Sunday Mailbag

This covers 2 weeks, so it's pretty substantial.

Politics: This Week in TrumpWorld

P.C. in Vero Beach, writes: For once, I must give The Convicted Felon (TCF) real credit where credit is due. More than anyone else in my lifetime, he has successfully turned ours into a truly classless society. From the childish tweets, to the garish proposed ballroom, he has shown over and over that he has no class, but the humiliating behavior of golf fans at the Ryder Cup show, classlessness is now a hallmark of American society. Well done, Mr. President.

(V) & (Z) respond: Douchebags of the world, unite!

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S.M. in Pepperell, MA, writes: Donald Trump gave the middle finger to the world at the United Nations General Assembly and he seemed to enjoy being perverse. The message seemed to be that Trump is right about everything and the rest of the world, especially the leaders of the United Nations, are all suckers. Global warming, immigration and trade are all massive global conspiracies designed to hurt and bankrupt the United States. He threw a political lifeline to Benjamin Netanyahu and tried to be tough on Vladimir Putin. Perhaps Putin and Trump are no longer in love and they both agreed to court other dictators. Trump also tried to justify his executions of suspected drug runners in international waters by simply declaring there is a new sheriff in town.

I do not know how this speech will help Trump politically, except for the MAGA base to whom this speech was apparently targeted. But his base is not watching that speech live. I guess the idea is to break this speech up into bite-sized red-meat morsels for endless replay on Fox or conservative podcasts? Maybe I am thinking too small. Perhaps the real goal is to get the U.N. to revoke the United States' membership. The only thing I know is that this did not help United States foreign relations.

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R.H. in San Antonio, TX, writes: Regarding Trump's apparent about-face on Ukraine: We all know what happened. Volodymyr Zelenskyy told him he will approve Trump Tower Kyiv as soon as the Russians are evicted from Ukraine.

That's all it took.

Trump's lizard brain is slowly coming to the realization that Vladimir Putin was lying to him about Trump Tower Moscow.

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R.T. in Arlington, TX, writes: Reporting news from America: The Recession has begun. I got a call yesterday from my 30-year-old child to tell me that they had been laid off from their design engineer job at an industrial manufacturing firm (a rust-belty business). The explanation given was that their customers' customers were deferring purchases of service trucks due to the uncertainties in the economy and trade, and that in response, my child's employer was deferring all new product development. The vicious (or is it viscous?) circle of economic contraction has closed on itself.

So if you were wondering when it was going to hit the fan, we are there. The crazy thing is that even though the country could do with more fiscal responsibility, a recession tends to trigger extreme deficit spending. Oh, well...

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E.F. in Baltimore, MD, writes: You wrote, in reference to J.D. Vance: "the base is pretty good at sniffing out phonies." I beg to differ. Trump himself is the biggest phony I've seen in public life in my lifetime, and they LOVE him.

I suppose you might argue that the base KNOWS he's a phony, but doesn't care, as long as he hates the same people they hate. Perhaps that describes some of them, but I meet people every day who sincerely believe every lie he tells them. Trump's main talent, throughout his "incredibly successful business career," has been his ability to find suckers willing to buy whatever trash he's peddling that week, be it steaks, wine, water, bibles, sneakers, crypto or stock in his latest money-losing venture.

Politics: The Death of Charlie Kirk

Anonymous in England, UK, writes: You noted that Stephen Miller's speech at the Kirk memorial used "very, very dark" language, and hinted at the Nazi connotations of his speech. You could potentially have gone further in making this point, and might have hinted at the wrong Nazi, because it certainly hasn't been missed on this side of the Atlantic that Miller's speech seems to have directly mirrored aspects of Joseph Goebbels' 1932 "a storm is coming" speech, delivered the year before Hitler took power. In that speech, Goebbels invoked the memory of the deceased Nazi "martyr" Horst Wessel to warn political opponents that a storm was approaching.

An English translation of the Goebbels original is available online. Allowing for issues of translation between German and English, the similarity of the imagery between the second half of the Goebbels' speech and the Miller speech is striking:

Miller: "The day that Charlie died, the angels wept, but those tears had been turned into fire in our hearts. And that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand. But I see Erika and her strength and her courage. I am reminded of a famous expression: The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength and the warrior whispers back: 'I am the storm.' Erika is the storm. We are the storm. And our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion."

Goebbels: "Together we share the words of the poet: "People, rise up, and storm, break loose!" Comrades, men and women, fate has given us a last chance. We have one more opportunity to speak to the people. Our campaign spreads to all of Germany, and once again the ears hear, the eyes see, the heart beats faster, and the senses clear: "The day of freedom and prosperity is coming!" So our dead comrade Horst Wessel wrote, and we are fulfilling his prophesy. The others may lie, slander, and pour their scorn on us—their political days are numbered."

There are other examples, mainly in the second half of the speech, some more convincing in their parallels than others; but I have little doubt that Miller's speech would have fit right in to that 1932 Berlin election rally.

At my most charitable, I can only think that someone wrote the speech for Miller, and he didn't think to check through the imagery before delivering it, because the irony of a Jewish advisor to the current U.S. president parroting the chief propagandist of the Third Reich otherwise barely bears contemplating.

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Anonymous in Des Moines, IA, writes: I saw a clip of Stephen Miller's comments that were part of his "eulogy" to Charlie Kirk and after I read them in your item on Kirk's memorial, it occurred to me that Miller's words about Democrats very closely resemble what he feels every day: the jealousy, the hatred, the envy. It's quite clear Miller processes those emotions by thinking up and carrying out actions and policies that are as cruel as possible.

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Anonymous in Austin, TX, writes: I think it's interesting that Charlie Kirk talked quite a bit about how women shouldn't be in charge and should stay at home while his own family doesn't appear to have lived that way.

Erika Kirk was 5 years older than Charlie, which wouldn't be unusual in general, but it seems more unusual among people who think that a wife should stay home and the husband should be in charge. She has a masters degree and PhD. True, they're from Liberty University, but she still holds those degrees. She's the CEO of a (very small) clothing company, and she also played college basketball.

