Extra, Extra
And So It Begins: With polling looking bad for Trump, you can expect efforts to overcome the vote to accelerate. And these efforts will done in plain site. If you somehow miss the corruption, they’ll remind you that it’s happening. “Donald Trump said he ordered the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s US Senate results if the Republican incumbent on the ballot does not win. ‘I’m the one that said do it,’ Trump told reporters on Friday.” And, Blanche won’t rule out DOJ post-election action in a ‘doomsday’ scenario.
+ Timing is Everything: Speaking of election-related efforts: “Israel has launched a campaign of collective punishment against Palestinians in Hebron after gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three near a checkpoint outside the city. Benjamin Netanyahu announced a siege on Hebron and neighbouring Halhul and said residents of the gunmen’s home neighbourhoods would all be forced out. He promised mass demolitions of homes.” (The Israeli election is in 3 days.)
+ GOP Bottom: “It’s quite a feat, in this numb and debased era, to create a political advertisement so shocking and indecent that people from across the political spectrum feel the need to denounce it. The Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has long fashioned himself as a kind of Donald Trump 2.0 — younger and brainier but just as brash — has managed it.” It’s sickening. It involves a childhood sexual assault suffered by his opponent. Trump is for it. Vance has defended it. Is this the bottom? (And if it isn’t, is there one?) Michelle Goldberg: The Meaning of the Republican War Over Ramaswamy’s Vile Ad.
+ We Need to Talk About the Cyber: We spend a lot of time worrying about AI destroying humanity. I’d worry a lot more about it hacking the hell out of us. If Anything Happens to This Guy … Everyone Is Screwed. “Ondřej Surý was a relatively anonymous volunteer working on PHP security. Then the internet exploded.” Meanwhile, Mark Cuban says AI hack agents are like cockroaches, but can be controlled. (Since cockroaches are likely to survive whatever apocalypse kills us, I’m not sure I love the metaphor.)
+ Makers Mark: “For six years, I lived in China and observed how Chinese companies became global leaders, in part because American firms brought them better technology and management. In Arizona, I saw how Taiwanese engineers are training American workers to build some of the most complex technologies in the world … And guess what? TSMC engineers and their families are having a great time. In interviews, they marveled at their new lives in the Sunbelt: the large homes, the friendly community, the opportunities for their kids.” The Factory Outside Phoenix That Could Save American Manufacturing.
+ Shape of Things to Come? “Could the geometry of our brains increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease? It’s a provocative question, but one that some scientists are beginning to explore.” Alzheimer’s Researchers Look at an Unusual Data Point: Head Shape. (My head shape changes every time I bang it against my laptop.)
