A Happy Woman or an Unhappy Man?

“Did I not warn you? People hate a happy woman.” — “The Idea of You”

***

Something that has puzzled me this election season is the criticism of Kamala Harris’s giggle, and how it seemingly turns some people off more than Donald Trump’s hideous scowl. Why is this?

Recently, I may have found the answer to that question in, of all places, a sweet little film called “The Idea of You,” in which a 40ish divorced mother named Solène (Anne Hathaway) falls in love with a much younger pop singer named Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine).

Like most good Hollywood romances, the storyline of the movie is certainly improbable. The two meet by accident backstage before a concert and their mutual attraction is immediately obvious to both of them and to us.

When Hayes pursues her with a boyishly awkward seduction attempt, against her better instincts Solène allows herself to be drawn into this impossible affair, which leads to an erotic rendezvous in New York followed by an extended magical mystery tour with Hayes’ band in Europe. The couple believe their relationship will stay secret, but in several reckless moments at a beach and in a cafe they are surreptitiously photographed, and those photographs will soon surface on the Internet.

All hell breaks loose when they do, ultimately dooming any small chance their relationship ever had in the first place and they sadly must part ways. 

“If the roles were reversed, do you think anyone else would give a shit?” Hayes asks, quasi-rhetorically at one point in the film. Solène later utters the key line in what was reportedly an improv that Hathaway came up with on set: “I didn’t know my being happy would piss so many people off.” 

And that in a nutshell may be part of the dilemma facing Kamala Harris and her team — how to let her show off her natural self, which includes the giggle and lots of smiles, without triggering what is quite clearly a deep-set impulse among members of the public to mistrust female joy.

One of the most useful things I have learned over a long lifetime of trying to overcome my own internalized biases, such as sexism, racism or homophobia, is that we first have to become conscious we have them, then strive purposely to move forward leaving them behind.

That is one of the major challenges now facing those Americans resistant to electing our first female president. The contrast between Harris and her opponent couldn’t be greater on many, many levels, but the contrasting emotions they elicit — of joy/hope/positivity vs. hate/fear/anger — is contributing to a gender gap among voters.

And that gap appears to be reaching historic proportions this election cycle.

Of course, when it comes to this type of political drama, we’ve all seen the movie before, in 2016, when Hillary Clinton played the lead role against the same bad guy. That movie had an unhappy ending, so can this one turn out differently?

Well, sometimes in life, as in movies, when enough time has passed and we are lucky, we get another chance at happiness or love or to just to do the right damn thing, like vote into office our first woman president.

And as to what happens at the conclusion of “The Idea of You,” you’ll just have to watch the movie.

.

HEADLINES: 

• Trump rallies in Aurora — a city he has demonized as overrun by migrant crime (NPR)

• Harris campaign spotlights Trump's jab at Detroit in new ad (Detroit News)

• A quick guide to swing state Pennsylvania (BBC)

• In appeal to Latino voters, Harris warns of the danger of Trump’s dictator vow (WP)

• Kamala Harris Surges Ahead of Donald Trump in New National Poll (Newsweek)

• Republicans Appear Poised to Take Control of Senate, New Poll Shows (NYT)

• The Trumpification of American policy (Economist)

• Back-to-back hurricanes reshape the final stretch of the Presidential election campaign (AP)

• Social media platform TikTok is laying off hundreds of employeesfrom its global workforce, including a large number of staff in Malaysia, as it shifts focus towards a greater use of artificial intelligence in content moderation. (Reuters)

• Voters Expect Trump to Deny Defeat — and Many Don’t Mind (New York)

• Is Donald Trump the greatest grifter of them all? Melania is giving him a run for his money (Guardian)

• Harris viewed more positively by Hispanic women than by Hispanic men: AP-NORC poll (AP)

• Eight years ago, Trump vowed to ‘drain the swamp.’ Now he swims in it. (WP)

• The Supreme Court Has Grown Too Powerful. Congress Must Intervene. (NYT)

