By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n
Patient readers, there is a lot of political material to process today, some of which* I still need to sit and think about, so please check back. \u2013lambert NOTE Roughly, how organic was Kamala\u2019s fundraising from small donors; is it fair to characterize recent events, if we may call them that, as a \u201ccoup\u201d; Kamala\u2019s 100 days; and less thought-provoking topics, like the VP search and the youth vote. To come!!<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Northern Mockingbird, Santa Fe Dam Rec. Area, Los Angeles, California, United States. Only forty seconds but there\u2019s a lot going on!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
(1) Biden\u2019s post-defenestration speech.<\/p>\n
(2) Litmus tests for Kamala (Palestine, anti-trust).<\/p>\n
(3) Trad wives.<\/p>\n
(4) Employee ownership.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Politics<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are in fact a rational management of symbolic capital.\u201d \u2013Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles<\/p>\n
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2024<\/p>\n
Less than four months to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/rcp_2024-07-19.png\")
<\/p>\n
Virginia and North Carolina added to the list. NC was never going for Biden Harris, but Virginia? Yikes! <\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Biden Defenestration:<\/p>\n
\u201cTranscript: Biden\u2019s speech explaining why he withdrew from the 2024 presidential race\u201d [Associated Press]. Biden: \u201cYou know, in recent weeks it\u2019s become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America\u2019s future all merited a second term, but nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy, and that includes personal ambition. So I\u2019ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That\u2019s the best way to unite our nation. I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life, but there\u2019s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices, and that time and place is now.\u201d \u2022 So this is all the explanation we\u2019re going to get. \u201cRecent weeks\u201d contradicts the narrative that Biden\u2019s decision was made quickly over the weekend when aides Ricchetti and Donilon showed him polling data. Given that Biden\u2019s defenestration was carried out by Tweet without informing staff, I\u2019m not buying \u201cin recent weeks.\u201d I think Biden\u2019s decision was made quickly under pressure. Oh, and Kamala is younger only notionally; she doesn\u2019t code as 59, surely. And she\u2019s neither a new nor fresh voice. Assuming one leaves the sound up.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuly 24, 2024\u201d [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]. I\u2019ve never been able to bring myself to read Richardson, and now I see why. Endless exposition of Biden\u2019s words without value add, but concluding piously but \u201cwithout evidence,\u201d as we say: \u201cLike [Washington and Adams], Biden gave up the pursuit of power for himself in order to demonstrate the importance of democracy.\u201d And a teensy bit if reporting, albeit unsourced: \u201cAfter the speech, the White House served ice cream to the Bidens and hundreds of White House staffers in the Rose Garden.\u201d \u2022 I wonder if the ice cream came from Pelosi\u2019s fridge.<\/p>\n
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The Campaign Trail:<\/p>\n
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Harris (D), litmus test: Palestine:<\/p>\n
Read my full statement on the protests in Washington, D.C. yesterday. pic.twitter.com\/zJpZvdQDt9<\/p>\n
\u2014 Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 25, 2024<\/p>\n
Harris (D), litmus test: Anti-trust:<\/p>\n
Donor or owner? LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman thinks he owns Kamala Harris. Imagine giving $7 million and then publicly demanding a total reversal of tough on corporate crime policies. Harris took the money, she needs to repudiate this. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 25, 2024<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t say Harris can\u2019t be bought, but I don\u2019t think Hoffman quite understands where the decimal point would need to be.<\/p>\n
More:<\/p>\n
One hopes, anyhow!<\/p>\n
\u2014 Basel Musharbash (@musharbash_b) July 25, 2024<\/p>\n
Indeed one does.<\/p>\n
Democrats en D\u00e9shabill\u00e9<\/p>\n
\u201cNewsom To Order Dismantling Of CA Homeless Encampments\u201d [Banning-Beaumont Patch]. \u201cGov. Gavin Newsom will order state officials on Thursday to dismantle homeless encampments with a sweeping executive order, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, the New York Times reported. The order comes in response to the June Supreme Court ruling allowing cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public spaces\u2026. According to the Times, the executive order represents the nation\u2019s most sweeping response to the ruling. Roughly 180,000 people are unhoused in California\u2026. LA County is the nation\u2019s most populous, with about 10 million people. More than 1 in 5 of all homeless people in the U.S. live in the county, according to The Associated Press.\u201d \u2022 You can bet Newsom checked with Kamala first, too. Cleaning up California\u2019s image, and all.<\/p>\n
Syndemics<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in earnest \u2014 I will not equivocate \u2014 I will not excuse \u2014 I will not retreat a single inch \u2014 AND I WILL BE HEARD.\u201d \u2013William Lloyd Garrison<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Covid Resources, United States (National): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; includes many counties; Wastewater Scan, includes drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); \u201cIowa COVID-19 Tracker\u201d (in IA, but national data). \u201cInfection Control, Emergency Management, Safety, and General Thoughts\u201d (especially on hospitalization by city).<\/p>\n
