TGIF: Super Heavy Booster

Welcome back. Monday is a Free Press “retreat,” by which I mean the entire team comes to the New York office for the day. Spoiler alert: Inviting Floridians is a mistake. Bari insists that we hire a magician to make a special dinner one night, to which I say, “No, and we should do a bar too.” Here I can do the card trick myself: Oh look, the card is away, how do you plan to achieve your Q4 numbers? No plan? Give me back your second slice of pizza.

→ Sinwar: I know you are here to express my thoughts and condolences for the ousted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Of course, please read our latest issue by Matti Friedman. All I can say is that as a graduate of Columbia University and #GayForHamas, I see my progress flag halfway.

Here is one Washington Post An investigative reporter who explains that Israel got Sinwar actually shows how wrong Israel was: “It would be interesting if Sinwar was killed in this seemingly random encounter, with less than a handful of guards and not underground surrounded by hostages, as Israeli government sources regularly told the media.” “Yes, see, the IDF said they had difficulty killing Sinwar because he was underground and surrounded by hostages, but then they killed him when he came to the surface and not have hostages. An Israeli failure if ever there was one! Anyway, goodnight, ruthless terrorist who slaughtered innocents, the sweet prince of Harvard Yard.

→ Is this legal? Kamala Harris announced a new initiative this week to attract black male voters. Some context: Her poll numbers among black men are surprisingly weak. Only 73 percent of black men say they will support Harris, the lowest margin of support for a Democratic candidate in the last three cycles (Biden won 87 percent of the black men’s vote). Obama rebuked them last week, telling the “brothers” he spoke to that their support for Trump was likely based on his ability to “put women down” – something Obama apparently believes resonates with black men finds it, but it offends me. Obama added: “Part of this makes me think that you don’t like the idea of ​​having a woman as president and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for it.” So it’s mommy issues? To try to win over black men, Kamala posted a new policy on KamalaHarris.com:

Does this pay off for voters? And is it legal to offer government loans for just one race? I’m not a constitutional scholar (in my heart I feel like I am, but I’m trying to sound relatable), but even I know this feels illegal. Shortly after Kamala’s announcement, she backed down. Oops, the loans are actually open to everyone, not just black men. But she and her team always knew that.

It also included a cryptocurrency initiative in the proposal. I didn’t look at crypto as a black issue specifically. Actually, I’m thinking more of very short, pale men who rely too much on their microwave. But now I’m really curious.

Meanwhile, a pro-Kamala group called Creatives for Harris has released a new ad aimed at appealing to men who may be unsure about voting for Kamala Harris. The actors they hired to play the men look like men, yes, well done. One is super fat and one has a beard to indicate masculinity. But the script was so clearly written by women, probably with a touch of Sweetgreen, and it’s so bad it’s adorable. Here are real lines from the guys in the ad (or what the ladies at Creatives for Kamala imagine men talking about):

I’m a man. I’m a man. I’m a man. I’m a man, man. I’m man enough to enjoy a barrel-proof bourbon. Clean. I’m man enough to deadlift 500 and braid the shit out of my daughter’s hair. Do you think I’m afraid of rebuilding a carburetor? I eat carburetors for breakfast. I’m not afraid of bears: that’s what bear hugs are for. I’m not afraid of women. A woman wants to be president? Well, I hope she has the courage to look me straight in the eyes and accept my full support. Because I’m man enough to support women. Man enough to know what kind of donuts I like. I’m man enough to use violence on a flight. I am man enough to be emotional in front of my wife, in front of my children, in front of my horse.

Somehow the loud, wild talking and crying in front of the horse really makes me uncomfortable. This is not an ad for anyone who has ever met a straight man, let alone interacted with one. If it were, it would be communicated through grunting.

We promise that at our next meeting there will be no talk of crying in front of a horse Free live presswhich takes place this morning at 9:30 a.m. ET and is hosted by Michael Moynihan and with Mike Pesca, Francesca Block, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Jonathan Conricus, Rupa Subramanyaand others discussed the news of the week (I explained it was my job, but no one seemed to be listening). Tune in here!

→ Speaking of crypto and our presidential candidates: Donald J. Trump is offering another product this week, and it’s more fake than ever. Deeply wrong. It is a “token” from World Liberty Financial that you can purchase and put into your “wallet.” The slogan is: “Shape a new era of finance: Be DeFiant.” And: “The only DeFi platform inspired by Donald J. Trump.”

Eighteen days after the election that may seem implausible, but whatever. Here’s the Republican frontrunner standing with a video in front of his American flags, which are now just his weekly fraud flags.

The World Liberty Financial Token cannot be used as currency. You cannot sell or trade it. Purchasing a World Liberty Financial token simply gives you the ability to vote on World Liberty Financial matters. Even in the world of fraudulent cryptocurrencies, this is incredibly fraudulent. Because they are usually crypto tokens may be bought and sold. That’s kind of the whole point of them.

Not these:

All $WLFI is non-transferable and locked in a wallet or smart contract indefinitely. You should treat the purchase of Tokens like other non-refundable purchases of goods and services and accept the risk that your interest in the Token will decline once you have paid the purchase price and you will have no expectation of reselling the Token.

It’s like giving snake oil to imaginary friends. It’s like debating how many magic beans your fairy dust is worth. It’s fakery wrapped in craziness.

Here is our first family from World Liberty Financial:

Aside from the fact that Chase Herro has both the name and the charisma of a Sim, imagine if your father, the president, distrusted you so much that instead of making you ambassador to Greece or Italy, he made you the Become a Web3 ambassador.

I talked about this with the great Michael Moynihan, who said to me, “Isn’t it strange that we have a potential president who sells things like he’s on QVC?” As always, Moynihan is wrong. Because QVC has standards. QVC sells what may be a crappy lamp, but it’s still a lamp. It turns on. The lumpy sweater is still a sweater. Remember when Trump announced trading cards that weren’t cards at all but digital images? You could “buy” a digital image of a map. See, QVC has standards, it has a Beanie Baby with historical origins and a heel that converts into a flat shoe. A cryptocurrency that isn’t even a cryptocurrency? QVC would never do it.