet. He described the Puget Sound region as ‘the cradle, the crucible,’ of Boeing and the workers there as capable of pulling the company from the pit it has fallen into. ‘It’s fixable, very fixable,’ Clark said.” • But what about the executive’s bonuses?

Manufacturing: “Boeing Boss Still Hasn’t Met with Whistleblowers to Talk Safety, Lawyer Says” [Newsweek]. “Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson asked [Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun] whether it would be ‘a good idea’ for him to meet and speak with any of the whistleblowers that had voiced their concerns over the company’s safety practices. Calhoun responded: ‘Yeh, I think it would.’ Brian Knowles, an attorney who represents over a dozen current and former employees of Boeing, said that he has yet to hear from Calhoun or the company. [Knowls client sam] Mohawk is a quality assurance inspector at Boeing’s production facility in Renton, Washington. In a complaint shared by Senator Richard Blumenthal of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, Mohawk alleged that the company had failed to document or correctly store damaged aircraft components, which were then likely used in the assembly of Boeing planes. Knowles also told Newsweek that Mohawk had observed thousands of parts being left ‘in the elements’ outside of the Renton facility, leading to corrosion of the components. When asked whether his clients would be willing to meet with Calhoun or the Boeing board, Knowles said: ‘I think they need to.'” • Calhoun wouldn’t soil his hands, would he.

Tech: “Google to kill off URL shortener once and for all” [The Register]. “Google will soon make its own contribution to the problem of link rot by shutting down the Google URL Shortener service in 2025. The Google URL Shortener was launched in 2009 as an attempt to make lengthy links manageable by feeding them into Google’s shortener, which spat out shorter ones in the form of https://goog.gl/*. Nine years later, Google decided to pull the service and direct users to Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) instead. At the time, Google said, ‘All existing links will continue to redirect to the intended destination.’ However, as of August 25, 2025, any links built with the Google URL shortener in the form of https://goog.gl/* won’t return a response.” • Let that be a warning to you all!

Tech: Thank you, Silicon Valley:

Tech: “AI art has no anti-cooption immune system” [Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic]. “One thing Myspace had going for it: it was exuberantly ugly. The decision to let users with no design training loose on a highly customizable user-interface led to a proliferation of Myspace pages that vibrated with personality. The ugliness of Myspace wasn’t just exciting in a kind of outsider/folk-art way (though it was that). Myspace’s ugliness was an anti-cooption force-field, because corporate designers and art-directors would, by and large, rather break their fingers and gouge out their eyes than produce pages that looked like that. In this regard, Myspace was the heir to successive generations of ‘design democratization’ that gave amateur communities, especially countercultural ones, a space to operate in where authentic community members could be easily distinguished between parasitic commercializers. The immediate predecessors to Myspace’s ugliness-as-a-feature were the web, and desktop publishing. Between the img tag, imagemaps, the blink tag, animated GIFs, and the million ways that you could weird a page with tables and padding, the early web was positively bursting with individual personality.”

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 59 Greed (previous close: 55 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 60 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 22 at 12:14:59 PM ET.

Zeitgeist Watch

“Glasgow 2024 Hugo Awards Statement – 22nd July 2024” (statement) [Glasgow2024]. “A large number of votes in 2024 were cast by accounts which fail to meet the criteria of being “natural persons”, with obvious fake names and/or other disqualifying characteristics. These included, for instance, a run of voters whose second names were identical except that the first letter was changed, in alphabetical order; and a run of voters whose names were translations of consecutive numbers. Many of these votes favoured one finalist in particular, who we will call Finalist A. This pattern of data is startlingly and obviously different from the votes for any other finalist in 2024, and indeed for any finalist in any of the previous years where any member of the current Hugo Subcommittee has been involved with administering the Hugo final ballot. In addition to patterns observable in the data, we received a confidential report that at least one person had sponsored the purchase of WSFS [World Science Fiction Society] memberships by large numbers of individuals, who were refunded the cost of membership after confirming that they had voted as the sponsor wished. On the basis of the above evidence, we have concluded that at least 377 votes have been cast fraudulently, of a total of 3,813 final ballot votes that we received. We have therefore disqualified those 377 votes from the final vote tally…. We recognise that after the Hugo voting in 2023, many in the community will, understandably, have questions about this. Unfortunately, our ability to answer is very limited, due to our responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of the ballot and data protection regulations. There are proposals to institute a system of independent audit for Hugo votes. But at present such a system does not exist, therefore the raw 2024 voting data cannot and will not be shared outside the Glasgow 2024 Hugo team.”