This makes me think a bit of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who belongs to a religious tradition that believes that women should submit to their husbands. It also reminds me that the anti-immigrant Donald Trump is married to an immigrant, and that J.D. Vance is married to a practicing Hindu whose parents are immigrants.

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Anonymous in Los Angeles, CA, writes:

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A.H. in Newberg, OR, writes: You wrote: "If we run any Charlie Kirk letters this weekend, we will identify them only as 'Anonymous in STATE,' unless the reader tells us otherwise."

I have not made any comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, nor do I intend to. The loss of a loved one is always difficult and, under these circumstances, probably much worse.

With that being said, I am not anonymous, I am Alan Halstead. I am proud of my name and my city, and what I have said and what I stand up for.

You may redact my name or reduce me to initials, that is your prerogative. But you cannot take away who I am or what I say and do. ANYONE who has a bitch about that can come knock on my door and we can have a respectful discussion (preferably over a cold IPA) of our differences. It has happened before and hopefully it will happen again. If you can't be respectful and considerate you can go to the proverbial location of fire and despair and stick your head up the location where the sun doesn't shine!

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C.W. in Visalia, CA, writes: You don't have to hide my identity because I am retired and I live in California. I have made many posts critical of Charlie Kirk, but I have never condoned violence or made fun of his death. I have asked Kirk's fans to react to the things he has said. I have asked about double standards over what is free speech as opposed to hate speech. I have repeatedly asked them to share something wonderful about Charlie Kirk. So far, nothing specific has been shared except that they are praying for me. Let's assume that I have only heard one percent of Charlie Kirk's material. Is it fair to say that I am missing the big picture because I am in a bubble?

Politics: Punishing WrongThink

K.J. in Phoenix, AZ, writes: In "Jimmy Kimmel Unleashed," you write that Donald Trump looks weak since Jimmy Kimmel came back so fast. You've made similar assertions in the past about Trump setting himself up for embarrassment.

I disagree. A schoolyard bully doesn't take lunch money as an income stream, or tease kids to make them perpetually sad. They do it for the instant reaction and to strike fear in everyone watching. The bully isn't embarrassed when they wind up in the principal's office, having to apologize to their victims.

Trump is constantly seeking instant red meat, adulation, retribution and fear in his perceived enemies. He cares MUCH less about long-term results of his actions. Pushing Kimmel off the air, suing The New York Times for billions, withholding money from universities, etc. Those headlines and tweets generated instant red meat, instant adulation, and put everyone else on notice. He won't be embarrassed by the outcome of his actions. He got what he wanted from the initial headlines. (And often times he gets the added bonus of people coming to grovel on live TV.)

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T.M. in Aldergrove, BC, Canada, writes: An old friend once said "Laughter has toppled more governments than bullets," so I can see why Donald Trump is so worried about satirists.

The same friend once remarked "Those in power are more worried about editorial cartoons than they are about editorials because more people see than read," so I can see why Trump is so worried about editorial cartoonists.

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T.H. in Champaign, IL, writes: Here's a quote from a noted political analyst which seems to have some current relevance: "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say."

That's from Tyrion Lannister, in A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings.

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C.C. in St. Paul, MN, writes: When I was young, I used to see commercials for a disgustingly misogynistic show called The Man Show while watching TV. If you'd have told me that one day I'd cancel my favorite streaming service out of protest for one of the jerks on it getting taken off the air, I'd have wanted to know what had gone terribly wrong to lead to me thinking it mattered so much that a sexist jerk got preempted. Well, first I'd want to know what a streaming service was, but then I'd want to know how we got here.

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R.W. in Brooklyn, NY, writes: In discussing Trump's designation of Antifa as a "MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION," you failed to note that Antifa is not any sort of organization. It is a movement, but it has none of the hallmarks of an organization—it is not a legal entity, it has no leadership (or hierarchy of any sort), it is highly decentralized, and it has no official membership. The good news is that it is therefore impossible to show that anyone directly supported Antifa; the bad news is that this administration can claim that anyone expressing any of the ideas for which Antifa stands is an Antifa supporter.

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S.R. in Paradise, CA, writes: Since Trump has declared Antifa a Major Terrorist Group, I thought it would be a good time to remind your readers of who the original founders were.

Partial list: Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, Omar Bradley, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Tuskegee Airmen, Rosie and her fellow Riveters and every man and woman who put on a uniform to save our country and the world from fascism, including my dad.

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J.L. in Albany, NY, writes: Regarding Trump labeling Antifa a "MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION": The problem isn't that Trump will throw anyone left of Fox into prison. I think that the court system (at least the lower courts) will hold against this. However, Trump doesn't need convictions to stifle free speech.

Let's say that Trump's Department of Justice arrests 10 high profile "Antifa members" whose crime was saying things Trump doesn't like. The DoJ could throw them into jail pending trial (upending their lives and possibly causing them to lose their jobs when they don't show up to work). Then, the DoJ could subject them to a long and expensive trial.

If the DoJ sees that the judge/jury are likely to rule against them, they might drop the charges, reduce them to some nuisance level misdemeanor for a token fine, or pressure the target into a settlement. Either way, the person would likely go free, but the damage would be done. Their lives and finances would be in tatters. What's more, anyone who saw this happening would think twice before speaking out.

As people silence themselves, Trump's team could get bolder about their targets until they are outright arresting prominent Democrats or even declaring the entire Democratic Party to be a terrorist organization.

Combined with the "canceling" of anyone who speaks out against the MAGA narrative on other matters and we're heading down a very dangerous path.

Politics: Gods and Generals

M.S. in Westchester County, NY, writes: Couldn't help but notice that the potential shutdown and the "gathering" of generals at Quantico, VA, are to take place on approximately the same day. Also, noted that Donald Trump has threatened to fire all federal employees. Hope all this news isn't related.

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M.L. in Athens, OH, writes: You left out one horrifying possibility for the meeting of top officers called by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: That Hegseth will be personally administering a loyalty oath wherein those officers are forced to pledge fealty to Donald Trump over their duty to the Constitution. And anyone who refuses will be dismissed from their respective service. At that point, the Republic is dead. I hope that I'm wrong.

