Odds and Ends — 4 August 2024

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:

https://twitter.com/greg16676935420/status/1819827913526555091

German quantum breakthrough highlights need for particle physicists in crypto

https://twitter.com/GaryMarcus/status/1819525054537126075

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Scientists are piecing together the puzzle of long COVID.

Politics:

“In my family that sometimes seems like the cast of a 1950s sitcom, my uncle Donald had a role of his own. He was the obnoxious one.”— Fred Trump III

https://twitter.com/jefftimmer/status/1819782915951043033

Trump Allies Unleash Attacks on Gender and Identity

The lightning-fast spread of the attack line in the day after Trump’s remarks showcased both his continued willingness to weaponize race and gender fissures to cut down political opponents, and the ready-made echo chamber primed to amplify attacks rooted in identity.
It seemed to herald a new and vitriolic phase of the 2024 campaign even as it reflects a familiar pattern. Trump, suddenly facing a Black woman, is leaning into his ugliest political instincts and finding the conservative ecosphere willing to go along. More than a decade after he began baselessly questioning the birthplace of the country’s first Black president, Trump has helped to normalize such offensive attacks — and a dwindling minority in his party appear willing to publicly challenge his most outrageous statements.
But beneath the base attacks, there is also a political calculus — and political peril — in both Trump’s words and Harris’s responses.

https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1819716098486358118

Senate GOP Haunted Again by Trump’s Recklessness

For weeks, Senate Republicans delighted in the misery of their Democratic counterparts. The political story of the summer — whether President Biden would back down from his run at a second term — left GOP senators smiling and away from the media’s glaring spotlight on their foibles.
But the tables quickly turned. Their party’s presidential nominee recently returned to his natural form and lashed out against Vice President Harris in divisive terms that had little basis in truth. Republicans went right back into the political PTSD of the Donald Trump era, mouthing the same platitudes that they grasped onto during his presidency.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1819745379153244609

Trump Rages If He Doesn’t See Kamala Harris In Fox Debate He ‘Won’t See Her At All!’

As Trump Rages Over Freed WSJ Reporter, GOP Suddenly Enters Panic Mode

With reports suggesting Republicans are worried about Trump’s chances, veteran GOP operative Stuart Stevens reflects on what happened to his former party now that it’s fully embraced MAGA.

https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1819893002149429509

Trump Goes Low as Harris Gains Ground

Donald Trump broadsided Kamala Harris in a string of derisive social media posts on Saturday, focusing his attacks on the vice president’s intellect after a week that saw her both out-fundraise him and surpass him in some battleground state polls.
The former president’s remarks indicated a sustained ratcheting up of the rhetoric against Harris that many in his own party have cautioned against, fearful of detracting from what they view as more favorable lines of attack on immigration and inflation. Even as he accused Harris of enabling ‘corrupt and open borders’ and a ‘terrible economy,’ Trump overshadowed those critiques with personal insults, reminiscent of the rhetoric he used against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

https://twitter.com/ChrisDJackson/status/1819880523663339809

Why Calling Them “Weird” is Working, and What it Really Means

https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1819844212499656812

For what it’s worth, my guesstimate of how November’s election might play out:

Serendipity:

https://twitter.com/Grantpa23/status/1819063741062771049

The woman who left Britain to parachute into Nazi-occupied Poland

https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1819799847056064534

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