By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Northern Mockingbird, 138 Captains Dr, West Babylon, Suffolk, New York, United States. “Singing from a rooftop. Mimicry includes Black-capped Chickadee, Killdeer, Carolina Wren, Northern Flicker, American Robin (call), Blue Jay, and possibly a few others of lesser fidelity.”
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Impeachment articles against Harris (frivolous).
(2) How Harris grabbed Biden’s war chest.
(3) Only Google can search Reddit.
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 (Immunity)
“What’s Going On in Footnote 3?” [Lawfare]. “In practical terms, the matter is important because it might—and we must stress might—open up a loophole in the Court’s opinion that Special Counsel Jack Smith could exploit on remand to one degree or another.” • I’ve gotta admit, my eyes glazed over on this one. However, if Lawfare is signaling Smith, we can expect the issue to come up. For now, just remember the words “Footnote 3.”
The Constitutional Order (Twenty-Fifth Amendment)
“Tennessee Republican files articles of impeachment against Harris” [The Hill]. “Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) filed articles of impeachment against Vice President Harris on Tuesday, as Republicans ramp up attacks while she launches a presidential campaign…. The filing expands on previously introduced articles that target Harris’s record on immigration… He added a second article in the new filing, which claims Harris covered up President Biden’s mental well-being, constituting a ‘breach of public trust.'” • I don’t the immigration stuff is impeachable, so I’ll skip that part. But here are Ogle’ articles of impeachment, and here is the Twenty-Fifth Amendment section, which I have helpfully annotated:
[1] I don’t think failing to act upon a putative “moral obligation” is an impeachable offense “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”).Here once again is the relevant part of the Twenty Fifth Amendment:
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.
The Twenty Fifth Amendment gives the Vice President (Kamala) the power to “declare” “that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” but it imposes no duty to do so. “Moral obligation” or no, there’s no Constitutional obligation.
[2] So what?
[3] “Breaches of public trust”, “failing basic expectations,” and “lack of integrity” are not high crimes and misdeameanors either. Nor are they rare in Our Nation’s Capital. “Use every man after his desert, and who shall ‘scape whipping?” –William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
This is frivolous, and it’s no wonder the leadership doesn’t support it.
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
BidenHarris, but Virginia? Yikes!* * * “Biden was deathly pale… Air Force One was flying so fast I felt sick: Daily Mail’s reporter on board reveals the incredible inside story of the mad rush to get Joe to Covid isolation – and why she feared for him” [Daily Mail]. “When [Biden] finally stepped through the door, his appearance was shocking. He looked pale, weak, exhausted and shuffled slowly across the room. ‘He looks bad,’ one reporter muttered. We all agreed. [Unmasked,] Biden greeted [and potentially infected] the patrons, shaking hands with families at three different tables and posing for selfies. Finally, a colleague got wind of a tip. The president’s next scheduled event at UnidosUS had been canceled. ‘Biden has COVID,’ my colleague shouted. Moments later, we could see Karine Jean-Pierre and other senior Biden staff piling into their vans. Once he was on board, we reporters rushed to find our seats in the back of the plane. And nearly from the moment we lifted off the runway, the fuselage began to shake. It’s not entirely uncommon for Air Force One pilots to drop the hammer. President Trump routinely asked his crew to cut down flight times by going faster. But this break-neck speed was unusual for President Biden…. The normal flight time from Vegas to Delaware is around four and a half hours. We made the trip in three hours and 48 minutes.” • Hmm. Makes you wonder if there were any sequelae from his previous two infections (that we know of).
“Joe Biden’s COVID Hubris is the Nail in His Re-Elect Coffin” [Julia Doubleday, The Gauntlet (PI)]. “The truth is that to the DC machine, Joe was, just like the rest of us, ultimately disposable. He served his purpose by serving capital; his maskless face as an elderly man in public was the ultimate propaganda for the disappearance of the virus that ended his career as surely as he claimed to have ended it. He gave his career, his body and his mind to advance the interests of the ruling class, to the detriment of us all. They say life’s a beach, Joe. I guess it is for you, now.” • He claimed to have ended Covid. Then Covid ended him.
