The Daily Parker

Because I had a busy weekend, I had quite a full inbox this morning. After deleting the 85% of it that came from the Democratic Party and the Harris-Walz campaign (guys, you've already got my vote, FFS), I still had quite a few items of interest:

• Michael Tomasky reminds everyone: the XPOTUS is an evil buffoon, not an evil genius.
• Yesterday that same evil buffoon mooted a "Purge"-like day for the police to rough everyone up a bit.
• Contra most New York Times articles this election cycle, the Post's Jennifer Rubin lays out Kamala Harris's actual policy proposals.
• The Tribune's Laura Washington asks the same question I've asked several times: why is Dorval Carter still the CTA president?
• Chicago will elect half its school board for the first time in November, but other than a few articles in Block Club, no one seems to care.
• Over 100,000 Verizon customers lost service across the country today; no one knows why yet.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology has finally proposed common-sense password recommendations that I hope someone in my company's Global Corporate Services IT department actually reads.
• Because of climate change, Switzerland and Italy have to redraw part of their shared border in the Alps.

Finally, astronomers have found a rocky, Earth-sized planet orbiting a dying main-sequence white dwarf star, seemingly having survived the star's expansion during its red-giant phase. This suggests that our planet may last until the end of time itself. Life on Earth probably won't last more than a billion more years, but that's someone else's problem.

The intersection of my vacation next week and my group's usual work-from-home schedule means I won't come back to my office for two weeks. Other than saving a few bucks on Metra this month, I'm also getting just a bit more time with Cassie before I leave her for a week.

I've also just finished an invasive refactoring of our product's unit tests, so while those are running I either stare out my window or read all these things:

• Yes, Virginia (and Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina), you are much better off than you were four years ago.
• The Illinois Attorney General has filed an environmental suit against Trump Tower for refusing to fix its water-intake system.
• A New York City cop who fought against "courtesy cards" won a $175,000 settlement from the city.
• A developer plans to raze a 175-year-old house in Glencoe, Ill., designed by William Boyington, because we can't have nice things anymore.
• Speaking of not having nice things, after £175m spent and 12 years of construction, the Old Street roundabout in Islington, London, looks...about the same as before.

Finally, the New York Times ran a story in its Travel section Tuesday claiming Marseille has some of the best pizza in Europe. I will research this assertion and report back on the 24th.

Oh, my, the morning newspapers were not kind to the geriatric demented convicted-felon XPOTUS.

Frank Bruni: "Trump made a raving, rambling fool of himself on Tuesday night, and while Harris by no means did everything right, she had the good sense to alternately call him out on that and simply watch him unravel. She had the discipline to shake her head sadly and smile dismissively when he made laughably false accusations against her. She had the skill — here, on full display, was the prosecutor in her — to needle him into maximal seething."

Josh Marshall: "[W]hat Harris had to do in this debate was show she could handle Donald Trump, even dominate him if possible and do so in a way that was steady and forceful. She did that. And that puts her on a path toward sealing the deal with that small fraction of voters who will determine the outcome of the election. Not a done deal but she took the critical first step. She also managed a bonus, which wasn’t absolutely necessary, which was to set Trump off, rambling, incoherent and angry. He was practically yelling by the end of the debate. She baited him into acting out the role of her foil."

Michelle Norris: "The vice president clearly got under Trump’s skin when she suggested that people were leaving his rallies early out of boredom. We knew ahead of this that she knows how to throw a punch. She confirmed this when she turned to him and calmly said, “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. ... Clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.” One last thing, in their closing arguments, Harris aimed hers at the audience. Donald Trump gave up the moment by going on the attack one last time. A missed opportunity for him."

Michael Tomasky: "Kamala Harris was really good Tuesday night—really, really good. She accomplished everything she needed to accomplish. She sliced and diced him. She dangled bait, and he leapt at the hook. But as good as she was, Trump was more bad than Harris was good. Or maybe he was bad because she was good: That is to say, she wrong-footed him time after time after time in ways that President Joe Biden did not, throwing him off his game, staring him down, speaking directly to him, challenging him, saying “you” and pointing right at him. She spanked him. Said Stephanie Ruhle, in a judgment Trump would consider crushing: “She beat him at the business of television.” "

The Guardian's David Smith: "In the old days candidates might have riposted by saying Nelson Mandela or some other moral paragon was on their side. Trump reached out for the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán. “He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president.” But Harris had more ammunition: “It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself ... And it is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they’re so clear, they can manipulate you with flattery and favours.” A dictator like Putin, she added, “would eat you for lunch”."

