By Lambert Strether of Corrente<\/p>\n
Bird Song of the Day<\/p>\n
Thrashers 4EVA!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
California Thrasher, Placerita Canyon Nature Center, Los Angeles, California, United States. Additional species: Spotted Towhee, Pipilo maculatus, Bewick\u2019s Wren.<\/p>\n
The flight of the honey buzzard:<\/p>\n
A European Honey Buzzard Bird was fitted with a satellite tracking system. She started her flight in Reitz, Free State, South Africa on 20th April 2020 to reach Finland on the 2nd of June. <\/p>\n
Here is an image showing the data
tracker which plots out the route that she took to\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Sq5eUzJALA<\/p>\n
\u2014 James Melville \ud83d\ude9c (@JamesMelville) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In Case You Might Miss\u2026 <\/p>\n
Democrat National Convention vignettes.
\nHighest Covid wave in two years.
\nStupid money and blood money.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Look for the Helpers<\/p>\n
Citizen science:<\/p>\n
Oklahoma farmer named Carl Barnes. Barnes, now in his 80s, is half-Cherokee, half Scotch-Irish descent. He began growing older corn varieties in his adult years as a way to reconnect with his heritage.<\/p>\n
In growing these older corn varieties, Barnes was able to isolate ancestral\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/MF6ht4StfB<\/p>\n
\u2014 Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
A thread of people chiming in about how this corn is fun to grow. The seeds can be purchased at Alliance of Native Seed Keepers.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
My email address is down by the plant; please send examples of there (\u201cHelpers\u201d in the subject line). In our increasingly desperate and fragile neoliberal society, everyday normal incidents and stories of \u201cthe communism of everyday life\u201d are what I am looking for (and not, say, the Red Cross in Hawaii, or even the UNWRA in Gaza). \u2013><\/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
* * *<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
Less than one hundred days to go!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s RCP Poll Averages:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/rcp_2024-08-16.png\")
<\/p>\n
There is no good news here for Trump. The deterioration in both Pennsylvania and Georgia is especially marked. Remember, however, that all the fluctuations \u2014 in fact, all the leads \u2014 are within the margin of error. So the \u201cjoy\u201d is based on, well, vibes.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Democrat National Convention Vignettes:<\/p>\n
Warnock also owes me six hundred bucks:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic taught us how. A contagious airborne disease means that I have a personal stake in the health of my neighbor. If she\u2019s sick, I may get sick also. Her healthcare is good for my health.\u201d@ReverendWarnock at the DNC convention#DNCConvention2024 pic.twitter.com\/dGLoV015X5<\/p>\n
\u2014 Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
Joy through Strength:<\/p>\n
it\u2019s a campaign about joy hAhAhA pic.twitter.com\/DtNnT5Hfh2<\/p>\n
\u2014 Gio DeBatta \ud83c\udf78 (@GDebatta) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
On the bright side, it\u2019s good to see Democrat commitment to defending their own borders from incursions.<\/p>\n
Ironclad commitement (1):<\/p>\n
The Democratic Party should be investigating which delegate just hit a veiled Muslim woman over the head with a pole. FFS. How is this okay??<\/p>\n
The normalization of liberal Islamophobia: <\/p>\n
\u2014 Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
Ironclad commitment (2):<\/p>\n
Audience members at the DNC in Chicago unfurl banner that says \u201cStop arming Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
After audience sees the banner, they begin chanting \u201cWe love Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Man tries to rip banner away.<\/p>\n
Stadium lights over this spot then dimmed and banner was ripped away. pic.twitter.com\/3RfK1aUSV4<\/p>\n
\u2014 Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
The voice of a new generation (1):<\/p>\n
NEWS <\/p>\n
Stephanie Grisham, who served as Trump\u2019s White House Press Secretary, Communications Director, and Chief of Staff to then First Lady Melania Trump, is set to speak at the Democratic National Convention this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be speaking at a Democratic\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/LKkOfw0eGT<\/p>\n
\u2014 Yashar Ali \ud83d\udc18 (@yashar) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
The voice of a new generation (2):<\/p>\n
Keep the momentum going\u2014join DSA:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Tyler \ud83c\udf49\ud83e\udd65\ud83c\udf34 (@JusticeDoer) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll start getting excited about Shawn Fain if a 2028 General Strike actually comes to fruition and wins workers some actual power, and isn\u2019t used as a [family blogging] bargaining chip at the start of Kamala\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
