Sunrise — 6:39, 6:41, 6:46, 6:46.

People have found some excellent sticks and want to tell you about them, quite sincerely.

Read Official Stick Reviews (at TikTok).

Just a random example so you'll get the idea and see how charming this is:

Althouse at 6:47 a.m.

Photo by Meade:

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s brags to friends that star reporter Olivia Nuzzi had sent him intimate photos was what led the scandal to explode into the open..."

The Daily Beast reveals, in "Married RFK Jr., 70, Bragged He Had ‘Intimate’ Photos of Reporter Olivia Nuzzi, 31" (Daily Beast).

The 70-year-old scion’s boasts became known to the 31-year-old New York magazine correspondent’s boss—who confronted her over the photos.... Nuzzi repeatedly denied an affair to David Haskell, New York’s editor in chief....

Haskell told Nuzzi, 31, that he was informed by a source of his that Kennedy had bragged about his relationship with Nuzzi to others, including possessing photographs of her and that they were in a romantic relationship....

We're told only Haskell and Nuzzi were in this meeting, so either Haskell or Nuzzi (or both) decided to talk to the press. Why talk to the press other than to hurt RFK Jr. (and to drain him of the power to help Trump)?

"Trump on Saturday argued it was 'too late' to have another presidential debate because Americans have begun casting their ballots in the 2024 election...."

"Trump suggested last week that he might be open to participating in a third presidential debate.... 'Maybe if I got in the right mood,' he told reporters during a stop in California, after previously postingon Truth Social, 'THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!'... Harris’ campaign last week dismissed Trump’s announcement that there would not be another debate, with one senior adviser saying the former president 'changes his position every day.'..."

From "Harris accepts CNN debate invitation for October 23, again challenging Trump to another showdown" (CNN).

I assume he's negotiating. But it is getting late. And yet October 23 seems too late because too many people will have already voted. Don't we all need to be reacting to the same information? Maybe not. Why does it seem as though we should? Am I just nostalgic for the days when we all — except the overseas military and the truly housebound — trudged to the polls and waited in line together?

"Biden's fun. Biden's kind of fun... I don't want to lose him now that he's just not going to be the president. He's fun now...."

Says Tim Dillon near the end of this week's podcast, reacting to Biden's putting on a Trump hat he gets from some old guy at a rally and telling the guy not to eat dogs and cats:

And watch beginning at 24:10 for Tim's critique of the Wall Street Journal piece reassuring readers about the viral video of armed migrants in the corridor of an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado: "This is the Wall Street Journal writing an article telling people to relax, going, hey, why don't you fucking relax, you racist, because what you thought was a full takeover of a building was not — it was just 10 violent Venezuelan prison gang members carrying out a routine operation or something they felt needed to be done.... Thank you, Wall Street Journal.... There are guys in the in the corridor with guns, and they're killing someone, but it's okay. They didn't take over the whole building.... Can you imagine writing this article thinking it lands?...."

Here's the Wall Street Journal piece in case you want to fact-check Tim's mockery: "In Colorado, a Murder and a Viral Video Stoke Fears of Migrant Crime/In exaggerated claim that a Venezuelan gang took over an apartment complex spread quickly through an already-on-edge community."

We just saw it from a different point of view....

A Tale of Two Stories.

Tale #1: Kamala Harris overused the word "story" and looked ridiculous in the Fox News edit.

Tale #2: J.D. Vance said, "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do" and gave his antagonists great material for characterizing him as a fabulist.

***

What's the story with "story"? Is there some reason for this word to become more useful than "narrative" or "framing" in speaking about how politicians communicate with the people?

Advisers, behind the scenes, may be saying "story" because they think the voters are rather stupid and childlike and a "story" sounds easier than a "narrative." But "narrative," like "framing," seems to refer to the overall structure of the message, while "story" works better to refer to more specific anecdotes, such as the dog-eating incident.

"The core assumption of the ad is men hate her... it's like... if we can't vote for that douchebag Trump... before you sock me directly in the nuts let me tell you..."

Says Ben Shapiro, watching what he assures us is the worst ad he's ever seen in his life:

ADDED: Ben says the ad is paid for by the "Beige Rainbow PAC," and I was a little skeptical and looked it up. I found this in The Daily Beast: "Kamala’s Splashy Play for Trump Toadies/Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking an elusive Trump-loving demographic." This piece is written by Mini Racker, who seems to be a young woman, that is, a member of the same demographic group as, Shapiro believes, the writers of the ad). Racker says:

"This is the first time Microsoft has secured a dedicated, 100% nuclear facility for its use."

 I'm reading "Microsoft AI Needs So Much Power It's Tapping Site of US Nuclear Meltdown/Constellation to invest $1.6 billion to restart dormant reactor as data-center power demand surges" (Bloomberg).

The decision is the latest sign of surging interest in the nuclear industry as power demand for AI soars. More than a dozen reactors went dark over roughly the past decade in the face of increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But growing demand for electricity — from factories, cars and especially from data centers — has spurred interest in nuclear plants that can provide carbon-free power around the clock.

“Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call,” Constellation Chief Executive Officer Joe Dominguez said in an interview. “There’s no version of the future of this country that doesn’t rely on these nuclear assets.”

Sunrise — 6:47.

"Not only do more women want to be small; they want to be smaller. Jerry Chidester, a plastic surgeon in Salt Lake City, said his patients used to ask for C cups."

