News & Notes, Oct. 3

What happened this week

Welcome back to the American Times. Earlier this week I wrote about Sam Walton, A.I., and the creeping uncertainty that may well define the rest of this century. But today, I’d like to break down some of the other things happening in our country and in our world in a new, second post that will come in your inbox every Friday called “News & Notes.” Here, I’ll leave some of the history behind and focus on the headlines, what I’m reading, and even a sports section at the end.

This Week:

The United States Government shut down.

It’s another story that follows the same pattern: Republicans framing their own failings as Democratic incompetence, and Democrats falling into the trap. While Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House, the Trump Administration has called it as the “Schumer Shutdown,” in reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose idea of a showdown with the President starts with a “strongly worded letter.”

The Democrats’ incompetence seemed best exemplified by a livestream that began Tuesday afternoon on Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ YouTube channel. The forum, Jeffries promised, would be a chance for House members to talk directly to the American people about what is at stake in this shutdown, and to hammer the bulky mantra he keeps repeating, “Cancel the cuts. Lower the cost. Save Healthcare.”

Going live at 2PM, Jeffries told the audience, “Over the next 24 hours, House Democrats here on the Capitol, across the city and beyond, will be talking directly with the American people about what’s at stake, why we are fighting hard to make sure that we both find a path forward to fund the government but that we do it in a way that actually makes a difference in the quality of life of the American people.”

The issue, however, was that there wasn’t much of an audience at all. In fact, it peaked around 1,000 people. More people are watching an episode of Maury right now from 1997. At one point, as Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49) AND Rep. Wesley Bell (MO-01) spoke, the livestream had 67 viewers. Later, former CNN host Don Lemon asked Rep. Ayanna Presley (MA-7), “How can the people watching — what can they do?” At that moment, those watching were exactly 122 strong. Later, Rep. Eric Swallwell made sure to look foolish while wearing a flat-bill, “No Kings” baseball hat before Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz introduced 28-year-old Congressman, Maxwell Frost by declaring, “Gen Z is in the house!” 177 people were watching.

It’s a reminder of one of the most important stories of 2025, which has also been typified this past week by Kamala Harris’ blame-game book tour: Democrats don’t have a clue what they’re doing.

On the Republican side, the shutdown story is also an echo of the past ten months. In reality, the Trump Administration has been trying to shut down the government since noon on January 20, 2025. That has been the point of this second term: to form a new American government entirely to redefine its purpose at every turn. At a budgetary level, that has meant either cutting or ignoring any programs or agencies that fail to serve the Administration’s goals. That last part has relied chiefly on one man, Russell Vought, the designer of “Project 2025” and Trump’s director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

As Speaker Mike Johnson told the Wall Street Journal, Vought “has been thinking for his entire life and career about how to downsize the government.” Jeffries, for his part, has said of Vought, “Our response to Russ Vought is simple: Get lost.”

As a feather in Vought’s cap, last week the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump can “impound” Congressional funds, by not spending federal money that has already been appropriated. Such authority was previously thought to be unconstitutional, as Chief Justice William Rehnquist once wrote in 1969, “it is in our view extremely difficult to formulate a constitutional theory to justify a refusal by the President to comply with a congressional directive to spend.” While the decision received less attention than things like the Comey indictment, it’s something that could have far larger impact—and possibly complicate things even if Republicans and Democrats agree to end the shutdown.

Also, this week, two grown men wearing makeup addressed over 800 high-ranking military officials in Quantico, Virginia about what it means to be a soldier. Pete Hegseth, a former weekend TV host, and Donald Trump, a former reality TV host, both were camera ready as they stood in front of a Patton-esque American flag to tell men and women who have dedicated their lives to this country about toughness and patriotism. What they were going for is worth revisiting.

Hegseth, with the pitch of a bad used car salesman, told the leaders gathered, “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.”

The President, for his part, continued his attack on America, by declaring, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” insinuating that he wants for the military to use American citizens in American cities as target practice. He called it “a war from within.”

Toward the end of the speech, as President Trump became increasingly tired from standing, he continued speaking at the stone-faced soldiers and told them about reality as he saw it.

“We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling down stairs every day. Every day, the guy’s falling down stairs. I said it’s not our president. We can’t have it. I’m very careful. You know, when I walk downstairs for -- like I’m on stairs like these stairs, I’m very -- I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record, just try not to fall because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy. We don’t want that, need to walk nice and easy. You don’t have to set any record, be cool. Be cool when you walk down but don’t -- don’t bop down the stairs. So, one think with Obama, I had zero respect for him as the president, but he would bop down those stairs -- I’ve never seen, da da da da da da, bop, bop, bop, he’d go down the stairs, wouldn’t hold on. I said, great, I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually bad things are going to happen and it only takes once.”

The Commander in Chief speaking to the leaders of the most powerful military the planet has ever known, ladies and gentlemen.

What I’m Reading:

Not everything has to be about President Trump, as hard as he tries. Here are a few things I’m reading this week that also matter:

· A New Yorker profile of Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web. (Link).

· The Financial Times’ Big Read on “What Remains of Gaza?” as ceasefire talks continue. (Link)

· This week’s NYT poll that shows just 33% of Americans believe the country can still solve its problems—down from 51% just five years ago in 2020, amid a pandemic and racial reckoning. (Link)

Sports Section:

In sports, the baseball season ended last night abruptly when the Boston Red Sox season ended in a 4-0 loss in the Bronx. I’m told still eight teams that will continue to play starting again tomorrow. In that case, good for them.

The series to watch is the NLDS matchup between Philadelphia Phillies vs the Los Angeles Dodgers, who I believe are the two best teams remaining. Game 1 will be a highlight, beginning at 6:38PM on Saturday, when Shohei Ohtani takes the mound as the Dodgers’ starting pitcher and as the team’s leadoff hitter. At 2:08PM tomorrow, the Cubs will take on the Brewers, as Milwaukee hopes to cash in on the best record in baseball this year.

In the American League, the Yankees and the Blue Jays face off in a series I believe that will send its winner off to lose to the Mariners, who I predict will go on to the World Series to face the winner of the Philly/L.A. series. Just my two cents.

In football—at the college level—tomorrow’s two best games include perhaps the best team in Vanderbilt’s history playing the 10^th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide at 3:30 and at 7:30, the #3 Miami Hurricanes against #18 Florida State in a matchup with massive playoff implications. Upset alert: watch out for 1-3 Florida to give #9 Texas issues in Gainesville.

At the NFL level, primetime matchups are light this week. The Washington Commanders and L.A. Chargers play at 4:25PM, perhaps the only game this weekend that features two teams likely to head to the playoffs. The game of the week may well be Sunday night when the New England Patriots play the Buffalo Bills in upstate New York. I’m taking the Patriots to cover, +7.5.

Until next week.