The Matterboard is our weekly assessment of what’s worth your attention and what isn’t. Here’s last week’s edition, here’s an overview of the project, and here’s the full archive.
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PAY ATTENTION ⚠️
Iran has sunk at least two cargo ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, its latest effort to terrorize Persian Gulf shipping. There was no known response by the United States. “The lack of action from the US in response to the situation in Hormuz is remarkable,” Middle East analyst Gregory Brew of the Eurasia Group wrote on social media on October 14. “Dozens of ship attacks … and still no change in the US posture ... Iran (seemingly) has carte blanche.”
Ukraine went into panic mode for a couple of days when the Pentagon apparently throttled the military-grade Starlink satellite service Ukraine relies on for wide-ranging military operations, including attacks on Russian military forces and defenses against Russian drones and missiles. Elon Musk’s SpaceX controls Starlink, but the Pentagon pays for the version Ukraine uses and controls Ukraine’s access to it. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth once again seem to be trying to help the bloodthirsty Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gain an edge against the nascent democracy he is trying to conquer. They’re on the wrong side.
Blue wave odds remain high. Kalshi puts the odds of a Democratic sweep of Congress in the November midterms at 62%. Ebullient Democrats think their odds of taking over the Senate—once remote—are now looking pretty good. The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics recently changed its outlook for five Senate races, edging each of them closer to the D column. Its forecast gives 49 seats to Democrats and 46 to Republicans, with 5 tossups. If Dems win those 49 projected seats and 2 of the 5 tossups, they’ll have the Senate majority.
[Trump is getting the worst ratings of his life]
Trump’s diesel deal with Russia rapidly backfired. Trump said on October 12 he made a deal with Russia allowing the United States to import Russian diesel, to help lower prices here. But there’s a 2022 US law banning the import of Russian energy products. Plus, Russia has severe shortages of fuel internally, due to Ukrainian attacks on its energy infrastructure. There’s no Russian diesel to spare and analysts don’t think any is coming our way. Trump’s Russia deal, meanwhile, brought prompt condemnation from some within his own party—and no relief on diesel prices. Lose-lose.
Inflation worsened. The year-over-year inflation rate jumped from 3.4% in August to 3.7% in September. Nobody needs to tell shoppers and drivers inflation is a problem, but the data suggest it’s getting worse, not better. Wholesale inflation jumped from 5.6% in August to 6.3% in September, which means producers will be passing more of their own cost increases along to consumers.
MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔
Elon Musk is the biggest Republican donor. The oligarch, worth at least $900 billion, has given at least $276 million to GOP campaigns and causes this year, to help prevent a Republican midterm debacle. Will it matter? Money certainly helps in politics. But it also reaches a point of diminishing returns, since some voters simply can’t be swayed by one more campaign ad or annoying robocall.
Trump’s federal goons raided Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, DC home on October 12, claiming it’s part of some immigration probe. Omar, a progressive firebrand from Minnesota, immigrated to the United States from war-torn Somalia as a child in the 1990s. If there’s any problem at all with Omar’s immigration paperwork—which seems doubtful—this is the wrong way to investigate. The Justice Dept. is a once-upstanding federal agency Trump has corrupted to suit his personal whims. The Dept. of Homeland Security, which conducted the raid, is already responsible for at least eight fatal shootings under Trump, including those of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. DHS will be gutted or dismantled once Trump is gone, and Justice will need to be thoroughly cleansed. This is blatant abuse of power.
Apple will reportedly roll out AirPods with cameras. Sound cool? Eh. Wearables that feature tiny cameras have earned a bad rap, out of fear that weirdos will go around recording people without their knowledge. Like at the gym or at high-school recess. Some critics quip that AirPods could become known as “PervertPods” and cause the tech giant an unexpected branding problem.
[Inflation is getting ugly again]
Trump fired Kimberly Guilfoyle. But she may not go quietly. Trump intimates have been leaking that Guilfoyle—who was engaged to Donald Trump, Jr. for four years—has ample dirt on the Trump family and is likely to dish now that Trump has relieved her of her duties as ambassador to Greece. Trump did that after news surfaced that Guilfoyle tried to shake down a Trump supporter for $100,000 in exchange for favors she might be able to arrange from the Trump administration.