“Sam Altman sues builder over $27M flooded, sewage-hit ‘lemon’ of a mega-mansion” [The Register]. “[R[aw sewage was even ejected onto the ground in a ‘hard to access area at the side of the residence’ due to a bathroom sewer line being unconnected. Contractor bags were also found jammed into a sewer line, ‘apparently by a disgruntled, unpaid subcontractor,’ Altman’s lawyers claim.”• Yes, that seems like the kind of mansion an OpenAI co-founder would own. Not that different from work!

News of the Wired

“The Elegance of the ASCII Table” [DanQ]. “The first printing character is space; it’s an invisible character, but it’s still one that has meaning to humans, so it’s not a control character (this sounds obvious today, but it was actually the source of some semantic argument when the ASCII standard was first being discussed). Putting it numerically before any other printing character was a very carefully-considered and deliberate choice. The reason: sorting. For a computer to sort a list (of files, strings, or whatever) it’s easiest if it can do so numerically, using the same character conversion table as it uses for all other purposes7. The space character must naturally come before other characters, or else John Smith won’t appear before Johnny Five in a computer-sorted list as you’d expect him to. Being the first printing character, space also enjoys a beautiful and memorable binary representation that a human can easily recognise: 0100000…. There’s a strange and subtle charm to ASCII. Given that we all use it (or things derived from it) literally all the time in our modern lives and our everyday devices, it’s easy to think of it as just some arbitrary encoding. But the choices made in deciding what streams of ones and zeroes would represent which characters expose a refined logic. It’s aesthetically pleasing, and littered with historical artefacts that teach us a hidden history of computing. And it’s built atop patterns that are sufficiently sophisticated to facilitate powerful processing while being coherent enough for a human to memorise, learn, and understand.”

“On This Blog as a Numbers Station” [Random Notes]. “I’d rather Random Notes be a numbers station, read intently by a few, than a bustling online property. That’s more satisfying on so many levels.” • Numbers station.

* * *

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 Desert Dog:

Desert Dog writes: “The yuccas are just coming out now. The cows like to snack on them and the cowboys say that they have been eating the ‘soap weed’ because they foam at the mouth and look like they are rabid.”

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

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 (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” 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’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” 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 — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — 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 — 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’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t 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’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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109 comments

  2. Michael

    “Party before Country”

    Otherwise to be known as the “2024 Presidential Drinking Game!”

  3. Carolinian

    I’ve been watching the Taibbi/Kirn mentioned yesterday

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqOFFhUikw0

    and they have me convinced–not Seven Days in May but Three (two? one?) Days in July. Kirn says that on the way home from Milwaukee he heard a name reporter loudly telling various people that Joe didn’t want to go and was being forced out. And their speculation about the sudden, almost universal endorsement of Kamala and how it flies in the face of previous doubts about her suitability also convinces. Taibbi says it may be about the 231 million of Biden money waiting to be spent. Both state their belief that Kamala will not in fact be the final nominee.

    Return of the 1960s paranoid political thriller? While Manchurian Candidate was slightly tongue in cheek, Seven Days in May was totally serious and based on the then military doubts about Kennedy. In the end “weak sister” Frederic March triumphs over evil Joint Chiefs head Burt Lancaster. Meanwhile Biden’s fate is unclear. He may yet get the 25th.

    1. Louis Fyne

      >>>Both state their belief that Kamala will not in fact be the final nominee.

      The “DNC backroom” can’t be so dumb to metaphorically-shiv Kamala, can they?

      for the true-believer, door-knocking base, ousting Kamala would be a red line. The Democrats would implode as an institution.

      1. Carolinian

        They are just speculating about the plot of our thriller but the suggestion is that Kamala will torpedo herself or some big international crisis will be arranged and she’ll be pushed aside by someone more acceptable to the Obama faction. They justify this by background conversations with insiders that make them think the Dems really really don’t want Kamala as the nom.

        At any rate the it’s all very mysterious.

        1. dave

          My facebook timeline suggests that many are all in on a Harris presidency.

          Forget the fact that there wasn’t any voting of any kind in the cycle. We must destroy democracy in order to save it, I guess.

      2. Darthbobber

        Doesn’t seem that plausible to me. It’s Harris whether they would prefer something else or not.
        (Heck, they didn’t particularly want Biden, they just didn’t want Sanders more.)

      3. ChrisFromGA

        I’m not buying the double donkey defenestration scenario either.

        Not enough time left; plus why would they spend the time, money, and energy running her up the flagpole only to toss her aside in late August?

        It makes for good conversation, though.

      4. Procopius

        I frequently refer to The Iron Law of Institutions.

        The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution “fail” while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to “succeed” if that requires them to lose power within the institution.