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 \u201cCOVID\u201d in the subject line. Thank you!<\/p>\n
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\u2019Alene; 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).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (National): Wastewater (Government of Canada).<\/p>\n
Resources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux us\u00e9es); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).<\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
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Celebrity Watch<\/p>\n
Tedros sends Olympians to illness and death:<\/p>\n
No, @DrTedros, these @WHO recommendations will NOT \u201cmake sure these Games are healthy and safe for everyone involved\u201d.<\/p>\n
They will not prevent superspreading events, as measures against airborne transmission (ventilation, respirators) are only recommended for people with symptoms. pic.twitter.com\/eMyCeHHdjs<\/p>\n
\u2014 Maarten De Cock (@mdc_martinus) July 25, 2024<\/p>\n
Masking and ventilation recommended only after symptoms appear. But handwashing is always appropriate!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Lambert here: Looks like the holiday travel dumped accelerant on the pre-existing surge; see especially the growth in wastewater \u201chot spots.\u201d Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
LEGEND<\/p>\n
1) \u2605 for charts new today; all others are not updated.<\/p>\n
2) For a full-size\/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and \u201copen image in new tab.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTES<\/p>\n
[1] (CDC) This week\u2019s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.<\/p>\n
[2] (CDC) Last week\u2019s wastewater map.<\/p>\n
[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular.<\/p>\n
[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.<\/p>\n
[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Could by leveling off. (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.)<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) An optimist would see a peak.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Still going up!<\/p>\n
[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn\u2019t even run back to 1\/21\/23, as it used to, but now starts 1\/1\/24. There\u2019s also no way to adjust the time rasnge. CDC really doesn\u2019t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that\u2019s why the shape of the curve has changed.<\/p>\n
[10] (Travelers: Variants) Same deal. Those sh*theads. <\/p>\n
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.<\/p>\n
[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
Employment Situation: \u201cUnited States Initial Jobless Claims\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US fell by 10,000 to 235,000 on the period ending July 20th, below market expectations of 238,000. Despite this decline, the claim count remained significantly above this year\u2019s average, indicating that although the US labor market is still historically tight, it has softened since its post-pandemic [sic] peak.\u201d<\/p>\n
GDP: \u201cUnited States GDP Growth Rate\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cThe US economy expanded an annualized 2.8% in Q2, up from 1.4% in Q1, and above forecasts of 2%, the advance estimate showed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cUnited States Durable Goods Orders\u201d [Trading Economics]. \u201cNew orders for manufactured durable goods in the US slumped 6.6% month-over-month in June 2024, after four consecutive monthly increases and missing market expectations of a 0.3% increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Tech: \u201cAlexa Is in Millions of Households\u2014and Amazon Is Losing Billions\u201d [Wall Street Journal]. \u201cAmazon.com\u2019s Echo speakers are the type of business success companies don\u2019t want: a widely purchased product that is also a giant money loser. Chief Executive Andy Jassy is trying to plug that hole\u2014and move away from the Amazon accounting tactic that helped create it. When Amazon launched the Echo smart home devices with its Alexa voice assistant in 2014, it pulled a page from shaving giant Gillette\u2019s classic playbook: sell the razors for a pittance in the hope of making heaps of money on purchases of the refill blades. A decade later, the payoff for Echo hasn\u2019t arrived. While hundreds of millions of customers have Alexa-enabled devices, the idea that people would spend meaningful amounts of money to buy goods on Amazon by talking to the iconic voice assistant on the underpriced speakers didn\u2019t take off. Customers actually used Echo mostly for free apps such as setting alarms and checking the weather. \u2018We worried we\u2019ve hired 10,000 people and we\u2019ve built a smart timer,\u2019 said a former senior employee. As a result, Amazon has lost tens of billions of dollars on its devices business, which includes Echos and other products such as Kindles, Fire TV Sticks and video doorbells, according to internal documents and people familiar with the business. Between 2017 and 2021, Amazon had more than $25 billion in losses from its devices business, according to the documents. The losses for the years before and after that period couldn\u2019t be determined.\u201d \u2022 That\u2019s a damn shame.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 45 Neutral (previous close: 41 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 53 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jul 24 at 12:37:17 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n
