today in tabs: we're gettin' heisty in here

ALSO: our modern crisis of legitimacy, the new US citizenship test, Bieber fever hits Twitch, and more

Happy Friday, October 24th.

WELCOME :)

Just a reminder: every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.

Want to do a super fun, super cool rapid interview for this newsletter like the one below??? Reply to this email or hit the button below. Tips, thoughts, concerns, good jokes, bad jokes, ☕️, etc?

And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), that would be so appreciated 🙏

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We have a REAL treat today – texts from

Evelyn Quartz

, former Hill and The Lincoln Project, who writes incredibly poignant and deeply-researched pieces on democracy over here on Substack. Make sure you’re subscribed and enjoy!

LR: I know you write about power and legitimacy – two words that appear all the time in dialogue about politics. How do you define legitimacy in this current political moment, when so many people seem to have lost faith in institutions altogether?

EQ: Yes, I think this moment has wrongly been termed a crisis of democracy, when really it is a crisis of legitimacy resulting from decades of democratic erosion. There are several ways to define legitimacy in government depending on different political traditions, but if we take the one most fundamental to the U.S. founders — John Locke’s idea of legitimacy as deriving from the consent of the governed in return for a state that protects citizens’ rights to life, liberty, and property — I think there is a strong case that our current government has failed to uphold consent, at least for a majority of the voting population.

In this framing, Trump is not an irrational mistake but a deliberate choice resulting from decades of bipartisan neglect in people’s lives. In order for government to command legitimacy, it must uphold basic rights. This can be interpreted in different ways, but I believe it to mean that being unable to meet basic measures of dignity — affordable health care, housing, retirement — are all conditions that have broken the basic social contract that people expect from their government in return for their compliance.

LR: It feels like it’s been “unprecedented times” in American history for going on a decade. Are there other periods of American history that this era bears important resemblance to? How, if possible to do, does this year rank in the history of American crises?

EQ: Yes, the era following the Great Depression in the 1930s is remarkably similar to today. FDR, when newly elected, knew that he had to prove to Americans that the federal government could make their lives better or else American democracy would be at risk. It was an era when liberal democracy was falling out of fashion, as Italy and Germany both elected fascist strongmen.

I strongly believe we need an FDR-like figure to emerge now to protect democracy. The problem is that many of the heavily redistributionist policies he championed go against the corporate class, which has taken control of both parties in America. That’s why the Democrats right now are such a weak opposition — they are afraid to buck their corporate donors. It’s why we need new leaders who are unafraid to do so and demand a rebuilding of the social contract, starting with basic provisions such as universal health care.

LR: I know you’re based out of and from the West. What are three things that you think politicos and pundits here in DC need to understand about what voters in your state + neighboring states actually need and want?

EQ: I worked in DC for ten years, and it’s very much an elite bubble. When you have your needs met through a fancy job and nearly everyone else in your social circle does as well, it’s very easy to forget just how desolate life in America has become for tens of millions of people. I live in a part of the West that has a lot of natural beauty, which has attracted private equity to buy everything from exclusive resorts to rental properties, jacking up prices and displacing long-term residents. People here want an end to greedy real estate and finance overlords destroying their ability to live a prosperous and dignified life.

LR: If your Substack were a food, what would it be and why?

EQ: Good question! I’d say some sort of vegetable. That’s because a lot of people are reluctant to my arguments at first, but then some come around and say it changed their perspective, and they enjoyed it :) That’s my favorite kind of comment to get because it means people are willing to sit in discomfort and find new ideas outside of the dominant information ecosystems.

LR: When you’re stressed about the state of *everything* right now, what movies/books/TV shows/podcasts do you consume to take a brain break?

EQ: I find sports to be the ultimate distraction. A good game with a beer after a long day of thinking about politics is very relaxing for me. I also find reading fiction on my Kindle before bed is a nice way to unwind. Though I’m rereading 1984 right now — hopefully I’ll have a more fun book next :)

Can you pass the new U.S. citizenship test?

“It’s definitely more challenging, especially for people [for whom] English is not their first language,” said Jonathan Wong, an instructor with USCitizenshipTest, an online tutoring firm that helps immigrants prepare for citizenship applications. The changes come as the Trump administration has signaled it will increase scrutiny on citizenship applications and threatened to revoke some Americans’ citizenship. (WaPo, 10/23)

The Five Funding Cliffs Approaching as Shutdown Pain Builds

Federal workers, including air-traffic controllers, are set to miss full paychecks soon and food-aid programs are bracing to run out of money, as a series of funding cliffs tied to the government shutdown start to pinch more workers and families. (WSJ, 10/23 – free version)

