6 August 2020 — 0655 mdt
Biden’s VP, and the carnival is over
Joe Biden still has not announced his choice for vice president
Joe Biden, who will accept the Democratic nomination for president from his Delaware home on 20 August, still has not announced his choice for vice president. Although he may still be pondering his options, he could simply be waiting for 18 August, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote.
Most news sources report that the half dozen or so women still under consideration include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamela Harris, and Tammy Duckworth, plus former Obama diplomat Susan Rice and Reps. Val Demmings and Karen Bass. I suspect it’s come down to Warren or Harris.
A new poll reports Warren helps the ticket more than Harris, reports Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect. And a companion poll reports she does well with working class voters, a prime target for Biden. Warren’s white, and that, reports FiveThirtyEight’s Perry Bacon, Jr., might not sit well with some black Democrats, who seek identity representation. Other black Democrats, writing in the Washington Post, argue that Biden should choose Warren.
Wall Street will gnash its teeth if Biden chooses Warren, for me another reason why he should choose her. She’s progressive, would be Biden’s strongest running mate, and is ready to be president if something happens to Biden.
Northwest Montana Fair update: the carnival is over
Fair manager Mark Campbell announced yesterday that by mutual agreement with the carnival company, there will not be a carnival at this year’s fair. At the InterLake, Kianna Gardner has the story.
According to Campbell, the fair’s contracts with the carnival, rodeo, and county music artis, contain Covid-19 related protections. Therefore should the fair be canceled, or the events not held, the fair’s penalty expenses would be low.
Pressure from two groups is driving the campaign to hold the fair.
First, as Gardner reports, a number of small businesses make substantial money at the fair, and count on that revenue to provide their yearly profits. Food stands and parking lot concessions help fund nonprofits, especially service clubs such as the Lions.
Second, the fair is the culmination of a year’s work by members of the 4H and FFA youth organizations. They look forward to displaying their livestock, and to the income derived by the auction of the animals.
Beyond immediate economic issues, the fair serves as an annual harvest festival and as an affirmation of agriculture and rural communities. It’s a celebration as important as a wedding, a graduation, or a religious holiday such as Christmas. Not having a fair would leave a hole in lives.
In the SARS-cov-2 coronavirus pandemic, the fair has taken on added importance as a milepost on the journey back to normality. For many, the risk of spreading Covid-19 is worth the benefit of experiencing the fair’s joys and the sense of continuity it provides.
But there is risk, as was pointed out in a letter signed by 300 Flathead health care professionals, who urge downsizing the fair.
Fairs are not social distancing events. Quarters will be tight, and even if masks are worn they will not provide complete protection from the virus. The best way the avoid becoming infected at the fair is not to attend the fair.
I’m going to conclude this post with the first two paragraphs of William Clifford’s Ethics of Belief, which in college philosophy classes usually is read in conjunction with William James’ response.
I. THE DUTY OF INQUIRY
A shipowner was about to send to sea an emigrant-ship. He knew that she was old, and not overwell built at the first; that she had seen many seas and climes, and often had needed repairs. Doubts had been suggested to him that possibly she was not seaworthy. These doubts preyed upon his mind, and made him unhappy; he thought that perhaps he ought to have her thoroughly overhauled and refitted, even though this should put him to great expense. Before the ship sailed, however, he succeeded in overcoming these melancholy reflections. He said to himself that she had gone safely through so many voyages and weathered so many storms that it was idle to suppose she would not come safely home from this trip also. He would put his trust in Providence, which could hardly fail to protect all these unhappy families that were leaving their fatherland to seek for better times elsewhere. He would dismiss from his mind all ungenerous suspicions about the honesty of builders and contractors. In such ways he acquired a sincere and comfortable conviction that his vessel was thoroughly safe and seaworthy; he watched her departure with a light heart, and benevolent wishes for the success of the exiles in their strange new home that was to be; and he got his insurance-money when she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales.
What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the sincerity of his conviction can in no wise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts. And although in the end he may have felt so sure about it that he could not think otherwise, yet inasmuch as he had knowingly and willingly worked himself into that frame of mind, he must be held responsible for it.
Originally published in Contemporary Review, 1877.