• Hezbollah is preparing for a long war of attrition in south Lebanon, after Israel wiped out its top leadership, with a new military command directing rocket fire and the ground conflict, two sources familiar with its operations said. (Reuters)

• War Comes to Beirut (New Yorker)

• Elon Musk’s Beer-Pouring Optimus Robots Are Not Autonomous (Gizmodo)

• Robot Vacuums Hacked to Shout Slurs at Their Owners (Vice)

• Silicon Valley is debating if AI weapons should be allowed to decide to kill (TechCrunch)

• Conspiracy Theorists Claim Hurricanes Man-Made (The Onion)

 

The (Most Likely) Scenario

Those of us keeping a close watch on the polls are seeing what was hardly imaginable a week ago: The race for president is getting even tighter.

Last week, I had calculated that the winning margin in the battleground states would come down to 0.0023 of the national electorate. According to my latest math, that sliver has been cut by a third to 0.0016 of the national electorate. It’s so close that if somebody in the Midwest should sneeze or somebody else in the Sunbelt blinks, the whole thing could pivot one way or the other in a flash.

Over the past week, the numbers have all shifted slightly in Trump’s favor. He has cut into Harris’s lead in the Blue Wall states and widened his lead in the Sunbelt. The leads for either candidate have become microscopic — under 1 point in six of the seven. Arizona is the lone exception (Trump is up 1.5 points there). 

So not only are they all within the margin of error, they are within the margin of believability. What is going on here?

Anyway, based on the latest poll averages from 538 as of 7 a.m. PT this morning, it now looks like the vote margins in the seven battlegrounds will now be as follows:

Arizona Trump +52,860

Georgia Trump +41,600

Michigan Harris +51,849

Nevada Harris +11,688

N. Carolina Trump +51,714

Pennsylvania Harris +43,290

Wisconsin. Harris +20,580

As close as these races may be, one thing has not changed — Harris still is in line to win the Electoral College, 277-261.

But here’s the deal. We are extremely unlikely to know which side won on November 5th or for days afterward, as the ballots continue to be counted. Even then, due to such close popular vote margins, the loser is certain to challenge the results of the closest state races in court, further delaying and confusing matters.

Therefore, this election, like that in 2000, could end up with the Supreme Court, which if it acted in what was perceived as a partisan manner, would effectively end our democracy as we’ve known it for the past 250 years.

There are 25 days until the election. Mail-in voting is underway. Depending on turnout, the weather, current events, and factors that cannot be anticipated, final results could still vary significantly from my projections.

(Note on methodology: I took the vote totals in each state in 2020, increased them by four percent to account for population growth and then used 538’s latest poll averages as of this morning to calculate the number of likely vote totals and margins in each state.)

HEADLINES:

• Exclusive: Harris overtakes Trump among suburban voters, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows (Reuters)

• Battle for Swing States Is Tied, Trump Has Edge on Top Issues, WSJ Poll Shows (WSJ)

• What do polls tell us about race for Pennsylvania? (BBC)

• Inside the Battle for America’s Most Consequential Battleground State (NYT)

• Behind the Curtain: Dems' Blue Wall blues (Axios)

• Harris faces urgency to more forcefully signal a break from Biden. Aides say Harris is deeply loyal to Biden and resistant to publicly doing anything that could be construed as criticizing his presidency, though his favorability ratings remain underwater. Harris’ team has tried to keep Biden at a distance on the campaign trail, yet she has been pulled into appearing by his side to address emergencies. (AP)

• Ohio voters dismiss false claims about Haitians, but Trump has slight lead, Post poll finds (WP)

• Former President Donald Trump boasted about his crowd size during his rally in Reading, Pennsylvania. "We never have an empty seat, never have, look at it," he said. The only problem? There were plenty of empty seats toward the back of the venue. [HuffPost]

• Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead in Florida as millions left without power in storm’s aftermath (Independent)

• Hurricane shocked state with deadly tornadoes well ahead of landfall (WP)

• At least 9 deaths confirmed following monster storm slamming into Florida (NBC)

