Plus: The White Sox lose 120 games.
• Now we know what the mayor meant when he said he could attract foreign investment.
• A long-simmering investigation into New York City mayor Eric Adams yielded the fruit of five federal charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Among the allegations is that the mayor solicited free and heavily discounted foreign travel in exchange for helping to obtain approval by Fire Department officials of a new Turkish consulate. Adams insists he’s innocent. In the past month, Police Commissioner Edward Caban, Schools Chancellor David Banks, Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, and Lisa Zornberg, City Hall’s chief legal counsel, announced their resignations—effective immediately for Caban and Zornberg, at the end of the year for Banks and Vasan. A few voices on the right speculated that this represented “lawfare,” and Democrats aligned with the Biden administration targeted Adams for his criticism of the migrant crisis (the mayor declared a year ago, “This issue will destroy New York City”). But this gives Adams more credit than he deserves; hardly a border hawk or immigration restrictionist, he just wanted more federal funds for housing and caring for the migrants. Three years ago, the former cop Adams seemed like the least bad option among New York Democrats for mayor, but his term has largely been a disappointment. If he indeed gave favors to the Turks for campaign cash and free travel, he is a disgrace as well.
• Since she entered federal politics seven years ago, Kamala Harris has taken three positions on the Senate filibuster, and—would you believe it?—all of them have lined up perfectly with the transient political goals that she sought to achieve at the time. As a new member of the Senate in 2017, her aim was to block the new Republican majority from making any changes to federal law. She happily added her name to a bipartisan letter defending the filibuster against alteration of any kind. She was, she confirmed with her signature, “steadfastly committed to ensuring that this great American institution continues to serve as the world’s greatest deliberative body.” Two years later, though, Harris’s ambitions had changed. Running for president in 2019, she committed herself to the Green New Deal and, hoping to save the world, suggested that, if she won the White House and the Democrats won back the Senate, an exception to the filibuster ought to be made for climate change. That approach continued once she became vice president, when she embraced similar “carve-outs” for abortion and voting rights. Now that Harris is the Democratic nominee and her aim is to become a transformational president, all bets are off. In an interview with a radio station in Wisconsin this week, Harris revealed that she favors killing the filibuster completely if the Republicans block attempts to reconstitute Roe v. Wade via federal legislation. There is no principle here; only power.
• Nebraska, like Maine, awards one electoral vote to the winner of each House district, departing from the winner-take-all system that prevails in the other states. The Supreme Court has held since 1892 that each state may make this choice. It matters: Donald Trump won Maine’s rural second district in 2016 and 2020 and lost Nebraska’s Omaha-based second district in 2020. It is possible that one or both of these districts could be decisive in 2024. The system’s wisdom is dubious: While it draws campaign attention to otherwise uncompetitive states, it departs from the American tradition and allows presidential elections to turn on how state legislatures draw House-district lines. Nebraska Republicans, who control the governorship and the state’s unicameral legislature, made a late effort to change the rules to winner-take-all, to help Trump. Democrats were hypocritical in criticizing the timing given the habit of liberal courts and agencies (especially in 2020) of changing rules late in the game or even during a recount, and recently they substituted a new presidential nominee after one debate and the Republican convention. But rewriting election rules in the middle of a race is nonetheless a bad practice, one that degrades faith in the fairness of elections. Enough Nebraskans stood up for the norm to defeat the effort. The legislature should revisit the question at its leisure and outside of a presidential cycle.
• “It should be illegal, what happens,” said Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. What was happening? People were criticizing the Supreme Court. “These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices,” said the Republican standard-bearer and former president. This is an extraordinary opinion, in light of our system. Elsewhere, Trump said that if he came up short on Election Day “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss.” This pre-blaming, or scapegoating, is a little jarring. In a particular pitch to women, Trump said, “I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector.” Moreover, “women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.” Meanwhile, Trump has been hawking a new coin, with his image on it—cost: $100—and also hawking a new Trump-family cryptocurrency (World Liberty Financial). This campaign is Republicans’ to lose, and if they lose there will be no mystery about how.
• The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania is widely known as the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. It did not cause a single death or injury, yet it spurred generations of fear and regulation that have largely prevented new nuclear plants from being built and given politicians license to close existing ones. Never mind that on the same site in Pennsylvania another reactor has been providing nuclear energy through 2019. Now that reactor is coming back online because Microsoft needs more power for AI. It is expected to be up and running again by 2028, three years after Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan will, according to current plans, have become the first closed reactor in the U.S. to reopen. The change in attitude toward nuclear power, spurred by the energy needs that accompany technological advance, is welcome. It ought to lead to the construction of new plants, not merely the reopening of old ones.
• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will campaign anywhere for help for his country, and who can blame him? But he made a serious mistake when he took his campaign to Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., in the middle of an American election. Zelensky appeared in the crucial swing state with two Democratic candidates, Senator Bob Casey and swing-district congressman Matt Cartwright, as well as Democratic governor Josh Shapiro, highlighting jobs created at a Scranton factory that supplies munitions for Ukraine. Foreign meddling in American elections often backfires, and Donald Trump—who, unlike his running mate, has so far been cagily ambiguous about military aid to Ukraine—has taken predictable personal umbrage. Worse, it appears that Zelensky was flown to Scranton on an Air Force C-17 and driven around in a Secret Service car (while the Secret Service complains of personnel shortages that inhibit its protection of Trump). House Republicans want to know whether taxpayers paid for a de facto campaign stop. Given that Democrats once impeached Trump for using public power and money to try to extract partisan political favor from Zelensky, they should have seen the blowback coming. So should Zelensky, who cannot afford to have Ukraine aid become a party-line issue.