        The Democrats have been obviously following this law since 2007, when they turned against leftist voters.

    2. Samuel Conner

      Kirn (IIRC) feels confident that HRC is lurking in the background, waiting to be called on to save the Party and the Country in the context of some emergent international crisis for which her experience as Secretary of State would be portrayed as useful.

      Taibbi, IIRC, thinks that Michelle Obama might be drafted over her own protests.

      If KH is not going to be the nominee, then I would think that “option 25” will not be exercised before the Convention.

      The thought occurs that the 2016 D Primary shenanigans were comparatively tame next to what might unfold in coming weeks and months.

      1. Big River Bandido

        The thought occurs that the 2016 D Primary shenanigans were comparatively tame next to what might unfold in coming weeks and months.

        Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. As they sing in the Marines, Bless ‘em all.

    3. Jeremy Grimm

      If I were forced at gunpoint to vote for a live Kamala or a stuffed and animatronic Biden … I would vote for the Biden puppet … not that I would ever vote for Biden in any other circumstances.

      1. JBird4049

        It is almost like they do not want to win the Oval Office.

        I would not discount the fools running the Democratic Party to try some super duper I Spy triple (or quadruple!) cross thinking that they are smart they can get away it. Just look at how awful the Secret Service and the White House were on the security of two presidential candidates.

        We don’t have the Dulles Brothers or the old 1960s Mafia anymore. We just have people who believe that they are as competent.

  4. t

    Finding it sad that the Hugo awards hack was so cheesy. If there’s an audience that should no how to hack….

      1. ambrit

        What ever happened to the days when publishing magnates gathered together in vapey back rooms to decide on who gets what? Meet the New Wave, same as the Old Wave.

  5. Mark Gisleson

    I’ve linked to and alluded to Willie Brown stories for years but just this week I finally came up with the perfect rejoinder to trolls who don’t like gossip about Harris (is it gossip when all the parties have admitted it?).

    I now lead by saying that in 40 years of party activism and working on campaigns, I have never seen anyone else sleep their way to the top like Harris has. She is absolutley unique in that regard, next closest examples would be Ron Johnson, John Kerry, John McCain, etc. marrying heiresses, sometimes for power (like Kamala) and not just money.

    NC’s readership is a bit sharper than the few social media types who get to see my tweets. Has anyone here ever heard of any other politician using sex to advance up the ladder? Sex scandals galore with Democrats but always as negatives yet the KHive in its unbelievable arrogance tries to spin the Willie years as no big deal, everyone does it. Fine, name them because I am at an absolute loss to come up with any names other than Kamala and Harris.

    Gays are mainstream now. Any Kamalas in their ranks? I would really like to know and like now, not after the election.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      I don’t think Kamala “slept her way to the top” (and I can’t think of a historical parallel, no doubt because of sexism. In politics; perhaps the entertainment industry is different.

      I do think, however, that Kamala slept her way onto sinecures at the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. I think that’s the real issue, not that she took a temporary position as Willie Brown’s arm candy.

      1. NYMutza

        Gavin Newsom also has benefited from Willie Brown’s largess. If it weren’t for Brown Newsom would be just another Marin trust fund baby.

      2. IM Doc

        It depends on how far back you want to go –

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppaea_Sabina

        One of the most fascinating stories in all of Roman History. She had bedded at least 2 Roman Emperors, multiple consuls, generals and hangers-on. She was busy. And when she died ( or was murdered – good cases on both sides) she was the “Empress of Rome”. Interestingly, it is thought she was from the City of Pompeii – and there is very good evidence that one of the more better known villas belonged to her.

        An aside from all those years ago in Classical History – Sabina is a name given to those in the Sabine area of Rome. A very long distant Roman colony, the people there were very rustic, very much braggarts, and had the biggest “insert whatever” here. Women were known to have big breasts, big hair, etc. My very favorite professor always said – when you think of the Sabines – think Texas – they were no different.

        If you want to go even further into the rat hole – about those who slept to the top, you must consider what happened next after Poppaea died. Nero immediately married another woman – but interestingly a DEAD RINGER for his deceased empress was found to be a young slave or freedman named Sporus ( I guess we would call that his drag queen name today – it could mean semen). Nero immediately had him undergo what we would call “bottom surgery” today – and renamed this kid as you guessed it – Poppaea Sabina, Empress of Rome. Unfortunately for Nero – this was the very beginning of the 4 Emperors of 69 AD saga – and he was done with very soon. However Sporus/Poppaea Sabina/Empress of Rome slept her/his way to the top – becoming the consort of the next 2 emperors – and the whole thing was finally put to an end by Vespasian. I will not share those details.