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N.M.D. in Duluth, MN, writes: Isn't it odd that on September 18, Hegseth issued new rules for the Pentagon press, including restrictions on travel within the Pentagon, requiring journalists to sign a pledge and limiting reporting only on approved messages from the Pentagon, and then just a few days later, on September 25, ordered a very unusual in-person gathering of generals and high ranking military officials?

Coincidence? I think not. What could he be up to?

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J.G. in San Diego, CA, writes: Ominous...

(V) & (Z) respond: Note that the history in the original tweet is a little garbled; the oath was in 1934, and there wasn't really a meeting. In 1935, the oath became a legal requirement to hold command. That said, the tweet is real, and so is Hegseth's response.

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J.G. in Colorado Springs, CO, writes: Reason for Lethal Pete Summonsing all the Flag Officers to Quantico:

Politics: Legal Matters

M.L. in West Hartford, CT, writes: (L)'s commentary is a welcome tonic for all of us who fear that our country is slipping into authoritarianism. However, I feel compelled to disagree with her analysis of the Michigan "fake elector" decision. The defense argument—which the judge accepted at face value—does not pass the laugh test.

If the defendants believed that they were only "alternate electors," then why did their letter refer to them as "duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Michigan"? Why did they not question the legality of their actions when the state police refused to allow them to enter the State Capitol? Did they really believe that it was acceptable for electors to meet in the basement of the Republican Party HQ to cast their votes? I'm sorry, but if these people really believed all this, then they should be placed under legal guardianship, as they are not competent to manage their own affairs. That the judge accepted the "sorry, but I was too dumb to know what I was doing" defense is a sad commentary on the state of our country.

I can't recall a similar case where a Democrat or progressive was allowed to play the stupid card. This seems to be yet another legal loophole that is only available to Republicans and right-wing extremists. By not holding those who attempted a coup accountable, we are inviting another one. And that really would result in the death of the rule of law in America, without exaggeration.

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Anonymous in Florida, writes: A few quick, initial thoughts on the Comey indictment. Prosecutors should be ready for trial the day they get the indictment. In Comey's Instagram reel he said "Let's have a trial." Comey and his team are going to be pushing for a trial as quickly as possible, but the U.S. Attorney will try to delay. Lindsey Halligan comes out of an insurance defense background where "how can we delay this case" is the strategic and tactical question asked every single day. Her instructions to her prosecutors are going to be to try to delay the case, and it likely won't occur to her that this is not a good strategy. It also won't work in a criminal case with the constitutional right to a speedy trial. The judge will respond poorly when the prosecutors say that they are not ready for trial.

This district, the Eastern District of Virginia, is also well-known for its "rocket docket" approach to moving cases, so it's probably going to land even more poorly when Halligan tries to delay.

This is not going to go well and is going to end up being a big embarrassment for Trump.

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E.C. in Seattle, WA, writes: Thank you for raising the concern about the Supreme Court potentially revisiting Obergefell v. Hodges. As a married gay man, I live with that worry every day, especially given how the Court handled Dobbs.

One important point to note, though, is that in 2022 Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act. It requires the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages that are valid where performed and requires states to recognize marriages from other states. In other words, even if Obergefell were overturned, marriages already performed would still carry federal protections and recognition across state lines.

The conservative justices have often said it is Congress' job—not the Court's—to make law, and in this case Congress did exactly that with bipartisan support. While the law doesn't carry the same constitutional weight as Obergefell, it is a meaningful safeguard and makes the situation different from abortion after Dobbs. The real test is whether this Court would live up to its own stated principles, or twist itself into a pretzel to declare that recent legislation unconstitutional.

Thanks again for shining a light on this important issue.

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S.S.L. in Battle Creek, MI, writes: M.T. in St. Paul asked if these shakedowns ("settlement agreements") could be overturned by a future administration. Speaking as an attorney and post-settlement compliance monitor, the most efficient thing a future administration could do is just not move to enforce, particularly if the settlement would sunset during the next administration. Failing that, they could move to amend, file a new agreement with different terms, or the victims could do as (Z) suggests and ask for the agreement to be overturned on the basis of coercion.

Politics: Autism Speaks

D.A.Y. in Troy, MI, writes: I know the last weekend of the month is supposed to be a politics-free zone, but no one told Donald Trump that and he dumped yet another doozy on the autism community.

I want to first address what can only be described as hysteria over autism that has gripped the West for the past three decades or so. For the level of panic some people have, you would think a child being born with autism is as debilitating as being born without their arms.

I blame the media, as they have subjected those with autism to minstrel-show-level portrayals. We are either depicted as infantile retards who are nothing but a burden to our loved ones and society or as robotic creatures with superhuman mental abilities that can be exploited by neuraltypicals. Either way, we are subhumans whose value is based solely on how useful we are and our particular needs are seen as unreasonable burdens on "normal" people.

With that image burned into the zeitgeist, a not insignificant portion of the population is so terrified to learn their child is autistic they are willing to buy into conspiracies and grifts that could cause more damage to the child. Now, even the womb is not safe from this.

Of course, Trump chose this week to announce that taking acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol) while pregnant causes autism and recommends pregnant women do not take except in extreme circumstances. Of course, "extreme" is a vague enough term to stand in for "never." He also recommended not giving it to young children.

While many in his administration and greater Republican Party have tried to walk this back, all MAGA heard is Dear Leader tell them not to take Tylenol while pregnant and not to give it to young children. This will lead to pregnant MAGA women refusing to treat a fever or, worse, their MAGA husbands will refuse to let them take acetaminophen. They will instead suffer through the fever, the same for the small children.

This is going to have dire consequences. A fever while pregnant can lead to birth defects (like the child being born without a properly formed arm, like what happened to my grandmother, as her mother had the flu while pregnant). Not addressing a fever in a small child could cause development damage as well. The result, if this is allowed to take hold, is red America seeing an increase in miscarriages, infant mortality, birth defects, and post-birth development abnormalities.

