"Enjoy:"
- Charles Marohn rips apart the OAFPOTUS's half-baked proposal to allow 50-year mortgages, which would transfer even more rents to bankers than the current housing situation does.
- In a spectacular own-goal that will, I hope, be rolled back very soon, Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin has decided the city will no longer buy US treasury bonds, which are still the safest investments in the world and do not "support the regime" as she daftly claims.
- Jennifer Rubin cheers the millions of voters who have come around to the unavoidable conclusion that the OAFPOTUS and his droogs are horrible, incompetent, corrupt people.
- Kyla Scanlon toured 30 states and two other countries to answer the question, "where did American prosperity go?"
- Will Gotsegen warns that, even though the Republican-caused, longest government shutdown in history ended yesterday, cleaning up from it will take a while.
- Historian Zachary Karabell explains that the OAFPOTUS's eye-watering corruption is (a) nothing new in US politics and (b) not the end of the Republic. (He agrees its awful, at least.)
- The US Mint in Philadelphia stamped out the last pennies ever yesterday. The first ones, minted in 1793, had the purchasing power equivalent of 33c today.
Finally, Chicago's Alinea has lost its third Michelin star, fundamentally changing the fine-dining scene in the city. When the 2026 Guide comes out officially next week, Chicago will have only one 3-star restaurant. Quel horreur !
You know, I probably won't be online much Friday through Sunday. I should try to do that more often.
- The OAFPOTUS pretty much guaranteed that Zohran Mamdani will win today's New York City mayoral election by endorsing former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, which I'm pretty sure Cuomo didn't want either.
- Brian Beutler chastises the Democratic Party for "the scourge of wimpiness." I am tempted to send him a strongly-worded email.
- US Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL9) departure from the US House has led to so many candidates running for her seat] in the March 2026 primary, it's hard to figure out who's who or what they stand for.
- Amherst College political science professor Javier Corrales outlines how Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro has woven the fates of the country's elites together to ensure that their literal survival depends on his political survival.
- Thirteen years after the USDOT and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania spent $77 million building two off-ramps into Chester, Pa., that the community didn't ask for, absolutely no benefits have accrued to the city. As Charles Marohn reminds us, this is "the predictable outcome of a transportation funding system that rewards appearance over impact."
Finally, Block Club Chicago spent the day at one of the last 24-hour-diners in Chicago, which happens to be just 2 km from my house. Now I know where to go if I'm craving a burger at 4am.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won game 7 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays last night in one of the best baseball games I've ever seen—though, for obvious reasons, not nearly as exciting as game 7 of the World Series in 2016.
The Dodgers looked buried early, falling behind 3-0 when a hobbled Bo Bichette took an exhausted Shohei Ohtani deep in the third inning. They seemed finished until the ninth, clawing back within one but never completely erasing the deficit — until Rojas saved the season with his game-tying home run to left.
Rojas saved the day for a second time on a ground ball at second base, fielding it from a drawn-in position before firing for a force-out at home plate. The next batter, Ernie Clement, sent a fly ball to deep left-center. Kiké Hernández and defensive replacement Andy Pages collided at the warning track. Hernández hit the deck. Pages completed the catch.
The game ended in the bottom of the 11th with a perfectly-executed 6-4-3 double play.
I had been rooting for the Blue Jays, but only because I thought that this year would be exactly the right year for the only Canadian team to win it all.
But it occurred to me, this may have been the first World Series ever in which the President of the United States was not welcome in either city.
It's late October, so the days are shorter. Then on Sunday, we get an extra hour of sleep at the cost of an hour of afternoon daylight.
Which is all to say I ran out of time today doing actual work and taking meetings at odd times because the UK switched their clocks yesterday.
And now I have to walk two dogs, feed two dogs, and run to rehearsal. More tomorrow.
I took the dramatic beagle and Cassie to Spiteful* yesterday afternoon. Butters got more pats than Cassie did. Perhaps it's this face?
This afternoon we took a half-hour walk through the local park because the weather is absolutely perfect. Whenever I stopped to try to photograph the two dogs, they immediately went in separate directions, so this is the best I could do:
The girls are now sunning themselves on my front porch, I'm up in my office coding away, and I've got chicken soup going in the slow cooker. It's definitely autumn.