        Sporus/Poppaea Sabina/Empress of Rome was not very kindly regarded by historians or populations of the time. It is somewhat looked at today as the last straw for Nero. Indeed, there are those who theorize that St John the Revelator was directly referring to this character Sporus/Poppaea Sabina/Empress of Rome as the “Whore of Babylon” in the Apocalypse. The infamy of this individual throughout the Empire was such that this thought is not a stretch.

        So, both Poppaea slept their way to the very top. They worked very hard for their achievements. I am not sure how far back you wanted to go – but there is indeed historical precedent for this kind of move in a very decadent environment. Sleeping their way to the top from a young age and multiple outlets, no matter how low. It just did not end well for either one.

        1. Mark Gisleson

          Thank you for the relevant history but it sounds like marriage or ‘consort’ status is a big part of the Poppaeas’ story. That is not how I see Kamala Harris’ rise altho there may be common elements (she does have huge hair).

          I’ve never understood Harris to have had consort status. Willie’s g’friend gave her a certain status but it did not rise to that of consort or we would see her differently.

          My concerns are less with the sex than the path less taken. Promoting sex partners happens in the corporate world but it is frowned on. Harris seems frown-worthy.

          Corporate ethics are permeating our body politic and hidden relationships drive much of corporate culture which means there is one facet of corporate culture that’s going to need to have to be scrutinized more closely: mentoring/grooming/sex. They seem to overlap more than one would wish and that calls into question the real tarbaby: Are corporate women agreeing their way to the top? Not necessarily sex, being an automatic vote gets you into C-suites and onto boards. And is this power imbalance judo mirrored in gay corporate culture? [And how much of this is fueled by affirmative action at the expense of black men?]

          That men would sleep with women to advance their careers is not in dispute but I am reminded of a conversation I once had with a sex worker. I was extremely unemployed and was giving thought to becoming a sex worker. She told me something my young self had not yet realized. Yes, there was plenty of work for male prostitutes but almost everyone who hired me would also be a guy.

          Ultimately almost all sex issues in politics are about men. Harris only did what she did to get help from Brown. The context is easily understood and, had Brown and Nancy Pelosi swapped career paths, Harris might have had a notorious relationship with Pelosi. We really have no clue how often these things happen because while notorious in some circles, the lack of reporting creates a huge imbalance of knowledge with cynical acceptance from elites and general cluelessness from the voters.

          Ultimately, issues involving sex are about men even when no men are involved. I do not fear Kamala Harris’ ‘sex magick.’ I fear a system in which political bosses can flaunt their relationships and openly promote their close friends. Because that’s a world where activists learn that you have to give a little to stay in the loop. A system where sex is being given is much harder to regulate than a system of monied corruption.

    2. mrsyk

      Turns out it’s easier to sleep your way down and out than up. We’re a prudish lot when it comes right down to it. I’m wondering would it count if one has an only fans page.

      1. Mark Gisleson

        Onlyfans candidates will have to deal with that in their own way just as voters will. What bothers me is that Harris talks around her issues instead of walking through them and making them less of a problem.

        I just want to know what the rules are and if they apply to others or just some folks.

        Willie Brown put Harris into play. Without him, she’d never have gotten anywhere in politics because she lacks the necessary skills to gain traction without major help. This seems to be common with neoliberals who ascend for reasons unrelated to popularity.

        At some point the republic or the courts will break and our puritanical sex laws will pass into history but until then I think we should all be playing by the same rules. Doesn’t mean you have to follow them but you should have to be accountable as to why you don’t or didn’t.

    3. Bugs

      But the fact that she’s got great sex appeal is no different than that of JFK, is it? He got his jobs through nepotism, some work (WWII) and a heck of a lot of charm, and in the day and even today, he’s worshiped as a minor god. I’m all in for the Drunk Aunty Energy. At this point I just don’t care anymore. I only want it to all end in crying in Kami’s lap at the end of the party.

      1. Stephanie

        That’s a good point about nepo baby JFK. His election was marked by shenanigans as well. That said, I feel as if in the end he may have had the opposite problem as Kamala, in that he seems to have been far more popular with the electorate than with the deciders.

      2. John k

        JFK was a pretty good speaker that said things people wanted to hear. So did sanders, granted the dems no longer want to hear or say what the working class want to hear.
        Kamala doesn’t even pretend to say what the general public is interested in hearing.

  6. Reply

    Nature imitates art, AI edition.
    Altman’s disgruntled contractor with some bag stuffing is very similar to the Succession show episode where Logan Roy has different stuff in his chimney. Smoky, smelly Roy, of course, shorted the contractor and told him to sue. What a guy. Sensing a pattern.