That payoff never happened. But Trump fired Guilfoyle anyway on October 13, so now there’s probably a scramble to see what else Trumpworld might be able to offer Kimmy G to keep her quiet. Oh, one more fun tidbit: The guy she asked for money is now suing her for defamation.
RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷♂️
Trump is going after five news networks for suspending the White House press pool. His latest gambit is an antitrust probe against ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News because they suspended the press pool and wouldn’t give him the attention he requires, after Trump banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. If this becomes a lawsuit, Trump will lose. It’s notable that he’s going after Fox News, which has served as a Trump propaganda channel for most of his two presidential terms. We suggested in September that Fox may view Trump as irreparably damaged goods and be moving on. To somebody else? JD Vance?
Pope Leo has lung cancer. It sounds treatable, and we hope it is. We’re post-Catholic and generally neutral toward the pope, but it’s nice that he’s an American, and a baseball fan. He also seems like a sensible fellow who might provide this troubled institution the steady leadership it desperately needs. Godspeed, Leo.
New sunscreen. You can now buy European sunscreen considered just as safe as regular old Coppertone, but without the streaking or discoloration some people experience. The European formula, which includes a chemical known as BEMT, costs more. So we’ll probably take a pass. But some people have astounding budgets for beauty products. This will probably be a hit.
[Only stock owners are better off under Trump]
SAFELY IGNORE 🚫
There’s a new White House spokesmodel, and of course she’s a blonde woman who can’t get her story straight. Katie Zacharia got the job as White House press secretary because she’s a prolific Trump defender on right-wing news networks. She graduated from Pepperdine Law, so good for her. She has frequently called herself a lawyer. But she failed the California bar exam and never earned a license to practice law. The press spent the first couple days of her tenure trying to figure out if she was lying about her background, and she was, kinda. So far, so good! She seems like a great fit for Trumpworld.
The latest grist for the looming Hegseth impeachment is Trump’s decision to cancel the livestream of a firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan in Texas in December. Hasan killed 13 people in a mass shooting at Ft. Hood in 2009, when he was a major in the army. A court-martial jury convicted him in 2013 and ordered the death penalty. That should be enough. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came up with the idea of executing him by firing squad, which is still the plan. Hegseth also announced that the execution would be livestreamed, which Trump has now axed. Hegseth has atrociously poor judgment and is unqualified to lead the US military. He can’t go soon enough and we hope impeachment proceedings move quickly once the midterms are over.
NYC is putting its horses out to pasture. The city plans to wind down its controversial horse carriage tourist trap syndicate in 2028. Don’t worry, the horses will go to sanctuaries (and the workers offered “transitional” jobs).
It’s time. There have been safety incidents involving the carriages, and a tourist died after being thrown from a runaway carriage earlier this year. Plus horse poop escapes the buckets meant to catch it and ends up scattered all around the Central Park pathways. Citibikes are better and cheaper.
There were no reflecting pool vandals! We knew this all along. You did too, right? Anyway, a new “failure report” by the contractor hired to fix the reflecting pool on the National Mall identifies at least 85 places a new liner failed after it was installed earlier this year. In June, workers filled the pool with water before the liner had fully cured. Trump had bragged about how beautiful he would make the pool, but it ended up filled with stinky algae, with chunks of the liner floating to the surface.
Trump blamed vandals for slashing the pool liner with razor blades and sneaking some algae into the water. We credit his creativity, but he’s lying. The project was a rush job by a company that got a no-bid contract and did a crappy job, maybe because Trump micromanaged the project. This is a ridiculous story, which is why we put it in the Safely Ignore quadrant. But it delightfully epitomizes the folly of the Trump government, and the shoddy way he runs the country, which is why it makes The Matterboard at all.
Enjoy a cartoon.
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Everything Trump & his henchmen are doing in Russia's unprovoked war of aggression on Ukraine is beyond the pale and stinks to high heaven. I hope the pressure on them to reverse course bears fruit.
Sure hope Kimmy G has some juicy, spicy tea to spill but ASAP please (instead of waiting to put it in a book that comes out in mid-2028).
Cartoon's great as usual.