Something to consider is that we have not done much to increase the maximum life expectancy these past 150 years. The increase in life expectancy has mostly come from making it to your 10th birthday an almost certainty rather than a coin flip at best. Yet, these people want to throw away all the innovations that made this possible. Vaccines, medications, pasteurization—all of them demonized by the supposed Make America Healthy Again crowd because they have this twisted idea that a life without them is healthier. And autism and the irrational fear of it is at its heart.

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S.S.L. in Battle Creek, MI, writes: Very strong feelings about this. Just a reminder to all of us to center autistics when discussing autism. While non-disabled people are looking to blame someone or something for our supposedly terrible existence, people with disabilities are rarely consulted and almost never heard.

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A.G. in Scranton, PA, writes: I just wanted to thank you for pointing out that autism isn't a curse. It's just who some people are.

Some parts of it are a curse (oversharing, overwhelming people with e-mails...), especially when you have parents who change rules to fit the moment, but others are such a joy.

When I say something to someone, they never have to worry about me saying a different opinion of them with anyone. I speak unvarnished, sometimes harsh truth, but it is truth. Though this is a nightmare when your parents hit you for pointing out that they lie all the time.

I can design machines in my head. I can actually feel the joy of harmonious processes and, conversely, feel the pain of disharmonious, inefficient processes. I am a damned good writer with a unique perspective.

Repetitive tasks? Yo, I should have worked for Amazon or someone, showing their workers how to move most efficiently. When I drive the same route for work, I know the precise place the transmission will shift, what speed I can hit each corner at, where to release the accelerator to coast to a stop without much brake action. Most drivers wing it, fu**ing around on their phones.

Fuel efficiency/battery life in automotive applications are my bit**es, y'all. Boss man was happy when I got in the truck and got the 6.2 mpg average up to 6.4. It's at 7.4 as of today. That's over a 16% increase! This isn't bragging and why the fu** am I apologizing for praising myself? Because my upbringing sucked, that's why.

I can laser-focus or close my eyes when someone gives me just one word and tell or write them a 3-hour-long story from it. Aviation, I picked that sh** up like nothing. Regimented activities are a snap.

Yes, there's people who struggle mightily with it and I won't say it hasn't caused me a great deal of hurt, clearly contributing to some of the complaints women I love have about me, but if it's a curse, then my personality, my life's narrative, my story, my way, my very being, my wonderful experiences, my entire existence... they're all abominations.

It's no curse and fu** every mother fu**er who says it is. It's a curse to people who didn't want a child that wasn't happy being lied to, abused, preached bull**it to, condescended to, abused, yada, yada, yada.

Fu** them.

Thank you... clearly, I wanted very much to say all tha stuff I just wrote.

Thank you.

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B.W. in Boston, MA, writes: You wondered why Trump needed a new scapegoat for autism, as opposed to sticking with blaming vaccines. The benefit to Trump and his buddies is that they are pushing leucovorin as a treatment option for people with autism. This is a supplement sold by Dr. Oz's company.

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S.M. in Pratt, KS, writes: I appreciate that you continue to point out the idiocy of Senator Bill Cassidy for voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. My question is: Why don't we discuss the other three doctors in the Senate? John Barrasso (R-WY), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Kansas' own sleazeball, Roger Marshall (R). Marshall is an OB/GYN for god's sake. You might think that he would care at least a little about pregnant women and their offspring.

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R.K. in Lafayette, IN, writes: I have been a speech-language pathologist since 2003 and have worked with autistic children since 1995. Since 2012, my caseload has been pretty much all autism, all the time. People often ask me what I think causes autism, and what accounts for the rising numbers of children diagnosed with autism, and my answer has always been, "I don't care." My focus is on service and support, not prevention or cure.

By the way, I know quite a few autistic children and adults who can pronounce "acetaminophen."

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G.W. in Oxnard, CA, writes: I saw this on my Facebook feed, and thought of Electoral-Vote.com:

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G.M. in Laurence Harbor, NJ, writes: You should mention that if you take Tylenol PM you only get autistic at night!

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J.M. in Silver Spring, MD, writes: You showed a graph of the "correlation" between ice cream sales and shark attacks. But you can't forget this one, courtesy of the Pastafarians:

Clearly global warming is caused by humanity, but not by pollution, instead by the drop in the number of pirates.

Politics: Don't Know Much about a Science Book, Don't Know Much about the French I Took...

T.B. in Leon County, FL, writes: Your mention of "remedial teaching," even at Harvard, reminds me of my first English class in university (far from where I now reside and over 50 years ago). I started at the local regional university in January (while still a part-time HS student); all but two or three of the students in the class had failed English 101 in the fall, and most remained unable to distinguish a run-on sentence from a sentence fragment at the end of the quarter. At the end of the first week, the lecturer asked two of us to stay after class—what did I do wrong?—and was told we didn't have to come to class anymore; we'd get an A as we already knew everything the class would cover. (We both had perfect attendance.) My other class that term, Probability and Statistics, was riveting!

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D.W. in Phoenix, AZ, writes: Maybe it wasn't 'lead in the drinking water' that killed the Roman Empire. Maybe it was just a lack of pushback by the senate and money people of the time to the decisions, conceits and vanities of the rulers...

We are past re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and we're throwing them overboard along with the piano and any sense of compassion and the rule of law. We are governed by people who have the lost the spirit of democratic principles. That is the death of the soul of our nation... ceded to a result that betrays our value as a world power and turns us into a banana republic with nukes... and the most expensive military on earth.

The fish rots from the head and the head rots from our souls and the Quarter Pounder outsells the 1/3 pound burger because 4 is bigger than 3.

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M.H. in North Salem, NY, writes: I've been meaning to write in for a while now and your piece on high schoolers gave me a good excuse. I'm 17 years old but I've been reading this blog since I was 15 or 16 (leading up to the 2024 election) at the recommendation of my father (J.H in North Salem). It's been such an eye-opening experience and it's turned into something of an addiction, one that just so happens to help me with the AP Government class that I just started this school year. On the bus to school, I sit with a somewhat politically involved kid, but one who mostly gets his information through TikTok and Instagram. I showed him your piece on high schoolers and their inability to compute the cost of an $80 shirt at a 10% discount. His response was, "Oh, that's just 70 dollars, right?" I would love to say I was surprised, but I go to the same high school that produced Roger Stone.

