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Jul 31Liked by John Quiggin

"Macroscience is looking to commission 2-3 rigorous case studies in the coming months that will take a deep look at a case of scientific failure, and diagnose its lessons for the future."

Seems like someone could write a summary on some aspects of modern macroeconomics and get paid for it.

https://www.macroscience.org/p/rfp-on-negative-metascience?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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Universal Basic Income: Disturbing study being touted by the US RWNJs: https://x.com/athan_k/status/1819423883998458024 … I hope it’s credibly rebutted shortly.

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I will never understand the American left. In a fortnight, the prospects for a Democratic victory in the November election have been transformed by Biden’s withdrawal and swift endorsement of Kamala Harris. The campaign has passed from an infirm old white guy struggling bravely against the odds to one led by a vigorous middle-aged Black woman, who has quickly rallied the universal support of the party establishment, created a wave of enthusiastic new young supporters, and started to roll back Trump’s supporting the polls. And she has $200m in the bank.

Trump’s counterattacks are feeble flailing. Harris is a diversity hire, a “bum” - who assembled an unbeatable majority of convention delegates in 48 hours of intensive phone calls. The winds were with her as none of her potential rivals saw any advantage in contesting a lost battle, but it wasn’t the work of a lazy amateur. Worse, he attacked her for *laughing*, a key part of her upbeat persona. “Laughing Harris” against “perpetually angry old Trump” is not a good meme for him. Vance is such a feeble opponent that Harris’ young stepdaughter Ella Emhoff (1) could easily shiv him on his nasty prejudice against childless women. To cap it all, Biden gets an unexpected autumn doing the job he is very good at, being President of the United States, instead of continuous campaigning.

You would think, would you not, that the Democratic commentariat would be beside themselves with joy at their good fortune. We are now up at half-time, from two goals behind! Victory is now a real possibility. Go Dems Dems Dems! Never mind if our last one was a lucky own goal by the other side.

You would be wrong. I struggled through a 1,000 comment thread at Lawyers, Guns, and Money. The overwhelming majority reflected not a normal triumphal glee but anxious soul-searching and backbiting about the impurity of the process that led to Biden’s withdrawal. Think of a convent of neurotic nuns scraping their souls for sins to confess, as you can’t get forgiveness for not having any. I wasn’t tempted to join the circular firing squad, and I would advise you not to waste time on this either. Will Harris shift from Biden’s policy on Gaza? On LNG exports? That’s worth discussing.

(1) I do however complain about Ms Emhoff’s Berkeley grammar. "How can you be 'childless' when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?" is wrong, however impeccable the sentiment. Used as a preposition, "like" in English takes the accusative in object pronouns: "like Cole and me". The Cambridge Grammar of English, Carter & McCarthy, 2006, section 49, gives the knockdown example "People like him should be put away in prison". "*Like he" is obviously wrong. It’s the fault of her peeve-possessed instructors. Teachers like them (not *like they) should be sent to English re-education camps in Singapore.

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author

Maybe that's specific to LGM. They are kind of bad-tempered there.

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You may well be right. The front-pagers and commenters at Daily Kos (left activist) and Kevin Drum (left-of-centre policy wonk) are much more cheerful. Drum can't resist proposing a symbolic tack to the centre on culture wars issues, but Harris has no current reason to change a perfectly working Plan A. "Is he lucky?", Napoleon is supposed to have asked about an aspiring general. Harris certainly is. The kamikaze cat lady attack from Vance was given her on a plate. Search Google Images for "crazy cat lady sticker": these don't come from the Harris campaign.

I should have added immigration to the short list of policy issues where she will have to try to do better than Biden, whose actual policy of large-scale deportations of illegal migrants bears no relation to the open-door-to-criminals smear endlessly repeated by Trump.

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Biden, a good President? Oh dear ... bringing the world to the brink!

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I'll lie in wait for others. :)

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