"Now, they want Bs. He often does five breast reductions a week, mostly on young, postpartum mothers.... Small breasts may not draw as much attention on the subway or the street as bigger breasts do, but they are also a fashion. Whereas big breasts signal motherhood and sexual availability, smaller breasts can convey youth, girlishness, puberty, thinness, androgyny.... They can also indicate class. In March, a meme circulated on X... 'MEN,' it said. 'Which do you prefer? The aristocratic elegance of the small breasted woman OR the Nietzschean pro-sex, pro-beauty large breasted woman?' Thornton agrees that smaller breasts signal the self-assurance of affluence whereas breast augmentation can signify social ambition — a desire to attain wealth and status via the attention of men.... For a woman to withdraw from the male gaze, to assert herself in her refusal to be ogled, to relieve her own pain, to be able to comfortably train for a marathon or dance at her own birthday party — that is liberation. But it’s a personal, individual one, said Thornton. 'If women are going to have an emancipated rack,' she said, 'then men need to change.'"

I'm reading "The Power of a Smaller Breast/Breast reduction is all the rage in cosmetic surgery. Are women asserting their independence or capitulating to a yet another impossible standard of beauty?" (NYT).

Thornton is "Sarah Thornton, 59, a sociologist who lives in San Francisco, was a B cup before her double mastectomy. After breast reconstruction she had Ds, which felt huge to her — 'bulky and cartoony,' she wrote in 'Tits Up,' her recent social history of the breast."

"The official in charge of New York City’s pandemic response participated in sex parties and attended a dance party underneath a Wall Street bank during the height of the pandemic..."

"... even as he was instructing New Yorkers to stay home and away from others to stop the spread of Covid-19. He acknowledged his transgressions on Thursday after being caught on hidden camera boasting about his exploits."

Reports the NYT, in "Former N.Y.C. Covid Czar Partied While Preaching Social Distancing/In a hidden-camera video posted by a conservative podcaster, Dr. Jay K. Varma boasts about flouting the public health guidelines he insisted others follow."

"The video appears to have been compiled from several recordings, in which Dr. Varma is seen at a number of restaurants and cafes, chatting with a woman who remains off camera. At various points, he describes a sex party he and his wife held in a hotel and a dance party he attended in a space under a bank on Wall Street, joined by more than 200 people. In a statement, Dr. Varma did not dispute the recordings’ authenticity but said they had been 'spliced, diced and taken out of context.'"

Here's the video:

Why are we suddenly hearing about the New York Magazine editor who says she engaged in "sexting" with RFK Jr.?

I've been reading reports in various newspapers, and I'm going to select the one in the London Times to link to and quote: "Reporter put on leave after admitting personal relationship with RFK Jr/Olivia Nuzzi allegedly exchanged sexual messages with Robert F Kennedy Jr while covering his campaign."

The magazine said a review of Nuzzi’s work had found no evidence of bias but described the relationship as a “violation of our readers’ trust” and its own standards. “Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” it added.

Although Nuzzi did not identify the other person in the relationship, it has been widely reported that it was Kennedy....

It's a "relationship"? I'm only seeing that there were text messages and that they were "sexual." What are we talking about? Photos of naked body parts? Written invitations to have sex? Prompts to masturbate? Sexual words, such as saying that someone can go fuck himself? I don't know what we are talking about, and I suspect New York Magazine of wanting to hurt RFK Jr. and making sex-and-politics theater out of nothing.

According to the New York Post, Nuzzi had been “sexting” with Kennedy, who is married to Cheryl Hines, the Curb Your Enthusiasm actress, when Nuzzi was engaged to Ryan Lizza, the chief Washington correspondent for the Politico website. The couple called off the wedding a few weeks ago, said the newspaper.

Was Ryan Lizza involved in revealing these "sexts"? What's going on there? Here are Ryan and Olivia in happier times:

What nonsense! The photo, I mean. Who can look at that and not laugh? Can someone please tear off the veneer of middle-class respectability and tell us what the hell really happened?

"I'm a gun owner... and if somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot... Probably should not have said that, but my staff will deal with that later."

Said Kamala Harris, at last night's Oprah event:

1. Where does her prosecutor persona come into play here? She knows it's not good legal advice to encourage people to go ahead and shoot a person who has broken into the house but not yet physically threatened you.

2. That's why she said "probably should not have said that." She knows it's bad, but she almost seems to want to display herself as somewhat bad. She’s been trying to come across as one of us, a "middle class" American, fond of our guns and adamant about protecting our family inside the home. She needs to replace the image that she's that person who said — in 2007 video that went viral yesterday — "Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affairs."

3. Which Kamala is she — the one who walks into your house to check to see if you're being responsible or the one that shoots the person who walks into her home? I suspect she isn't really either person, but is simply saying what seemed worth saying at the time.

4. Don't get me started on the distinction between "breaking" into the home and "walking" into the home. I see it, and you can do your own legal research. I read her first comment to create an image of finding someone in her house and shooting him because he's there, and I read her second statement to say that she would use the authority of the state to gain access to the homes of people who are not opening the door and inviting her in.

5. She's portraying herself as the lone armed protector of her home, but we all know she has the Secret Service protecting her. 

6. My favorite part of the quote is "but my staff will deal with that later." The staff will clean up after me. I'd like to see the Harris impersonators do a scene where Kamala is President, making wild, impulsive decisions, then laughing, and saying lightheartedly — as World War III begins — "my staff will deal with that later."

Sunrise — 6:21, 6:44, 6:47.