NEW: A major Russian propaganda campaign has waded into the US midterms, seeding a fake video that purports to show a former student of James Talarico accusing him of sexual assault. The group spread near-identical disinformation about Tim Walz in 2024. factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

Russian disinformation targets James Talarico with unfounded sexual assault claim

A dubious video shared widely on X purports to show a former student of James Talarico accusing the Democratic US Senate candidate of sexual assault. But the man in the likely AI-altered clip does not...

factcheck.afp.com

There's a huge difference between why Trump won the primary in 2016 (vice signaling captured ~35% of GOP primary voters & the rest of the field was too fragmented to mount a counterattack) and why he won the general (stickiness of party ID/electoral college/Russian interference/Jim Comey).

Ramaswamy's mistake isn't necessarily that vice signaling doesn't work; it still does in GOP primaries (note the generally poor quality of GOP nominees). But primaries ain't general elections. His mistake is misapplying a domain-specific lesson outside of the domain.

[Christopher M. Federico]@chrispps.bsky.social · 3h ago

been thinking about this a lot in terms of trying to make sense of the theory that suggested to Ramaswamy et al that the Acton ad would 'work' -- there's a tendency to overestimate just how effective outright vice signaling is as part of Trump's overall appeal (as opposed to the TV businessman crap)

if you ever write an article about a guy saying hes done with politics and then a month or so later hes making the largest political donation in history then you need to quit and find another line of work

Nearly 2 in 3 U.S. adults younger than 30 who plan to vote in midterms say their main motivation is to oppose Trump and his policies, according to a new Harvard Youth Poll. 77% disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy — including about half of young Republicans.

I wrote about all the bullshit the Trump admin is doing to Ilhan Omar--and how Ilhan Omar is far from the only person to whom the admin is doing this bullshit ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Trump’s DOJ Is On A Denaturalization Crusade. Ilhan Omar Is Just One Of Its Targets

The administration continues its quest to make itself the sole arbiter of what it means to be American.

ballsandstrikes.org

Prosecuting them for their crimes will make them felons, which sorta changes who they are, no?

Sava Blue@unicorntickles.bsky.social · 2h ago

The only consideration Dems should be giving to Republicans is how to beat them so bad they go home and think about what they did. Dems cannot change who republicans are and it’s a fool’s errand to even try.

New: Low-info voters, who put Trump in the White House, now look even more anti-Trump than high-info voters, and give Dems bigger margins on the generic ballot. 1 out of 3 Trump voters who can't name the party in charge of Congress now back Dems for 2026. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/poll-low-i...

Poll: Low-information voters have turned hardest against Trump and the GOP

Trump voters who can't answer two basic questions about politics are three times as likely as other Trump voters to back Democrats for the House. This is a big change since 2024.

gelliottmorris.com

New in PN: Strong & right "For decades, an article of faith among party apparatchiks was that if Dems simply published detailed policy platforms & then ran on those policies — or clever bywords like “affordability” or “abundance” — voters would swoon. Wrong. And Dems are finally figuring it out."

Strong and right

Democrats are finally attacking with strength.

publicnotice.co

You can't beat bigots in office if you let them run unopposed. Even if the wedding photographer loses, she paves the road for the next person. And she disrupts the discourse this sheriff keeps trotting out-that his lack of electoral opponents means the community supports his 287 agreement & lawsuit

Carceral Abolition@carceralabolition.bsky.social · 4h ago

A Sheriff Called Maryland “Disneyland for Illegal Immigrants.” Can a Wedding Photographer Oust Him? In this red enclave, a political newcomer is betting voters are done with Trump’s deportations www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Banning dual class shares is absolutely a fix the next Congress could pursue, which would radically reshape governance, and ultimately incentives, across the tech sector. @nathaliemarechal.net has been pushing this idea since at least 2020: law.yale.edu/sites/defaul...

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 2d ago

yes prospect.org/2026/09/30/h...

I appreciate that Ramaswamy has said it's running that pathetic ad with Acton's estranged mother. Usually, such fuckery is done by some PAC to give a candidate plausible deniability and distance. But not Vivek. He's proudly saying, "I am that sleazy fucker."

This whole story made me 25% more confident that Paxton is behind. Six months of battering Talarico as, basically, a creepy trans-obsessed pedophile, and it moved the needle so little that someone created a fake org to blast GOP households with "how to trans your kid" mailers.

steven monacelli@stevanzetti.bsky.social · 2h ago

Can confirm, Sarah Stogner told me the other day that she intends to send subpoenas to individuals and groups associated with the fraudulent transgender mailers www.texastribune.org/2026/10/22/t...