And speaking of fascism:<\/p>\n
American left-liberals call everyone they disagree with a Nazi and fascist.<\/p>\n
The one time they ever encountered real Nazis and fascists \u2014 those who form the battalions who dominate much of Ukraine \u2014 they demanded they be drowned in sophisticated arms and billions of dollars. <\/p>\n
\u2014 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
Surgical removal of the sense of shame:<\/p>\n
“Bill decided he could get us in if we offered to pick up the litter that had accumulated in the courtyard” \u2026during a maintenance worker strike
2 literal scabs are speaking at the DNC this week pic.twitter.com\/TJCYJWYKKD<\/p>\n
\u2014 moe tkacik (@moetkacik) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
More Democrat National Convention:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Now We Know We\u2019re Going to Win\u2019: Democratic Delegates Breathe With Relief\u201d [Politico]. \u201cMichelle McFall stood from her seat when Joe Biden took the stage. Down on the floor to the left of the lectern and a mere five rows from the front, as the president basked in the cheers on Monday on the first of the four nights of the Democratic National Convention, the Pennsylvania delegate had tears well in her eyes\u2026. Beyond being a delegate, McFall, 55, from Murrysville, the political director for Malcolm Kenyatta\u2019s campaign for auditor general and the chair of the Democratic Committee of Westmoreland County \u2014 a rural county in the western part of the state in which less than 40 percent of the registered voters are Democrats. \u2018I wake up every day where it\u2019s difficult to be a Democrat.\u201d Good. It ought to be difficult being a Democrat, given the way they\u2019ve stacked the bodies up. More: \u201c\u2018We had one of my committee members in 2021 attacked by a Trump supporter,\u2019 she said. But now? In the last few weeks? \u2018It\u2019s everything. It\u2019s the way Joe Biden handed the torch,; she said. \u2018We see it in counties like mine \u2014 where so many Democratic voters had sort of disengaged for a number of reasons. They\u2019re not disengaged anymore.’\u201d \u2022 Biden didn\u2019t \u201cpass the torch.\u201d He was forced out by an Inner Party cabal (although, I suppose, institutionally it could be a good thing that the Democrats are as ruthless as the Tories). What I can\u2019t figure out is if partisans like McFall are lying when they say these things, or whether they genuinely believe them. I\u2019m inclining to the latter view, which is pretty frightening.<\/p>\n
\u201c4 Things Kamala Harris Needs to Pull Off at the DNC\u201d [Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine]. \u201cIt is difficult to overestimate the momentum change in Democratic prospects for 2024 that has accompanied Harris\u2019s advent as presidential nominee. It\u2019s evident in the top-line national polling numbers showing her leading Trump as much as Trump led Biden before the switcheroo. It\u2019s also evident in the battleground state polling showing her with multiple paths to 270 electoral votes. And perhaps most of all, it\u2019s evident in indices of Democratic enthusiasm that appears to be leading most Biden 2020 voters back into the corral with renewed interest in voting. These are the hard cold valuable facts beneath all the chatter about Harris\u2019s memes and vibes. If Harris can keep this sense of momentum and optimism and enthusiasm alive beyond the convention, she will have a relatively short runway to November 5 (not to mention September and October, the start of early voting in most states) and an easy transition to get-out-the-vote efforts as opposed to the massive effort to turn around swing voters that Biden would have faced.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Weirdness of Manufactured Joy\u201d [Sasha Stone, Free Thinking]. From the right: \u201cAll that would matter would be chasing euphoria, pure joy, joy I hadn\u2019t felt since 2008. That addiction to the rush of being a Good Liberal making the world a better place one manufactured victory at a time.\u201d \u2022 A four-day liberalgasm\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cBarack and Michelle Obama look to add a flavor of 2008 to Harris\u2019s bid\u201d [WaPo]. \u201cFormer advisers say that, in his speech, Obama can try to re-create some of the mood and tenor of his 2008 campaign as well. Rahm Emanuel, Obama\u2019s first White House chief of staff and currently U.S. ambassador to Japan, said, \u2018He can speak to our better angels,\u2019 offering a stark contrast with the current political environment. \u2018This moment is not unlike the time when he was active in national politics,\u2019 Axelrod said. \u2018It was about the war and economy, but it was also about people who really wanted to turn the page on rancor and the grinding politics of Washington.’