Dean spent eleven days in Bavaria with Steve Schmidt and their sons, Jake and Joey, both twenty, walking the road the Nazis took and the road the Allies took back. They drank in the Hofbräuhaus under the bullet hole Hitler put in the ceiling in 1923. They stood in Dachau, where the Nazis killed about 60,000 people. "Hauntingly quiet and very fucking real," Dean wrote from the car. They stopped at Dürnbach, where 484 Canadians lie; the oldest headstone he found was 27. They rode Hitler's brass elevator up to the Eagle's Nest, which he used fourteen times. Dean went to answer one question: how long does it take to get a country back once you hand it to a strongman. His answer is 75 years. "We're at the beginning of that, again," he wrote.
5️⃣ Merz Hangs Up on Trump for Cheering the AfD
Dean Blundell landed from eleven days in Bavaria hours before Friedrich Merz cancelled his call with Donald Trump. Trump had called the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt win a "really big night"; Merz scrapped the call and told the Bundestag the party's migration policy is "ethnic cleansing." Dean walked the show through Dachau, where 60,000 died, and Dürnbach, where 484 Canadians lie. Hitler took the oath and opened the camp seven weeks later. "That is how you deal with fascism. You do not fucking entertain it," Dean said. "The United States is at the gates of Dachau right now. And that is not a fucking exaggeration." How long does it take to get a country back? Seventy-five years. "You've got 53 days," Dean said.
4️⃣ Anthropic Researcher Quits and Says AI Could Kill Everyone
Jacob Coxon quit Anthropic Tuesday and posted why: the people building AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Evan Hubinger, who runs alignment at Anthropic, puts the odds above 10 percent, and the New York Times reported a hacking tool that rides in on a WeChat call and hits millions of phones in hours. Trump said on tape "we'll have a little gear." "They're warning him. And he's saying, ah, we've got a gear. What gear?" Dean said. Nobody knows what happens once AI becomes its own teacher, Zev said.
3️⃣ Trump Hands Three Aides $45,000 Each in Cash
Trump gave three aides $45,000 each in cash. Natalie Harp, Chamberlain Harris and Margo Martin each disclosed it as "Cash gift for holidays"; the Washington Post found the forms Wednesday. Each earns about $150,000. Walt Nauta got $20,000. Harp is "very much a trained propagandist," Zev said, and the money is "completely unethical, probably illegal, and no one's going to do anything about it because no one cares." "This is no different than what he did with Jeffrey and Ghislaine," Dean said.
2️⃣ Trump Answers Carney's Tariffs With a Whisky Ban
Mark Carney put C$27.6 billion of counter-tariffs into force Tuesday: 50 percent on American steel, aluminium and furniture. Trump signed five proclamations that evening banning Canadian alcohol, motorcycles over 800cc and whey from 29 September. He bans because he has hit the 1930 Tariff Act's 50 percent ceiling, Dean said. "He tariffed wigs and ice cream sticks. He didn't tariff potash. He didn't tariff critical minerals," Dean said. "We are in a fully functional trade war with our closest ally. And it's not going to end," Zev said; it looks like intentional weakening of the American economy.
1️⃣ Trump Sinks Five Iranian Tankers and Promises $2 Gas After the Election
US forces sank five Iranian tankers Tuesday. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at the US base in Jordan; Dean counted 60 Patriots fired to stop them. Trump keeps promising gas in the $2 range once the election is past. Americans pay $4.22 a gallon with Brent past $100, and CNBC counts nine oil and gas stocks in Trump's disclosures up $1.5 to $4.4 million since the war began. "Dean, this is looking like a war," Zev said. "Yeah, it's a war. It never ended. It doesn't matter what Trump says," Dean said. Trump has declared victory in Iran 66 times, Dean counted. "Let's go, America. Get it together," Dean said.