  7. ambrit

    “Would anyone like to make book on Kamala giving Lina Khan a bear hug?”
    In true Neo-liberal style, I can see Kamala ‘outsourcing’ said bearhug to Zelensky. Then the, “What to do with Lena?” question will soon sort itself out.

    2. Michael McK

      I fear we would be better off attempting to convince trump to keep her to prove his support for us plebs.

  8. Wukchumni

    Apparently Kamala has set up a GoFunMe page, seeking party favors, in particular the whistles that blow out what looks to be a long tongue, any kind of noisemakers and/or clown shoes with exaggerated features, chattering teeth, and kazoos.

    1. Stephen V

      Wait Wuk:
      You had a ringside seat to the Kam & Willie show. Was she just in the right place at the right time or was it friends with benefits?

      1. Wukchumni

        Generally speaking, nobody outside of SF is aware of what can Brown do for you…

        If forced @ punpoint, I couldn’t really tell you anything about Newsom or any other proteges of Willie.

        1. ambrit

          Uh. Wait a minute there Wuk! Is that question loaded? Could you point it somewhere else?

          1. JBird4049

            I do not follow Willie Brown anymore, but think of him as California’s Obama, only much, much better. I believe that he was born dirt poor in Texas and started his career in California when racism was much worse.

  9. hamstak

    “the Democrat PMC base hates the working class”

    I don’t think hate is the precise sentiment. They feel contempt towards their inferiors, the contempt that an aristocrat holds for the the servant, or the grifter for the mark.

      1. Jason Boxman

        I hate them right back. So it’s mutual. The lack of self reflection alone is breathtaking.

        1. ambrit

          Don’t forget that the lack of “reflection” is a characteristic of vampyres too! Do those Venn Diagrams overlap?

    2. Ranger Rick

      Hate is too mild a word, if anything. English doesn’t have a term for this level of antipathy. As Lambert likes to point out, stochastic eugenics is a feature of the COVID-19 response, not a bug. The same could be said of the rapidly declining birth rate and the ongoing, persistent failure to regulate the housing and healthcare industries. They don’t just hate the working class, the PMC wishes the working class (oh, but the “essential workers” are the good ones!) was dead.

      1. Lee

        Speaking of birth rate: for those who so fervently support a woman’s right to choose, I wonder if they wonder, or perhaps it is known, how many who wish to have children don’t do so because of their economic precarity.

      2. Revenant

        Despise? That feels closest to what you are describing. But depending on far along the axes of untermensch, revulsion and animosity you move, I could offer you:
        Detest (superiority)
        Abominate (revulsion)
        Loathe (animus)

        Hmm, maybe revile is worth a spin too.

        1. Mo's Bike Shop

          Ressentiment I would think as well. Democrats have to pretend to care. Republicans can just blow off the proles, that’s their idiom.

          1. Procopius

            Mo, it’s changing. Some Republicans say they have to start championing labor, because the Democrats have abandoned them. Bill Clinton started the abandonment in 1993. I don’t know how long it’s going to take the Republicans to become the Labor Party, but that’s the trend.

    1. Lee

      Just checked out the official video for her hit single Von Dutch. The gal sure can shake that thang but I can neither understand a word of it nor abide the electronification of her voice. I will save others from the unpleasant experience by not providing a link.

  12. NotTimothyGeithner

    During the 2020 campaign, Biden aides recall watching Harris interrogate her then-chief of staff Karine Jean-Pierre to the point that it made others uncomfortable. After the election, Jean-Pierre moved to the White House’s press team

    We’ve heard stories about Biden being a yeller, but um…Jean-Pierre seems like an incompetent. Perhaps the story of Harris’ staffing problems is she brought in Team Clinton and is just seeing them in action?

    1. albrt

      Yeah, Harris probably didn’t have a lot of her own personal loyalists to choose from at the start. This time I bet she will keep a lot of the Biden domestic policy team, at least for a while, but I sure hope she cleans house with Blinken, Sullivan, and that crowd. Nobody she could choose on her own could be worse.

      1. John k

        Imo the donors prefer wars and she will therefore probably retain the lot. There’s always the risk a new face might want to change policy, can’t have that. What part about ‘no fundamental change’ don’t you understand?/s

    2. Mo's Bike Shop

      I see videos of Jean-Pierre and she’s usually insouciantly leaning on her lectern, often not looking at the camera. Is there a constituency that finds that attractive? Shouldn’t a White House press secretary display some gravitas? She presents herself as an intern who is annoyed at anyone who won’t follow the script.

