Are you guys watching Donald Trump actively trying to BUY the midterms?

Per declaration from the Pentagon's General Counsel, the OLC boat strike memo is TS/SCI, exists in hard copy only, there are only four hard copies, and DoD's sole copy is secured in his safe. Umm, ok This is not some sort of super secret squirrel CA program www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...

Judge Questions Secrecy Around Trump Administration’s Memo on Boat Strikes

The judge also ordered the Justice Department to privately show the court the contested document, which blesses the disputed killings at sea.

nytimes.com

By raking in $2.2 billion last year, President Trump made the equivalent of a presidential salary about every two hours. And he made the median American's annual income about every 10 minutes.

One of the unspoken purposes of our post-WW2 system of alliances was to keep future wars from ever reaching North America. We only need (theoretically) to create such defenses in the continental U.S. because Trump and his minions are dismantling our alliances.

utopia deferred@utopia-defer.red · 19h ago

I know we're all tired of the "they just said it out loud" shtick but it feels noteworthy that the secretary of defense is articulating the Garrison State as an explicit objective of the American christian fascist project.

Mark Maxwell is a terrific, well respected local news reporter in St Louis. Take a look at his coverage of the Eric Schmitt debacle:

Christopher Webb@cwebbonline.com · 2d ago

This is priceless. Check out how local news is reporting on Sen Eric Schmidt’s clown-show grilling of Jack Smith. They found Jack Smith at the game… “Top corner, section 109, row 1. In fact, that seat doesn’t even exist in Atlanta.”

Latter-day Saint socialist candidates were common in the early 20th century. How and why that changed, although socialist members are not uncommon in today's global church.

Commentary: Latter-day Saints are no strangers to socialism — in the past and the present

Latter-day Saint socialist candidates were common in the early 20th century. How and why that changed, although socialist members are not uncommon in today's global church.

sltrib.com

Who knew that State still had a functioning IG?

Steve Herman@newsguy.bsky.social · 2d ago

The State Department's watchdog finds laws were broken when Kari Lake and Elon Musk silenced the Voice of America, ignoring reliable data and that their mistakes "severely diminished the nation’s ability" to counter disinformation and support democracy abroad. www.stateoig.gov/report/aud-a...

Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future theonion.com/cornell-vows...

Because Schmitt is a Republican senator and a moron But I repeat myself

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 2d ago

GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith of perjury, claiming he had evidence Smith secretly went to an Atlanta Hawks game. Then it all backfired in real-time.

Apart from Schmitt being a moron, whichever staffer put this line of questioning/argument together should be fired.

Pat Bagley@bagleycartoons.bsky.social · 2d ago

Because Schmitt is a Republican senator and a moron But I repeat myself

To the extent anyone pays attention, the Senate Jack smith hearing today is a stark reminder about Trump’s attempted coup after his defeat in 2020 and the lawless MAGA party scum who supported it.

In the modern era (post-WW2, let's say), has there been a Senate caucus with a greater percentage of truly dumb members than the contemporary GOP majority in the Senate?

David Waldman@kagrox.bsky.social · 2d ago

The teams were wrong. The leagues were wrong. The gender of the players was wrong. The states the teams were from were wrong. The place the game was played was wrong. The imagined reason for attending the game was wrong.

I know Rahm Emanuel. I worked with him for years in the Clinton administration, and then when he was Obama’s chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel represents everything that’s been wrong about the Democratic Party for the last 30+ years. Be warned. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-rahm-bomb

Early voting.

If you have the option to vote early, then why wait? Vote now!!! 🗳️ #SheShed #VoteBlueToStopTrump nokingsnational.com/p/october-17...

October 17: The Next No Kings Day of Action Is Here

Millions marched. Now No Kings is turning people power into voter power ahead of November.

nokingsnational.com

The Trump admin rejected the UN Declaration on Preparing for Future Pandemics because it mentioned equity, solidarity & universal access to sexual & reproductive health care services. They're so obsessed with banning words & controlling women that they’ll risk millions of lives to do so.

Pro tip for candidates seeking out-of-state contributions: Put the name of *your* state early (and clearly) in your fundraising email or text. Don’t make your potential donors have to search for it.

Howard Buffett has given over $1.4 billion in aid to Ukraine through the The Howard G. Buffett Foundation since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 Another reason to respect Mr Buffett!!

I kinda/sorta follow three pro sports: MLB, men's golf, and women's golf. In the past 48 hours, @mlb.com has threatened to desecrate one of our most beautiful national parks. Another (@pgatourus.bsky.social) has honored our wannabe dictator in ways I cannot fathom, supporting fascism/racism.

I miss when government ads just told us not to litter.

I defer to @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social on the parallels between the U.S. today & Rome, but I have been re-reading Asimov's Foundation novels & Asimov's vision of the decline/fall of the 1st Galactic Empire is spot-on foreshadowing of America's decline (& not just regarding the politics thereof).

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 3d ago

“The republic was dying well before Caesar, and the question for Americans is not whether Trump is our Caesar. Our bigger concern should be if this is more like our age of Marius and Sulla, who inflicted wounds on the republic that proved fatal in the long term.” open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

On hidden camera, pardon brokers Jack Burkman & Jacob Wohl told a 60 Minutes source $300,000 could help a felon get a presidential pardon. Three hundred grand. Wild. When a pardon has a price tag, justice is a luxury item & you can't afford it. #TrumpsCorruptCongress #USDemocracy #Voices4Victory

I know it’s hard to imagine but before Trump came on the scene and wrecked government folks in these roles didn’t jump ship after a year. They often were long time Bureau officials who served without media attention for years.

Allison Gill@muellershewrote.com · 3d ago

NEW: One-time Bongino babysitter and last-remaining deputy FBI director Bailey is OUT. www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi...

A new CNN KFile investigation finds two past accounts from Texas GOP candidate Bo French calling for public executions of government officials, Obama, Adam Schiff, and more. Repeatedly asked Texas GOP, Paxton, Abbott campaigns if they stood by him and got no response. www.cnn.com/2026/09/28/p...

KFile: Texas GOP candidate Bo French has a history of calling for public executions | CNN Politics

Bo French, the Republican nominee for one of Texas’ most powerful statewide offices, is facing bipartisan criticism over a racist post about the crowd at a University of Texas football game.

cnn.com

“We came up with some very astounding numbers,” Wellinghoff said. “If you knock out nine total substations among those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/m...

What if America Went Completely Dark?

The power grid relies on thousands of aging, hand-built transformers. If enough fail, the blackout could last years.

nytimes.com

Wait, was rolling out the red carpet for Xi a Chinese psyop too? I'm really confused about the GOP stance on China.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

Mike Johnson says opposition to data centers "is a Chinese psyop. I really believe that. That's not a conspiracy theory."

Dem presidential hopefuls need to start being clear that they intend to prosecute people who do criminal things at Trump’s behest. Trump might pardon them sure, but, then again, he may not, since he’s lazy, mercurial, and a narcissist.

Eric Lipton NYT@ericlipton.nytimes.com · 4d ago

What an odd moment in United States history. A U.S. president is running an overtly political camaign advertisement, right before midterm elections, paid for by the U.S. government. Trump appears to believe he is immune from any kind of legal limit. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/u...

Inflation from the Iran War is significantly higher for working and middle class Americans than for top earners.

Todd Blanche now says "one-sided news" is a national security threat worth barring the press over. That's not a legal standard. It's a viewpoint test. I didn’t go to law school…and didn’t need to, to know that the First Amendment exists to STOP government from judging which coverage is balanced.