\u201d <\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cSome protesters tear down security fence as thousands march outside Democratic National Convention\u201d [Associated Press]. \u201cOrganizers had hoped at least 20,000 people would take part in Monday\u2019s rally and march, but it appeared that only a few thousand were present, though city officials declined to give a crowd estimate.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPhotos : Protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago\u201d [USA Today]. \u2022 I can\u2019t find an aerial photo to assess the size of the crowds. Are there no drones? Readers?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s Prime-Time Speech Reflects Long March To Mainstream\u201d [HuffPo]. \u201cBy handing her a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, the Democratic Party has fully embraced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez \u2014 a still-occasional insurgent against the party\u2019s leadership who opened her career with the shocking ouster of an incumbent. It was not even Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s idea to speak at the convention, according to a senior aide. The convention organizers contacted her about the opportunity and gave her a prime-time spot better than the slot given to New York\u2019s governor. And she used it to deliver a stemwinder, generating some of the loudest cheers of the convention\u2019s first night and leaving the crowd chanting \u201cA-O-C\u201d as she walked off the stage.\u201d \u2022\u00a0What a waste of a great natural talent.<\/p>\n
The Campaign Trail:<\/p>\n
Kamala:<\/p>\n
\u201cCan Kamala Harris overcome her campaign\u2019s biggest challenge?\u201d [Vox]. \u201cSince her campaign\u2019s launch a month ago, Harris has sought to align herself with majority opinion in (at least) three distinct ways. First, she has moderated substantively, disavowing her most left-wing issue positions from 2020, while touting her support of a bipartisan border security bill and the toughness of her prosecutorial record. Second, she has made the case for liberal issue positions in philosophically conservative terms \u2014 framing her social policies as attempts to safeguard individual freedom from government overreach and her fiscal agenda as, among other things, a plan for helping strivers \u2018build intergenerational wealth.\u2019 Finally, Harris has painted herself as a tribune of the middle class and her opponent as a servant of the wealthy few. To claim the mantle of economic populism, Harris has not been afraid to tout ideas that are substantively left-wing yet broadly popular.\u201d \u2022 \u201cHelping strivers.\u201d Well, maybe so.<\/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
* * *<\/p>\n
Transmission: Covid<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US is experiencing its largest summer Covid wave in at least two years\u201d [CNN]. \u201cIt may be time to dust off the face masks and air purifiers. The US is in the midst of a significant Covid-19 wave, with viral activity levels in wastewater the highest they\u2019ve been for a summer surge since July 2022, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s wastewater dashboard. The CDC\u2019s measure of national Covid viral activity in wastewater rose to 8.82 on August 10 \u2013 falling shy of a peak of 9.56 in July 2022. The CDC says the most recent data is incomplete and may change. Before it started rising again in May, it was at 1.36. \u2018Currently, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level is very high nationally, with the highest levels in the Western US region,\u2019 Dr. Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC\u2019s Wastewater Surveillance Program, said in an email. \u2018This year\u2019s COVID-19 wave is coming earlier than last year, which occurred in late August\/early September.’\u201d \u2022 I believe I started muttering about this oncoming wave a while ago\u2026.. Stay safe out there!<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
TABLE 1: Daily Covid Charts<\/p>\n
Lambert here: Worth noting that national Emergency Room admissions are as high as they were in the first wave, in 2020.<\/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. First showing of the new variant from China, XDV.1 (though it didn\u2019t appear in traveler\u2019s data).<\/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) Going down. Doesn\u2019t 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.)<\/p>\n
[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.<\/p>\n
[7] (Walgreens) Fiddling and diddling.<\/p>\n
[8] (Cleveland) Jumping.<\/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 range. 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) The new variant in China, XDV.1, is not showing up here.<\/p>\n
[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.<\/p>\n
[12] Deaths low, ED up.<\/p>\n
Stats Watch<\/p>\n
There are no statistics of interest today.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Tech: Dark patterns at Google:<\/p>\n
Biggest scam ever \u2013 Google Drive. <\/p>\n
