By Lambert Strether of Corrente
Bird Song of the Day
Blue Mockingbird, Yecora, Km 261, Sonora, Mexico. I thought I would try another species of mockingbird.
In Case You Might Miss…
(1) Kamala’s VP search (Walz; Raimondo a dark horse).
(2) Kamala on crypto.
(3) Trump on crypto .
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
2024
Less than four months to go!
Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:
First poll with Harris at the top of the Democrat ticket; Trump’s position deteriorates (and any advantage he gained from the assassination attempt has been wiped away. Nevertheless, he still leads, albeit within the margin of error. NOTE RCP used to have two pages of swing states; I always used the first one. Now there is only one, which I take as an indicator that Harris v. Trump polling is not all that widespread.
Vibe shift:
Unbelievable vibe shift in the US with Kamala Harris https://t.co/LAZoglUMHW pic.twitter.com/rrMisGHLbu
— Albert Pinto (@70sBachchan) July 26, 2024
* * * * * * Kamala (D): “Could Josh Shapiro win Kamala Harris the Electoral College?” (Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin). About his model: “(W)e’ve found out three things, all of which cut against the hypothesis that a veep choice makes all that much difference: Home-state effects are only about one-quarter as large for the VP pick than for the presidential nominee. Home-state effects are roughly inversely proportional to the number of electoral votes in a state. In other words, a VP choice can make a small difference in a large state or a relatively large difference in a small state (say, Sarah Palin in Alaska or Biden in Delaware). I think this makes sense intuitively; in a smaller state, a politician is more likely to feel as though he’s from your proverbial backyard. And home-state effects have probably diminished over time as partisanship dominates all other considerations.” • So, probably not.
Kamala (D): “Why Kamala Harris should pick Tim Walz as her running mate” (Guardian). “I’ll be honest: last month, I would have struggled to pick Walz out of a lineup. This month? I’m Walz-pilled. I have watched dozens of his interviews and clips. And I’m far from alone. He has an army of new fans across the liberal-left: from former Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign co-chair Nina Turner, to one-time Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke, to gun-control activist David Hogg. ‘In less than 6 days, I went from not knowing who Tim Walz is,’ joked writer Travis Helwig on X, ‘to deep down believing that if he doesn’t get the VP nod I will storm the capitol.’ According to Bloomberg, the Harris campaign has narrowed down its “top tier” of potential running mates to three “white guy” candidates: Walz (hurrah!), plus the Arizona senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. Both Kelly and Shapiro have their strengths – and both represent must-win states for the Dems. Allow me, however, to make the clear case for Walz.” • Or just watch this video:
My daughter, Hope, tricked me into doing the most extreme ride at the Minnesota State Fair. pic.twitter.com/YeMEocwJRv
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) September 4, 2023
Report from the field:
Dads at my parents’ (affluent) suburban VA swimming pool overheard discussing Tim Walz: “i’d never heard of him either, but man, he’s a straight shooter & could destroy JD Vance!” “Yeah even though the VP is not supposed to matter I hope they pick him.”
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) July 27, 2024
The coveted Derek Guy endorsment:
pretty good casual outfit on walz. the coat is an LL Bean barn coat, which you can find on eBay for about $50. good with jeans, sneakers, and work boots. some bipartisanship since a similar, but not exact, coat was once seen on romney (who also looks pretty good here) https://t.co/XAKGUcQjZi pic.twitter.com/JEJvjlsj0V
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) July 28, 2024
Minnesota readers will of course clarify his track record and correct any sunny optimism:
Tim Walz is – by far – the most based Democrat governor in the country. With a 1 seat majority in Minnesota he did:
– universal free school meals
– legal weed
– carbon free electricity by 2040
– tax rebates for the working class up to $1,300 (making under $150k per year)
– 12… https://t.co/r6CCVGVwkd— Secular Talk🎙 (@KyleKulinski) July 23, 2024
Why the heck isn’t this guy at the topic of the ticket? One reason the Democrats never held anything resembling an open primary, I suppose….