• Taylor Swift Donates $5 Million to Hurricane Helene and Milton Relief Efforts (Rolling Stone)

• What we couldn't prepare for with Hurricane Milton (Axios)

• Florida threatens to criminally charge TV stations airing abortion rights ad (WP)

• US inflation reaches lowest point in 3 years, though some price pressures remain (AP)

• U.N. says Israeli forces battling Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon fire on UNIFIL peacekeepers, wounding two (CBS)

• Iranian Official Heads to Saudi Arabia as Israel Postpones U.S. Meeting (NYT)

• These maps and images show what's left of Gaza, 1 year into the Israel-Hamas war (NPR)

• Earth’s wildlife populations have disappeared at a ‘catastrophic’ rate in the past half-century, new analysis says(WP)

• Google's Nobel prize winners stir debate over AI research (Reuters)

• Someone claims to have used AI to apply to 2,843 jobs (TechCrunch)

• How to Say No to Our A.I. Overlords (NYT)

• Ambulance Driver Pretty Embarrassed She Did All That Just To Go Three Blocks (The Onion)

 

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

As the monster storm Milton smashed into on Florida, less than two weeks after its precursor, Helene, devastated the entire Southeast, the nation’s leaders were engaged in a clash of dueling narratives over storm relief.

It was if the rest of us were kids watching our soon-to-be divorcing parents fight at the very moment we just needed them to notice that the world was falling apart before our terrified eyes.

Talk about the road to dystopia.

The Republicans, led by Trump and Vance, continue to spread rumors, half-truths and outright lies designed to undermine trust in the federal government, led by Biden and Harris, who were desperately trying to show that they indeed were in charge.

As part of that effort, the President and Vice-President held an unprecedented televised meeting with their senior aides to reassure the nation that everything was under control.

Their senior aides obligingly complied.

Meanwhile, Tim Walz stayed out of the hurricane psychodrama altogether to focus on calling for the end of the Electoral College. I’m beginning to think he’s the only guy in America who sees what is happening here.

I know the kerfuffle over storm relief is just politics as usual, but it was distressing and unsettling to me to watch our political leaders seem so clueless about how this affects the rest of us. Do we still have a country any more, or is it more like two countries, you know, mom’s house and dad’s house?

When the pundits talk about political chaos, this is what they mean. But when disaster strikes what we yearn for his national unity, even if it won’t last. And it’s clear that there will never be any semblance of unity until Donald Trump is gone from the scene. God help us should he return to power.

Thanks to Susan Zakin and the Journal of the Plague Years for publishing my essay, “What Really Matters.” I recommend the Journal for its unique mix of fiction and non-fiction focusing on the here and now.

HEADLINES:

• Hurricane Milton marched across central Florida after making landfall on the state's west coast hours earlier, whipping up deadly tornadoes, destroying homes and knocking out power to nearly 3 million customers. A handful of Republican leaders have condemned hurricane misinformation spread by their own party. (Reuters)

• The hurricane X-factor in the 2024 election (WP)

• Just like Hurricane Helene, climate change boosts rain and wind from Milton, scientists say (AP)

• US Republicans condemn hurricane misinformation spread by their own party (Reuters)

• 'It's so stupid': Biden shoots down Marjorie Taylor Greene's conspiracy theory about controlling the weather (NBC)

• Poll Finds Harris Rising as She Challenges Trump on Change (NYT)

• The fight for the House and Senate: Where things stand (WP)

• Millions of people in the U.S. don’t vote. Could anything change their minds? (AP)

• Harris campaign concerned about money after raising $1 billion (WP)

• Hezbollah reports clashes with Israeli troops along Lebanese border (Reuters)

• Canceled visit by Israel’s top defense official highlights tensions ahead of Iran counterstrike (WP)

• Why Russia Is in More Trouble Than It Looks (New York)

• A Cartel Double-Cross Turns a Mexican State Into a War Zone (NYT)

• North Korea's Army said it will completely cut off roads and railwaysconnected to South Korea, and fortify the areas on its side of the border, state media KCNA reported. (Reuters)