Trump (R): “Biden dropped his reelection plans. What happens to his campaign war chest?” (interview) [Sean Cooksey, NPR]. Cooksey is the Republican Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). “Well, I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer. I mean, we take a step back to consider the situation – this is really unprecedented in terms of modern political history, and certainly in terms of campaign finance law. We have a presidential nominee or a presumptive nominee dropping out just weeks before his party convention. And he’s – what he’s attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets…. [o]ver to another person.” Q: We get that. So can she use that money? Well, again, I think it’s going to have to go through a process through the FEC. I think I expect there’s going to be probably challenges to that at the agency and probably in the courts, as well… Yeah. I think there’s a number of different avenues that I could expect different parties to challenge this attempted transfer, this attempted change to the presidential committees. There’s a process in which private parties can file complaints with the Federal Election Commission. There’s also a process in which they prospectively ask for advisory opinions. One of the problems with those processes is they can take a lot of time, and we don’t have a lot of time until the election, I think we’re at 106 days out. And so I think there’s going to be a lot of challenges in the courts as well.” • Whether or not there are grounds for injunction, I don’t know. (Though now I wonder if redirecting Biden’s site to ActBlue immediately upon his defenestration is one of the moving parts here.) Cooksey tweeted the relevant campaign finance law:
11 C.F.R. § 110.1(b)(3):
"If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated …, or reattributed …, as appropriate."
— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 21, 2024
And got a nastygram in return:
House Democrats are now trying to silence me as @FEC Chairman for raising questions about President Biden giving VP Harris all of his campaign cash. All I did was quote federal regulations.
Why are Democrats afraid of the law? pic.twitter.com/pYPJOSkPbh
— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) July 23, 2024
We don’t actually have even the sketchiest sort of evidence of Biden “giving” Harris “all his campaign cash.” Would a digitally signed Tweet be sufficient? Surely not. It seems that Harris just took it; the process did seem a bit brusque. I think the matter turns on the two words “redesignated” or “reattributed” in 11 C.F.R. § 110.1. I am not a campaign finance law maven, but if either implies a process at the FEC, potential litigants might have a point (based on strict textual reading):
The Biden-Harris campaigns could have asked for an expedited legal advisory opinion from the FEC before acting. Given the unprecedented nature of the situation, that would have been the ethical thing to do. Instead, they took advantage of the slow timeline to resolve complaints…
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) July 24, 2024
And now–
Trump (R): “Trump campaign files complaint with FEC seeking to keep Biden from transferring campaign funds to Harris” [CBS]. “The Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, accuses them of “filing fraudulent forms with the Commission purporting to repurpose one candidate’s principal campaign committee for the use of another candidate,” claiming that Harris simply replaced Biden’s name with her own rather than filing her own Statement of Candidacy. ‘There is no provision in federal campaign finance law for Kamala Harris to take over Joe Biden’s candidacy now by quite literally attempting to become him via an amendment of his Form 2, assuming control of his campaign by amending Form 1, and making off with all of his cash,’ wrote Warrington.” Scratch out “cat” and write in “dog.” More: “Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, said in a Fox News op-ed published Sunday that if Harris becomes the presidential nominee, she would get access to the campaign cash. ‘When the Biden for President Committee filed its registration statement with the FEC, it registered itself as the ‘principal campaign committee’ for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,’ he wrote.” • But surely that’s stupid? Biden and Harris were running for diffferent offices!
Trump (R): “Secret Service urging Trump campaign to stop holding outdoor rallies: Report” [Anadolu Agency]. “… or we can do it the hard way”?
* * * Lambert here: I remember all those kids in 2008, “fired up and ready to go,” scripts memorized, knocking on doors. Sixteen years later, those kids are drowning in college debt, can’t buy their starter home, and are seeing their paychecks shrink, mostly because the object of their adoration put the banksters back in charge after the Great Financial Crash. Here we go again, except some of those listed below should know better:
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (1):
Switching to Kamala has, for some reason, allowed every Democrat to just focus solely on the fact that they fucking hate Donald Trump, intraparty differences don’t matter, he must lose again no matter what, and its unleashed an energy I’ve just never seen in politics.