Then again, there’s two-and-twenty Gina:
Harris is vetting Gina Raimondo for VP. She’s the dark horse. Total disaster if she’s the pick.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 29, 2024
Still, the liberalgasm if there were two women on the ticket would be a sight to behold…
* * * Kamala (D): “Kamala Harris campaign seeks ‘reset’ with crypto companies” (Financial Times). “Kamala Harris’s advisers have approached top crypto companies to “reset” relations between her Democratic party and a sector that has come out as an important backer of Donald Trump, her rival for the US presidency.” And: “People advising the Harris campaign on business matters said the decision to reconnect with the crypto industry had little to do with attracting new electoral contributions. They said the objective was instead to build a constructive relationship that would ultimately set a smart regulatory framework that would help the growth of the entire asset class.” BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Totes, a party needs to retain its self-respect. More: “One person said her campaign was using the change of leadership on the Democratic ticket as an opportunity to reset relations with the tech industry, which had felt targeted by the Biden administration, particularly on antitrust matters.” So, measuring Lina Khan for the drop? More: “The underlying message Harris wants to strike is that the Democrats are ‘pro-business, responsible business’, said one person close to her campaign. Harris is aiming to win back those in the tech community, many of them in her home state of California, who have turned away from the party in protest at the threat of new taxes or regulation of their industry.” • So backing crypto billionaires is the way to signal “responsible business.” If Kamala does pick Raimondo, that will be wonderfully clarifying.
Kamala (D): “Harris scrambles Trump’s crypto play” (Politico). “Ron Conway, a venture capitalist and top Democratic donor whose firm has invested in crypto companies, posted on X this week that he has ‘known Kamala for decades, and she’s been a fighter, a leader, and an advocate for the tech ecosystem since the day we met.’ Harris is broadly expected to run on the Biden administration’s record, and speculation about her position on crypto could be a projection. But before Biden dropped out of the race, his camp appeared to be taking a more open-minded approach to crypto concerns, with senior adviser Anita Dunn meeting with industry leaders in Washington.” • “Broadly” is doing a lot of work,there.
* * * Trump (R): “Trump proposes strategic national crypto stockpile: ‘Never sell your bitcoin’” (CNBC). “Donald Trump headlined the biggest bitcoin conference of the year in Nashville on Saturday afternoon. It’s quite the 180-turn after he very publicly dismissed bitcoin when he was in the White House. The Republican presidential nominee also held an accompanying fundraiser in Nashville, with tickets topping out at $844,600. Bitcoin 2024 conference organizers say they were briefly in talks to have Vice President Kamala Harris appear at the conference, though she ultimately declined.” • No.
Trump (R): “Trump Became Crypto Believer After Falling in Love With NFTs of Himself” (Bloomberg). “”I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris’s anti-crypto crusade, it will end,” Trump told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Saturday, comparing crypto to the steel industry a century ago. “If Bitcoin is going to the moon,” he added, ‘I want America to be the nation that leads the way.’…. Conventional wisdom has it that this gambit is simply a classic Trumpian transactional relationship. He needs votes and money in a presidential horse race that now looks like it’ll be a photo finish, and he’s exploiting an opening created when President Joe Biden’s administration alienated the crypto crowd by pursuing a crackdown on the industry. If so, it’s working. Crypto is an ecosystem whose public face is dominated by online warriors with a lot of money to throw around, fertile ground for Trump to reap tens of millions of dollars in campaign funds — and a burgeoning army of vocal fans. His newfound role as cheerleader for the industry helped land him support from the likes of Dogecoin aficionado Elon Musk and billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss as well as venture-capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz…. Yet despite all the newfound support he is enjoying, there is something else that played an important role in Trump’s conversion to crypto believer: flattering images of himself. Simply put, he fell in love with Trump-themed nonfungible-tokens — and the supporters who bought them — and that passion has turned into a broader appreciation for the industry, according to insiders who have watched Trump’s crypto evolution. Trump’s lingering questions about valuations of digital assets haven’t slowed his NFT sales pitch, which was clear in May as he riffed off-script to a Mar-a-Lago gathering of supporters who had purchased at least 47 of the digital trading cards — pop-art renderings of the former president, including images of him dressed up like a cowboy, a superhero and other figures of fantasy. ” • Whatever crypto is, it’s not like the steel industry. I see a lot of Carnegie libraries. I don’t see any Winkelvoss libraries.
Trump (R): “The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” (Eschatonblog). “There is something almost too perfect about the demand from The Bitcoin Community for the federal government to buy up hundreds of billions of their libertarian fake money. every time.” • “Gimmetarianism” is an excellent example of snark. I bow before the master.