Can confirm, Sarah Stogner told me the other day that she intends to send subpoenas to individuals and groups associated with the fraudulent transgender mailers www.texastribune.org/2026/10/22/t...

West Texas DA opens forgery probe into transgender mailers

The pamphlets appear to be an attempt to anger voters ahead of the midterm elections, GOP District Attorney Sarah Stogner said.

texastribune.org

With citizenship approvals slowing, would-be voters are left in limbo: backlogs in naturalization applications rose from about 500,000 cases at the start of the second Trump administration to more than 800,000 as of August www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

72 percent drop in approving new citizens leaves would-be voters in limbo

A sharp slowdown in naturalizations has left hundreds of thousands of immigrants waiting — and some turning to federal courts for help.

washingtonpost.com

I don’t believe in mindlessly shitting on everything Democrats do. But they haven’t done enough and they haven’t tried hard enough and the goddamn complacency is fucking killing us. It’s killing us. It’s god damned killing us.

Change your mindset from “you should be happy because it could be worse” to “demand more because more is absolutely fucking possible.” If I’ve learned nothing from over 25 years of writing about politics, I have learned this.

I think Clinton, Obama and Biden did good things when they had Democratic majorities but if you compare it to what Reagan, Bush and Trump have done you can comprehend why we need to change this culture where we simply dont demand enough of the Democratic Party.

The deeper reason Trump, Vance, and Ramaswamy are backing the vile rape ad is they think MAGA politics—the cruelty, the depravity, the viciousness—is still ascendant. They think doing this esesentially puts Trump on the ballot. Me and @jimswift.bsky.social on this: newrepublic.com/article/2169...

All this from the "reality doesn't care about your feelings crowd", when it is all about declaring their distortion of reality is the only thing that's real and everyone should conform to them.

If they’ve deliberately leaned in to something that’s actually a wedge issue that repels swing voters, that would fit perfectly with the narrative that epistemological closure ultimately corrodes authoritarian states from within.

In MAGA, parental estrangement is a big issue — and parents are held out as blameless victims. I suspect that's one reason why Vivek Ramaswamy ran an ad celebrating Amy Acton's vile mother. And why MAGA — including Vance and Trump — are backing him. www.salon.com/2026/10/23/r...

Ramaswamy's ad exposes MAGA’s obsession with parental estrangement

Many Republicans have kids who won't talk to them — and they blame their offspring

salon.com

"It’s time to elect Keisha Lance Bottoms our next governor," Sen. Jon Ossoff declares in a new ad for her campaign to lead Georgia. Polls show a tight race between Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire who has outspent her 4 to 1 on the air.

Morning Digest: Keisha Lance Bottoms seeks a boost from Georgia’s top Democrat, Jon Ossoff

The freshman senator could boost his party all the way down the ticket with a strong showing at the ballot box

the-downballot.com

It's bleak that Serious News Outlets will tie themselves into knots writing headlines that obscure the horrors of a story while @people.com just waltzes in and calls it like it is.

Amy Acton’s Stepfather Was Charged with Raping Her When She Was a Child. Now Her Ohio Election Opponent Is Using That Against Her

Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio, has previously publicly discussed being sexually abused by her stepfather between the ages of 9 and 12. Her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy recently ...

people.com

Elon Musk kills again

Techmeme@techmeme.com · yesterday

Ukraine says the abrupt throttling of US-funded Starshield grounded dozens of drones mid-flight, costing one unit $1M+, and halted some strikes for three days (New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Elon Musk is making a ton of money from government contracts. I think he’s severely overestimating how secure those are and how loathed he is. I hope he learns in the most painful way possible, because he has inflicted misery on so many people.

When democrats had a senate majority I said they should conduct hearings to reexamine all his contracts. The party punted. If they do it again they deserve extinction.

Thomas Brackett “Czar” Reed@czarreed.bsky.social · yesterday

Elon Musk is making a ton of money from government contracts. I think he’s severely overestimating how secure those are and how loathed he is. I hope he learns in the most painful way possible, because he has inflicted misery on so many people.

This is terrorism. This is why you don’t tell them “welcome home,” you don’t push for a “strong Republican Party,” you don’t stress “bipartisanship.” You conquer them and expunge them. That’s what you do.

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social · yesterday

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar will move out of her Washington, D.C., home that federal agents searched last week, she said Wednesday, noting that attention brought on by the raid has made her feel unsafe there. apnews.com/article/ilha...

attracting media attention with "stunts" was literally the entire core of the civil rights movement. visuals of cops and other officials harassing, beating, killing organizers was pivotal. the civil rights movement would have gone wild for selfies and tweets.

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · yesterday

"The Jews who went to Mississippi didn't take selfies and post tweets." Okay, but honestly, if tweets had been a thing in 1961, many of them probably would have done.