• Finally, the Bad Guys Had a Bad Day at the Supreme Court (Slate)

• New allegations about Kavanaugh’s FBI probe spark awkward questions (MSNBC)

• Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster (New Yorker)

• Democrats grow anxious as Election Day nears (CNN)

• Google Should Worry About Regulators’ Case Against Its AI Push (Bloomberg)

• Couple Denied Marriage License After Failing To Prove Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt (The Onion)

MUSIC (Listen):

D-I-V-O-R-C-E by Tammy Wynette (1968)

[Verse 1]
Our little boy is four years old and quite a little man
So we spell out the words we don't want him to understand
Like T-O-Y or maybe S-U-R P-R-I-S-E
But the words we're hiding from him now
Tear the heart right out of me

[Chorus]
Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E

[Verse 2]
Watch him smile, he thinks it Christmas or his fifth Birthday
And he thinks C-U-S-T-O-D-Y spells fun or play
I spell out all the hurtin' words and turn my head when I speak
'Cause I can't spell away this hurt
That's drippin' down my cheek

[Chorus]
Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me

Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E 

Mattering

 I’m not sure that I ever fully appreciated it at the time — in fact, I’m quite sure I didn’t — but during the years that one of my obligations was to drop my kids off at school it actually was a privilege.

Like all adults trying to balance responsibilities, I probably complained about it on occasion, and it certainly could be stressful when we were running late.

But what I mean by calling it a privilege is that even at the time I knew, deep down, that I was somehow playing an essential role in our societal ecosystem. And believing that your role matters is not always the easiest thing to achieve in our culture, especially as you age.

Years later, when those parental obligations are done and the kids are grown, you become conscious that you are no longer quite so essential — that, in fact, you’re now basically inessential. Retiring from work accentuates that awareness, as your professional responsibilities, once deemed weighty and significant, melt away as well.

At that point you may start pondering just how little you did mattered in the larger scheme of things.

***

It’s painfully obvious that our society doesn’t know what to do about its aging population. Watching what happened to Joe Biden as he was cast aside was a very public reminder of that. But it is also instructive what has happened since.

The person most likely to have benefitted from throwing Biden under her bus has steadfastly refused to do so. Instead, Kamala Harris has defended Biden and his legacy, even as she pays a steep political price for her loyalty.

Given the perfect chance Tuesday to name one of Biden’s policies she disagreed with, Harris demurred, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” 

That was hardly a politically expedient thing to say as Republicans try to weaponize her loyalty to a President with low approval ratings. But it is precisely what a person of principle might do, regardless of the consequences.

It also had the effect of honoring an elder, though we’re not accustomed to think of it that way.

Beyond the politics of this, the larger context here reaches into the existential human dilemma involved with aging and caring — including the universal experience of feeling essential, then inessential, and how to bring all of that back into balance.

Something else Harris said on Tuesday may prove even more consequential in this regard.

Outlining her plan to expand Medicare to cover home health care for the aged, Harris noted: "There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They're taking care of their kids and they're taking care of their aging parents, and it's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work."

And then — and this is key — she added, “(Seniors) want to stay in their home. They don't want to go somewhere else, plus for the family to send them to a residential care facility, to hire somebody, is so expensive.”

It was not only what she said; it was the way she said “they don’t want to go somewhere else.” As I watched her speak, I thought to myself, ‘here is someone who actually gets it, she understands.’

***

Early in 2020, just as the pandemic was arriving and recovering from a stroke, I moved into an assisted care facility. At the time it seemed like the only option left for me. In fact, the last place on earth I needed to be was with a bunch of other old people walled off from society, waiting to die. Nothing against the staff members in there, most of whom were terrific, or the residents, but every minute I spent in that place my hope was evaporating and spirit was being crushed.

In the end I was one of the lucky ones. My family rescued me and that’s why I can tell this story today.