They make it really easy to upload files but almost impossible to download them. <\/p>\n
Effectively trapping you into paying forever so you can access the files you uploaded.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sean \u2764\ufe0f \ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\uddfe\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6c\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf0\ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@seanchk) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
And:<\/p>\n
I uploaded 1000’s of files by selecting them all and uploading.<\/p>\n
It even created the folders.<\/p>\n
I expected to be able to download them the same way, but you can’t select 10000 files and have them download one by one.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sean \u2764\ufe0f \ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\uddfe\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6c\udb40\udc73\udb40\udc7f\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf0\ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@seanchk) August 20, 2024<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected\u2026.\u201d Musical interlude.<\/p>\n
Supply Chain: \u201cConsumer goods maker Newell Brands isn\u2019t waiting to see what the impact of new trade policies will be on its manufacturing plans\u201d [Logistics Report, Wall Street Journal]. \u201cThe company has shifted production of its Sharpie retractable pens, Oster blenders and other goods from China to its own plants in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as Southeast Asia\u2026. Newell is among a growing set of companies that are recognizing that protectionism underpinned by tariffs will be a feature of U.S. trade policy in coming years no matter who wins the White House this fall. President Biden has left a swath of Trump administration tariffs in place, triggering a broad resetting of corporate supply chains, and Vice President Kamala Harris hasn\u2019t signaled that she would veer away from the tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supply Chain: \u201cChina-Mexico flights reopen amid manufacturers\u2019 Latin American push\u201d [Nikkei Asia]. \u201cChina\u2019s airlines are reopening direct services linking the country to Mexico after a hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, as a wave of Chinese manufacturers set up shop in the North American production hub.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manufacturing: \u201cWhat went wrong with Boeing\u2019s spaceship\u201d [NBC]. \u201cHere\u2019s what went wrong with Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule. NASA and Boeing have been monitoring two separate issues with the Starliner: one with a set of thrusters and the other involving helium leaks in its propulsion system. Engineers with NASA and Boeing have been using a test engine at the space agency\u2019s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico to study the performance of the thrusters\u2026. Preliminary results indicated that all but one of the 28 reaction control system thrusters performed well, but NASA said various tests have shown that a tiny Teflon seal seemed to swell under high temperatures, which could block the flow of propellant into the thrusters\u2026. However, Steve Stich, NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program manager, said this month that the team \u2018can\u2019t totally prove with certainty what we\u2019re seeing on orbit is exactly what\u2019s been replicated on the ground.\u2019\u2026 Separately, teams have also been monitoring slow helium leaks in the spacecraft\u2019s propulsion system. Mission managers knew about one helium leak before Starliner\u2019s launch but said at the time that the slow leak was manageable and unlikely to affect the mission or compromise the astronauts\u2019 safety.\u201d \u2022\u00a0What went wrong with Boeing\u2019s spaceship is Boeing. That new CEO may have some decisions to make, fast.<\/p>\n
Labor Market: \u201cFed Confronts Up to a Million US Jobs Vanishing in Revision\u201d [Bloomberg]. \u201cUS job growth in the year through March was likely far less robust than initially estimated, which risks fueling concerns that the Federal Reserve is falling further behind the curve to lower interest rates. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. economists expect the government\u2019s preliminary benchmark revisions on Wednesday to show payrolls growth in the year through March was at least 600,000 weaker than currently estimated \u2014 about 50,000 a month. While JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasters see a decline of about 360,000, Goldman Sachs indicates it could be as large as a million\u2026. Powell and his colleagues have recently said they\u2019re focusing more on the labor side of their dual mandate, and he\u2019ll take the benchmark revisions into account in his Friday speech at the Fed\u2019s annual symposium.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Fear & Greed Index: 45 Neutral (previous close: 41 Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 35 (Extreme Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 20 at 1:00:43 PM ET.<\/p>\n
