What happened the last times Trump pitched direct payments to Americans. wapo.st

Republican chief election officials say it is too late to implement Trump’s mail ballot order. politico.com

Automattic Minus Matt: Mullenweg’s Forced Break. tedium.co

Exploring Muse: Meta's New Personal AI Assistant in Action. sjl.us

Trump’s $5k bribe offer is a great reason to vote against Trump, even if repubs win he’ll never pay it, and it isn’t his money to give out, it’s ours. bbc.com

Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence. techcrunch.com

If AI is so smart and powerful and capable of reinventing things, why hasn’t it reinvented software yet? nytimes.com

A democracy tax in support of science. science.org

For those of us who followed Microsoft in the early days of the web, this was kind of a revelation. I didn't realize Ballmer was this weird, corrupt, basically stupid. nytimes.com

Army Heroes’ Humiliating Nickname for Pete Hegseth Is Leaked. thedailybeast.com