Ii’s my belief that Kamala Harris has the empathy and the vision to see not only what matters to people like those of us now at that critical stage of caring for and being cared for at this vulnerable point in our lives. She also understands what the government can and should try to do about making things easier on all of us, including our caretakers.

What’s really brilliant about Harris’s plan is it would help families of all stripes and definitions keep their loved ones out of institutions, and in the process give many of us a second shot at again doing those little things that matter even if we didn’t realize that when we were young. 

And I commend her for that, while noting that Donald Trump isn’t capable of even comprehending what I’m talking about here.

***

When I woke up yesterday morning, it was obvious that our long, intense heat wave had finally broken. Fresh cool air swept in from the ocean and through my open windows. I stretched, pulled on my clothes and drank a cup of coffee.

A few minutes after 8 a.m. I grabbed the car keys. My 10-year-old granddaughter brushed her hair and hoisted her backpack.

“I’m ready, Grandpa.”

Then I drove her to school. And it was my distinct privilege to do that.

HEADLINES: 

• Harris proposes Medicare cover home care costs to help the 'sandwich generation' (NPR)

• ‘Not a thing that comes to mind’ for Harris on what she would have done differently from Biden (Politico)

• Harris announces plan for Medicare to cover long-term care at home (Guardian)

• Harris Holds Onto Lead In 3 New Polls (Forbes)

• Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris led Republican Donald Trump by a marginal three percentage points - 46% to 43% - as the two remain locked in a close race to win the election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. (Reuters)

• Trump spoke to Putin as many as 7 times since leaving office, Bob Woodward reports in new book (AP)

• Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage, new book says (WP)

• Tampa Bay hasn’t been hit directly by a major hurricane since 1921. Milton may be the one (AP)

• Dire Warnings for Storm-Weary Floridians as Hurricane Milton Approaches (NYT)

• ‘The worst I have ever seen’: Disinformation chaos hammers FEMA (Politico)

• Illegal migration at US border drops to lowest level since 2020 (USA Today)

• The Mideast War Threatens Harris in Michigan as Arab Voters Reject Her (NYT)

• Can ghost guns be regulated as firearms? The Supreme Court will decide (NPR)

• In landmark move, EPA requires removal of all U.S. lead pipes in a decade (WP)

• Israeli military claims hit on Hezbollah HQ commander (Al Jazeera)

• The Israeli military piled more pressure on Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying it was conducting "limited, localized, targeted operations" in Lebanon's southwest, expanding its incursions into a new zone. (Reuters)

• War enters key phase with Ukraine's strike on major Crimea oil terminal, Zelenskyy says (AP)

• Field study finds using biodiversity instead of pesticides can reduce crop damage from herbivores (phys.org)

• New archaeology tools are helping unearth long-lost cities. (WP)

• Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists (NYT)

• Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI Who Expressed Alarm Over the Technology, Shares Nobel Prize in Physics (WSJ)

• I've been testing ChatGPT Canvas — here's why I think it's the most important AI tool of the year (tom’s)

• OpenAI announces content deal with Hearst, including content from Cosmopolitan, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle (CNBC)

• J.D. Vance Under Fire For Criticizing Childless Children (The Onion)

Super Storms

Someone once described Florida as a tropical green finger reaching into the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. 

Ever since my first visit there as a youngster, I've loved the place. My uncle had an ice cream store somewhere near Tampa. When I helped out there during our visit one summer, the reward was all the ice cream I could eat.

In my 30s and 40s I spent part of each summer on Sanibel Island off of Ft. Myers well south of Tampa. I wrote parts of three books down there.

There are many other memories as well, some of them bittersweet. My Dad died in Florida. For all six of my kids, Florida was at some point in their lives a special kind of paradise.

But Florida has a huge problem and it’s called climate change. As it has gotten battered by storm after storm in recent years, long-time residents are starting to question how much longer life in the Sunshine State will even be viable.

Those concerns are hitting a crescendo right now. Helene caused extensive damage with only a passing blow. The cleanup is still underway and now Milton is headed straight for Tampa.