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B.C. in Walpole, ME, writes: You wrote: "We mean one-third of high school seniors are not capable of figuring out how much they save by buying an $80 shirt that is on sale with a 10% discount."

Searching my hard drive the other day, I found this. I've no idea what it was doing there, but the more things change...:

Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M." The set "C," the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points than set "M." Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.

Teaching Math in 2000: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?

Politics: Burner Phones

A.Q. in Worcestershire, England, UK, writes: Regarding "We Are in the Burner Phone Era": Many U.K. universities (including places like Oxford and Cambridge) have had for several years "clean" or "loaner" (both effectively meaning "burner-lite") policies covering laptops and/or mobile phones for use while traveling to certain destinations. These are explicitly in place for "high risk" destinations, which usually referred to China initially because of increasing concerns about sensitive research information being stolen and devices being tampered with on entry/exit. It may be of interest to U.S. readers that these policies increasingly now also cover travel to the USA.

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M.J.B. in Chicago, IL, writes: As the train keeps a rollin', your story about The Anarchist Cookbook echoed my youth. A couple of years ago, I ran into a proto-Anarchist Cookbook, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual from the OSS, that may be of interest to your historically minded readers, so I wanted to share. I suppose there may be less historically minded folks who might find this manual useful in these dark times.

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B.C. in Manhattan Beach, CA, writes: Somewhere around here, I too have a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook.

I got it when I was in high school, which was a time when one needed to go into a physical bookstore to buy a book (Amazon would not be founded for more than 20 years). Of course, the chain bookstore at my local mall did not have any copies in stock, so I had to fill out a little order card and wait for a call that the book had arrived.

When the call came, it was not what I expected. A clerk at the bookstore told me that I needed to get there as soon as possible lest the book be returned to the distributor. It seems that the store manager had seen that an order for a new "cookbook" (with a funny name) had come through, and so ordered not only the copy I wanted but several others to put on the shelf. When the books came in, the manager flipped through them and was appalled at their contents. She ordered that they be returned as soon as possible.

I'm not sure that this puts me anywhere near the category of a person who can "get things," especially since I would have failed if it weren't for the clerk who called to give me a heads-up.

Politics: The Democrats

J.F. in New York City, NY, writes: I thought everybody already confidently thought, before they had their confident thoughts confirmed recently by a "leak," that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is preparing a run for president.

And it's all too obvious why. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is too old, but Bernie nearly defeated Biden in 2020. Now is not the time for the progressives to sit out—as if they ever do (remember Dennis Kucinich?)—due to this recent near-victory.

So if not Bernie, then who? The answer seems obvious.

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G.Z. in St. Paul, MN, writes: I think either Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg would make a fine president. Pete is young, smart, quick-witted and has good political instincts. Kamala is obviously smart, as well. I would love to see a female president for many reasons, not the least of which is that I have two daughters that I would love to know that they live in a country where someone like them could hold the highest office.

Unfortunately, we do not live in that country, at least not today. When Hillary Clinton lost, I chalked it up to a combination of baggage and hubris. But the 2024 election—from the press coverage, to social media, to the results—made me realize that America is just too misogynistic to elect a woman as president. And that's probably true for homophobia and a gay man as well.

So my hope for 2028, assuming we have elections and the Democrats are allowed to have a candidate, is that the Democrats nominate a straight male. Given the stakes, preferably white. Not because those attributes make you a better leader, they don't. But right now, we seem to have a large enough chunk of the population who is going to find any excuse not to vote for a woman, that you won't win. I don't have any evidence that it's true for a gay man, but that could actually be a bigger issue.

I hope that some day we can run phenomenally qualified candidates like these and not have to consider what sex they are or who they love, but that's not where we are as a country today.

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I.K. in Queens, NY, writes: I'm in agreement with you that Kamala Harris' decision to backstab Joe Biden is not only wrong, but stupid.

Does she really envision a lane for herself in the primary as a candidate independent of Biden? Voters who want to throw out babies, bathwater, and the tub itself from the Biden administration won't give her the time of day, just because she says that she was unhappy as Biden's VP. There will be plenty of candidates in the nothing-to-do-with-Biden lane. Harris's only hope (and I think it a slim one) would be to take the mantle of Biden's heir presumptive, openly admit a mistake "it would have been better for Joe to drop out," and draw the contrast of "adult in the room who learns from mistakes versus Republicans who'll lie about what they said over breakfast."

I've never been impressed with her politically, and wasn't particularly enthusiastic about her candidacy—not that I'll fault her campaign. This just confirms to me that she is unlikely to have another shot at the presidency. And to be honest, while she's busy badmouthing Biden... I currently have much warmer vibes towards Biden than Harris. Not that this is fair to her, but only one of their campaigns against Trump resulted in a non-fascist presidency.

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B.B. in Dothan, AL, writes: That's what I don't like about Harris, and why she will never win a national election. She calls it being disciplined, but everyone else sees it as being inauthentic/phony. Yes, she obviously has well-defined talking points, and sticks to them, but those won't substitute for a personality/charisma. Personally, I can't stand listening to her talk, for these reasons. I change the channel.

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M.G. in Boulder, CO, writes: I wrote in about my ambivalent feelings about older politicians and term limits, and Electoral-Vote.com ran two replies. The first was from A.H. in Newberg, who objects to arbitrary term limits in part because they eliminate institutional memory—an excellent point illustrated by the contributions of my friend Ricky Weiser to Boulder's city council. Ricky was my mother's age, so I was able to appreciate her during her most politically active years. As a new resident in the county, she began attending city and county meetings. Years passed, council members came and went, but Ricky remained constant. She was the only non-official appointed to Plan Boulder. Eventually the council arranged for her to receive the same advance information as members did. She was the one who could tell them why past actions succeeded or failed or were abandoned or evolved. Finally, the council officially appointed her a council elder, in recognition of her value as Boulder's leading public citizen and as the council's living institutional memory.

