Opinion | Today’s Opinions: Wet bulbs and dim bulbs galore

No attempt to budge up his ceiling of support with a more temperate choice. No olive branch to the old-school Republicans so repulsed by Trumpian bombast. “No broadening of appeal,” Jim writes. “Trump is rejecting the idea that it’s needed.”

The only thing Trump seems interested in expanding, George Will writes, is his own movement; Vance is the very embodiment of “the serrated edge of MAGA politics.” And if there is none pious like the new convert, expect exceptional zeal from the man who once said Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”

(A counterpoint from Hugh Hewitt: Vance, who credits the Marine Corps with shaping his character, could win over enough veterans to deliver swing states to Trump.)

Beyond self-regard, what else does Trump’s selection signal? For the latest Prompt 2024 newsletter, Megan McArdle convened conservatives Jason Willick and Ramesh Ponnuru to discuss the future of a Trump-Vance GOP. The takeaway is that a clear MAGA heir (at 39, no less) locks the Republican Party into its “trajectory toward populism and noninterventionism,” as Jason says.

The Editorial Board pronounces pretty much dead the orthodoxy of Ronald Reagan and the two Bush presidencies, by which the United States held itself to responsible global leadership. The board also worries over Vance’s antidemocratic instincts and threats to weaponize political power.

But “just as many Americans hold out hope that Mr. Trump, in the wake of the assassination attempt, will look toward the country’s better angels,” the board writes, “it’s possible that Mr. Vance will evolve with him, and chart a constructive path.”

Possible, sure. But I tend to agree with Jason, who says Vance’s path leads only to more aggression and confrontation.

A chilling illustration comes in the form of the platform adopted at this week’s GOP convention. Four years ago, you got the sense that Republicans chose not to adopt a platform at all partly because doing so would be a final capitulation.

This year, though, they’re all in, producing a document economics writer Brian Riedl calls “economically incoherent and not remotely conservative.” I’ll let you go through his analysis and match up the GOP’s policies to the other adjectives he uses to describe them. They are variously chaotic, cruel, “poisonous,” “totally infeasible,” “wildly unconstitutional.”

And remember — confidently so.

Chaser: Jen Rubin says that post-assassination attempt, coverage of political violence and threats thereof — including Trump’s — has never been more important.

This sounds technical, but it’s important: We need to start thinking about heat in terms of wet-bulb globe temperature.

Public health professor Joe Allen has a great explainer on the metric, which tracks not just the mercury reading but how heat stresses the body. It’s kind of like a souped-up heat index, accounting for temperature and humidity plus sunlight, cloud cover, wind and physical activity. Past a certain fixed wet-bulb temperature, the body stops being able to shed heat.

Take a look at the side-by-side map to see how much more clearly wet-bulb measures the danger of high temperatures; note how it diverges from raw temperature in, for instance, California and Kansas.

“The goal should be to help people experiencing extreme heat to protect themselves,” Allen writes. “We have the tools to measure this correctly; we just need to use them.”

One downside, he foresees, is that wet-bulb temperatures are often lower than the dry temperature or heat index, which could lead to misinterpretation. But here’s a benchmark to remember: A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit for a few hours can be fatal.

“Is there nothing this judge won’t do to help the president who appointed her? It sure looks that way.”

Ruth Marcus is responding to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to throw out the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against Trump, ruling that the appointment of a special counsel in the case was unconstitutional. Never mind that attorneys general have appointed special counsels for decades and the courts have backed them all along.

Ruth picks apart Cannon’s outrageous reasoning bit by bit, but it all adds up to this: “93 pages of bending over backward for Trump.”

The Justice Department can appeal to the 11th Circuit and ask for a new judge or refile in D.C.’s courts. But now there is no way accountability will come for Trump before the election, the Editorial Board writes, and regardless of where the case goes next, Cannon’s actions “spell broader trouble for American justice.”

Chaser: In another column, Ruth writes of how Chief Justice John Roberts once dreamed of a more unified Supreme Court. Goodbye to all that.

• Leana Wen examines how Baltimore made its inner harbor (almost) swimmable and how other cities can copy its cleanup.
• Max Boot writes that free-flowing U.S. aid has enabled Ukraine to stymie Russia, but Trump’s reelection could undo the progress.
• Journalist Trung Phan summarizes the 1987 Esquire article that inspired Jerry Seinfeld to pursue mastery ahead of everything else. It has good lessons for leveling up our own lives.

It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.

Swapped for wretched excesses

Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!