The midterm elections have officially begun, which would ordinarily imply that the rules governing those elections had already been settled. That’s apparently an antiquated expectation. North Carolina began sending mail ballots today, becoming the first state to widely distribute them for November, while the Trump administration continues asking the courts to allow new Postal Service requirements governing how those ballots are processed. The proposed system involves approved envelope designs, barcodes and voter data submitted through a federal portal that, as states began preparing ballots, wasn’t yet fully operational. Roughly a third of American voters use mail voting, so naturally we’ve chosen the weeks immediately before an election to continue experimenting with the machinery. The ballots are leaving the building while portions of the instruction manual remain in litigation.
Today is the day. My youngest baby, my sweet baby pie, my mister boy, is one. How has this happened? His chubby cheeks, his Michelin Man arms, all of them will fade away with time, and the realization is heartbreaking. However, he never lets me stay down for long. This morning, during our usual routine of him yelling until I poke my head around the door and see him standing in his crib, him laughing and throwing his bottle on the ground just to watch it hit the floor, me swooping him up, and him gently laying his head against my chest and rubbing my shoulder, he just looked into my eyes for a while before laying his head down. He may be a big old boy now, but he is still Momma’s sweet boy. The older kids are very excited to watch him smash a cake, as are his parents.
It’s been a bit rainy the last few days, which is a stark reminder that we really need to get some grass seed into the ground before it gets really rainy and our yard turns into a mud bog. The plants are loving it, though, and I love waking up in the morning to see them slightly damp but still smiling at me. Plants cannot actually smile, probably, but they can project a feeling if nothing else, and mine seem quite pleased with the arrangement.
My oldest starts school on Tuesday, and he has decided that this year he does not want his parents attending his first day for pictures because he is “a big fifth grader now.” I understand his concern, especially since he has three parents rather than the traditional two, which means even more opportunities for public embarrassment. That said, I will get pictures one way or another. I’ve accepted the challenge. My daughter is deeply offended that he gets to start school first. I’ve tried to explain that one day she won’t consider attending school earlier than everyone else to be an outrageous privilege, but she remains unconvinced.
We have also decided that we must have a mystical home. A wizard’s cabin, shall we say, an apothecary beneath the canopy, something full of warmth and magic to celebrate all the ordinary magic in our lives. I will say that designing a home aesthetic with another human being is not always easy because there are differing opinions and all that, but I am a lucky woman simply because my husband does everything in his power to make sure my ideas feel valuable, even if I occasionally want to throw a hissy fit about them. He’s a wonderful man, always trying to better himself and his situation, and it’s inspiring. It makes me want to be a better person.
We are battling rising bills, a declining climate, raising children, and the utter embarrassment that accompanies being an American citizen currently. Which brings me naturally to today’s news. Because while I am trying to turn my house into a cozy woodland cottage, the federal government is apparently working on its own decorating project.
The Trump administration says excavation could begin within two weeks for a proposed 250-foot-tall monumental arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, complete with gold details, eagles, a winged figure holding a torch and the words “ONE NATION UNDER GOD.” The project has preliminary approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, but it hasn’t yet received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, and a lawsuit filed by three veterans and an architectural historian argues that Congress never authorized its construction. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum nevertheless says preparations are moving forward.
Now, perhaps you’re thinking that a 250-foot gilded triumphal arch is enough national whimsy for one administration. Incorrect. The White House website also launched an arcade this week featuring five retro-style video games designed around administration policies. There is Build the Wall, a Tetris-style game in which players assemble a border wall. There is Rio Run, modeled after Snake. There is Flappy Bill, in which an eagle carries legislation through the skies over Washington. There is Supply Line, built around Make America Healthy Again food standards, and Trump Savings Tycoon, in which players collect money for children’s Trump Accounts.
I don’t actually know what stage of empire includes both monumental arches and government-branded arcade games, but historians should probably begin labeling their folders now. It’s an extraordinary thing to watch a government simultaneously wrestle with war, inflation, healthcare, debt, immigration, elections and the price of groceries while someone, somewhere, is apparently being paid to ask whether the eagle in Flappy Bill needs better collision detection.
