October 8:
- Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated communities across a string of southern states, Florida is bracing for Hurricane Milton, the Category Four storm barrelling towards the Tampa Bay area and is expected to make landfall on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, fallout continues from the torrent of falsehoods and conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump and his supporters in the wake of Helene. One information academic described what was happening as “manipulating the sensemaking process” saying that social media rewards “sensationalism and outrage with attention.”
With four Tuesdays to go until election day, Vice-President Harris appeared on CBS 60 Minutes last night, kicking off a series of national media appearances including on The View, where she announced a plan for at-home senior care, then tonight with Stephen Colbert and Howard Stern. Separately, of course…
Bill Whitaker did a good job of confronting the VP with contradictions and it’s a real shame he didn’t have the chance to do the same to her opponent. Particularly since the media’s latest agenda du jour seems to have turned to responding to the NYT’s piece at the weekend seemingly granting permission to finally question his cognitive ability.
But it’s probably not surprising that Trump, whatever his reasons, took a pass on the chance to talk to about 15 million viewers, preferring to stay within his generally sympathetic and sycophantic MAGA echo chamber. Fox’s Laura Ingraham did, however, call him out on some fabrications at the weekend.
A new book by Bob Woodward has some interesting background details – as well as plenty of presidential expletives – about both Trump and President Biden that help fill out the public picture of both men and their priorities.
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- Heading into tonight’s potentially ill-tempered NL Division Series games in New York and San Diego, all four post-season series are tied at one game apiece.
Last night, Detroit made the most of another gem from Tarik Skubal, blanking Cleveland behind a three-run, ninth-inning homer by Kerry Carpenter. Meanwhile, Kansas City used a four-run fourth inning to hold off the Yankees. The AL series resumes on Wednesday.
Latest on the Post-Season here
- Luis Tiant, legendary Red Sox pitcher with a unique delivery, died aged 83.
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October 7:
- Israel marked the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks which killed more than 1,200 people – the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – and ignited the still-expanding conflict in the region which has reportedly now resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people in Gaza and at least a thousand more in a series of recent strikes in Lebanon, even as the world tonight still expects Israel to launch some form of high-level attack against Iran.
With Prime Minister Netanyahu vowing to persevere with his multi-front war, President Biden continues to support Israel’s right to defend itself, but has desperately wanted to avoid escalation, as well as finding agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages – efforts that have so far proven elusive.
Vice-President Harris, meanwhile, sidestepped a commitment that Netanyahu is a “close ally” of the US, telling CBS 60 Minutes “I think, with all due respect, the better question is, do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is ‘yes’.”
How the situation in the Middle East eventually affects the outcome of the US Presidential election will be an intriguing, nuanced balance state-by-state; but that, surely, is a discussion for a day other than this one. Whoever wins on November 5, the region’s challenges will, as Jon Alterman at CSIS writes, “vex not just the first 100 days, but the first 1,000.”
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October 5/6:
- With the election just a month away, Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the July rally where a shooter fired at the stage killing one of the former President’s supporters.
As you’d expect, it was a high-level MAGA cult event, made even more surreal by the appearance of Elon Musk, who Trump introduced by saying he had “saved free speech”. Musk’s political action committee by now seems to be largely running the Trump campaign’s ground game. But as Bloomberg reports, it faces “an uphill climb in get out the vote efforts”.
During the highly performative “do-over” – in an area of the crucial toss-up state that is solidly behind the GOP nominee – Trump and the other speakers returned to by-now familiar campaign themes:
“It started by honoring Corey Comperatore, the father who was killed during the assassination attempt at Trump’s rally here in July, but quickly turned into a standard rally speech that included criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration and energy policy, exaggerated claims about immigration and crime, and his continued false insistence that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election.”
The previous evening, at a Town Hall event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump made a series of “commitments” to rile up a largely military audience. When one of his supporters was brought on stage to “present” the former President with something, Trump said “It looks like a check. Is it cash?”
It was his Purple Heart.
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- Vice-President Harris, meanwhile, also visited North Carolina – her second trip in four days to observe relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Federal assistance for the region is “here for the long term” she said. But it feels like the constant falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the government’s response probably are too – at least until the election.
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- In the opening games of the Divisional Series, there were three hugely entertaining, unpredictable victories and one first-inning blowout; with wins for the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Cleveland…
In College Football, though, something truly remarkable happened.
And let’s face it…
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October 3/4:
- The death toll from Hurricane Helene rose above 200, making it the deadliest mainland US hurricane since Katrina in 2005. Yet despite the human cost, it seems some people will always look primarily for a political opportunity – despite the hypocrisy of their own record on disaster relief.
NPR reports that “Emergency management researchers lament that X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, which was once considered a useful source of information in a disaster, is instead contributing to the chaos in Helene’s wake” and that the Hurricane “became fodder for political attacks.”
Fema even had to set up a web page to debunk the flood (sorry) of baseless rumors and conspiracy theories attacking the government agency.
“Members of Congress and state emergency management services have issued statements to insist they are working around the clock on disaster response. Elected officials who serve the area have asked constituents not to spread rumors and instead help each other.”
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- The union representing dock workers said their 45,000 members would return to work, suspending their strike until January 15 to allow further discussions on a new contract.
