HAPPINESS: Maybe by the end of the week!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026

First, though, INABILITIES: Say what? Shine on me, sunshine? Walk with me, world?

In our view, it was a good way to start a song. Sacred Thoreau was in a similar place when he penned the following words on the shore of Concord's famous Barron Pond. 

It's the start of the fifth chapter in his famous book, Barron. For the original text, click here:

Solitude

This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath...

The writer felt "sympathy with the poplar leaves!" This is widely viewed as an excellent place to be.

But also, "Shine on me, sunshine / Walk with me, world!"  In our view, it was a beautiful way to start a song—a song which went to #1 on the country charts in 1972. We heard it again on the road back from Durham, years ago, after watching a certain second grader take part in a schoolwide spelling bee. At the time, she was the greatest kid in the world, tied with her younger sister, who was also the world's greatest kid.

We'll refresh you on the song by the end of the week. But also, we'll offer some thoughts on its relevance.

(At one time, the pond was known as Walden Pond. We've linked you to Thoreau's original text, which did include the word "trump.")

That song was a portrait of happiness. First, though, a different focus. First, we'll look at the inabilities which currently put us in danger.

We'll start today with an aggressive challenge to Bill Maher. It's voiced in an opinion piece by Mediaite's Michel Luciano.

As readers know—as we've often said—we've always admired Bill's enormous achievement. Today, though, Luciano can be spotted offering this, unflattering headline included:

Bill Maher Is Dining With Trump Again Because He’s a Willing Dupe

Bill Maher is heading to the White House to meet with Donald Trump again partly because, in Maher’s words, “he was like, really nice.”

The last time the ostensibly liberal Maher made the pilgrimage to D.C. to meet with Trump, he indignantly lashed out at those who criticized him for doing so. Speaking on HBO’s Real Time after the summit in April 2025, Maher noted that Trump has been engaging in a “trade war and disappearing people, ruling by decree, threatening judges, gutting the government with glee.”

But despite these actions, which Maher himself said he is disturbed by, Trump still managed to impress him.

“Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher told his audience at the time. “And why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know and I can’t answer and it’s not my place to answer.”

And so on from there. Now for a bit of background:

Last week, during a Club Random chat, Bill said that the president has offered another dining invitation and that he's going to take it. At some length, Luciano says that Bill is wrong to do that.  He says that Bill is making himself "a willing dupe of a malevolent president."

We can't necessarily say that Luciano is wrong. For ourselves, we're going to focus on this part of Bill's statement from last year:

“Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher told his audience at the time. “And why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know and I can’t answer and it’s not my place to answer.”  

In our view, Bill was flat-out wrong about that—though also, stone-cold wrong. In our view, it is his place to try to answer that deeply consequential question. We'd even say it's been his responsibility to try to fashion an answer.

Why does the sitting president do the things he does? It's too late to avoid the disasters which may follow November's mid-term elections. But Bill was saying he doesn't know, and that "it's not his place to answer." 

We're in awe of what Bill has achieved. But we'll call that spectacularly wrong.  

We'll discuss INABILITIES all week long. Tomorrow, we'll start right there, with that.   

Tomorrow: What, him interview a specialist?