The second letter was from S.H. in Duluth, who, as a young Electoral-Vote.com reader, is not just "concerned" about the future but will live it. S.H. said, "...the Democratic caucus as a whole must be in peak condition by the time the next Democratic president is in the White House (which hopefully will be in 2029). That means that the older politicians who will have fallen off by 2029 should be doing their utmost to use their experience, connections, and knowledge to help mentor the next generation of politicians." Literature and life are full of mentees who eventually push their mentors aside in an attempt to replace them. We can see why potential mentors might not risk ending their careers with a heartbreaking betrayal. But what about Congress members who are sick of fundraising and tired of campaigning, but wish to continue to contribute?

It seems to me that we need an informal but recognized IM/M (Institutional Memory/Mentorship) department or departments, perhaps sponsored by the DNC/RNC and made up of former representatives, senators, and cabinet members. They would have or share office space, have access to conference areas, and have a section of the House and Senate galleries reserved for them. They would be available to advise and consult and to make connections with and for active members of Congress. As S.H. wrote, "I will concede that it would be detrimental to have a bunch of rookies in Congress running around without a clue as to what they are doing, but isn't that precisely why it is important to foster an environment of mentorship between the young and the old?"

Given the size of the repair job Congress and a new president will be undertaking, it's not only important to create this environment, it's time.

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D.E. in San Diego, CA, writes: Wouldn't it be funny if a newly-elected Democratic congress in 2027 began renaming all federal waste processing or sewage plants, garbage dumps and toxic-waste-disposal facilities after Donald Trump? I think that would be a very appropriate tribute to his second term in office.

All Politics Is Local

J.R. (U.S. citizen presently wandering about) in Cebu, Philippines, writes: I quit work just before COVID and was planning to go to Europe, but things closed and so I spent a year in Maine as I knew it was a decent place to be left alone and hike. Great place with sane people for the most part. Maybe not as gorgeous as parts of the mountainous west, but beautiful. Am not surprised they are working creatively to actually rehabilitate the prisoners there. If I ever do live back in the U.S., it will be because Norway won't have me ;) and it will be in Maine.

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B.H. in Sherman Oaks, CA, writes: Regarding (V)'s comments on the anti-Proposition 50 campaign being waged by billionaire heir Charles Munger, Jr., I would not lightly dismiss Munger's efforts. His content may be a bit fuddy-duddy, but this strategy of massive online saturation has worked before, to the detriment of Californians. While Munger's campaign has sent out some paper mailers, their main approach has been flooding YouTube (and possibly other online video streaming services) with 15-second ads. These ads far, far outnumber any pro-Proposition 50 ads. Unlike standard YouTube ads, which usually allow viewers to skip to the end after eight seconds or so, the Munger ads deliberately omit the skip feature. (I'm supposing some fraction of the $30 million paid extra for this.) In the last month, it has seemed like every other video I watch forces me to sit through this crap. Thank goodness I can at least mute the sound.

My fear here is that low-information voters will fall for these 15-second propaganda pieces, since a precedent for this has already been set in the Golden State. In 2020, these voters were conned into approving Proposition 22, which exempted Uber, Lyft, and other app-based transportation and delivery companies from state law requiring them to grant their so-called "independent contractors"—most people would call them "employees"—such standard worker rights as healthcare, sick time, overtime, etc.

Prop 22's success at the polls was largely due to a massive online ad campaign centered on 15-second YouTube ads. Like Munger's ads, they were quintessential examples of par-for-the-course right-wing bad faith. The Prop 22 ads claimed to be pro-worker while the proposition itself stripped workers of their rights. Munger's ads claim to be about election integrity, while ignoring the national context of authoritarian takeover in which red states have completely abandoned election integrity. As well, the ads declare the abolition of the independent commission when, in fact, the proposition only suspends the commission for the short term, until 2030. As usual, it's bad faith all the way down.

On the plus side, the 2020 election was not a special election, and the wonkiness factor of special elections should favor the pro-Prop 50 side. And, as (V) notes, the ads employ outdated aesthetics; in contrast, the Prop 22 ads were catchy and superficially appealing, a smiley face hiding an iron fist. Nevertheless, if low-information voters do turn out in any numbers, I suspect that many of them will have been easily duped by these anti-Prop 50 ads. It behooves anyone who approves of Newsom's plan to not just get out and vote, but to get out the vote.

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B.M. in Oakland, CA, writes: Loving my city (or perhaps my state?) This in one of the tougher parts of Oakland:

Amazing when the government is having to warn you about the government. But also strangely heartwarming.

(V) & (Z) respond: For those who don't read Spanish, "¡NOSOTROS TENEMOS DERECHOS!" means "We have rights!"

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J.N. in Summit, NJ, writes: I know you guys are dubious at best about independent candidates, centrists, and third parties, but I think Dan Osborn has a shot in the 2026 Senate race in Nebraska and should be kept on the radar. He got 47% on his first attempt in 2024 and now he has the anti-Trump wind at his back. Evidently (according to him) he also has an internal poll showing him up by 1 point against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), which is a very strong place to start—notwithstanding all disclaimers you usually add to internal polls which I totally agree with. I want Osborn to win for all the usual reasons but, in addition, his angle—blue-collar, principled independent running in a red state/district—is something that could take off and could be a huge win for sane politics and for the U.S. as a whole.

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M.L. in Franklin, MA, writes: The headline for "Generational Change May Get Tested in the Massachusetts Senate Primary" should actually be "Generational Change May Get Tested in the Massachusetts Senate Primary (Again)." Back in 2020, another Massachusetts Representative with a name more powerful than Rep. Seth Moulton (D), took on Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)... and lost. Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D) is roughly the same age as Moulton, and may have rested on his name a little too much, but Markey painted a picture of himself as the progressive fighter Massachusetts needed. I suspect Moulton thinks Markey will step down in 2026 and wants his hat in the ring before Markey anoints his successor, who might be a little too progressive for Massachusetts. Moulton will probably lose to Markey, but not to someone else.