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- At a rally in Ripon, WI – the “birthplace of the GOP” – former Rep Liz Cheney gave an impassioned appeal to Republicans to vote for Kamala Harris. It was the first time Cheney, who along with her father endorsed Harris last month, had appeared with the Vice-President, in what the Washington Post called “the Democratic nominee’s most emphatic display of cross-party support yet.”
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- President Biden can move forward with his student loan forgiveness plan, just weeks before November’s election, after a federal judge ruled that a temporary restraining order against the measure could expire.
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- Tina Peters, a pro-Trump former Colorado electoral clerk, was sentenced to nine years in prison for election tampering. Her sentencing is worth watching – the judge wasn’t holding back.
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- Israel continued its bombardment of Beirut while its military told residents of 20 towns in South Lebanon to evacuate as it pressed on with its cross-border incursion.
As the US and G7 consider likely scenarios for Israeli retaliation and possible Iranian response, the Washington Post takes a deep dive into “How Joe Biden lost his grip on Israel’s war for ‘total victory’ in Gaza”.
“The regional conflagration Biden sought to avoid now appears all but inevitable. In a new offensive that started late last month, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes and is sending ground forces into Lebanon against Hezbollah, the strongest of Iran’s proxies, killing hundreds of civilians and militants.”
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- In MLB’s Wild Card series, the Tigers, Royals and Padres advanced with two-game sweeps. The Mets and Brewers play their decider tonight to see who faces the Phillies. For the Astros, Orioles and Braves, it’s wait ‘til next year…
The Divisional Series begin on Saturday.
Latest on the Post-Season here
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October 2:
- Special Counsel Jack Smith’s detailed brief was unsealed, outlining why Donald Trump should not be immune from prosecution for events related to 2020 election interference and the events of Jan 6th 2021.
Trump, predictably, wasn’t happy…
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- Fallout continues from last night’s Vance–Walz Vice-Presidential debate. Rather than resembling a boxing match tied on points – although the Republican would be penalised for whining about being fact-checked amid several obvious falsehoods – it unfolded more like a football coach coming back in the fourth quarter to score a decisive victory that not only won the game but should, in normal circumstances, disqualify his elite opponent.
When Walz pressed Vance on Jan 6 and Trump’s “big lie” – foreshadowing today’s Jack Smith story – it was his best moment of the evening and the Harris-Walz campaign wasted no time in laying the exchange out for anyone who might have missed the finale.
The debate was largely praised as being “civil” and “courteous” even “normal” but that didn’t last long. In proving little other than he can lie in a way that makes him appear smarter and more serious than his running mate, Vance probably did himself no harm in terms of being a GOP candidate in future elections, whatever happens in November.
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- As the world waits for Israel’s kinetic response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, President Biden said the US would not support attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Although given the status of the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu, that might act as an incentive.
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- Starting pitchers were *dealing* in yesterday’s entertaining opening games in the Wild Card Series.
Latest on the Post-Season here
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October 1:
- Iran launched almost two hundred ballistic missiles against Tel Aviv in a long-feared escalation of the regional conflict. Damage and injuries are so far uncertain. The Pentagon and State Department said US forces had acted alongside Israel to defend against the attack, firing interceptor missiles from two Navy destroyers. The attack is thought to be about twice the level of Iran’s previous attack on Israel in April.
There was also a suspected terrorist attack on the streets of Tel Aviv this afternoon in which gunmen killed a number of people.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it had launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon overnight, ordering residents of several towns to move northwards. A million people have so far been displaced in the conflict, according to the Lebanese government. Hezbollah initially dismissed Israel’s claims of an invasion as “a lie”, creating yet more confusion amid a fluid and perpetually dangerous situation. Meanwhile Israel’s missile strikes on Beirut continued.
- Thousands of dock workers at ports across the country are on strike after their existing contract expired and exchanges between the union and port operators yesterday failed to resolve the dispute over pay and automation. It is the Longshoremens’ first strike since 1977 and comes at a sensitive moment in the election campaign, with the Teamsters’ Union warning the government to “stay the f**k out” of the dispute.
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- Ohio Sen JD Vance and Minnesota Gov Tim Walz face off tonight in this year’s sole vice-presidential debate, which could also be the last debate of the current White House campaign. Host network CBS News has been widely criticised for abandoning real-time fact-checking, saying it is “up to the candidates to fact-check each other”. (They seemed to be backtracking later, though the damage was arguably already done…)
- After a court in Georgia struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, a trial is due to begin today challenging the Election Board over new rules which Democrats argue will undermine the process of certifying results.
- Jimmy Carter turns 100 today, the first US President to reach that milestone and a man widely-regarded as the best example of how a former incumbent should live up to that role.
In an excellent tribute this morning, former Carter speechwriter James Fallows writes: “Probably only a country as near-impossible to lead as the United States of that time could have given someone like Jimmy Carter a chance to lead it.”
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- Baseball’s post-season begins today with the full bracket set after yesterday’s dramatic NL wild-card climax involving Jimmy Carter’s Atlanta Braves. And with no 100-game winners this year we could well see one of a number of the playoff teams break a significant World Series drought.
In the regular season just ended, Major League Baseball’s average attendance rose 0.9% this season, increasing in consecutive years for the first time since 2011-12. MLB drew 71.35 million fans over 2,413 gates for an average of 29,568, its highest since 30,042 in 2017, the commissioner’s office said.
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States of Play 