* * * “Report shows 73% of crypto owners’ vote for US president to be affected by candidate’s stance” (Anadolu Agency). “Almost three in four cryptocurrency owners say their vote for US president in November will be affected by a candidate’s crypto stance, according to a report that was released Friday. ‘For the first time in United States history, crypto has become a significant campaign issue in a presidential election,’ US-based crypto exchange and custodian bank firm Gemini said in its 2024 State of Crypto survey. It showed that more than one in five Americans, or 21%, currently own cryptocurrency, and among those who own, the vast majority, or 73%, plan to consider a candidate’s stance on cryptocurrencies when they vote for the next president. More than one-third, or 37%, said a candidate’s position on cryptocurrencies would have ‘a significant impact’ on their vote for president.” • Unless Gemini is talking its book, of course.
Fraud all the way down:
it doesn’t even rank in the top 15 issues https://t.co/psxYw0OFup https://t.co/l2wbbO9JT4 pic.twitter.com/WIGRGZiFcW
— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) July 28, 2024
Democrats en Déshabillé
Centrist freaks:
Well we know who the pro-money laundering and corruption faction is. https://t.co/MBayHS7fZQ
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 28, 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!
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts
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) Leveling off. Doesn’t need to be a permanent thing, of course. (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) Slowing
(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 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index” (Trading Economics). “The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas fell to -17.5 in July of 2024 from -15.1 in the previous month. It extended the negative momentum in Southern manufacturing with over two consecutive years of contractionary monthly readings.”
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 47 Neutral (previous close: 45 Fear) (CNN). One week ago: 56 (Greed). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 29 at 1:45:57 PM ET.
Rapture Index: Closes down one on Earthquakes. “The lack of activity has downgraded this category” (Rapture Ready). Record High, October 10, 2016: 189. Current: 183. (Remember that bringing on the Rapture is good.) • Hard to believe the Rapture Index is going down. Where are there people getting their news?!
The Gallery
Fashion week?
=”en” dir=”ltr”>Ready-to-Wear https://t.co/QGdLfq9cg2
— Stuart Davis (@StuartDavisArt) July 16, 2024
Zeitgeist Watch
“Beyond authenticity” (Aeon). The deck: “In her final unfinished work, Hannah Arendt mounted an incisive critique of the idea that we are in search of our true selves.” “If the inauthentic self is the everyday self, the one among the many, the authentic self is the self that has broken away from the herd; it is the self that exists for the self alone. To step out of the flow of everyday life is an exceptional occurrence. Common wisdom stipulates that ‘We are what we do’ or ‘We are the sum total of our actions.’ Each choice shapes the future path we find ourselves on, and occasionally we step back and can see the whole picture of ourselves, how we got to where we are. But for (Nazi philosopher Martin) Heidegger we are most fully ourselves only in those moments of exception, in that clearing of Being when we’ve left the well-worn path carved out by everyday routine altogether. The German word he uses for authenticity is Eigentlichkeit, which is defined as ‘really’ or ‘truly’. Eigen means ‘peculiar’, and ‘own’ or ‘of one’s own’. Literally, it might be translated as possessing the quality of being truly for oneself. … By arguing that thinking was a function of Being, Heidegger had tried to divorce thinking from the will in order to argue that it was one’s true inner Being that determined ultimately who they became in the world. But for Arendt, this was an abdication of personal responsibility and choice. It was a way of handing over one’s decision-making power… (F)or Arendt, the will was the means to our freedom, it was the promise that we can always be other than we are, and so to the world. The will is a space of tension inside the self where one actively feels the difference between where they are and where they would like to be. The will is the only intervention we have against the conditioning of worldly existence. Willing is the mental activity that goes on between thinking and judgment. It has the power to shape us by drawing us into conflict with ourselves. Without inner conflict, there is no forward movement. These are the basic principles of willing.” • Hmm. Not sure I excerpted this properly at all.
“Staying human” (When we are Real). “(W)hat started as an adult male sexual fetish morphed into the construction of synthetic sex identities from manipulated body parts, and is leading to a transhumanist dystopia where reproduction is artificial, life is extended, and humans become melded with machines. This, (Bilek) shows, is not an organic development, but the deliberate outcome of an industry that requires acceptance of dissociation from our bodies as normal. ”
News of the Wired
On “intelligent design”:
We have a “shove food down this” tube dangerously close to our “food must never block this airway” tube and they are behind identical unmarked doors in our throat https://t.co/mdXtSVl26Z
— Jennifer Lee Rossman #SaveLowerDecks (@JenLRossman) July 26, 2024
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