— Conor Rogers (@conorjrogers) July 23, 2024
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (2):
I’m ugly crying. I love her so much. #Harris2024
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 23, 2024
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (3):
Watching Kamala speak just now with my young daughter gave me goosebumps and made me tear up. I can't think of a more perfect human being who would be more perfect for POTUS at this exact time. I'm so fuckin proud. I am so excited for my baby to have this role model. 😊
— Kimmy 📚📓💙🗳️🌊🟦 (@KimKimmmmay) July 22, 2024
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (4), “Things that did not happen”:
— Daniel (@growing_daniel) July 24, 2024
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (5):
I remember hearing some white corporate lady on Clubhouse back in the day, just in absolute ecstasy cheering on some black lady letting off steam about the Current Thing — "you tell it, sister!" "I'm here for it!" and realized this phenomenon is totally real.
It was one of the… https://t.co/mTNgY367qS
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) July 24, 2024
Harris (D) Liberalgasm (6):
Holy cow. Completely packed stadium for VP Kamala Harris on her first campaign stop as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in Wisconsin right now. People are so fired up, energized, and ready to support Kamala Harris.
— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) July 23, 2024
This is not a “stadium.” It’s an auditorium. And “always hire a hall that’s too small” (meaning Kamala has a good advance team (as long as she can keep them)).
* * * And then there’s TikTok:
This has a million likes on TikTok pic.twitter.com/1OmAWVge1w
— umichvoter 🏳️🌈🥥🌴 (@umichvoter) July 23, 2024
But remember TikTok is absolutely not organic:
Very interesting that TikTok is aggressively laundering and rehabilitating Kamala Harris’s image.
Remember that anything that trends on that platform is essentially “allowed” to trend. Nothing really is organic.
If TikTok can transform Kamala’s image from cringe to cool in 24… pic.twitter.com/bcoNorRsrD
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) July 23, 2024
* * * “Surprise Lilies” [Sarah Kendzior’s Newsletter]. I don’t think much of Kendzior, for reasons the rest of the article would show, but this rings true: “Many Americans have spent the past eight years joining political cults: a common phenomenon in flawed democracies turning into autocracies. Americans must reject cult logic if we want our nation to survive. This includes not building a political cult around Kamala Harris. A campaign is different than a cult. It is one thing to back a candidate and cheer them on. It is another to submit to a mindset of fear, deference, and servitude; to browbeat fellow voters offering constructive criticism; and to proclaim a politician’s every puzzling move either an Act of God or evidence of a Secret Noble Plan. Americans created cults around Trump, Mueller, Garland, Pelosi, Garland, Fauci, “Q”, and Biden, among others, to the detriment of our nation’s health and to the benefit of grifters’ wallets.” • Remember when liberal Democrats were naming their dogs after Mueller? The Fauci votive candles?
Non-cult member (1):
Beyoncé went from having black panther dancers at the superbowl to licensing her music to a cop. https://t.co/Wa6aeIeJNv
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) July 24, 2024
Non-cult member (2):
OH WELL
— Joseph N. DiStefano (@PhillyJoeD) July 23, 2024
NOTE: Exclusive: Former attorney general Holder to vet Harris’ potential running mates Reuters.
* * * MI: Well, so much for Muslim vote:
Tonight on the @MichiganDems presidential endorsement call, I was speaking up for the 101k Michigan Uncommitted voters who want our Party to adopt a more humane Gaza policy when a fellow DNC delegate unmuted to say "shut up, asshole."
— Abbas Alawieh (@AZAlawieh) July 24, 2024
The Michigan Uncommitted voters are now demanding a meeting with Harris.
Our Famously Free Press
That was then, this is now:
2021: Media reports on Biden asking Kamala to be border czar
2024: Media says Biden never asked Kamala to be border czar pic.twitter.com/jdlAQSB8vz
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) July 24, 2024
Pack journalism:
Remarkable.
Two different AP News streams, both on the same day, with radically different results.
After Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Robert F. Kennedy immediately scheduled a press conference to reassure the American people.
Joe Biden did not.
However, AP News DID… pic.twitter.com/NTn27YAWRT
— Lauren Lee (@sheislaurenlee) July 23, 2024
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!