Americans See Need for Third Party, but Offer Soft Support

While 55% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat likely” to vote for third-party candidates, only 15% say they are “very likely” to do so. But when asked how they would vote if a third-party candidate they preferred was unlikely to win, more Americans say they would change their vote rather than stick with that candidate. (Gallup, 10/20)

The Right-Wing Myth of American Heritage

But the mythology these conservatives are spinning is historically delusional. Americans have never been “a group of people with a shared history.” The founding fathers were an assortment of people from different histories and backgrounds who coexisted — often just barely — because they didn’t have any other choice but to do so. This was true even within the British majority; Puritans and Quakers alike were banished from Anglican Virginia, Quakers were hanged in Massachusetts, and English colonists in New England and the Tidewater region sided with and in some cases fought for opposing sides of the English Civil War. (NYT gift link, 10/21)

We uploaded a fake video to 8 social apps. Only one told users it wasn’t real.

AI-generated video now has more disruptive power than ever due to technical advances that allow fake clips to be indistinguishable from real footage and the widespread availability of the technology. Yet none of the platforms tested fully supported the standard for marking AI content that tech companies have touted for years, The Post found. (WaPo, 10/22)

YouTube adds a timer for you to stop scrolling Shorts

It’s common for people to open a short video, thinking they’ll just watch the one — then realize they’re still on the app an hour later. YouTube is adding a new timer feature to help users manage this behavior, a move that reflects both growing public pressure on tech platforms and the company’s interest in fostering long-term engagement rather than risking user burnout. (TechCrunch, 10/22)

The AWS Outage Was a Nightmare for College Students

Many of the students who spoke to WIRED were feeling the same panic—especially given how crucial the Canvas platform is to their college experience. Canvas isn’t just a place to submit assignments or read supplemental materials: It was designed as a hub for the educational experience, collating a host of other technologies like Google Docs, Zoom, and Turnitin, a plagiarism checker, into its central feed. (WIRED, 10/21)

Justin Bieber Is a Twitch Streamer Now?

Bieber tweeted his Twitch out on Wednesday afternoon, with a simple “Live now” message. Fans who clicked early enough were treated to Biebz playing hoops, then billiards. He appears to have some sort of home-designed sportsplex at his disposal. There’s also a skate ramp in the studio. (Variety, 10/23 – free version)

There’s a Pro-Heist Frisson in the Air

Americans have a longstanding emotional connection with France (we were unified in our grief over the burning of Notre-Dame) but there’s something different in the air now: a pro-heist frisson. It’s not that people are salivating at the idea of criminality, but some are agnostic about — nay, amused by — the robbery. Part of this is because fires aren’t funny and heists kind of are. They are painted as sexy, madcap or soulful in pop culture (“Ocean’s Eleven,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” even “The Goldfinch”). (NYT gift link, 10/23)

‘Quiet as a whisper’: German firm launches ad campaign after lift used in Louvre heist

A family-run German business unwittingly became wrapped up in the crown jewel heist at the Louvre museum in Paris and is turning the use of one of its furniture lifts into a publicity coup. “When you need to move fast” is the new tongue-in-cheek advertising tagline for the company Böcker, which is based in the town of Werne near Dortmund, in a campaign on Facebook and Instagram mounted within a day of the brazen thefts. (The Guardian, 10/23)

• Lucy’s note: this is SO FUNNY, I fear

Dozens charged in NBA-linked illegal betting, rigged poker schemes tied to Mafia

The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday, along with more than 30 other people in two criminal cases alleging sprawling separate schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, authorities said. (AP, 10/23)

Din Tai Fung earns more per restaurant than any other chain in the US

To put that into context, at the world’s largest Din Tai Fung branch in Times Square (where, as of April, a portion of 10 traditional Xiao Long Bao sets you back $18.50), $27.4 million would equate to the restaurant shifting a staggering ~15 million individual dumplings across 2024. (Sherwood, 10/22)

• Lucy’s note: listen, they do deserve to be a 15 million dumpling a year business! if you’re in NYC and haven’t been… I would say it is worth a try.

@bengillies2000#louvre #robbery #jewels #heist

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Extra Credit 🤓

Some newsletters I thought were excellent recently:

• “Malala Yousafzai: ‘I prioritized socializing over studying’” from

  Aliza Sir
  and
  Aja Frost
  of
  Platonic Love

  • This Malala press tour has been such a delight

• “Before The Ads, Before The Polls: The Research That Wins Elections” from

  Will Robinson

  • This is great for many reasons… but also to show people when they ask what you actually do as a campaign staffer lol

• “the mystery of the viral book flyer” from

  Leigh Stein
  of
  Attention Economy

  • Wait… is this a brilliant idea for marketing a newsletter too 👀👀👀

That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Tuesday!