The Economist: "Ms Harris baited hook after hook for Mr Trump over the course of their 90-minute debate and each time he lunged for it. Whether she was invoking his old business school, Wharton, in attacking his economic plans, or implying his business success was due to a gigantic inheritance, or claiming world leaders did not respect him, Ms Harris repeatedly provoked Mr Trump to defend his self-image and his own record in office, rather than mount a sustained attack on her. Call it catch-and-decrease: she made the former president look small and angry and out of his depth. For most of the debate, she made herself appear the challenger, while he became the beleaguered incumbent with a record to defend. ... Ms Harris surely did not convert any supporters of Mr Trump—who could?—but she may have assured some of the few independent-minded voters left that she is up to the job."

John Scalzi: "[L]ast night, Donald Trump was at the best any of us will ever see him again. This was the one place and time where he was meant to be prepared, coherent and presidential, where he was not surrounded by handlers, coddlers and sycophants. This was meant to be the one place and time where he was meant to keep his id and his ego in check, put voters and Americans first, and make a case for a second shot at the presidency. This was the one place and time where his worst and most self-indulgent impulses were supposed to be reined in. This was Trump on his best and most decent behavior, or at the very least, the best and most behavior he is capable of. We see how that went."

Half an hour after the debate ended, singer Taylor Swift made an Instagram post that has 8.8 million likes so far: "I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. ... With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady"

And, of course, Alexandra Petri deserves a link.

Fifty-five days left.

Well, here we go: the only real debate between the candidates for President of the United States during this election cycle. We have 8 weeks to go until November 5th. Both candidates are, for reasons passing understanding, neck and neck in the polls. (Don't read the polls!) Just remember what President George HW Bush said during the 1988 campaign: "It's no exaggeration to say the undecideds could go one way or the other."

I'll update this post throughout the event. I'm watching the PBS broadcast on YouTube, if it matters.

All times are local to the event site, Eastern Daylight Time:

21:03: "We're looking forward to a spirited...debate."

21:04: "Are we better off than four years ago?" You mean, during the darkest time of the pandemic?

(I'm adjusting my monitor, because those two people can't possibly have the same skin color. One of them might be wearing way too much makeup.)

21:05: Harris labels the 20% tariffs a "sales tax," which it is.

21:05: The XPOTUS really doesn't understand how tariffs work. Tariffs are paid by the country imposing them.

21:07: "Inflation like no one has ever seen before." Harris is laughing at him. Then "Jobs are being taken from African-Americans" and she rolls her eyes, which I almost missed because I was rolling mine.

21:08: "What we have done is clean up [the XPOTUS's] mess. ... You're going to hear from the same old tired playbook."

21:10: Maybe appealing to the authorities of the Wharton School and Morgan Stanley might not be her best appeal to the voters. But then again, he doesn't actually know the name of the school where he got his MBA.

21:11: WTF is "run, spot, run?"

21:12: He just does not get what tariffs do. It's sad, really.

21:13: OK, he's starting to yell now. (DUDE, HE'S NOT THE PRESIDENT.)

21:14: Harris is controlling this debate. He's completely on defense. She's openly laughing at him now.

21:16: Hey, XPOTUS, what about your complete flip-flop on abortion? "They have abortion in the 9th month! The baby will be born and we'll execute the baby!" Whaaaaa? "Execution after birth is OK!" What in the name of hell...?

21:19: "There is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born. VP Harris?" Linsey Davis isn't having his bullshit either.

21:21: Why is he harping on the lie that everyone wanted abortion back in the states?

21:23: "I didn't discuss it with JD. ... She'll never be able to get [the abortion law]. So it doesn't matter." And back to the lie about going back to the states.

21:25: "What you are putting her through is unconscionable." True. "I have been a leader on IVF!" False.

21:28: "The people of this country need a leader. ... Attend one of his rallies. He'll talk about Hannibal Lecter, about windmills. People leave out of exhaustion and boredom."