  13. Matthew G. Saroff

    “Would anyone like to make book on Kamala giving Lina Khan a bear hug?”

    I’d offer 10:1 against. I would expect Gensler and Khan to be gone by February 1, 2025.

    1. John k

      Yes, regardless of who wins.
      She was the crack in Biden’s no fundamental change, I’ve assumed that was the sop to sanders for his support.

  14. Dr. John Carpenter

    Also, can someone tell me if Kamala is the candidate? Does anyone even know? I understand “unprecedented times” and all that jazz. But it’s not like they woke up Sunday morning and thought “let’s kick Biden out.” I joked that the quick Biden endorsement of Kamala was the old man flipping the bird on the way out the door, but I’m really starting to feel that it was. I don’t feel like that’s what the Obama/Pelosi side wanted, but I’m not seeing how they aren’t stuck with her at this point. Will be entertaining to watch, at least.

    1. Useless Eater

      Depends on how well she performs/polls in the next 3 weeks. This is a trial run, today’s media gush notwithstanding. If past is any guide, even a relentlessly pro Kamala media won’t be enough to save her.

      1. Martin Oline

        I just read on RT that she is the most sympathetic person at the White House about the plight of the Palestinians. NuttyYahoo is coming to town and she has other things to do besides hearing his speech. If the Media starts to criticize her after his visit we will know where they got their orders.

    2. Jeff W

      “Also, can someone tell me if Kamala is the candidate? Does anyone even know?”

      Well, maybe she’s “the presumed nominee” per the WSJ and not quite “the presumptive nominee” (as President Biden was before he “stood down”) per ABC News because she hasn’t “won the support of the majority of delegates through primary elections” [emphasis from ABC News] —although the Associated Press is not calling her that “because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August” or at a virtual roll call vote before that.

      Assuming she gets at least 1,976 delegates one way or the other—an unofficial AP survey showed she had the support of 3107 delegates as of Monday night—she’ll then be the party’s official nominee.

      So, technically, Kamala Harris is a “candidate”—right now, the sole one—for the nomination, and, once she is the official nominee of the Democratic Party, she becomes the Democratic candidate in the general election.

  15. Tom Stone

    Having followed Ms Harris’ career since she took up with Willie Brown I can state with confidence that she is Unburdened by Morals, Ethics or Scruples.
    If she does end up as President she will be as qualified as Barry or Henry the K were for the Nobel Peace Prize and I’d be very surprised if she were not awarded it quickly.

  16. Wukchumni

    Searching for the break of day
    Searching for something to say
    Dancing lights against the sky
    Giving up, I close my eyes
    Sitting cross-legged on the floor
    25th amendment come to the fore

    Staring blindly into space
    Getting up to quit the race
    Wanting just to stay awake
    Wondering how much I can take
    Should have tried to do some more
    25th amendment comes to the fore

    Feeling like Joe’s gone asleep
    Spinning room is sinking deep
    Searching for something to say
    Waiting for the break of day
    25th amendment comes to the fore
    25th amendment goes to the floor

    25 or 6 to 4, by Chicago

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUAYeN3Rp2E

  17. hunkerdown

    >Google to kill off URL shortener once and for all… Let that be a warning to you all!

    See? archive.today might not be your friend tomorrow…

    1. Mark Gisleson

      City pages, my platform, was a Village Voice Media property at the height of alt-weekly popularity. VVM shut down our local blogging efforts (in retrospect I believe they did so because I was writing about Israeli Apartheid which was frowned on in 2003.)

      VVM sold City Pages to the Star Tribune which was then owned by or about to be owned by a local billionaire. The Star Tribune first shut down City Pages (as competition to the Strib’s arts and culture coverage aka selling ads to restaurants and theaters), then a few years later they erased the URL and the archives disappeared (some still in the Wayback Machine).

      Writing on the internet is more permanent than creating a sand mandala, but not by much. It takes fire to destroy a book but a passing magnet can erase an entire library.

      I love our hosts and expect them to out live me but I do wonder if there will be a Naked Capitalism online after Yves and Lambert have passed on. The internet is not the Library of Alexandria; it’s more like all the wastebaskets in the world. All the information you could ever want but sooner or later each wastebasket gets emptied.

    1. Samuel Conner

      AM’s suggestions toward the end are reasonable but I think politically unlikely. The core thing, he thinks, is to induce JRB to resign office soon. I don’t think that is conceivable, for the reason that JRB was arguably in, or heading into, 25A territory already during the 2020 primary. The political damage to the D Party of the perception that it knew this and went with him anyway would be very high. I suspect that this is a high obstacle to admission that he is incapacitated now. They’ll have to protect him until January 2025 for the sake of protecting the Party.

