Courtesy C-Span/ZUMA

OK, then. Today the president of the United States called for a boycott of Goodyear tires; praised the QAnon conspiracy theory nuts; congratulated a Republican nominee for Congress who makes the QAnon folks look levelheaded; and once again lied about Barack Obama spying on his campaign. Just another day at the office.

All things considered, then, I’d say that Obama’s convention speech about Trump was positively measured:

For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.

75 days to go.

This is “Our Lady of DTLA,” a mural in downtown Los Angeles executed by Robert Vargas. It was instrumental in getting Los Angeles to finally lift its ban on public murals in 2013.

From Alex Tabarrok:

We are actually not too worried about horseshoe crab blood and shark livers as these are used in other industries. Shark livers, for example, are used to produce a lot of cosmetics so we should be able to divert supply as needed.

Well OK then.

If you go by surveys, something like 60 percent of Americans say they wear masks whenever they leave the house. But do they really? The LA Times decided to count actual mask use, and the results weren’t pretty. In upscale Venice mask usage was fairly good, but down here in Orange County things were pretty dismal:

That’s the OC for you. Live free or die.

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through August 18. The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal/POOL via ZUMA

For the past few decades all the old guard political reporters have bemoaned the fact that political conventions serve no real purpose anymore and are basically just prime time ads for the political parties. Well guess what? COVID-19 has finally turned them literally into party advertisements: just a bunch of prerecorded segments edited together into a 2-hour infomercial.

And it’s great! The pace is livelier than live conventions; more people get to speak since their segments can be more tightly controlled; and in an era of media sophistication I’ll bet viewers like it better. They know perfectly well how it’s being put together and they don’t mind.

So here’s a semi-prediction: Four years from now conventions might remain virtual. It’s a helluva lot cheaper for the parties. It makes for a better show. And the candidates have tighter control over the whole thing. The only thing missing is the buckraking parties that can only take place in person, but maybe modern fundraising techniques make those unnecessary anyway. Check back in four years to see if I’m right.

One of my mother’s trees attracts a vast number of dragonflies, so I went out a couple of weeks ago and shot a bunch of pictures of them. They turned out to be pretty cooperative! I suppose this guy is some particular species of dragonfly, but trying to become an instant expert on dragonfly ID is a little beyond me at the moment. Maybe someone in comments can help.

UPDATE: Apparently it’s a female Flame Skimmer.

CEO pay was up in 2019!

The average big company CEO now makes 320 times as much as the average worker. That doesn’t yet match the glorious heights reached at the end of the dotcom boom, but it’s getting there—and 2020 is looking good so far.

Just imagine: as recently as 1990, CEO pay was only about 60 times that of the average worker. That’s only 30 years ago. If a big time CEO was paid that amount today he’d be the laughingstock of his country club.

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through August 17. There are two things to notice. First, Italy’s blip is continuing. Second, in the UK, “The government has overhauled the way coronavirus death data is compiled in England after scientists revealed Public Health England had been counting people as having died from the virus regardless of when they tested positive. The move meant the UK death toll was revised downwards by 5,377 to 41,329 on Wednesday after a review concluded the daily death figure should only include deaths which had occurred within 28 days of a positive test. The new methodology brings England in line with rest of the UK.” Johns Hopkins caught up with this today, which is why the UK trendline is suddenly at zero and the cumulative death rate has suddenly declined to 628 per million.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

Marian curated today’s photo. In honor of the Democratic convention starting—and possibly ushering in a new political era—she presents this lovely sunrise taken from the road leading up to Mt. Baldy. I myself am not quite so sure of the whole new era business, but that’s what I get for spending 20 years of my life on this stuff and getting cynical about it. Still, it’s a pretty picture either way.