Skip to content
“Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, not a round of fighting, at war. I am initiating an extensive mobilization of the reserves to fight back on a scale and intensity that the enemy has so far not experienced. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price.”
— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted by the Times of Israel.
“Republican 2024 presidential candidates blamed the Biden administration for the attacks Hamas terrorists launched against Israel on Saturday, pointing to the deadly developments as evidence of U.S. weakness on the world stage and claiming that the administration is partially responsible.”
336,000
The US economy added 336,000 nonfarm jobs in September, nearly double the 170,000 jobs economists had predicted and surpassing the upwardly revised 227,000 jobs in August, according to government data released yesterday. The latest figure is the largest monthly increase since January. Most of the jobs in September were added in leisure and hospitality (96,000), government (73,000), and healthcare (41,000). Average hourly earnings in September were up 0.2% month-over-month and 4.2% year-over-year, slightly down from estimates of 0.3% and 4.3%. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8% from the previous month. See all data here.
“The last three decades have seen an endless succession of coups, scandals, and humiliations, at times reducing the position of Speaker of the House to a hollowed-out title hardly anybody of note even wanted to claim. By this point, the rituals of plotting and counterplotting are so deeply ingrained that every new Republican Speaker is greeted with built-in opposition and ready speculation as to who will take over as the next Speaker after the newly inaugurated one is inevitably deposed. … The congressional Republican fratricide era began with the rise of Newt Gingrich (more on him shortly). But its intellectual roots stretch back to the early 1960s, when the upstart conservative movement first crawled out of the primordial ooze and set out to seize control of the party.”
“If you want to know what it looks like when democracy is in trouble, this is what it looks like. It should set off alarm bells that something is not right.”
— Daniel Ziblatt, professor of government at Harvard University, quoted by the Washington Post.
+$1 million
Atlanta Journal Constitution: “In all, the Georgia GOP has spent more than $1 million on legal fees since the beginning of last year, most of it for the Trump election interference case.”
“In a grievance-filled news conference after he announced his decision not to try to get his job back, McCarthy said, with dark humor: ‘I made history, didn’t I?’ Indeed, he has left a mark — a scar on the institution and the office — that will be hard to erase.”
<11
“President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden’s 2-year-old German shepherd, Commander, has been involved in more biting incidents than previously reported at the White House,“ CNN reports. “While the US Secret Service has acknowledged 11 reported biting incidents involving its personnel, sources who spoke to CNN said the real number is higher and includes executive residence staff and other White House workers.”
$45.5 million
“Donald Trump’s campaign announced on Wednesday that it had raised $45.5 million from July through September, an enormous sum that tripled what his closest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, had revealed raising earlier in the day,” the New York Times reports.
19%
A new USA Today/Suffolk poll in New Hampshire shows Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 49%, followed by Nikki Haley at 19%, Ron DeSantis at 10%, Chris Christie at 6%, Vivek Ramaswamy at 4% and Tim Scott at 4%. A new Winthrop poll in South Carolina finds Donald Trump leading the GOP presidential race with 51%, followed by Nikki Haley at 17%, Ron DeSantis at 12%, Tim Scott at 6%, Vivek Ramaswamy at 5%, Chris Christie at 2% and Mike Pence at 2%.