Of course there is a political storm in the aftermath of Helene over the allocation of resources, mainly in North Carolina. But that is to be expected in the final weeks of a campaign, especially when you have one candidate, Trump, willing to exploit any disaster for his own gain. 

Meanwhile, everyone else is worried whether a very special corner of the planet is going to become one of first casualties of global climate change.

HEADLINES: 

• Hurricane Milton is a Category 5. Florida orders evacuations and scrambles to clear Helene’s debris (AP)

• Once in a Lifetime Storm (Weather Channel)

• The Great Florida Migration Is Coming Undone (WSJ)

• Why the Tampa Bay area is especially vulnerable as Milton nears (WP)

• A Changing Climate Is Scorching the World’s Biggest River (NYT)

• 1 year after Hamas attacked Israel, the conflict grows more dangerous than ever (NPR)

• 5 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ one-on-one interview with ‘60 Minutes’ (CNN)

• Latino voters explain why they're moving to the right (Business Insider)

• Professor who correctly predicted 9 presidential elections weighs in on 'October surprise' (CNN)

• Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age (NYT)

• Trump would add twice as much to national debt as Harris, study finds (WP)

• JD Vance said Donald Trump would end funding to Planned Parenthood. The comments from Trump’s running mate, were made this weekend. (WP)

• Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, has discussed US-Saudi diplomatic negotiations involving Israel with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman multiple times since leaving the Trump White House. (Reuters)

• How Jack Smith Outsmarted the Supreme Court (Atlantic)

• Arm position during blood pressure check may lead to wrong reading, study finds (NBC)

• Rises in life expectancy have slowed dramatically, analysis finds (Guardian)

• Artist appeals copyright denial for prize-winning AI-generated work (Ars Technica)

• People are listening to AI-generated podcasts. You might want to, too. (WP)

• Modern-Day Magellan Discovers New Dining Options By Zooming In A Little On Google Maps (The Onion)

The Watchtower

A month out from Election Day, the polling site 538 gives Kamala Harris a 55 percent chance of winning the election over Donald Trump. Harris maintains a narrow lead of about 2.5 points in the national polls, and enough of a lead in key Blue Wall battleground states to eke out a victory in the Electoral College.

Harris leads Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin by identical margins of 1.6 points and in Pennsylvania by a minuscule 0.5 points. She also has a commanding lead in the Blue Dot district of Nebraska with its one electoral vote and a 1.0 lead in Nevada.

If those leads hold, it would translate into a Harris victory in the Electoral College, 277-261.

But the problem with these polls as prediction engines is that they all fall well within the margin of error. So while 538 only gives Trump a 45 percent chance of winning, I think the actual odds are closer to 50-50.

That’s because Trump has been edging closer to Harris in the Blue Wall states in recent weeks, and has been holding sway in the Sunbelt — Arizona (by 1.1 points), Georgia (by 1.2 points) and by 0.9 points in North Carolina.

Should Trump win these three and flips Pennsylvania, he would win, 280-268.

Harris will win the popular vote by a large margin. The only question is by how much. Currently, it appears to be well over 4 million votes, which would be more than Hillary Clinton’s popular vote victory in 2016 (2.9 million) but less than Joe Biden’s in 2020 (7 million).

It’s worth noting that if the U.S. were a direct democracy, Trump never would have gotten his first term, let alone have a shot at a second.

HEADLINES: 

• Who Is Favored To Win The 2024 Presidential Election? (538)

• 30 Days Out, the Harris and Trump Campaigns Brace for ‘Trench Warfare’ (NYT)

• Combating Misinformation Runs Deeper Than Swatting Away ‘Fake News’ (Scientific American)

• Hurricane Milton strengthens into a Category 4. Florida prepares for evacuations and storm surge (AP)

• A Worst-Case Hurricane Scenario Could Be Emerging For Tampa Bay (Forbes)

• Mushrooms are the darling of sustainability (WP)

• 'Ridiculous and just plain false': FEMA administrator knocks Trump's Hurricane Helene recovery claims (USA Today)