The other question is this: Why challenge Markey, but not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)?

Municipal Egos

D.C. in Portland, OR, writes: L.C.H. in Vancouver mentions Vienna, in the discussion of (self-)important cities. Recently I read Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World by Richard Cockett, which I highly recommend. It outlines the forces that were shaping Europe and the world during the early 20th century, and how much of it was centered on Vienna.

As an ex-pat of Scotland, you will understand, I'm sure, why I vehemently disagree with the premise of Cockett 's book's title. Vienna was, as he writes, an exciting and transformative place in the early 1900s but it was in fact Scotland, with the significant contribution of my home city of Edinburgh, that invented the modem world, as Arthur L. Herman explains rather well.

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D.R. in Alaska and Chicago, IL, writes: I never thought I would compare my home state of Alaska to Maryland, but E.W. in Silver Spring, MARYLAND, claims that his pride is not in the city, but in the state.

I would have to say the same thing about Alaska. Alaska is most definitely NOT urban, and the standing joke from some rural Alaskans about our city Anchorage is that Anchorage is just 30 minutes from Alaska. In other words, the real Alaska is the frontier: the king crabs on Kodiak Island, the salmon in Togiak Bay, Mendenhall Glacier outside of Juneau, Chena Hot Springs outside of Fairbanks, Gates of the Arctic National Park surrounding Anaktuvuk Pass, the blueberries on the tundra surrounding Bethel, the moose near Dillingham, the majesty of Denali, the northern lights on the Yukon River at Grayling, and the wonder of the Pribilof Islands.

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C.J. in Queens, NY, writes: I'm a little late with this, but New York City is so culturally relevant because it is the greatest and most diverse city in the world. I say this because while all the different varieties and flavors of human have never quite been able to figure out how to get along together, NYC is the closest we've ever come. There is no other place on Earth like it.

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J.P. in Glenside, PA, writes: For your edification regarding the perception, of R.P.E.H. in London, that London is the cultural centre (correct spelling) of the universe, consider the poem by William Wordsworth, composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, which I learned and internalized as a schoolboy in Battersea, London:

Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

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M.W. Ottawa, ON, Canada, writes: Toronto. As the largest city in Canada, its inhabitants are prone to thinking they are the only ones who matter. I once read an opinion column in the Globe and Mail (headquartered in Toronto) where the writer opined that when people say they hate Toronto what they actually mean is that they hate Ottawa.

I suspect a similar dynamic applies in many other countries. Maybe not Switzerland, where the national pastime consists of criticizing every other canton for being Swiss in the wrong way.

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M.M. in San Diego, CA, writes: How's this for municipal hubris: San Diego's official slogan is "America's Finest City." Personally, I'd prefer "Best. Comic-Con. Ever."

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E.T. in Montpellier, France, writes: J.H. in The Hub writes that they have only ever seen Boston's nickname, "the Hub of the Universe," used ironically. I'd like to direct their attention to this meme, which is a favorite of many New England-themed Instagram accounts:

It doesn't actually use the nickname, but close enough.

The Sporting Life

C.B. in Bath, England, UK, writes: In Europe, we have a word for taking pleasure in others' misfortune. We even have an actual German speaking player in our team (an Austrian).

The shellacking handed out to what is, probably, America's most Trumpy national sports team is a beautiful thing to behold, from this side of the Atlantic. From the despicable behavior of a significant number of U.S. fans at Bethpage, the loutish and embarrassing behavior one or two U.S. players, notably Trump fan Bryson DeChambeau, to the embarrassing attempts of the PGA to encourage their fans to abuse European players and the presence, in person and in spirit, of the orange freak nonce moron president.

I struggle to recall, with the possible exception of England's football hooligans in the 1980s (I'm English, incidentally), any sports fans to have deserved such a defeat and humiliation in many years.

I cannot separate the behavior of this section of U.S. sports fans and players from the wider political crisis in the USA. Is this wrong to do so? The drunken lout fans are not exactly the working class "left behind." Tickets cost $750 a pop. This indicates that they're at the relatively wealthy, entitled end of the spectrum. Proof that having some class and decorum is not linked to income.

How has this been received in the U.S.? Has it been viewed as another MAGA Trump embarrassment for your country? Or has it largely been ignored by the popular sports media, who'd rather not depress their viewers with details of painful defeat?

"What Ryder Cup? Next on Fox Sports, wall-to-wall coverage of Team USA's magnificent defense of the North American Tiddly Winks Championship."

P.S. This was written before the final day of the Ryder Cup. If the U.S. Team overcome a 7-point deficit, please feel free to invert most of the sentiments expressed above. It would be one of sports greatest tragedies.

(V) & (Z) respond: At the moment, play is still in progress, but it looks like Europe will win. The tournament hasn't gotten all that much attention, primarily because golf is a second-tier sport in the U.S., and tends only to get substantial coverage when one of the four majors is being played, or when Tiger Woods is playing. That said, most Americans tend to be disdainful of DeChambeau, in particular.

As chance would have it, and we really think this is coincidental, yesterday was ESPN's annual "ESPN 8 - The Ocho" day, where they turn ESPN 2 over to coverage of obscure sports like ferret legging and grass drag racing, in response to a joke made in the film Dodgeball.

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T.K. in Salem, MA, writes: You made a list of the Top 10 (honoring the questioner's questionable behavioral exclusions), and you still left out the best baseball player of all time—the "Say, Hey!" Kid, Willie Mays?

And, just a few steps behind him, Hank Aaron?

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R.H.M. in North Haven, CT, writes: Top 10 lists are hard to compile and I appreciate anyone willing to try. But in response to T.J.R. in Metuchen about the ten best baseball players (taking character into account), you provided a top 10 list that somehow excluded Willie Mays. He is easily one of the top five people to play the game, and certainly loved the sport as much as Gwynn. Does he have some dark past I am unaware of that disqualified him on character grounds? I fear that your list leans too hard into character, and goes beyond simply considering character as one element of many.