* I really ought to update that Brews & Choos review...
The OAFPOTUS today destroyed the East Wing of the White House, which he does not own. This reminded long-time observers of the time in 1980 when he destroyed historic frescoes that he promised not to destroy with the grace and maturity of a toddler. He has changed quite a bit since then, but unfortunately only through age-related dementia and probably myriad other cognitive problems we'll find out about 20 years from now.
The constant firehose of awful things coming from him and his droogs also now includes his demand that the Department of Justice compensate him $230 million for the affront of being prosecuted for the awful things he did before. (Thanks, Merrick Garland.)
Meanwhile, Republicans continue to misinterpret why Democratic voters tell pollsters they don't like the Democratic party, since Republicans only understand blind fealty to their totem while we actually want to govern competently. Criticizing one's leaders, you see, helps get better leadership. It doesn't mean that Democrats will stay home next November, or that we'll vote for MAGA fanatics because we don't like that our nominee hedged on trans extremism. Oh, no. We will not.
At least the Sun-Times had something good to say about life today. Apparently there's a stretch of Grand Avenue west of Halsted that has some of the best pizza in the world. The tavern-style pie from Pizz'Amici they showed at the top of the article made me want to leave my office and head over there. Maybe this weekend...
Naturally, the press had a lot to say about the largest protest in my lifetime (I was born after the Earth Day 1970 demonstration):
- As many as 250,000 people turned out for the downtown Chicago event, which included a procession that carried a 23-meter replica of the US Constitution, and resulted in zero arrests or reports of violence. (The video of the procession leaving Grant Park is epic.)
- David Graham of The Atlantic explains why the protests got under the OAFPOTUS's skin: "Trump’s movement depends on the impression that it’s unstoppable and victorious. ... Huge protests that demonstrate he is not invincible endanger his political success: They offer people who voted for Trump reluctantly or who have had second thoughts a feeling of camaraderie and hope, and give them a way to feel okay ditching him. ... Trump and his allies seem to grasp what Saturday revealed: The protests are popular, and the president is not."
- Brian Fife sees a paradox in the protests: "One could find this inspiring, so many disparate causes united under one banner. But for those of us who want to see tangible reform in the United States, the lack of clear messaging or policy recommendations—especially during a protest intended to inspire action—was disorienting."
- Josh Marshall disagrees, lauding "the subtle genius of 'No Kings'," saying the name itself is "a deceptively resonant name and slogan with the deepest possible roots in American history. This brings with it a critical inclusivity, which grows out of the name itself and the lack of those specific and lengthy sets of demands that often characterize and ultimately fracture such movements. ... The jagged and total nature of the onslaught against the American Republic creates a clarity: We all know what we’re talking about. You don’t need to explain. The imperfect but orderly and generally lawful old way versus this. And when you say “No Kings,” you’re saying I don’t want this. I don’t accept presidential despotism. I’m here ready to show my face and say publicly that I will never accept it."
- Brian Beutler has "22 thoughts on No Kings DC," of which: "I do not think it’s a coincidence that, as anticipation grew, and the GOP panicked and smeared, universities rejected Trump’s extortionate higher-education “compact,” and the Chamber of Commerce finally decided to sue Trump, etc. The days of proactive capitulation seem to be ending."
I looked for mainstream Republican reactions to the event but only heard crickets. The OAFPOTUS's own response, which I will not dignify with a link, would be grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment in any normal era.
Meanwhile, the vandalism continues:
- Workers have begun demolishing the east side of the White House East Wing as the OAFPOTUS continues to wreak historical violence on the Executive Mansion without Congressional—i.e., the owner's—approval.
- Writing in Harvard Magazine, Lincoln Caplan examines the damage that US Chief Justice John Roberts has done to the Constitution, tracing his legal career from Harvard Law through his clerkship under US Chief Justice William Rehnquist, another hard-right ideologue who, unlike Roberts, didn't have the votes to become his generation's Roger Taney.