• Since the morning Hamas invaded Israel to massacre 1,200 people and take 250 hostages nearly a year ago, Hezbollah in Lebanon has sent thousands of projectiles into Israel, triggering the evacuation of 80,000 residents of northern Israel and putting the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv on high alert. Israel has conducted targeted air strikes against Hezbollah but has shown restraint—because of both pressure from the Biden administration and a reluctance to fight a full-scale war with Hezbollah in Lebanon at the same time that it is trying to destroy Hamas in Gaza. But this strategy has not effectively deterred Hezbollah from launching rockets. No other nation would tolerate that for as long as Israel did. It finally decided to take more-aggressive action in recent weeks, targeting Hezbollah via pager bombs and air strikes. While Israel would certainly prefer to avoid a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, at some point one may be necessary. Unfortunately, the response of the Biden administration so far has been more of the same muddled mess to which we’ve become accustomed—empty statements about the right of Israel to defend itself, coupled with lectures about avoiding escalation and seeking a diplomatic solution. Yet neutralizing Hezbollah, a group that has killed hundreds of Americans and has been designated a terrorist organization for as long as the State Department has maintained an official list, would help to defang Iran and bring more stability to the region. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah deserves the full support of the United States.
• There has been flooding in Poland and elsewhere in Europe. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, explained to the public that German troops would be on hand, to assist. “If you see German soldiers, don’t panic,” he said. “They’re here to help.” The line of the year?
• “Evidence-based policy” is all the rage, so here’s some evidence for you. In rent-controlled Stockholm in 2022, the average wait time for an apartment was nine years. Scotland capped rent increases for existing tenants at 3 percent per year in 2023, and average rent went up by 6 percent because landlords compensated by raising rents more for new tenants. In Berlin, a 2020 rent-control scheme was struck down in court in 2021 after it worsened the city’s housing shortage. Ninety-six percent of properties in the Netherlands are rent-controlled, and prices are soaring as supply evaporates. Rent controls in Ireland have brought housing investment to a standstill. Meanwhile, in Argentina, President Javier Milei repealed rent controls last year. Since then, the supply of rentals in Buenos Aires is up 170 percent and the average rent is down 40 percent in real terms. Follow the evidence.
• Price controls are a problem not only with rent. Donald Trump promised price controls on credit cards, saying that interest rates would be capped at “around 10 percent.” A rate that low on a short-term, unsecured loan—which is what a credit-card transaction is—would mean that only people with extremely high credit scores would be eligible for credit cards or that people with average credit scores would need to put up assets as collateral (or visit their local loan shark). The price system doesn’t care whether the politician commanding prices to change is a Republican or a Democrat.
• A new composition—a serenade in C major—has been found in a Leipzig library. It is by a Salzburger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote it between the ages of ten and 13. It is hard to pinpoint a date. In any case, the kid shows promise.
• “I think he was just feeling good, feeling sexy, and just knew, like, ‘I’m about to do this today,’” said Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers. His teammate Shohei Ohtani had just turned in what may be the best single-game offensive performance by a player in major-league history. In Miami on September 19, Ohtani went six for six, including three home runs and two doubles. He batted in ten runs, a franchise record, and scored four. He stole two bases, becoming the first player to steal 50 and hit 50 home runs in the same season; by game’s end, those figures were 51 and 51. First base was open when he came to bat in the seventh inning. Expert lip-readers agree that Marlins manager Skip Schumacher in the dugout said “F*** that” to the suggestion that his pitcher issue an intentional walk. Ohtani homered. It was “out of respect for the game” that the Marlins elected to pitch to “the most talented player I’ve ever seen,” Schumacher explained afterward. “Tip of the cap to Skip,” said Ohtani’s teammate Max Muncy, loving the sportsmanship.
• Entering the final weekend of the baseball season, the Chicago White Sox have matched the modern record of 120 losses, set by the 1962 Mets. The all-time record of 134 was set by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. But the Mets were in their first season as an expansion team, playing the castoffs of other franchises. The Spiders were in their last season, stripped for parts by an owner who sent all their good players to his other team in St. Louis. The White Sox are just bad—26 games worse than in 1921, when eight of their best players had just been banned from the league. Only three years ago, they were division winners managed by Hall of Famer Tony LaRussa. Much of that roster departed; only pitchers Garret Crochet and Erik Fedde stepped up, and the White Sox traded Fedde to St. Louis in July. The punchless offense has managed barely three runs a game. Four of the five teams in the AL Central have winning records: As of yesterday morning, the first-place Guardians were half a game shy of the best record in the American League, and the fourth-place Twins were six games over .500 and not far from clinching a wild-card playoff berth. Yet the Pale Hose have dragged the division as a whole to 31 games under .500. If there’s a silver lining to this epic failure, it’s that 1.3 million people have attended White Sox home games, showing how much Americans still love even the very worst baseball.