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🇺🇸 NYT: What’s That in Your Mouth, Bro?
Zyn’s cultural influence may go beyond the product itself. In a wide-ranging essay in June, Mr. Read coined a neologism to describe an online niche of bro-y, internet-addled young men: the Zynternet, a place where men in their 20s and 30s post about subjects like golf, sports gambling and their favorite podcasters. Zyn may be speaking to an “imperiled masculinity,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, who has helped chief executives whose businesses get tangled up in politics. “It’s this failure by a lot of men in getting their lives on track that is leading them to products that give them an identity and a definition.”
If I still “felt” things in 2024, this would be so fucking depressing.
🇺🇸 WaPo: Trump says he doesn’t mind someone shooting at journalists at rally
“I have this piece of glass here,” Trump said. “But all we have really over here is the fake news, right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. “And I don’t mind that so much,” Trump said. “I don’t mind. I don’t mind.” The audience roared with laughter. Trump also said he regretted leaving office after losing the 2020 election and trying to overturn the result. He at one point said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House, while complaining about Democrats’ handling of the border and returning to his false claims that he won the 2020 election.
That offhanded regret about leaving office? It’s not wistful—it’s a seed, planted to cast doubt on whether he should have left at all, suggesting a world where he never conceded, where rules don’t apply if they don’t suit him. His audience isn’t laughing at a joke. They’re signaling their commitment to his story. To the bloody end.
🇺🇸 WaPo: LGBTQ activists canvassed in a red state. The conversations surprised them.
“Um,” the woman said. “My daughter is expressing some feelings that way. I really want her to slow down. If that’s something that she decides is in her best interest as she gets older, perfect. But right now, she’s got so many other things going on, battling with kids her age, trying to figure out who she is as a person.”
🇺🇸 The Atlantic: The Danger Is Greater Than in 2020. Be Prepared.
The predictions of what might happen on November 5 and in the days that follow are not based on rumors. On the contrary, we can be absolutely certain that an attempt will be made to steal the 2024 election if Kamala Harris wins. Trump himself has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the results of the 2020 election. He has waffled on and evaded questions about whether he will accept the outcome in 2024. He has hired lawyers to prepare to challenge the results.
🇺🇸 NYT: Elon Musk Sees Trump’s Economic Plans Causing ‘Temporary Hardship’
As part of his endless stream of replies to fans on his social media platform that go late into the night, Mr. Musk replied to a pseudonymous account early on Tuesday morning that posited that there would be an “initial severe overreaction in the economy” and that the “market will tumble” if Mr. Trump is elected and follows through on his plan. Afterward, the account said, “There will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.”
It’s never the wealthy who have to experience temporary hardship, is it?
NYT: Harris Aides Quietly Grow More Bullish on Defeating Trump
Top Democratic strategists are increasingly hopeful that the campaign’s attempts to cast former President Donald J. Trump as a fascist — paired with an expansive battleground-state operation and strength among female voters still energized by the end of federal abortion rights — will carry Ms. Harris to a narrow triumph. Even some close to Mr. Trump worry that the push to label him a budding dictator who has praised Hitler could move small but potentially meaningful numbers of persuadable voters.
Bullish.
The Atlantic: Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’
Retired General Barry McCaffrey, a decorated Vietnam veteran, told me that Trump does not comprehend such traditional military virtues as honor and self-sacrifice. “The military is a foreign country to him. He doesn’t understand the customs or codes,” McCaffrey said. “It doesn’t penetrate. It starts with the fact that he thinks it’s foolish to do anything that doesn’t directly benefit himself.”
This is a portrait of a man who views military service through the lens of a playground bully who never grew up. To Trump, getting captured makes you a “loser.” Getting wounded makes you unsightly photo op material. And dying for your country? That just means you’re a failure.
The truly chilling part isn’t just Trump’s contempt for military service and sacrifice - it’s what that contempt reveals about his vision for America’s future. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. And Trump has been telling us, over and over, exactly who he is and what he wants to do with power.
The question is: are we listening?
NYT: Inside the Movement Behind Trump’s Election Lies
The New York Times has obtained recordings of more than 400 of those meetings, over 400 hours of conversations, along with additional documents and training materials. It is a trove that provides an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at how misinformation is used to manufacture a movement.
The mortifying ordeal of spending 400 Hours on zoom talking about voter fraud because you cannot handle the concept of losing.
🇮🇱 The Washington Post: Trump signals support in call with Netanyahu: ‘Do what you have to do’
Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu in one call this month, “Do what you have to do,” according to six people familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and confidential information. Trump has said publicly that the two have spoken at least twice in October, with one call as recently as Oct. 19.
🇺🇸 The NYT: Donald Trump Says He Will
Donald Trump has described at length the dangerous and disturbing actions he says he will take if he wins the presidency. His rallies offer a steady stream of such promises and threats — things like prosecuting political opponents and using the military against U.S. citizens. These statements are so outrageous and outlandish, so openly in conflict with the norms and values of American democracy that many find them hard to regard as anything but empty bluster. We have two words for American voters: Believe him.
🇺🇸 NYT: 82 American Nobel Prize Winners Endorse Kamala Harris
More than 80 American Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics have signed an open letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “This is the most consequential presidential election in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “We, the undersigned, strongly support Harris.”
82 Nobel laureates - literally some of the brightest minds in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics - signing a letter that will immediately be dismissed by the very people it needs to persuade. It’s like having the world’s finest chefs prepare an exquisite meal for a group that’s already decided they’ve got a craving for a gas station microwave burrito.
🇺🇸 NYT: The Group at the Center of Trump’s Planning for a Second Term Is One You Haven’t Heard of
Founded by three wealthy Texans in late 2020, the group, known as A.F.P.I., has quickly inserted itself into nearly every corner of Mr. Trump’s political machine, and is closer than any other outside player in his planning for a second term. Mr. Trump chose one of its leaders, Linda McMahon, a former member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet and a longtime friend, as co-chair of his official transition team. Brooke Rollins, who also worked in the Trump administration and is currently the nonprofit’s chief executive, has been discussed as a candidate to be Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.
🇺🇸 Washington Post: Former model says Trump groped her years ago in ‘twisted game’ with Jeffrey Epstein
Stacey Williams, 56, said Thursday that she decided to tell her story in a call this week organized by allies of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris after she learned that the film about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue would become public right before the election and would include her interview about the alleged incident. Williams alleges that Trump groped her in Trump Tower in New York City in 1993 after they were introduced by Jeffrey Epstein, the jet-setting financier who later killed himself while in jail on sex trafficking charges.
🇷🇺 The WSJ: Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions. At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.
The grand irony of 2024’s political theater is watching Elon Musk – who bought Twitter for $44 billion in the name of “free speech absolutism” – engaging in private tête-à-têtes with Vladimir Putin, a man whose regime has perfected the art of making journalists and opposition leaders mysteriously fall out of windows.