- Jeff Maurer suggests that Democrats simply change the conversation about immigration and not apologize for our past policy misses: "I think that Democrats can craft a positive, forward-looking message on immigration that starts a new conversation without dwelling on the past. It would tell a story that happens to be true, which is nifty, because I prefer political narratives that aren’t a towering skyscraper of bullshit whenever possible. The narrative goes like this: 'America is rich, safe, and vibrant because we’ve always attracted the smartest, hardest-working people from around the world. We need an immigration system that attracts the best and the brightest for years to come.'"
- North Carolina, already one of the most-Gerrymandered states in the union, has passed a new congressional map they believe will give them a 10th Republican US House seat, with only three Democratic-majority districts in Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte. (They've even managed to get Asheville to turn pink, based on 2024 election results.)
- Adam Kinzinger suggests encouraging Russia to end its war in Ukraine through the simple expedient of giving $2 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine each day the war goes on.
- Julia Ioffe reviews the life of Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, Vladimir Putin's ex-wife.
- Molly White explains the October 10th crypto meltdown that destroyed $19 billion of Bitcoin holdings in just a few seconds.
And hey, I even read some non-political news in the past 24 hours:
Finally, it warms my heart to read that Gen Z workers have the same attitude toward workplace "emergencies" that Gen X workers have always had. (Boomers and Millennials, WTF is wrong with y'all?)
I thoroughly enjoyed our performance yesterday. After the No Kings demonstration, between the dress rehearsal and the concert, and well before the rain hit, Millennium Park looked pretty nice:
After the concert, I did not enjoy the rainstorm that greeted us when we walked over to the place where we had our post-concert drinks and snacks. I got home well after midnight, which fortunately Cassie didn't mind because she was at sleepaway camp.
Cassie, now home, seems to be recovering from the trauma pretty well:
I also finished Cory Doctorow's Enshittification a few minutes ago. At the very end he pointed to an essay by Cat Valente, "Stop Talking to Each Other and Buy Things," which I now recommend to you.
I will now debug some unit tests and watch vaguely-interesting videos because my body battery has dropped to 7.
I'll be in tonight's Ear Taxi Festival performance at Harris Theater in Millennium Park, singing Damien Geter's African American Requiem. I'm really enjoying the piece. Even though our call time (1:30pm) makes it impossible to participate in the No Kings demonstration happening just 400 meters away from the concert venue, I think the chorus are doing their parts as Geter's message is relevant to the day.
If you're in Chicago, come for the demonstration and stay for the concert!
If you're not in Chicago, find a No Kings demonstration near your house and help break the Earth Day 1970 record for largest demonstration in US history.
After almost two years, Chicago's "rat hole" continues to leave an impression on people:
Initially, the origin story of the hole seemed straightforward: a brown rat scurried onto a wet layer of concrete and became trapped. There were no signs of escape, so the rat most likely died and was somehow eventually removed, leaving behind a cavity as the concrete dried. The series of events seemed plausible in Chicago, which was named the country’s “rattiest” city for the 10th year in a row in 2024 by the pest control service Orkin. However, there has been little evidence to tie the rat hole to its eponymous rodent.
A team of researchers recently analyzed the anatomical dimensions of the rat hole to identify the critter that left the sidewalk impression. Their findings, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters, reveal that another rodent is responsible for the hole. “We can affirmatively conclude that this imprint was not created by a rat,” said Michael Granatosky, an evolutionary biomechanist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Statistical analyses revealed that the size and shape of the hole closely aligned with larger-bodied rodents, particularly tree squirrels in the genus Sciurus. The team concluded with nearly a 99 percent likelihood that the rat hole was left by either an eastern grey squirrel or a fox squirrel, both found within Chicago’s city limits.
A squirrel creating the hole is not a complete surprise.
No, and in fact I thought we'd settled this over a year ago. The most likely hypothesis that I've encountered posits that, sometime in 1993 when the concrete was first poured, a raptor startled a squirrel who was either in the then-existent tree above the sidewalk or on the roof of the apartment building next to it. The squirrel decided that down was better than dead (squirrels can fall any distance without harm if they're conscious) and was surprised to discover the wet concrete below. The lack of exit tracks is easily explained either by the squirrel not having enough mass to make further impressions in the concrete, or the aforementioned raptor plucking the confused, now-stuck rodent up into the air.
In any event, the squirrel has been dead for at least 25 years, the hypothetical hawk probably just as long, and the concrete square containing the impression has buggered off to City Hall.