To be clear, the silliness of the presentation does not make the underlying policies silly. Immigration policy affects actual human beings. Voting rules affect actual elections. Federal spending choices affect actual families. That’s part of what makes the spectacle so strange; serious power keeps arriving dressed like entertainment.
Missouri, meanwhile, would apparently like everyone to hold its beer. The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that a Trump-backed congressional map cannot be used in November unless voters approve it. More than 300,000 signatures were submitted in an effort to force a referendum on the redistricting plan, which Republicans had hoped could help the party gain another congressional seat. Unless voters approve the new map, the state will use its previous congressional boundaries for the general election.
That would ordinarily be enough political drama for one state. Missouri also has Thomas Ross, the Republican nominee for a state House seat, who appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance after prosecutors accused him of trying to have cocaine and Adderall planted on his Republican primary opponent. According to an FBI probable-cause statement, a former campaign manager told investigators that Ross gave him a black glove containing a small bag of white powder and a capsule, then allegedly instructed him to place the items in opponent Louise Secker’s purse or vehicle. Law enforcement later identified the substances as cocaine and Adderall.
Ross defeated Secker in the August primary by only a few dozen votes. He has not publicly indicated how he intends to plead, and Missouri Republican Party Chairman Peter Kinder has called for him to withdraw from the race. This is a race for the Missouri House of Representatives. I feel compelled to emphasize that because the alleged strategy has the energy of an international espionage thriller, while the actual prize is a seat in the state legislature.
Elsewhere, the American economy performed one of its favorite tricks today by producing unexpectedly good news and immediately making everyone nervous about it. Employers added 162,000 jobs in August, far above economists’ expectations of roughly 65,000, while unemployment remained at 4.1 percent. June and July job totals were also revised upward. Ordinarily this would be fairly straightforward good news, except inflation remains stubbornly high, fueled in part by elevated energy costs, and stronger employment gives the Federal Reserve more room to raise interest rates in an effort to bring prices under control. Stocks fell Friday as investors considered that possibility.
So we have reached the familiar economic arrangement in which people getting jobs is good, unless too many people get jobs, at which point financial markets begin staring nervously at the Federal Reserve. Average hourly wages rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the weakest annual gain since 2021, which matters because families don’t experience an economy through a jobs report. They experience it at the grocery store, the gas pump, the power bill and whatever fresh indignity arrives in the mailbox marked “amount due.” The next major inflation report arrives September 11, shortly before the Fed meets September 15 and 16.
Finally, because the rest of the world has also declined our invitation to have a quiet Friday, Argentina’s President Javier Milei has sharply escalated his country’s long-running claim to the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas. Milei announced plans for tougher sanctions against companies involved in a major offshore oil project near the British-controlled islands and pledged additional funding for a naval base in Tierra del Fuego. The islands remain a deep source of national feeling in Argentina more than four decades after the 1982 Falklands War, while Britain maintains that the roughly 3,500 islanders have the right to determine their own political future. In a 2013 referendum, 99.8 percent of participating voters chose to remain a British overseas territory.
Trump has recently suggested that the United States could reconsider its position on the sovereignty dispute, something Milei cited approvingly as he made his case. Britain responded that its commitment to the islands remains unchanged. Milei stopped short of threatening another military confrontation, but the combination of oil, sovereignty, domestic politics and shifting alliances has made an old dispute suddenly feel much less historical.
Which leaves us, at the end of another week, with ballots going into the mail while voting rules are still being argued over, a gigantic golden arch preparing to rise over Washington, federal arcade games, an alleged cocaine-planting political plot, markets frightened by people finding jobs, and a 200-year-old territorial dispute heating back up because apparently every unresolved problem in human history would like a turn.
And here at home, my baby is one. Tonight there will be cake smashed between tiny fingers, older siblings laughing, probably frosting in someone’s hair and absolutely no dignity whatsoever. The yard is wet, the plants are happy, school is approaching, and somewhere in this house my husband and I are trying to figure out how much wood, stone and wizardry one family can reasonably fit beneath a roof. The spectacle outside our doors is enormous, loud and frequently ridiculous. The ordinary magic inside them is still ours.
Aww, Happy Birthday to your little one. It’s my birthday, too! I hope everyone has a great time. Keep up the great writing. Sincerely, fellow Oregonian.