21:29: Oh, marvelous, he took the bait on the rallies.

21:30: "They're eating the dogs, eating the cats, eating the pets!" Whaaaaa...?

21:31: "This is one of the reasons why I have the endorsement of 200 Republicans. ... When we listen to this kind of rhetoric, when the issues are not being addressed, the people deserve better."

21:34: How would you deport 11 million undocumented immigrants? "They allowed criminals! Terrorists! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!"

21:36: According to the FBI, the "murder rate fell by 26.4%, reported rapes decreased by 25.7%, robberies fell by 17.8%, aggravated assault fell by 12.5%, and the overall violent crime rate went down by 15.2%" in the first 3 months of 2024.

21:37: "They're the ones that made them go after them! Joe Biden was found guilty on the documents case! My hand-picked judge, that I appointed after I lost the election, threw my case out!"

21:39: NYT Pitchbot: "Harris seems a little overprepared for this debate."

21:42: "A true leader understands the value of building people up, not beating people down." "My father only gave me a small fraction of that $400 million..." Wow, he's chasing every dog treat she throws at him. "I'm talking now. Does that sound familiar?" And there go the suburban women.

Wow, does this old man need a nap:

21:45: A long-time Daily Parker reader texts, "He's making faces like an orangutan." And the entire island of Borneo lodges a complaint.

21:47: My entire Facebook feed is about people eating their pets.

21:48: "I was in the capitol, bub. Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining." And let's not forget Charlottesville, and "fine people on both side." "We're not going back. It's time to turn the page."

21:50: Using Laura Inghram and Sean Hannity to say something is debunked? They build the bunks. They are bunkies. But whatever.

21:51: Old man is getting angrier. It's at this point where the bouncer comes over and says, "OK, Donnie, keep it down or we're going to have to go outside for a minute."

21:52: "I got more votes than any sitting president!" Yes, but your opponents got more votes both times.

21:53: Now he's shouting at the moderators. The bouncer looks at the bar manager and shrugs, but moves closer.

21:54: "World leaders are laughing at [the XPOTUS]. ... It leads one to believe [you] do not have the temperament, and the ability not to be confused." And he responds with Victor Orbán's endorsement.

21:55: "I ended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline!" Uh, no, Ukrainian Special Forces did. Unless...was he in the Ukrainian Special Forces?

21:59: Cassie has a comment about the debate:

22:02: Apparently, I don't get half of what he's saying because I don't read 4Chan.

22:09: OK, we're back, with a drink, because oh my god. "It's worse than the numbers you're getting and they're fake numbers." Whaaa...?

22:10: He still doesn't understand how NATO funding works. It's always transactional, and always someone else pays, and always it's not his fault.

22:11: Did he just admit to a violation of the Logan Act by meeting with Putin? And wow, his jaw is working hard. 

22:12: "Tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how you would give up to the dictator who would eat you for lunch."

22:14: "Putin would have been sitting in Moscow, and he wouldn't have lost 300,000 men. ... And maybe he'll use [nuclear weapons]." WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. WHAT. THE. FUCKING. FUCK. But he didn't say whether he wants Ukraine to win.

22:17: "I agreed with President Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan. ... The first time this century no American soldier is on combat duty anywhere in the world."

22:19: "And this...[meaningful pause]...former president invited [the Taliban] to Camp David." Wow.

22:22: "Let's remember he was investigated for not renting to Black families. ... The Central Park Five full-page ad. ... Birther lies about the first Black president. The American people want better than this." And he defended his choice to slander the Central Park Five.

22:24: I'm just going to leave this Tweet from Betty Bowers right...here.

22:29: "So, just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?" Oh, Linsey, you are wonderful.

22:32: "Access to health care should be a right, and not just a privilege for those who can afford it."

22:34: I have to say, as someone who lived through the 1980s and 1990s, there's some frission hearing that an American presidential candidate has the endorsement of Sinn Féin. Sorry, Sean Fain. See what I mean? (Gerry Adams could not be reached for comment.)

22:36: What is the old man yelling about now? Joe Biden getting paid by the mayor of Moscow's wife? OK, viejo, time to pay your tab and go home.

