Smooth Operator

The Veep Debate

You've got to give this to JD Vance. He's smooth. Unlike Trump who lies with the grace of a slegehammer, Vance delivers his bullsh-t via a grease-lubed Slip N Slide. "I think you can make a really good argument that [Trump] salvaged Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came about." That lie was so absurd I almost needed to utilize the Affordable Care Act to stop myself from my vomiting. But it was just one of many collegially delivered absurdities ranging from where solar panels and guns come from, to the supposedly illegal immigrants in Springfield, to his own past statements on a national abortion ban, to the insane notion that Trump peacefully transferred power after losing the last election. I would have liked to see Tim Walz call out these lies as aggressively as I was calling them out in my living room (Put me in, Coach!). Most pundits seem to agree that JD Vance performed better in the debate while Tim Walz was more effective on the big issues such as abortion, health care, and the biggest issue of all, democracy. Vance refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election (which should be game over in any debate). In the end, the big headline from this debate may be no headline at all. Most polls called it a draw and it's already being moved out of the top story slots by the Middle East crisis, the port strike, and the brutal aftermath of Helene.

Who do I think won? My cat. During the debate's first commercial break, my kind neighbor called to say she was cuddling with my cat Pixel, who had wandered over to her house. She said I could come get Pixel then or after the debate. I jumped at the chance to turn off the TV, close my laptop, and get away from the oppressiveness of nonstop politics. These days, the main thing I feel while watching debates and other political coverage is that I want it to end. The show. Our obsession with the race. The social media posts. The endless texts. This era. Trumpism. The media's poor performance. The lies. I want to go back to life before Trump. So I thank my neighbor for offering a momentary out, a chance to turn it off for a few seconds at least. When we met on the street, my neighbor mentioned how sweet my cat is. Apparently Pixel, whose beautiful coat of fur usually can't soften the fact that she is a disingenuous authoritarian with fascist leanings, can be as smooth as JD Vance.

+ "Tim Walz started the debate a little nervous. He had some awkward moments. Most theater critics on Twitter and the political media scored the debate as a win for Vance. And if this were a high school debate competition, they would be right. Vance was poised. His answers were precise. Walz was overly elliptical at times and missed opportunities to call out Vance’s blatant lies, but political debates aren’t won by winning the approval of the pundits. They are won by making persuasive arguments to the voters tuning in ... Vance impressed the pundits, but Walz scored points on the issues that matter to voters." Dan Pfeiffer: The Pundits are Wrong: JD Vance Didn't Win the Debate. (Dan, you had me at "the pundits are wrong.")

+ "If you’re a Trump fan, you’re probably upset that JD Vance didn’t do enough to defend him. You’re probably also impressed by Vance’s ability to lie through his teeth so easily, freely, and repeatedly. You’re still voting for Donald Trump If you’re supporting Vice President Harris, you wish that Tim Walz was better in the debate format. You’re still voting for Kamala Harris." Reed Galen: The VP Debate...Eh...?

+ Maybe some of JD Vance's spent debate night the right way. By raising money for Springfield’s Haitian residents.

2

After the Flood

The storm passes. The clean up starts. The cameras and journalists leave. But the human cost of massive storms goes on. And on. "There’s the heightened physical and mental stress caused by the crisis. There can also be a cascade of added environmental hazards, like chemical releases from damaged industrial facilities. On top of that, storms hit people’s pocketbooks. They might have a harder time paying for healthcare as a result. Disasters tighten government budgets, which also could lead to less funds to spend on public health initiatives. And lastly, big storms can fray social support systems when people are displaced." The hidden toll taken by tropical storms. "The average tropical storm or hurricane leads to the early deaths of between 7,170 and 11,430 people, the researchers estimate."

+ "Employees of Impact Plastics have alleged management didn’t allow workers to leave the factory even as warnings were issued and floodwaters from the Nolichucky River began to swamp the building." Authorities investigating Impact Plastics in Tennessee after workers died in flooding.

+ Biden sends 1,000 Army troops to North Carolina for Helene response.

3

Hostage Negotiation

"Gary Sick, a former Iran specialist on the National Security Council, was alleging that during the 1980 presidential campaign, while more than 50 Americans were being held hostage in Iran, Ronald Reagan’s team made a backroom arms deal with the new Islamic Republic to delay the hostages’ release until after the election. Carter, bedeviled by the international fiasco, would be denied the narrative he needed to save his sinking chances—an October surprise, that is—and Reagan could announce the Americans’ freedom just after he was sworn in (which he went on to do) ... Craig Unger’s career was nearly destroyed when he investigated a possible election conspiracy. Three decades later, he says he’s got the goods." The Atlantic(Gift Article): The Journalist Who Cried Treason. (I guess it's refreshing that most of today's nefarious political plots are carried out right in the open.)