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P.M. in Port Angeles, WA, writes: I'm surprised that you did not mention Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige, He may have been the greatest pitcher of all time, ever though he was locked out of major league baseball for nearly all of his career.

Also I'd nominate the great Ernie Banks, known to his fans as "#14 on your scorecard, #1 in your hearts" and as "Mr. Cub." He also immensely enjoyed playing the game.

My third nominee is Hoyt Wilhelm, the absolute master of the knuckleball, that spinless pitch that went in crazy directions.

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D.S. in Layton, UT, writes: If weighing the quality of a human being, there is a ballplayer who belongs near, or at the top of the list.

When we lived in Sacramento, there was a card shop about a mile from us. They sold Magic Cards, Pokemon, etc., but the hearts of the owners clearly lie with baseball cards. They were big fans of the sport, especially of the San Francisco Giants. Around their shop there were 8x10s of current and former Giants. No Yankees, no A's and do not even ask about the D*dg*rs being represented. Only Giants. With one exception. Hanging over the cash register was an autographed 8x10 of Harmon Killebrew. The first time I shopped there (our son was big into Magic cards) I asked about the seemingly out-of-place picture.

She explained: They won a contest from one of the card companies and Harmon Killebrew would come to their store for an hour for pictures and autographs. Having won those in the past, she told me, she was used to players showing up with entourages of various sizes, set up a card table with a timer and when an hour was up they would get up and leave, regardless as to how many people might be in line.

Killebrew, on the other hand, showed up alone and sat at his table with no time pieces. He signed autographs, posed for pictures and engaged in conversation as long as anyone wanted one. Close to 3 hours, as she told me. And when there were no more cards or balls to sign, no one else eager for a picture, he asked her something that took him to the next level. "You said your son has Little League practice, right?" She confirmed that. And he asked her if she would mind taking him to the practice. And for the next 2 hours this Hall of Famer told the kids stories about playing in the bigs and gave each one batting tips.

That is a memory that each of those kids will carry forever.

I shared this story on a newsgroup around the time he died and I got lots of responses. Stories like this are legion in Minnesota. He was a great player, and a greater human being.

He belongs on this list.

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M.L. in West Hartford, CT, writes: I was sure that your answer to the question on the NFL season was going to end with "The Jets are the Jets." As a long-suffering Jets fan, I am outraged. The Saints are the worst team in the league? No one is worse than the Jets! New Orleans has won a Super Bowl in this century, for god's sake. How dare you overlook our nearly constant humiliation?

But I guess that's life in the NFL.

(V) & (Z) respond: Sorry. We forgot the Jets are still in the NFL.

Games People Play

J.C. in Fez, Morocco, writes: I agree with A. German Games are just da bomb. But we prefer the ones with a twist. Ticket to Ride: Nordic Version. Settlers of Catan: Star Trek Version. Carcassonne: South Seas Version. (Not for nothing, but my grandfather was from Finland, and my wife from the Philippines, so...) Also any of the collaborative games, where you all have to work together to win. Pandemic in particular, which for "some" reason is more recently popular.

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W.H. in Santa Fe, NM, writes: You missed the obvious answers: Chess and Go.

Nothing else is even close.

Gallimaufry: Earworms Edition

D.C. in Carbondale, IL, writes: How about you tell us the raw number of comments (including this one) you receive cursing you for the Disneyland earworm you triggered? That mine was planted in me as a child and re-armed as a parent. I'm now an hour into it and it's only getting louder. Have you no sense of decency, (V) and (Z)?

(V) & (Z) respond: There were a couple of dozen. To those readers who were affected, we can only ask: "Who let the dogs out? Who, who, who, who, who?"

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G.M. in Laurence Harbor, NJ, writes: "It's a world of laughter, and a world of tears. It's a world of hope, and a world of fears. There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware: It's a small world, after all."

I've been to Disney parks on two coasts, two countries and two continents; including the opening day of Epcot. Each time the ride was closed!

(V) & (Z) respond: You should buy a lottery ticket, because you are clearly the luckiest person on Earth.

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L.E. in Santa Barbara, CA, writes: Your response to R.S. in Ticonderoga was just wickedly cruel. As someone who visited Disneyland multiple times a year throughout my youth and young adulthood, I remember when "It's a Small World" was introduced. I rode it a grand total of three times (the first time voluntarily, thereafter under duress). I even had to learn to play that song on a piccolo for a junior high school band performance. So forcing poor R.S. into earworm hell like that is just brutal. ;-)

Fortunately, over the years I have found a remedy for painful earworms, such as that or the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. I just play the entire Beatles oeuvre for the rest of the day. Inevitably, I end up with at much more pleasant earworm (or two) to latch onto.

BTW, my spousal unit told me the Small World earworm is nothing compared to the Pirates of the Caribbean torture he went through. In his late teens, he got stuck on that mid-ride for 3 full hours and had to listen to one segment of that song the entire time. Everyone in the ride kept yelling and shouting for them to turn the music off. Eventually, the cast did turn it off, but almost immediately led all of the guests off the boats and through the back access tunnels to get out. Even a hint of that tune, to this day, drives him nuts. So I guess it could be worse.

(Z) responds: I actually play both songs, plus "Grim Grinning Ghosts" during my History of California lecture on Disneyland.

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R.H. in San Antonio, TX, writes: Any time you find yourself humming along with the animatronics at Chuck-E-Cheese while you are not, in fact, in Chuck-E-Cheese, you could try my tried-and-true cure: Imagine instead the Cyndi Lauper song "True Colors"... as if it were being sung by Elmer Fudd.

I say it's "my" cure because it's always worked for me... well, always since I first heard about it on NPR, back when you'd hear that song on commercial radio.

It requires too much brain-processing power to get stuck on auto-repeat, or at least it works for me.

Final Words

P.M. in Nashville, TN, writes: Last words of Lavinia Fisher, the first convicted serial killer in American history: "If anyone has a message for the Devil, tell me now, for I shall be seeing him shortly."

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