Heather Digby Parton in Salon.com

 Will tomorrow's debate tip the scales in this inexplicably close election? Maybe. But in the end, it all comes down to the same question: Do people want to go back to the negative, chaotic Trump years and spend four more of them dealing with his rage, revenge and retribution?  We won't find out until the votes are counted. 

Chauncey Devega in Salon.com

 With slightly more than a month until Election Day, the polls show that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are basically tied. Political scientists, historians, and other experts are describing the 2024 presidential election as one of the closest in modern American history. For those outside of the so-called MAGAverse, Trump’s popularity, even after more than eight years, remains a riddle. Unfortunately, the future of American democracy may be decided by their inability to break the Trump Code. The mainstream news media’s failure to decipher Trumpism has repeatedly led them to normalize the wantonly corrupt ex-president’s extremely malignant behavior.

In her new book “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right,” leading sociologist and author Arlie Hochschild has taken on the task of trying to explain Trump’s powerful appeal for and power over “white working class” voters and other downwardly mobile Americans. She argues that Trump speaks to their grievances, pain, rage, and feelings of lost pride, manhood, purpose and honor.

 By Michael Scherer

Updated September 28, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. EDT|Published September 28, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Shortly after Kamala Harris took control of Joe Biden’s campaign, her top advisers began holding senior staff meetings unlike any that had happened before.

New strategists appeared on Zoom calls with the Wilmington brass, and a transformed decision-making process took over. The competing power centers that had defined Biden’s world — a headquarters staff, a White House operation and a coterie of Biden loyalists who operated with one foot outside both structures — had been flattened into a single high council, reporting to a single boss, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, who spoke most days with the candidate.

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Harris blessed the unified structure, giving O’Malley Dillon the power to hire and direct a new layer of top talent from Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns for president. The vice president also gave marching orders: I don’t care where you are coming from, she told the new team, according to a person familiar with the statements. We don’t have time for drama. We will just do what we need to do.

-From the WaPost

Hurricane Helene

 Hurricane Helene is about to make landfall in Florida.  Its path will apparently take dead thru Georgia.  In any event, I seldom get concerned about weather unless it's heading toward me.

 

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My memory is not what it used to be. This morning I discovered a marvelous technique for improving my memory. I have stopped listening to people. Immediately less crap to remember. When I go out I get tired of having to return to the house searching for something I forgot. This morning I started to get out of the car at Starbucks thank goodness reaching to make sure I had my billfold only to discover I forgot my pants. Luckily I made it back without exposing myself.

 At Starbucks this morning the Pelham Chief of Police comes and goes, picking up his order like he does most mornings. I recognize William Faulkner's birthday (September 25th) like the good Southerner that I am. The past isn't dead. It isn't even past. I have visited Rowan Oak several times. One of our favorite Southern pastimes is following the path of the latest hurricane as it rips northward. Time again! September I always remember. We Southerners like to remember yes we do.

On Dickens

 Read at least one Charles Dickens novel toward personal fulfillment and know it well. I prefer "Great Expectations," but your choice. When the words Pip and Miss Havisham come up, and they will eventually come up if you hang out with the right crowd, you will be ready to impress. Being literate seems to not be as popular as it once was, sadly, but it's still important in my world.