4

Erewhon Kenobi

"If every city has a culinary punch line, it’s easy to identify Los Angeles’s: Erewhon, the cultish chain of grocery stores, where a half gallon of 'hyper oxygenated' water will run you an unconscionable $25.99. It started, in 1966, as a bean-sprouts-and-bulk-bins health-food stall in Boston, the brainchild of Japanese immigrants who evangelized the macrobiotic diet. Since then, it’s moved West and morphed into a slick, high-end wellness behemoth—a constant site of workaday paparazzi photos, a case study in capitalism posing as counterculture." Hannah Goldfield in The New Yorker: How Southern California became the epicenter of hype diets and twenty-dollar smoothies. (FWIW, I think the Hailey Bieber ‘Skin Glaze’ Smoothie is a bit overrated.) "A tour through Erewhon is a tour through the cultural pathologies of the day: seed-oil paranoia, Jordan Peterson-influenced masculinity panic, gratuitous self-medication for the remote-work set."

5

Extra, Extra

Infiltrated: "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran." (I would say that's a pretty valid concern). Meanwhile, as the fighting becomes more fierce in southern Lebanon, the world waits to see how Israel will respond to Iran's missile attack. Here's the latest from CNN.

+ Getting Your Docks Off: "The dozens of sites affected from Maine to Texas handle shipments of car parts, machinery, pharmaceuticals and food, among other goods. Some goods will be stuck while the ports remain closed. Members of the union, who work to load and unload ships and maintain equipment, are on strike to fight for higher wages and restrictions on automation at the ports." WaPo (Gift Article) with a detailed and interesting look at how the port strike will snarl shipments of bananas, beer, cars and more.

+ Jack Preacher: "Cycle after cycle, their relentless maneuvering has pushed the statehouse so far to the right that consultants like to joke that Karl Rove couldn’t win a local race these days. Brandon Darby, the editor of Breitbart Texas, is one of several conservatives who has compared Dunn and Wilks to Russian oligarchs. 'They go into other communities and unseat people unwilling to do their bidding,' he says. 'You kiss the ring or you’re out.'" A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas. That’s Just the Start.

+ Reading Room for Improvement: "She received her diploma this spring after improving her grades in high school — with help from the speech-to-text function — and getting on the honor roll. She began her studies at the University of Connecticut this summer." But here's the twist. This Hartford Public High School grad can’t read. Here’s how it happened.

+ Not So Fast: California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Sees No Job Loss, Slight Price Hikes.

+ Going Global: "Mutombo built a tuition-free school in the DRC to honor his father, a career educator. In memory of his mother—who died in 1998 of a stroke, but really of poor access to health care—he built a hospital. Countless professional athletes dabble in philanthropy, lending their name and celebrity to whatever cause moves them. But Mutombo was always a dedicated son of the DRC who just happened to be one of the best basketball players of his era. Everything became a means to give back. The game, the finger wags, the commercials—all of it raised Mutombo’s profile and helped fund his next project. He was, and is, a giant. In 2009, the NBA named Mutombo its first global ambassador, though he hardly needed the title; Dikembe had already been doing the job for years." The House That Dikembe Mutombo Built. "Mutombo, who died Monday at age 58, became an NBA Hall of Famer by keeping opponents out of the paint. He became so much more through his efforts to open basketball’s doors to everyone."

6

Bottom of the News

"Keighley is an old textile town, surrounded by the windswept moors of Yorkshire’s Brontë Country. The scars of postindustrial decay remain livid here: spectacular scenery that houses some of the most deprived areas in England. And the Cougars play Rugby League, an especially brutal iteration of a famously bruising discipline. Largely the exclusive preserve of old pit towns in northern England and northeastern Australia, Rugby League involves 26 musclebound players charging into each other at full speed for 80 minutes. Think N.F.L.-level collisions, but without all the helmets and padding. It is a tough game, played by tough people, in tough places. The plan hatched by Mr. Garcia and Mr. O’Neill, then — to arrange a Pride-themed day at Keighley’s stadium, and to employ a drag queen as the pregame entertainment — seemed ambitious." Great story from Rory Smith the NYT (Gift Article): Can Pro Sports and Drag Queens Coexist? A Mill Town Finds Out.