22:41: "Two visions ... the future, and the past ... and we're not going back. ... Having a plan. Understanding the aspirations, the hosts, the dreams ... Giving hardworking folks a break and bringing down the cost of living ... Sustaining American's standing in the world ... Protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms ... "

21:43: "They've had 3½ years ... why hasn't she done it? She should leave right now ... You believe in things like 'we're not going to frack' ... Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants ... We're a failing nation ... serious decline ... all over the world they're laughing at us ... we're not a leader ... we don't have any idea what's going on ... Because of nuclear weapons, the power of weaponry ... allowing millions of people to come into our country ... the worst president." Literally nothing at all about what he would do.

Well, the XPOTUS's campaign did not get Uncle Fluffy today, did they?

And will someone let that poor deranged old man have a nap?

I spent 56 minutes trying to get ADT to change a single setting at my house, and it turned out, they changed the wrong setting. I will try again Friday, when I have time.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world:

• James Carville lays out a strategy for Vice President Kamala Harris to win the White House in *ulp* 62 days.
• Arizona officials continue to deal with the election-denier loony fringe despite (or maybe because of?) reality winning every time it's tested.
• A Federal judge in Rockford, Ill., has ruled that the Supreme Court's asinine, ahistorical, motivated reasoning in Bruen means that four schmucks from the suburbs can legally carry concealed guns on Chicago trains.
• A new report has come out that once again shows the US spends hundreds of billions too much on roadbuilding, and would benefit from removing highways instead of building them.
• A UK commission has found that all 72 deaths in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire were preventable, likely leading to criminal actions in future.
• CVS has started using really stupid-annoying robots to prevent people loitering in front of their stores, a trend in retail that will obviously backfire.
• Lyft plans to sell parts of its public bike system (Divvy here in Chicago) to cut costs. Uh oh.
• An Illinois state government program can help you get solar power on your house.
• What's with this tunnel to nowhere in the North Carolina hills? I might have to check it out.

Finally, Slow Horses season 4 came out today, so at some point this evening I'll visit Slough House and get a dose of Jackson Lamb's sarcasm.

A few weeks ago I planned a PTO day to take a 25 km walk tomorrow along the North Branch Trail with pizza at the end. (I'll do my annual marathon walk in October.) Sadly, the weather forecast bodes against it, with scattered thunderstorms and dewpoints over 22°C. But, since I've already got tomorrow off, and I have a solid PTO bank right now, I'll still take the day away from the office. And autumn begins Sunday.

Good thing, too, because the articles piled up this morning, and I haven't had time to finish yesterday's:

• Ruth Marcus indicts the Roberts court for its idiotic presidential immunity ruling, and how that required prosecutor Jack Smith to contort the new charges against the XPOTUS.
• Oh, goody: Mayor Brandon Johnson's 2025 budget for the City of Chicago will have nearly a $1 billion deficit.
• Despite having spent billions of euro to upgrade the scanners at major European airports, the EU will (temporarily) go back to a 100-mL limit for carry-on liquids on Sunday.
• Timothy Noah celebrates the mediocrity of late August.

Finally, Washington Post reporter Christine Mi spent 80 hours crossing the US on Amtrak this summer. I am envious. Also sad, because the equivalent trip in Europe would have taken less than half the time on newer rolling stock, and not burned a quarter of the Diesel.

We have another glorious late-summer day in Chicago cool enough to sleep with the windows open. We still have 11 more days of summer, as the forecast reminds me, but I'll take a couple of days with 22°C sun and nights that go down to 15°C.

In other news:

• Psychologist Vince Greenwood cranks the alarms up to 11 after evaluating the XPOTUS against the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. (Tl;dr: Out of 40 points possible on the checklist, "the average score for individuals in a maximum-security prison setting is 22. ... [The cutoff] for to get formal diagnosis of psychopathy is 30. ... [The XPOTUS] receives a score of 33."
• From April, why does a malignant narcissist sell Bibles?
• Nina Burleigh reminds us about "the con at the core of the Republican Party."
• Paul Krugman endorses Vice President Kamala Harris's "solid center-left agenda."
• Author Michael Lewis has a few thoughts about Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal activities.

