The Doomsday Plan

In the event that Donald Trump can’t do his job, a long and complex set of procedures begin to unravel. [Image] [Image]( The Doomsday Plan: How the Military Responds When the President Can't Fulfill His Duties As word of President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis first spread on Thursday night, an amateur plane spotter in Hawaii noticed online what he thought were two suspicious flights: Navy planes, known as E-6B Mercurys, aloft on both the East coast and the West coast. The E-6Bs are unique in the U.S. fleet, part of its nuclear command-and-control structure and intended to communicate missile-launch orders to the nation’s hidden submarine fleet in the event of a surprise nuclear attack. Their presence Thursday night seemed to indicate the U.S. wanted to discourage a foreign adversary like Russia or China from seizing the geopolitical advantage of uncertainty about the president’s health. “It’s a message to the small group of adversaries with SLBMs and ICBMs,” the plane spotter, Tim Hogan, tweeted, using the acronyms for submarine-launched and land-based ballistic missiles. The Pentagon quickly denied the flights were in any way related to the president’s condition, saying they were routine and normal. A spokesperson for Strategic Command, which oversees the nation’s nuclear forces, said: “I can confirm these E-6 were pre-planned missions. Any timing to the president’s announcement was purely coincidental.” The U.S. does keep airborne command planes in the air regularly to guard against surprise attacks—but the comment from Strategic Command is also what you’d expect them to say if the flights weren’t routine. The U.S. government isn’t in the habit of saying, “Yes, we energized and exercised our nuclear command structure to warn off a foreign nation’s surprise nuclear attack.” The suspicions about the flights hinted at a larger question: What exactly is the U.S. doing in a moment of uncertainty about its presidential leadership? President Trump is receiving treatment for COVID-19 at Walter Reed Medical Center, and despite his doctors’ overly optimistic statements, questions are swirling about the severity of his illness. At the moment, no one in government is saying—on the record or off—that the president cannot carry out his duties. Still, a president sick with a deadly virus sets off waves of discussions and actions through the military, intelligence community, and diplomatic corps to broadcast steadiness to our allies and adversaries alike. The public detects nearly none of it. [Read the Full Story]( [Image] [Image]( Chadwick Boseman’s Final Years The last time producer Thomas Tull saw his friend Chadwick Boseman was just before Covid-19 sent the nation into lockdown. Boseman was passing through Pittsburgh with his fiancée, and they stopped by Tull’s home for an outdoor catchup. They talked about work, and Boseman’s engagement. Tull asked how he was doing. "I knew he was sick. That was obvious," Tull told Esquire. "And frankly, when I asked him … I just said, ‘Hey man, are we doing OK?’ And he just said, ‘Yep. Getting through it. Getting through it.’" What Tull couldn’t have known was that the legendary actor’s life was nearing its end. In this moving tribute to Boseman’s legacy and his enduring message for his family, his friends, and his fans alike, Kate Storey puts together the portrait of a life in which the actor’s own story never took center stage. Through interviews with some of Boseman’s closest confidants, including family, his mission lives on in this profile. [Read the Full Story](  [Image]( The Dinners We Always Thought We’d Have Again Yes, New York City exists in a state of perpetual flux. It changes by the millisecond. It’s not uncommon for ripples of heartbreak to pass through a neighborhood when another old joint calls it quits. Time passes and some places just give up the ghost. Lately, though, because of the pandemic, the flux has sped up into hyperdrive. As has the rate of heartbreak. Thomas DiNapoli, New York State’s comptroller, released a report last week that suggested half—yes, half—of New York City’s restaurants and bars could vanish within the next six months. Esquire’s Jeff Gordinier reflects on the hardest year restaurants have ever faced, and where we go from here. [Read the Full Story]( [Image]( On 1983’s Battle of the Bonds—and the One True Winner "Growing up," writes Chris Nashawaty, "Roger Moore was my James Bond." Nashawaty’s older brother Keith, on the other hand, was ride-or-die for Sean Connery. It’s amazing what an age difference of three years could make back in the early ‘80s. To both of them, the stakes in their ongoing blood feud felt almost existential, as if a critical piece of their identities hung in the balance over which 007 they preferred (it should be noted that neither cared about the one-and-done George Lazenby). That sort of white-hot passion still exists today in the schism between DC and Marvel partisans. Still, whenever a new Bond extravaganza made its way to a sad local movie theater in suburban Massachusetts or an old one popped up on one of the three networks, the Nashawaty brothers’ heated double-O debate would pick right back up where it had left off. Punches flew, wet willies were administered, titties were twisted. Back then, these things mattered. At least, to them. And then came 1983. After all, it was the year when, during one brief four-month window, we got two James Bond movies—one with Moore and one with Connery. Here, Nashawaty remembers the "Battle of the Bonds," and determines the one clear winner once and for all. [Read the Full Story](  [Image]( We Can Still Fix It. Just Ask Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Around seven on most evenings, Jeff Tweedy, the founder and lead singer of the rock band Wilco, takes a bath. It’s a relatively new habit. This is the longest stretch of time he’s been homebound in his entire adult life. From the late eighties, when he began playing bass in the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, through Wilco’s formation, in 1994, up until a pandemic shuttered much of the world, Tweedy spent the majority of his life on the road. "Being on tour is very regimented. That's comforting for somebody with anxiety disorder like myself," Tweedy told Esquire Editor-in-Chief Michael Sebastian over Zoom, in early October. "Being at home, it’s a little harder to structure your life in a way that feels like a healthy routine. Exercising and having a bath are some of the ways I do that. I’m into self-care rituals." On the eve of the release of his solo album, Love Is The King (available October 23 to stream and on vinyl and CD on January 15), and second book, How To Write One Song (October 13), Tweedy spoke with Esquire about politics, his new projects, and the future of Wilco. But first, we kicked off the conversation, which has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity, by posing a question that, in his debut book, 2018's Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), Tweedy says he'd much rather ask people than make small talk with them. [Read the Full Story]( [Image]( Snag These 15 Early Amazon Prime Day 2020 Tech Deals Before the Chaos Descends Never before have we been more aware of the things in our homes. We've been staring at them non-stop for about seven months—TVs, video game consoles, laptops, headphones, appliances, and phones, all under our sometimes-crazed, usually-bored gazes. It's been a crazy, boring, tough year. And, because most of these things are smart enough to be near sentient, they're staring back. Maybe even subliminally reminding us that they could use an update. Amazon Prime Day is a good time to make those updates, seeing as many of the discounts posted to the site in that event deal with cool tech, necessary electronics, and all manner of battery-having devices. Amazon Prime Day is, in fact, two days this year for Prime members—stretching from next Tuesday, October 13 through Wednesday, October 14—and what'll be on sale is anyone's guess. Previous years have seen PS4 gear, fitness trackers, Apple tech, TVs, and more get knocked down. As it so happens, some of those exact things are on sale right now, leading up to Prime Day. If you can't wait for the day(s) of, check 'em out early here. The things await. [Read the Full Story](  Follow Us       [Unsubscribe](  [Privacy Notice](  esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019   Â