Transmission: Covid
“Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva, stool, and urine samples of COVID-19 patients in Bihar, India Open Access” [Microbiology Research]. From the Abstract: “Besides inhalation as a route for transmission, feco-oral has also been proposed. Its transmission to sewage systems is a growing public health issue…. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted from January 2021 to March 2022 on human non-respiratory samples. A total of 345samples including saliva (116), stool (97), and urine (132) were collected from 143 COVID-19 cases. Samples were analysed for SARS-CoV-2 by multiplex RT-PCR targeted against E, ORF 1ab, and RdRp genes. In this study, out of 143cases, a total of 107 (74.8%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in at least one of the nonrespiratory samples. There is a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in non-respiratory samples.” And: “The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the faeces of COVID-19 patients indicates potential feco-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In addition to this, the excretion of SARS-CoV-2 in human stool and saliva is a concern of public health importance, especially in developing countries like India where open defecation and spitting in public is a rampant practice. Also, stray animals may get infected and might serve as a source of infection for humans. The sewage system might also be a potential source of viral outbreaks, community spread, and a future surveillance strategy. However, these potential routes of transmission need further investigation.”
Maskstravaganza
Masks while swimming (!), a thread:
It’s pool and beach season! Will a respirator work for swimming and water parks (or shower sans hair washing)?
Using my PortaCount 8020A, I tested the most accessible & affordable water-resistant respirator, 3M Aura 1870+, after 6 and 8 hours of wear at the pool (1.5hrs total of… pic.twitter.com/xwx00hGI8V
— Stealthy Jess 🇨🇦 💜 (@AdvancedTweaker) July 24, 2024
Celebrity Watch
Winning gold in the FAFO Olympics:
Yesterday: Australia's Olympic team chief said one water polo player had covid but they were 'treating covid no differently to other bugs….this isn't Tokyo."
Today: pic.twitter.com/4uHwfWHG34
— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) July 24, 2024
Elite Maleficence
Another sure-to-be maskless conference, coming up:
Please tell me the pandemic preparation community has learnt something from the disastrous WHO AIRBORNE disinformation response to SARS-CoV-2??
Is the focus still just on vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, and surveillance?
Is no one discussing the lesson about the vital… https://t.co/jnjR8KgarD pic.twitter.com/AgkRAAPJgw
— John Johnston (@JOHNJOHNSTONED) July 24, 2024
“Is no one discussing the lesson about the vital role of transmission mitigation strategies and the fundamental importance of getting the mode of transmission right?” Until the powers-that-be can figure out how to charge rent for the air, the “mode of transmission” will not be of “fundamental importance,” no.
* * * Where do pediatricians get this?
And when I follow up and ask if their pediatrician informed them about covid safety precautions, all of them said they got no advice, no information.
— The Babel Fish (@TheBabelFish1) July 23, 2024
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 23: | 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
There are no statistics of interest today.
Tech: “CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage” [TechCrunch]. “CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one…. ‘To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!'”
Tech: “Google Is the Only Search Engine That Works on Reddit Now Thanks to AI Deal” [404 Media]. “Google is now the only search engine that can surface results from Reddit, making one of the web’s most valuable repositories of user generated content exclusive to the internet’s already dominant search engine. If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where the links go or why, instead only saying that ‘We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.’ Older results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer able to crawl’ Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward. Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid search engine that buys part of its search index from Google. The news shows how Google’s near monopoly on search is now actively hindering other companies’ ability to compete at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism over the quality of its search results. And while neither Reddit or Google responded to a request for comment, it appears that the exclusion of other search engines is the result of a multi-million dollar deal that gives Google the right to scrape Reddit for data to train its AI products. They’re [Reddit] killing everything for search but Google,’ Colin Hayhurst, CEO of the search engine Mojeek told me on a call.” • And of course, as usual, Google “scraping” Reddit means stealing the labor of hundreds of thousands of users. “Original accumulation,” as the Bearded One calls it. All for a power-hungry bullshit generator nobody ever asked for, but the Bros thought would be a great idea!
Tech: Hat tip, Silicon Valley:
CVS is going to stop all phone customer service. Not just that, but calls from patients will now be transcribed via generative AI and routed to pharmacists. Hope there are no errors here's your medicine!
Efficiency! pic.twitter.com/UhuJQktgst
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 24, 2024
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 43 Fear (previous close: 55 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 58 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 24 at 12:37:17 PM ET.