      1. Rory

        If 25A proceedings were started against President Biden and he were to pardon Hunter and others while the proceedings were pending but before it was determined that he was incompetent to conduct the affairs of his office, could the pardons be disregarded as acts of someone incompetent to perform them?

        1. John

          The pardon would stand. He has full presidential powers until the vote in Congress pushed him aside and makes Harris the Acting-President. As I understand it, Presidential pardons are absolute.

  20. hk

    I can see Vance giving Lina Khan a bear hug, but not Kamala Harris. What a strange upside down world we wound up in!

      1. Rolf

        I am confused over the basic timeline, and I just can’t get this right in my head (see 5 below). As Taibbi and others her at NC have pointed out, the Wizards behind the curtain running this show must have had a long term plan. But from my politically naive and poorly informed position I can’t figure out what it is:

        1. Biden had degenerated significantly even before taking office. This was clear from the get-go, starting with his declaration of candidacy in 2019; when asked about his platform, he deferred, mumbling only that he opposed Trump. I remember thinking, “That’s it?”. And of course, NC commentary has linked articles describing his decline prior to taking office. So I’m assuming that the DNC must also have been acutely aware of these problems, which clearly would only worsen with age, perhaps rapidly.

        2. Once in office, Biden was quick to dismiss promises. “America is back! I won, COVID’s over! And Trump’s gone, that’s really the only think that matters now. Let’s go to war and cash in (but forget about that $600)!“. But these plans progressively fizzle, the GOP retakes control of the House, checking the Democrats’ Congressional power. Ukraine is a disaster regardless of how many blue and yellow flags people plant in their yards. COVID doesn’t just go away (Gee, how’d that happen?). Then Palestine (the one in Ohio), inflation, supply chain FUBARs, bank crashes. Then Gaza. And for all Biden’s ballyhooed FP expertise, I’m having a 1980s deja vu, wondering when WW III will start. In the meantime, China just smiles.

        3. in response to the above, many begin to wonder if Biden is even worse than Trump (at least with Trump, we had a daily briefing, which gave stand up comedians employment). But the DNC is adamant: no interlopers, no primary. “We go with Joe. Here, we’ll show you. We’ll set up an early debate, and he’ll smoke Trump!” Except he doesn’t. Big surprise.

        4. So. The Inner Party knew the debate would be a fiasco, and this was their trap, because Biden, ornery curmudgeon that he is, refused to step aside: “Only I can beat The Orange Menace!”.

        5. But then … I lose the thread. The Inner Party must have known this would happen, no? They knew Biden would be a disaster (The Wizard told them), but I can’t figure out what the long term plan is (or was). Kamala? Obviously not. So, who? What? When? And why?

        1. Tom Doak

          It makes way more sense if you think they’ve given up on 2024, and are starting to wrestle for control in 2028. If you’re doing that, you’ve gotta get Kamala out of the way, so hand her the bag now and let her lose. Pelosi will be gone by ‘28, and hopefully Schumer, too. It’s the great D reset.

        2. Samuel Conner

          I’m not confident that the Inner Party has a long-term plan, any more than the At-large Party does. It may simply be dealing with each crisis as it arises. Sanders was the crisis in 2020 (as well as in 2016); JRB was the least bad option for getting past that problem. In 2024, JRB is the current problem, and KH may be the least bad option for getting past the new problem.

          Perhaps DJT/JDV (assuming they are elected) will actually govern in a way that serves the interests of a majority of the population (yeah, I know; what am I smoking and did I bring enough to share?).

          That would be a real problem for the D Party, I have no idea what they would do.

        3. Acacia

          W.r.t. #5, I take it the main thing is not “who”, but that the Inner Party gets to decide who. The precondition to the actual choice is having the power to make the choice, and they needed to fiddle with primary dates, etc., to ensure that.

          So we now have a situation in which the “presumptive nominee” was already squarely rejected by voters back in 2020. She has been “rolled out” as Lambert put it, but at the end of the day, the Inner Party will get their pick and all of this is basically just a show.

          Prior to that, your narrative makes sense, and I’m gonna go with bait and switch.

          1. Rolf

            Acacia, Sam, and Tom, thanks for all your replies above.

            @Tom: I understand your point, but wonder if the Inner Party’s real problem is that the incipient (or ongoing) collapse of the system that is their source of power, was not something they had anticipated (hence their ready abandonment of any pretense of democratic function). If so, this implies they’re actually Not Very Bright, and not playing chess, but just some stochastic FPS game: no strategy, just reflex. And what if someone disconnects their Big Blue Reset Button? BSOD?