• Facing military setbacks, Tehran may look to the bomb, analysts fear (WP)

• As Israel Attacks, Many Lebanese Feel Dragged Into Someone Else’s War (NYT)

• Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah (WP)

• A Kris Kristofferson Story You Never Heard (Journal of the Plague Years)

• 'Ghost ship of the Pacific' found in amazing state off California coast (SF Gate)

• Meta Unveils Instant A.I. Video Generator That Adds Sounds (NYT)

• NFL Attempts To Boost Kickoff Scoring By Adding Defensive Blindfolds (The Onion)

LYRICS:

All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan

There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None will level on the line
Nobody offered his word
Hey, hey

No reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's getting late, hey

Hey

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Well, uh, outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey

All along the watchtower 

Tropical Nights

 For reasons that I cannot explain, an intense spell of really hot weather alters my mood and my orientation as a writer. This is going to sound crazy, but as the temperature rises, my interest in facts declines and I’m drawn much more to fiction.

I’m bringing this up because we are experiencing an unusually persistent heat wave in Northern California. The temperatures have reached well into the 90s and even over 100 in some places. I’ve got the windows open, the fan on high and a tumbler of ice water, but the heat is having its way with me.

I’ve just got to make stuff up.

That’s no doubt why I abandoned the campaign trail to publish my short story, “Tidelines” a few days ago. The heat sent me digging through old files to locate fiction I wrote while in the tropics decades ago.

Tidelines seeks a different kind of truth.

The story focuses on the instinct for escape, the risks of the unknown, the impulse to surrender to suicidal thoughts, the fog of addiction, the insatiable power of new attractions, the scarring from repeated losses, the excitement of exploration, the resilience of hope and faith, the overwhelming intricacy of our ecosystems and, in the end, the dilemma posed by pure, unrestrained beauty — both of the people in our lives and our vulnerable planet.

In real life, I’ve experienced some of these things, come close to others and imagined the rest.

I guess you could call it environmental fiction. Or you might write it off as an aberration due to some combination of the sporadic recurrence of the typhoid fever that almost killed me in India, global warming, and the sensuous memory of long, hot tropical nights with a lover, all of which were not confined to my dreams.

I’ll get back to the election tomorrow.

HEADLINES:

• Swing-state breakdown: Here’s where the Harris-Trump race stands (The Hill)

• Kamala Harris for President (New Yorker)

• Harris meets with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan (WP)

• Trump’s return to Butler marks a dramatically changed race (Politico)

• Musk: "I'm dark MAGA" (Axios)

• Minority rule is threatening US democracy like never before (Reveal)

• Tropical Storm Milton forecasted to become major hurricane. Here's what Florida can expect. (CBS)

• Tropical Storm Milton tracker: Major hurricane forecast to slam Florida (USA Today)

• Tropical Storm Milton To Become A Hurricane Tonight, Poses Major Hurricane Threat To Florida (Weather Channel)

• Ports Rush to Reopen After First Major Strike in Decades Is Suspended (NYT)

• A Wharton Professor Makes the Economic Case for More Immigration (Bloomberg)

• EU slaps tariffs on China’s electric vehicles (Reuters)

• America Is Lying to Itself About the Cost of Disasters (Atlantic)

• FEMA deploys to rough terrain after Helene as it faces criticism, fights misinformation (WP)

• A clearer picture of Helene's fury begins to emerge as cut-off communities take stock of what remains (NBC)

• What fueled Hurricane Helene and caused so much devastation (WP)

• Charting the Global Economy: US Labor Market Powers Forward (Bloomberg)

• A strike on a mosque kills 19 as Israel bombards northern Gaza and southern Beirut (NPR)

• Inside Iran's proxy war with Israel in the West (Reuters)

• Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival (WP)

• 10 Unforgettable Kris Kristofferson Covers (NYT)

• Kris Kristofferson’s songs felt as big and nuanced as life itself (WP)

• The Onion's Future News From The Year 2137 Covers The Ongoing Irsaeli-Palestinian Conflict (The Onion)