Joyce Beatty is a national treasure.

via you all, elsewhere

American politicians should go ahead and shut up about the greatest country on earth.

Old Bill doesn't just look old these days; he seems like he had a stroke or is suffering from some other debilitating disease. They have lots of reasons to fail to acknowledge something like that (their foundation money would probably dry up; people would be concerned that Hillary wouldn't be focused, etc.) but it sure would be a classic Clintons with something to hide! narrative if word got out before the election.

The Dan Markel case is pretty weird. It's always the spouse, but in this case it seems plausible that it was done to benefit the spouse, but without her knowledge--which seems solidly in "thanks, but no thanks" territory.

Was Trump making a rookie mistake, or deliberately invoking McGreevy to call Kaine gay? We'll find out if he goes down this road again.

Nick S. writes: He's writing some good stuff:

"Bill Clinton is still a star, but today's Democrats are dramatically more liberal than his party"

[I]n the years since he left office, the party has left him behind. In many ways, he's become as obsolete ideologically as Jimmy Carter was in 1992. The electoral base and ideology his wife has embraced signals a very different Democratic Party -- one that has changed profoundly in the past quarter-century.

...

To a striking extent, almost everything that was distinctive about Bill's approach to being a Democrat -- the lack of enthusiasm for unions, the opposition to marriage equality, the tough-on-crime and tough-on-defense postures, welfare reform -- became a millstone around Clinton's neck in the course of the 2016 primary campaign.

"The Real Reason Bernie Sanders delegates are so out of Control"

Activists, as Solomon tells it, have "the privilege or maybe the obligation" to simply tell the truth. But politicians play a more complicated game.

For instance, Solomon thinks it makes sense to vote for Clinton in November to beat Donald Trump. "I don't understand the rationale for Jill Stein campaigning in swing states," he said. "I find it abhorrent."

But he has basically nothing good to say about Clinton and thinks those on the left who do -- like Elizabeth Warren -- are knowingly whitewashing her real record. "Elizabeth Warren was, shall we say, a little bit excessively inclined to praise Hillary Clinton," he says. For example, he referred to a 2004 video in which Warren, then an activist on bankruptcy issues, slammed Hillary Clinton for flip-flopping on the issue.

Many of Bernie Sanders's delegates come out of this activist camp. They may want Hillary Clinton to win. But unlike Elizabeth Warren (or at least Solomon's conception of Warren), they're not willing to fake a rousing round of applause for her that they don't really mean.

Heebie's take: I would have actually tuned in to this convention after seeing how fired up everyone's getting, except I'm not at home and things here tend towards Law & Order: SVU and reality TV shows.

Fingers crossed that Clinton can deliver a great speech tonight!

Trump and Putin: where exactly do you draw the line between possibly true and conspiracy theory?

Nick S. writes: "The Magical Benefits of the 'Quitter's Mindset'"

An article about the power that comes from being psychologically willing to walk away from valuable situations (for a better one) and knowing when to say "no." The relentlessly chipper tone and exclusive focus on high-status/high-performing people pissed me off, but there is some useful advice. Surely the commentariat could do better with the topic.

When you start feeling unhappy in your work, you owe it to yourself to get specific about changes you could make for it to get better, and to develop your own innovative solutions and experiments to try. No matter how warm and fuzzy the culture, your co-workers and boss are not therapists, says Chisa. It's not their job to respond to your discomfort.

"You'll succeed if you get yourself to focus," she says. "Figure out and write down exactly what kind of work you want to do. Is that valuable to your current company? If not, keep looking. If so, what argument can you make to your boss to pivot in that direction? You'd be surprised how many mature professionals haven't really thought about this with any depth or rigor."

Heebie's take: if we want to have an interesting discussion on the topic, I probably shouldn't provide the link, because it's written so deliciously terribly.

"Leaving Kickstarter was so much harder than leaving Harvard," says Chisa, who was a leading product manager at the crowdfunding company. "When you love your co-workers and your office and the work you do every day, it's nearly impossible to leave. But working there became core to my identity, and realizing that is when I knew I had to let it go."

Oh yeah, that happened to me, too. SO REAL.

On the actual topic, I've never changed course on anything. I'm not ambitious at all. While this job has its pros and cons, I can't think of another job that I'd enjoy enough to justify giving up my summers.

Anyone around? Walt Someguy is in NYC. Also, anyone have a clever idea for a bar, given that it's Saturday and I don't care if it's convenient for work?

She detests Seinfeld, which, I mean, kind of a gimme in this day and age, but it's good that she's still getting work, right?

(Context, since some might require it.)