Zeitgeist Watch
Geoffrey Roberts's emotional word wheel helps describe emotions. pic.twitter.com/2m5Lx9R3km
— Prof Lennart Nacke, PhD (@acagamic) July 23, 2024
Interesting idea but I’m not sure I accept the categories or the method (Spinoza distinguishes between emotions and feelings, though without the text to hand I can’t say why. But I’m not sure this wheel does). Meanwhile, a fraction within the Democrat Party is clearly feeling strong emotions, collectively, after Kamala’s annunciation. I don’t know where to place them on this wheel (nor do I understand them in the first place).
Class Warfare
“Extreme wealth has a deadening effect on the super-rich – and that threatens us all” [George Monbiot, Guardian]. “Extreme wealth can severely hamper enjoyment. As Michael Mechanic documents in his book, Jackpot, there are two groups of people who have to think about money all the time: the very poor and the very rich. Immense wealth possesses you just as much as you possess it: managing it becomes a full-time job. You don’t know whom to trust; you can start to imagine your friends aren’t friends at all; it can dominate and poison your family relationships. It can hollow you out, socially, intellectually and morally. But I think there might be a further corroding aspect of wealth that hasn’t been widely discussed. Great wealth flattens the world. If you can go anywhere and do anything, everything is over the horizon. You speed past the local and the particular, towards an endlessly escalating ideal of luxury: the better marina, the bigger yacht, the private jet, the super-home. The satisfaction horizon can retreat before you. Place has no meaning, other than as a setting that might impress the friends you no longer trust. But anyone who is impressed by money is not worth impressing.”
News of the Wired
“Relationships are coevolutionary loops” [Escaping Flatland]. “This is what I infer when I see someone who is comfortable in their unique strangeness, too. There probably exists someone who enabled that evolution of personality. A parent, a friend group, a spouse. It is rare for people to come into themselves if no one is excited and curious about their core, their potential. We need someone who gives us space to unfold…. For me, this is Johanna. We first met when she was 21 and I was 22 and later became a couple. What is me in me has unfolded primarily in her company. This has been a mutual unfolding; we spoke each other into being. This essay is about how we made our first home together. By home I don’t mean just the physical structure, but the emotional space in which the coevolutionary loop plays out.” • Hmm.
Nevertheless, progress still does occur:
A comparison of Wisconsin's occupied bald eagle nests in 1974 and 2019. The increase is attributed to the Clean Water Act pic.twitter.com/S0IS3UDghT
— Amazing Maps (@amazingmap) July 23, 2024
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Taibbi’s latest, paywalled, the short public excerpt makes the point.
In Final Kick in the Pants, Departing Biden Denounced as Another Trump
When Joe Biden failed to immediately assume the position when party bigwigs called for his head, Beltway insiders lumped him in with the Orange One
https://www.racket.news/p/in-final-kick-in-the-pants-departing
People have been asking who is really running the country.
I don’t know. Meyer Lansky? / joke ;)
Well, not Edith Wilson, at least.
/ heh. Is Dr. Jill still going to lead the US delegation to the Paris Olympics and host a fund raiser?
Roy Cohn? (He and Epstein are probably sharing a pit of despair in the Inferno.)
Yes! I would prefer someone like Lansky, Luciano, Castellano… the old-school Cosa Nostra to run things, at least it would be more honest and transparent.
• He claimed to have ended Covid. Then Covid ended him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your country doesn’t need you anymore
Lame Duck days before they end
Throw caution to the wind
The Presidency won’t be near you any more
Maskless moments when you fly
Despite hundreds daily that seem to die
Covid doesn’t want you anymore
It’s over
Long Covid breaks your heart in two, to know what you used to be able to do
But oh what will you do? When its through with you
There’s always someone new
We’re through
We’re through
It’s over
It’s over
It’s over
All the grieved of those who died
Start to weep, then say goodbye
Loved ones won’t be seeing rainbows any more
Setting suns before they fall, a dirt nap-not amore
But you’ll wont see them after all
It’s over
It’s over
It’s over
It’s over
It’s Over, by Roy Orbison
I get the GOP trying to contest Harris getting the money. It’s part of the game. But reality is the guy is wrong and probably knows it. All money given for the primary which is most of it right now does not have to be offered for return. Biden hadn’t set up a general election fund yet although some might have contributed with that stipulation. Harris by virtue of her name being on the donations is entitled to it. Regardless, they money could just be moved around as well. Biden sends it to the DNC. The DNC has limitations on its use but can just rearrange its books and send money back from its general account. It’s a nonissue ultimately.