Public Health<\/p>\n
\u201cCDC guidelines: Students with lice no longer need to be sent home early\u201d [NBC4]. \u201cThe CDC has recently updated its guidelines on how schools and families should handle head lice infestations. One significant change is that students with head lice no longer need to be sent home early from school. Students are now allowed to finish the school day, receive a home lice treatment and return to class as soon as the following morning.\u201d \u2022 And as if rampant Covid weren\u2019t enough\u2026 <\/p>\n
\u201cThe lice will always win\u201d [WaPo]. The deck: \u201cWe\u2019ve been losing the war against lice since the dawn of humanity. Should we change how we think about them?\u201d \u2022 Let\u2019s just hope they don\u2019t become a vector.<\/p>\n
Zeitgeist Watch<\/p>\n
Mood:<\/p>\n
I’ve just had this confirmed. I thought it was too insane to be true, but it is. This is a video of some climbers on Mt Dukono on Saturday who suddenly realised how bloody stupid their decision to climb was \ud83d\ude2c\ud83d\ude31<\/p>\n
Via: @MurtadhaOne pic.twitter.com\/ueKk3j3Jlk<\/p>\n
\u2014 Volcaholic \ud83c\udf0b (@volcaholic1) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
strong>Guillotine Watch<\/p>\n
Stupid money:<\/p>\n
Reading a book about con men (written in 1940) and its description of the perfect target is indistinguishable from today’s too-online big tech oligarch pic.twitter.com\/RhWzloneXy<\/p>\n
\u2014 Political Science B.A. (@InternetHippo) August 19, 2024<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York Times erases Garry Tan\u2019s \u2018die slow\u2019 tweet explosion\u201d [The Nerd Reich]. \u201cThe New York Times Magazine published a story that glowingly depicted Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan as a paragon of mental health success thanks to executive coaching. But the story left out a crucial detail: Tan is the CEO who made headlines for getting drunk and tweeting \u2018die slow\u2019 at seven members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January. That\u2019s one hell of a fact to leave out of a piece that positioned executive \u2018coaching\u2019 as an alternative to real therapy\u2026. [Tan] the tech CEO spearheading a campaign to take over San Francisco City Hall in November.\u201d \u2022 California dreaming\u2026. <\/p>\n
Class Warfare<\/p>\n
\u201cBlood Money: Selling Plasma to Avoid High-Interest Loans\u201d [The Review of Financial Studies]. \u201d We exploit dramatic growth in the U.S. blood plasma industry to shed light on the sellers of plasma. Sellers tend to be young and liquidity-constrained with low incomes and limited access to traditional credit. Plasma centers absorb demand for nontraditional credit. After a plasma center opens nearby, demand for payday loans falls by over 13% among young borrowers. Meanwhile, foot traffic increases by over 4% at nearby stores, suggesting that constrained households use plasma markets to smooth consumption without appealing to high-cost debt.\u201d \u2022\u00a0It\u2019s nice that our young people have options! Now do kidneys\u2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudy Finds That Legalized Sports Betting Is Leading to More Bankruptcies, Lower Credit Scores\u201d [Zaid Jilani, The American Saga]. \u201c[A trio of California researchers found] an increase in auto loan delinquencies once sports gambling is legalized. For states with online access to gambling, they found a 28% increase in the likelihood of bankruptcy and an 8% increase in debt collection amounts. They also found a reduction in access to credit \u2014 shown through lower credit limits and a higher ratio of secured to unsecured loans.\u201d \u2022 Caltrops wherever you look\u2026 <\/p>\n
News of the Wired<\/p>\n
This strikes me as good advice:<\/p>\n
YIKES was she right. It\u2019s the number one piece of advice I give kids now. Sure, apply online. But if it\u2019s possible, put on a shirt, brush your hair, and go up there to ask to see the hiring manager. That shit has paid off for me literally every single time I needed work.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jason Coupet (@ProfessaJay) August 17, 2024<\/p>\n
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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 Teton Time:<\/p>\n
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Plants in the Tetons.<\/p>\n
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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. Material here is Lambert\u2019s, and does not express the views of the Naked Capitalism site. 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
Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated:<\/p>\n
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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!\n<\/p>\n
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