\u201cMeet the queen of the \u2018trad wives\u2019 (and her eight children)\u201d [The Times]. \u201cTrad wives are an internet phenomenon; women who have rejected modern gender roles for the more traditional existence of wife, mother and homemaker \u2014 and who then promote that life online, some to millions of followers. Their lifestyle is often, though not always, bound to Christianity. They film themselves cooking mad things from scratch (chewing gum from corn syrup, waffles from a sourdough starter), their faces glowing in beams of sunlight, their voices soft and breathy, their children free range.\u201d \u2022 Worth reading in full.<\/p>\n
\u201cFossil Hints That Jurassic Mammals Lived Slow and Died Old\u201d [New York Times]. \u201cThe extended time frame for tooth replacement, along with the older Krusatodon\u2019s age, led the team to conclude that these ancient mammals enjoyed surprisingly long life spans. This most likely extended their growth period. Most modern mammals experience rapid growth early in life before plateauing as they approach adult size. Krusatodon and other early Mesozoic mammals may have slowly grown throughout their long lives\u2026. Determining when the mammalian growth process sped up is difficult. Dr. Panciroli thinks development was most likely turbocharged as mammals\u2019 metabolism increased, and as they became warm-blooded. These traits would emerge later in the Mesozoic Era and help early mammals adopt more energetically demanding lifestyles that included swimming and gliding.\u201d \u2022 Sounds like I\u2019d prefer to be a Jurassic Mammal; I don\u2019t glide, and the closest I\u2019ve gotten to swimming is buying a bathing suit (and maybe I should reconsider).<\/p>\n
Class Warfare<\/p>\n
The Elysian]. \u201cThere are 47 millionaires working for Central States Manufacturing, and they\u2019re not all in the C-Suite. Many of them are drivers or machinists\u2014blue-collar workers for the company. How? The company is owned by its employees. Every worker gets a salary but also a percentage of their salary in stock ownership. When the company does well, so do the employees\u2014all of them, not just the ones at the top. And the company is doing well. \u2018When we sat down eight years ago, we said we want to be a billion-dollar company and have 1,500 people, we are on track to be both of those this year,\u2019 Tim Ruger, president of Central States, tells me. That\u2019s right, this manufacturing company will become a unicorn this year\u2014one of only 6,000 companies in the world earning more than $1 billion in revenue. But unlike Walmart, Amazon, and Apple, it\u2019s not just the executives getting paid out. \u2018It\u2019s not like 80 percent of the company is owned by management and the rest is owned by employees, it\u2019s really well spread across all functions,\u2019 Ruger tells me. \u2018We\u2019ve got a number of people that have been here 15, 20 years and they have $1 million plus balances, which is really cool for a person that came out of high school and runs our rollformer. You can\u2019t do that everywhere.’\u201d \u2022 Do we have any readers who are familiar with Central States Manufacturing? The name sounds so generic, like \u201cThe Great Lakes Paperclip Company\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft\u2019s \u2018World of Warcraft\u2019 Gaming Staff Votes to Unionize\u201d [Bloomberg]. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt turns out a lot of return-to-office mandates were meant to make workers quit\u201d [Quartz]. \u201cA quarter of bosses admitted that they hoped return-to-office (RTO) mandates would lead to employees quitting, according to a new survey\u2026. That expectation isn\u2019t totally unfounded. Twenty-eight percent of remote employees said they\u2019d consider quitting their jobs if RTO policies occurred at their companies. But it appears fewer quit than the bosses wanted. Some executives even blamed layoffs on employees who didn\u2019t quit after RTO policies were put in place, Bamboo said. Almost two in five (37%) of managers, directors, and executives said their companies had layoffs in the last 12 months because they anticipated that more employees would quit after enacting RTO policies.\u201d <\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
\u201cScientists Recreate Neanderthal Cooking Methods and the Results Are Eye-Opening\u201d [ZME Science]. \u201cTo learn more about how our extinct relatives prepared bird-based meals, researchers in Spain tried cooking like Neanderthals using only tools and methods that would have been available in prehistoric times\u2026. \u2018Using a flint flake for butchering required significant precision and effort, which we had not fully valued before this experiment,\u2019 said Mariana Nabais of the Institut Catal\u00e0 de Paleoecologia Humana i Evoluci\u00f3 Social in Spain, lead author of the new study. \u2018The flakes were sharper than we initially thought, requiring careful handling to make precise cuts without injuring our own fingers. These hands-on experiments emphasized the practical challenges involved in Neanderthal food processing and cooking, providing a tangible connection to their daily life and survival strategies.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Yum:<\/p>\n
Chicago sushi pic.twitter.com\/GOmMU5CWBh<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ms. Dive Diva \ud83d\udda4 (@chicagodivediva) June 23, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/cactus_2.jpg\")
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Desert Dog writes: \u201cAlways wonderful to come across these hiding out on the range and welcoming spring weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn\u2019t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I\u2019m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for three or four days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:<\/p>\n
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