Can we call it:
‘Demgeld’
So, is the District of Colombia now the “Demlaw?”
Er, something rotten in the state of Dem mark to model there, are we talking in regards to Cali or the Columbian Cartels in DC?
Hmmm…. I’m leaning towards thinking that the appearance of Bankers Ghost in the ‘moveable feast’ is a portent of toil and trouble to follow. Will Dr. Jill be able to wash away the stain? Will Hillary summon her sister witches to ensorcell the Super Delegates? Does “Creepy” Joe end up in the wilderness attended to by his Foole?
As the Bard put it: “All the World’s a casino….”
Oh, and I almost forgot to add. Please forefend from obloquy, for I still suffer from a lingering case of Dem-mentia.
To paraphrase: “…if once you have paid him the Dem-geld, you never get rid of the Dem”.
After that time that Hillary literally bought the Democratic party and left the states with pennies, I am surprised that this is even an issue. The DNC told a judge that they can do anything they want behind closed doors, apportioning money is one of those things that corporations do, ergo moving money around is legal per some judge in South Florida who was never challenged on his judgment.
If anyone, including those people at the FEC, thought that they were getting “democracy” for their donations they were sorely mistaken. Corporations are now people, and actual people should not be surprised when they are outvoted by them.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/all-animals-are-equal–but-some-animals-are-more-equal-than-others
Why is he wrong?
If your point is she would get the money anyway, I agree.
But that is not the issue at hand. Or should laws only be followed when convenient? And considering how the democrats have gone after Trump, this type of behavior is very hypocritical.
Hypocrisy is a valuable skill set for a politico to possess.
Care to cite the section of the law that makes it a “nonissue”? And those fundraisers like the one attended by Clooney were for the general election since the primaries, such as they were, are long past.
The Washington Post just did an article on this and the decision on legality will indeed be made by the FEC and the courts if there’s a challenge by the opposition and the GOP just challenged.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/21/biden-harris-campaign-dollars-legal-challenge/
And on principle those contributors who gave money to a Biden for president campaign are perfectly right to object if it’s now instead a person named by Biden campaign. Biden is not a king who gets to choose his successor even if he did get to choose his understudy for the past four years (and even that had to be validated by the previous Democratic convention)..
Of course the FEC (evenly split Dem and Repub) may disagree with this but it is up to them, not you.
<"Harris by virtue of her name being on the donations is entitled to it."
Sure about that? My understanding is that donations are given (in this case) to a candidate committee (unless it is instead a PAC , non-candidate committee, or something, but that's not the impression I get). The committee treasurer is responsible for the FEC reports on donations and expenditures. Seems to me to depend on how the committee was registered with the FEC.
I think about anyone can file a complaint with the FEC. No idea what it takes to get it into district court.
> Harris by virtue of her name being on the donations is entitled to it
That just seems really, really weird.
Sam and Dave run for President and Vice President respectively. Then Dave decides to be VP, and Sam takes over as President.
If the money is given to the ticket, it’s not the same ticket.
If the money is given to Sam + the office he’s running for, and Dave + the office he’s running for, then those aren’t the same either.
If the money is given to “The Committee to Elect Sam and Dave,” regardless of how the ticket is structured, are we really arguing that candidates are fungible? Electors for example (Article II) vote for “persons,” which suggests that candidates are not fungible.
One thing we’ve learned from how the Democrat Party handled the issue of Biden’s diminished cognitive capacity is that treating all public-facing Democrats as liars until proven otherwise is the best heuristic.
So I don’t care what the Democrat lawyers say; and that’s why an advisory opinion would have been the best route, assuming the FEC could have acted with dispatch.
not fungible,lol…maybe more of a ship of theseus thing…
and expanding…since biden is now known to not be the same guy as when these finacial(*) vehicles were created…
(* spellcheck wants this to be rendered as “farcical”—-which leads me to Uncle Ernest…”the world’s a fine place, and worth fighting for.”)
