Today's Agenda  BoJo's Not-So-Excellent Adventure Boris Johnson always wanted to be prime minister, and now part of him must wonder why. On Tuesday and Wednesday he lost his parliamentary majority, his first four House of Commons votes, 21 members of his party and control over the Brexit process. Today his own brother bailed on him, he talked so much he made a cop faint, and a constituent politely told him to leave town. When saying you'd "rather be dead in a ditch" than delay Brexit is the highlight of your week, you're not exactly having a good one. "All politicians have bad weeks. But the first part of this one has set some kind of record," Bloomberg's editorial board writes. It would be hilarious if the stakes weren't so high. Johnson's bumbling has left him powerless, reliant on opposition-party leader Jeremy Corbyn to accede to his desire for a snap election, even as he dashes political norms to pieces like so much Buckingham Palace souvenir crockery. Far from taking control of the process, Johnson has the U.K. careening toward a cliff-edge Brexit with no plan, no certainty and a weakening economy. There may in fact be no good solution to the Brexit mess, given the flaws of Britain's political system. Earlier this week, we joked the U.K. makes up its politics as it goes along, but the country seriously has no written constitution. Brexit is exposing the drawbacks of that approach, writes John Authers. Writing a new constitution that satisfies every Brit before Oct. 31 should be a snap, right? The root of the problem, which a constitution could fix, is a conflict between representative democracy (Parliament) and direct democracy (in this case, the 2016 Brexit referendum). Johnson and the populist Brexiters hold direct democracy sacrosanct; the Will of the People and all that. But Jonathan Bernstein doubts any referendum can truly reflect that will and argues that strong representative institutions must fill in the blanks. The Limits of Demagoguery Johnson is part of a new cohort of world leaders, President Donald Trump most famous among them, who favor populism and demagoguery over representative democracy and diversity. Many liberals are unhappy about this. But their political case for removing these leaders is complicated by the relatively decent economic performance of the countries they lead. Still, David Fickling cites the history of Argentina as an example of the severe, generational damage that gets done when populist demagogues run countries for too long. A century ago, Argentina's economy matched Australia's. Now it's a near-permanent basket case. Vibrant economies tend to welcome immigrants, as the conservative icon Ronald Reagan knew, Noah Smith writes. Reagan was an immigration booster who gave amnesty to more than 3 million illegal Mexican immigrants, which would make him basically a communist in today's politics. Rather than erase Reagan's legacy, the GOP would be wise to follow his example, Noah writes. That might turn some immigrants into voting Republicans. Bonds Take a Breather Only a couple of weeks ago, the bond market was flashing dire economic warnings. Today, trade-war jitters have subsided a bit, as have tensions in Hong Kong and the risk of a no-deal Brexit. Some economic numbers have been non-disastrous. This good-news cocktail was potent enough to hammer bond prices today, producing the biggest one-day jump in yields in years. Brian Chappatta writes this seems more like a course correction than a new direction. Still, it was strong enough to spook the "buy the dips" crowd. That may just mean there's still time to find some relative bargains in the bond market; Gary Shilling suggests yields, as low as they got last month, haven't bottomed yet. No Middle Ground on Climate Change Ten of the Democrats most likely to face Trump in the 2020 election had a marathon town hall last night about climate change. Defying expectations, it was an enlightening examination of the biggest existential crisis facing humanity. It also showed the middle ground on climate has all but disappeared, writes Liam Denning. Decades of climate denialism from the fossil-fuel industry and lethargy in Washington, culminating in Trump's watch-the-world-burn approach to environmental stewardship, have pushed the Democrats to extreme positions, Liam notes. The next chance they get to run things, they'll be much more aggressive on climate than in the past. Considering how close we are to the point of no return, that's probably necessary. Further Politicians-With-Plans Reading: Telltale Charts T-Mobile US Inc. claims Sprint Corp. won't survive without a merger, which is kind of funny, considering that T-Mobile has been Sprint's primary antagonist for many years, observes Tara Lachapelle. A merger would erase a key competitor, hurt consumers and take better potential options away from Sprint.  Gluttons for punishment that they are, analysts have lately started calling for a new "supercycle" of sorts in iPhones, driven by demand for 5G capabilities. Shira Ovide warns any such cycle will be a thin trickle at best; Apple Inc.'s days of big phone-sales growth are over.  Further Reading The many downsides of relying on Trump may be dawning on Benjamin Netanyahu when it comes to Iran. – Dennis Ross North Carolina's recent court decision knocking down partisan gerrymandering was probably not the start of a trend; this scourge of democracy is likely here to stay. – Noah Feldman Shutting down all dialogue with China about AI will leave us dangerously ignorant of new threats. – Matt Sheehan Brazil's vast savanna is the next battleground between environmentalists and politicians. – Mac Margolis ICYMI Trump tried his hand at weather-mapping. The Bahamas face a tourism hit to follow the hurricane. Silicon Valley bigwigs want to live on the moon. Kickers Artificial intelligence is now smarter than most American eighth graders. (h/t Uffe Galsgaard) Florida man parks Smart car in kitchen so it won't blow away. (h/t Scott Kominers) Human speech may have a universal transmission rate. The Loch Ness Monster may just be a giant eel. Note: Please send Smart cars and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. New to Bloomberg Opinion Today? Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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