The Brink

Iran Attacks Israel, Pete Rose's Hustle

The all-out regional war that the Biden administration and many other world leaders have spent a year trying to avoid moved to the razor's edge as Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. So far, there are no reports of injuries or significant damage. The only death reported was a Palestinian man "killed near the West Bank city of Jericho when a projectile landed nearby during the rocket barrage." It's notable (especially to Hezbollah being decimated in Lebanon) that the Iranians said the "missile attack had been in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and an Iranian commander." That explanation makes the missile attack even more strategically curious. There's not much question about whether or not Israel will respond. The question is how big that response will be and whether it will tip things into full on war, one America's military would seemingly be unable to avoid. In terms of defense, America is already in the fight: US Navy warships shot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel in massive barrage. "Some residents of Dahiya, the area just south of Beirut that has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, rejoiced at the news of the Iranian attack – lighting up the night’s sky with machine-gun fire and setting off fireworks. Others, however, feared it would only precipitate more bloodshed. 'I think it will be a very violent night,' said Hussein Awada, 54, who was sleeping in his car but had gone back to the area on Tuesday to check on his home. He added, 'You can smell the scent of war and death everywhere.'" Here's the latest from NYT, CNN, NBC, and Times of Israel.

2

No Shelter From the Storm

"The hollering went on for hours, barely audible over the roar of the thrashing French Broad River. 'Bruce!' people shouted from shore. One word was all Bruce Tipton could muster in response, and he repeated it agonizingly: 'Help!' Mr. Tipton, 75, was clinging to a tree, surrounded by a torrent of murky brown water that had just crushed his trailer home and flung him onto the tree. He was less than 50 yards from shore, but the way the river was moving, he seemed to be on a remote island." Like so many stories of Helene's destruction, this one ended in tragedy. NYT(Gift Article): For Hours, He Clung to a Tree and Cried for Help. But None Came.

+ "The city, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is elevated enough that extreme heat is still relatively rare. It’s nowhere near the coast, so sea level rise isn’t an issue. Asheville’s population is quickly growing, and one of the reasons is that people see it as a 'safe' city. One retired couple told the New York Times in 2022 that they’d chosen to move to Asheville after living in Florida—where they had to evacuate from hurricanes eight times—and California, where they faced drought and wildfires." FastCo: Asheville has been called a ‘climate haven.’ There’s no such thing.

+ "A North Carolina city that is ground zero for climate science is now ground zero for a climate disaster those same scientists have been informing the public about for decades. Days of relentless flooding in part from Helene have reshaped Asheville’s Buncombe County, leaving dozens dead and many more stranded and in urgent need of supplies and resources. It’s also impacting the work of climate scientists there. Asheville 'likely has more scientists working on climate change per capita than any other town or city in America.'"

+ "Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, the community of Spruce Pine, population 2,194, is known for its hiking, local artists and as America’s sole source of high-purity quartz. Helene dumped more than 2 feet of rain on the town, destroying roads, shops and cutting power and water. But its reach will likely be felt far beyond the small community." It's all about the quartz. NPR: A tiny town just got slammed by Helene. It could massively disrupt the tech industry.

3

Going Off Book

College lit courses often require "students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover." Rose Horowitch on a trend I've seen play out in my kids' high school education, one that is shocking college professors. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books. (Soon, young people won't be able to concentrate enough to watch the Netflix series based on the book.)

4

The Hustler

"Pete lived his entire 83 years, not just his spectacular baseball career, like he was double-parked. He’d sprint to first base the instant the ump called ball four. Vin Scully once told his listeners, 'Pete Rose just beat out a walk.' I once saw him sprint off after striking out." Pete Rose who died yesterday at the age of 83 was known as Charlie Hustle. He hustled like no other player on the field, and the hustles he ran off the field never really stopped either. Rick Reilly in WaPo (Gift Article): Pete Rose finally stopped. (But the debate over his legacy will live on.)

+ "No life in baseball has been more examined than his, because Rose made you examine it. Everything he did was powered by pure brass, and he knew as only the greats do that there is nothing Americans respond to quite as much as raw self-centered fascination. Humility, for public people, mostly just means performing how humble you are, and Rose never even bothered with that. In a culture that loves nothing more than the concept of 'me explaining the magnificence of me,' Rose was almost uniquely qualified to satisfy. There was no 'me' more 'me' than Pete Rose. He didn't even mind if you bothered him for an interview and found him wanting in honesty and character. It mattered only that you came, and left with a story." Ray Ratto nails Rose, and us: Pete Rose, All-American.

+ If you didn't see it when it came out, the Max doc series on Rose is worth a watch, both for the baseball, and his weird inability to stop lying and harming his own legacy. Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose.

5

Extra, Extra

Robo Stop: "U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers began their first large-scale strike in nearly 50 years on Tuesday, halting the flow of about half the country's ocean shipping, after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages." Given the timing of the strike, there could be political ramifications. But the bigger story is the one that pits human workers vs robots. "In a Facebook post before the strike, Jack Pennington, president of a local ILA group, wrote about 'the never ending threat of automation,' and how automation has left 'thousands of workers' in the automobile industry 'jobless.' He added the same is happening at major retail chains and grocery stores." Quartz: Robots are playing a big part in the U.S. port strike. Here's how.

+ Fact Wreck: If the bizarre beating Trump took during his debate with Kamala didn't put him in a hopeless position, it's hard to imagine that the Veep debate will have a major impact on the race. Maybe the biggest story to come out of tonight's debatewill be the decision by CBS News not fact check the candidates. As Brian Beutler explains: "CBS’s decision [not to fact check the debate] is mostly significant as an indication of how powerful institutions will bend to Trump should he win the presidency. Many are bending already, when he has no official power and is behind in the polls."

+ Jimmy Up Another Year: "Longtime friends, family and fans of Jimmy Carter milled around his hometown of Plains to celebrate his 100th birthday on Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the Depression-era farmer’s son to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy." Jimmy Carter is the first president to reach his 100th birthday. (Maybe god is a fan of decency.)

+ Madam President: "The political protege of popular outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has a reputation for being analytical, disciplined and unflappable. She campaigned on a promise to continue López Obrador’s legacy—a complicated one that is hard to fit into an ideological box. Supporters hail his popular social programs to help the poor; detractors accuse him of undermining the country’s fledgling democracy." 5 things to know about Mexico's first female president.

+ Amos: "John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom 'Good Times' and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries 'Roots,' has died. He was 84." He was definitely one of the most familiar faces of the 70s.

+ Fellow Nominees: Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list "The breadth of their work spans just about every aspect of science and society, from computer technology to evolutionary biology, disability justice to children's literature." (But, once again, no newsletter writers.)

6

Bottom of the News

"Those who are not particular about poultry terminology use tender to refer to any thin strip of boneless chicken. To people in Manchester and to chicken farmers, though, it means something specific: the tenderloin, a muscle along the backbone that gets very little exercise, hence its tenderness. Restaurants were cooking chicken sticks and chicken fingers before 1974. So far, though, nobody has seriously challenged Manchester’s status as first in the nation to embrace the true tender. Whether you fully accept the claim or not, though, the floppy strips of white meat in a deep-fried crust do seem to have first appeared around that time. If you were born in the United States more than 50 years ago, you can probably remember a world without chicken tenders. If you grew up later, you can’t." NYT: How Chicken Tenders Conquered America. (Technically, they conquered chickens...)

+ Fat Bear Week delayed after a large bear kills a rival bear.