RE: Crowdstrike.They’ve already pulled the offer. People trying to actually use the $10 getting a “this deal is expired” message. So they can’t even do this right.
https://www.engadget.com/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-uber-eats-card-to-say-sorry-before-pulling-the-offer-172605510.html?src=rss
When you can’t figure out how to do a $10 gift card, it doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about their core business.
Unless their core business is fraud.
Pizza. Come on people, every American loves a good pizza.
I hope their general counsel has recently, since this horrid debacle of “customer support” updated any trips overseas or vacation plans. “so sorry babe we gotta cancel that two week safari”
Campaign finance? Unlimited political bribery is now legal.
Compared to the corrupt freak show we have now, I still think it would be much more efficient, transparent and honest, if we just had a live-streamed and televised auction of political seats to the highest bidder. This would also provide some emotionally-charged entertainment for the Plebs.
It wouldn’t be so-called democracy, but it would be far better than the sham we have now.
Candidates could sell space on their persons, like race cars.
I have to wonder how secure Miriam Adelson’s hundred million dollar investment in buying the West Bank is going to fare now that the ICJ has explicitly declared that Trump’s recognition of Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem is illegal under international law. How badly does he want to buck the UN and world opinion? He can read the room, and I wonder how much political capital he is willing to invest in that particular failing enterprise.
The Kushners can still build condos on Gaza beaches whether it is a Zionist state or a Palestinian one. This is going to test a lot of idealogues with transnational interests, and he may provide the first inkling of where they will fall.
Maybe for her presidential campaign, Harris could tap into the money seized from Russia?
RE: frivolous Harris impeachment
Frivolous to be sure, but I would argue that so was the first impeachment of Trump for making a telephone call to a clown. What’s good for the gander is surely good for the cackling goose.
Personally I’d rather Congress waste its time on frivolities than passing legislation that inevitably makes life worse for those not part of the donor class. Impeach them all I say, and pass the dolmades! (don’t like popcorn and not sure I could stomach that Italian dish DLG favors)
Renaming post offices and Federal buildings are about the only bipartisan laws that get enacted these days, you see-Congress really does have a purpose.
> I would argue that so was the first impeachment of Trump for making a telephone call to a clown.
Absolutely; I’ve never said otherwise. Third world stuff, all of it.
Oh yes, I know you personally didn’t take the earlier one seriously either. Just bringing it up because I am a fan of Congressional gridlock too.
> Extreme wealth has a deadening effect on the super-rich
I live on quiet lane in a verdant, tranquil rural area where the vineyards and apple orchards meet the redwoods. Most of our neighborhood are retired middle class boomers and a smattering of newer, younger PMC families (us included). During covid the super rich swooped into our area.
Our new neighbors in particular are the type of super rich where no one has had to work in generations. Grandpa controlled SF politics for decades and made a killing in Bay Area real estate (interested if anyone can swing a guess as to his identity…). His bozo son, a trust fund boomer who has never had reason to work, bought the property next door to our house, along with his two sons who are in my millennia aged cohort. Since owning the property they’ve had non stop construction on their property, including the installation of a golf course that came at the expense of many very old trees. They rarely ever visit their country property, and when they do they are playing golf and driving around on their atv. You never see them gardening, or tending their property. This is a resort for them, that they have clearly grown bored of.
I have nothing but contempt for them, and we haven’t been shy about it. It’s been so interesting to see that the super wealthy are dopamine slaves like the rest of us, but sadly for them they have no limits. I thank god every day for the boundaries that help me stay happy.
The bald eagle nest graphic was a needed positive in this strife-torn era.
re Google search engine:
I actually fine tuned the settings to keep Quora and Reddit off the first page of results. Have zero interest in those as some sort of “authority”.
There are several different Emotions Wheels out there, with different lists and categorizations. The wikipedia article has a number of variants and does a good job covering the topic from what I can tell. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_classification)
If you’re trying to understand and work with your emotions, it’s helpful to have a name even if it isn’t perfect, it gives a handle you can start pulling on. So charts like this can be a useful starting point for people who may have difficulty identifying them otherwise; and can lead to more personalized lists as they get comfortable.