The Slip

Donald Trump finally said something that made me happy. He said that if he loses the election this November that it will be the last time he’ll run for President.

What made me happy is that for the first time he admitted that he could lose. Donald Trump never admits that he loses — at anything.

This is a man who cheats at golf on his own golf course playing against sycophants who are going to let him win anyway. 

He can’t bear the thought of losing..

As I was thinking about all of this, I suddenly realized that no human being has ever so thoroughly upset my basic sense of what our world is about as Donald J. Trump. 

It’s not the felonies, the rash statements, the terrible personal behavior, the awful word selection in his bizarre speeches, his lack of judgement about those he surrounds himself with, no, not even the fact that he is an existential threat to democracy.

No, for me it is that Donald Trump relentlessly advocates for hate in a world I want to believe is capable of love. 

Donald Trump is a relentless purveyor of fear, where I believe we must cultivate hope.

Donald Trump wants us to believe the worst about other people, whereas I wish to believe the best about other people.

His kind of poison crushes the spirit and I definitely have had way too much of the poison that is Donald J. Trump.

So when he made his offhand comment that he could lose in November, that gave me the tiniest glimmer of hope.

And that, if only for a moment, was a very special feeling.

HEADLINES:

• Israel is playing a high-risk game with its new Hezbollah strategy (CNN)

• Israel kills Hezbollah commander in airstrike on Beirut, security sources say (Reuters)

• Cold military logic takes over in Israel-Hezbollah conflict (BBC)

• Is this war? The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is hard to define — or predict (AP)

• Exploding Pagers and the Tech Race With China (WSJ)

• Tension in the Middle East looms over Biden’s last big U.N. meeting (WP)

• Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps has ordered all members to stop using any type of communication devicesafter thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon blew up in deadly attacks last week. (Reuters)

• Future Tropical Storm Helene A Hurricane Danger To Florida, Gulf Coast; Alerts Issued In Cancun (Weather Channel)

• The Southern California Wildfire Paradox (Atlantic)

• The politics of immigration play differently along the US-Mexico border (AP)

• GOP effort to change how Nebraska allocates electoral votes hits roadblock (WP)

• Trumponomics: the radical plan that would reshape America’s economy (Financial Times)

• John Oliver Says Donald Trump’s Comments on Immigrants Should Be ‘Disqualifying’ (Rolling Stone)

• Trump says, if he loses, 2024 run will be his last (AP)

• The Long, Strange Saga of Kamala Harris and Kimberly Guilfoyle

  More than two decades ago, the future vice president and the future conservative firebrand were rising legal stars in San Francisco. Then Ms. Guilfoyle accused Ms. Harris of trying to deny her a job. (Cal Today)

• Travel appears to slow the aging process— the social interactions, physical activity and healthy cuisines — help to delay the body’s decline, a new study found. (WP)

• SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform X. (Reuters)

• Decades later, string theory continues its march toward Einstein’s dream (WP)

• Letta, one of UC Berkeley’s most anticipated AI startups, has just come out of stealth (TechCrunch)

• LinkedIn is training AI on you — unless you opt out with this setting (WP)

• Wedding Cake Gets More Compliments Than Bride (The Onion)