Finally, our biggest eyebrow-raise today: a ridiculous mansion in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood covers 2,300 m² (25,000 ft²) across eight residential lots cost about $85 million to build and went on sale at $50 million back in 2016. The family who built it finally just sold it to a yet-unknown buyer for $15.25 million. I remember when they built it, because Parker and I would walk past the construction site every so often. I can't help but shake my head. But I guess if you can lose $70 million on your house after only 15 years, you probably didn't need the money anyway.

The Democratic National Convention opened today here in Chicago, so naturally that's the main topic in today's lunchtime roundup:

• I can barely wait until Thursday when I get to see the sparkling-clean O'Hare CTA station, freshened up for the convention.
• The DNC projected fun messages onto the XPOTUS's eponymous Tower from their hotel across the river. (No comment from the XPOTUS.)
• Vice President Kamala Harris continues to climb in the polls as people come to realize that she's the real deal and the XPOTUS can't deal.
• Ezra Klein highlights one thing the XPOTUS did well: he "turned the Democratic Party into a pitiless machine" that wins elections.
• James Fallows really wishes the press would cover the issues Americans want covered, especially that the big media outlets would report on the XPOTUS's obvious cognitive decline.

Well, that about covers it, until later this afternoon at least. I may have to walk Cassie a couple more times because it's 24°C and sunny, which we don't get a lot in August.

Jennifer Rubin adds her voice to the growing chorus warning that the XPOTUS doesn't seem to have even a full Euchre deck:

Trump seems unable to handle reality. His opponent is beating him by multiple metrics, especially crowd size. In response, he posted several obvious lies on Truth Social, claiming that “nobody was there” and that photos and video of Vice President Kamala Harris’s crowds were AI-generated (our own reporters were eyewitnesses to the event).

Trump might be conditioning voters for another “Stop the Steal.” But then again, he might be just losing it.

A glitch-plagued X interview (unable to start for 45 minutes) with Elon Musk, owner of the social media site, only made things worse. People on social media reflected shock at hearing him slur and ramble his way through a softball interview. His obsession with President Joe Biden, who is no longer running, sounds like Trump cannot cope with his actual opponents. A much less alarming performance in the debate effectively ended President Biden’s campaign.

Had the media been conscientiously covering Trump, the public would understand these bizarre outings as part of his noticeable cognitive decline. Trump’s sporadic appearances on the trail alone should be grist for the cable news shows. When they do discuss his mental state, it is often in the context of horserace politics.

Josh Marshall fumes that most major news outlets haven't covered this disaster nearly as thoroughly as they discussed Hillary's emails:

[E]lite media continues to focus on Trump’s recent antics as an extended tantrum or flawed strategy when it is much more appropriately seen as a mental and cognitive state which is manifestly unfit for holding public office. Trump is also not morally fit for office. But that’s different, and that’s always been the case. The normal rejoinder is that Trump’s mental fitness is sort of irrelevant since most of us already know that and his supporters don’t care. Those conclusions are mostly true as far as it goes. But it represents a failure of journalistic logic which is remarkably widespread in media today. Put simply, that reasoning is mainly above the pay grade of journalism. It’s not the job of journalism to adjust the editorial choices or insights of daily news coverage based on driving electoral or public opinion outcomes. It’s to cover the news. There’s no single way to cover the news and no single, objective version of what constitutes the news. But that reasoning about impact is not an appropriate one and it is deeply damaging to journalism in myriad ways.

We have 81 days until this deranged, kinda-dumb geezer could get re-elected to the presidency.

As I wait for a build pipeline to run, I'm reading these:

• Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus argues that the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity doesn't shield the XPOTUS from the most serious charges he faces.
• Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a professor of Thai politics, sees recent events in Thailand as heralds of the coming end of the monarchy's control.
• Why do people just stop dating?

Finally, author John Scalzi doesn't want you to idolize authors—especially not him:

Enjoy the art creative people do. Enjoy the experience of them in the mediated version of them you get online and elsewhere, if such is your joy. But remember that the art is from the artist, not the artist themselves, and the version of their life you see is usually just the version they choose to show. There is so much you don’t see, and so much you’re not meant to see. At the end of the day, you don’t have all the information about who they are that you would need to make them your idol, or someone you might choose to, in some significant way, pattern some fraction of your life on. And anyway creative people aren’t any better at life than anyone else.

Looks like the build is almost done...