            @Sam and @Acacia: Agree, and I’m starting to coalesce around with these viewpoints: with these people, there is no real long term plan beyond ensuring that they alone make decisions or deals that allow them retain power (and of course, wealth). Beyond that, their view of the 90% (or 99%, depending) is simply: F— em!

            This entire political system of the US needs renewal by fire. Unless it simply collapses under its own weight, or these people simply destroy each other.

        4. DanB

          I entertain the notion that the Dem insiders thought they could fool the people one more time, thereby saving themselves the time needed to strategize and take action. Who cares that Joe’s unfit as long as they can sustain the perception that he’s the best President since FDR? The media complied in this ghoulish theatre.

    2. OregonSkeptic

      Yes – her Big Tech connections make me very skeptical she will allow Khan to continue on. Maybe that was a contributing force behind the pressure campaign on Biden…

  21. Lee

    Our Democracy Plutocracy

    Has the book Wolves of K Street been discussed here. If so, I’m unaware and learned of it rather surprisingly from an interview with one of the authors on Amanpour & Company (17:32 minute video).

    Book info at Simon and Schuster.

  23. scott s.

    “The Elegance of the ASCII Table”

    OK, I get at the time ASCII encoding made some sense, but compare to EBCDIC and it is very similar. But the supposed advantage for collation only really works for native English users. Once you get to internationalization it kind of falls apart.

    1. GramSci

      UTF-8 was an amazing rescue of the Tower of Babel. ASCII appeared somewhere back in the Dark Ages, but UTF-8 didn’t really arrive until 2008. Things like robust machine translation, however imperfect, were never really possible at all until UTF-8. For me, UTF-8 was the crowning achievement of Ken Thompson’s career.

    1. Late Introvert

      Like how tough she was on Steven Mnuchin you mean?

      Did I read correctly that she took a leave of absence from her prosecutor tasks to sit on the insurance board? LOL

    2. lambert strether

      > tough prosecutor

      That is the current line, yes. Thank you for retailing it here.

  26. Wukchumni

    National Park Recommends Wrapping Your Car In Tarps When In “Marmot Country”

    Sequoia & Kings National Park should be on everyone’s list for travel destinations to explore it’s picturesque mountains, rugged foothills, deep and canyons and of course the ancient giant sequoias (the world’s largest trees) but there’s something you should be aware of before leaving your car and setting off at the trail head.

    Sequoia & Kings National Park is home to a population of mischievous marmots that are notorious for damaging vehicles. The marmots are attracted by the smell of engine components and fluids and marmots regularly crawl into undercarriages for exploratory nibbles and that causes damage to radiator hoses and car wiring. The have even been known to stowaway in cars and ended up hundreds of miles away from home.

    You Are Entering Marmot Country.

    From spring through mid-summer, the marmots of Mineral King have been known to dine on radiator hoses and car wiring. They can disable a vehicle. On several occasions, marmots have not escaped the engine compartment quickly enough and unsuspecting drivers have given them rides to other parts of the parks; several have ridden as far as southern California!

    https://unofficialnetworks.com/2024/07/19/national-park-marmot-tarp-wrap-protocol/
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Spied the Marmot Cộng (National Radiator Hose Liberation Front of Southern Sequoia) on maneuvers the other day…

    An unsuspecting underside of a Subaru-naked to the world as far as they were concerned was too tempting of a target on the Ho Chi Minheral King Trailhead parking lot.

    Victor Charlie relied heavily upon tunneling under boulders and hit & waddle runs~

    1. Carolinian

      They had this problem in Germany–badly enough to make the news.

      And a friend told me his boss once came into the office shaking and holding her cat. After her dozen mile commute she heard it meowing in the engine compartment. I only get squirrels which are presumably smart enough to flee upon ignition, leaving a few acorns.

      1. Ben Panga

        When I lived in SW Germany it was polecats not marmots that mess with cars. They get inside the bonnet (hood!) and eat rubber bits I believe.

        They look super cute but people there hate them

    1. Martin Oline

      I didn’t notice the shooter’s feet when I posted this so sorry if I shocked anyone. What struck me at the time and I have confirmed this morning is there was a two story building next or very close to this roof that had a sniper team in it. The window looked out over this roof. The conversation in this video says when they saw Crooks outside (on the ground?) they ALL went out to look for him, leaving the rooftop unsecured for the hooter to use. Unfortunately, I am reminded of an old black and white Keystone Cops segment. They did find him on the roof but backed away when confronted. This whole thing feels very strange.

Comments are closed.