Every time I learn about a newly competitive House race, it’s just this:

A true "have you no shame" moment. Kudos to this reporter.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 21h ago

😳 WOMAN REPORTER: Do sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir? TRUMP: Wait. Wait! Wait wait wait. Slow down. Who are you with? REPORTER: NBC, sir. But they are very serious sex abuse allegations TRUMP: Quiet! Isn't she a fresh person? You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?

In 2024, Kelly made $50,000 for 10 hours of work per week. There’s no world where she should be paid nearly $100 per hour to take people on “spiritual heritage tours” of Washington, D.C. (cont.) www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

Kelly Johnson’s dark-money prayer cabal comes to light

Mike Johnson’s wife runs some sort of ministry targeting women congressional staffers—because of course she does.

dailykos.com

Coming up in 1 hour and 45 minutes as I post…

Bodleian Libraries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk · yesterday

Join sound artist, composer & nature beatboxer Jason Singh for an exploration of the soundscapes created for Wonder of Birds at 12pm today. Discover how a fascination with birdsong, habitats and the interconnection of birds, plants and place shaped the work: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/2026/o...

I'll buy coffee filters at #GroceryOutlet tomorrow. 1 week left w/ my best offer. Not everyone gets the same offers at same time, & this is about as good as they get; their pitch reads as follows: download Upside w/ my link or use my code KEVIN9339982 to get $15 extra cash back on your 1st purchase!

upside.app.link

Frequent users earn an average of $255 in their first year.

upside.app.link

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here's a rare legitimate invite to join in using an app I endorse; they've just given me good incentive to promote it to anyone capable of joining before 10/31: if you, like me, are part of the Grocery Outlet cult, earn 17% cash back on purchases, & we both get $15 right off. Enter code KEVIN9339982

It's #LetterboxdFriday, & I saw 2 films in the cinema yesterday: 1 in its 1st local preview-screening w/ my kid pulled out of school at the last minute to accompany me, & 1 in a 25th-anniversary 35mm screening at UCSB's Carsey Wolf (media studies) Center. Both excellent! Did other stuff too; fun day

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · last wk.

This #LetterboxdFriday my #LastFourWatched again include the hot subject of the coming week's #FilmSky discourse, seen unspoiled & not yet hyped into unrealistic-expectations territory, plus a seasonally-appropriate Looney Tunes classic, plus logging backdated viewings of formative/favorite films!

Hong Kong screen star & chanteuse Grace Chang passed away in August of this year, at the age of 93. #葛蘭

Tributes pour in for Hong Kong’s ‘Mambo Queen’ Ge Lan after death at 93

Remembering Hong Kong screen icon Grace Chang, known as Ge Lan, who has died at the age of 93. Read more at straitstimes.com.

straitstimes.com

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 2d ago

Also watched a movie very appropriate to the rainy season, & a Grace Chang 玉芳 soundtrack will now be an element of the coming months. #葛蘭

Treated yesterday as a test run for the coming Super (duper) El Niño. Snow boots & overpants acquired in Toronto last year both performed well, but no puddle test yet. Kid is a declared #pluviophile & had a playdate but was back home in time for the one rainbow seen. Obligatory if underwhelming pic:

Not impressed by Letterboxd as an app. It's been known to make my phone hard-crash & reboot. I'm all for having a non-walled-garden in which to discuss film, keep lists—old MUBI functionality—& to link both inside & outside the forum, but despite allowing a bit of simulated HTML, it remains lacking…

A review of Bread Will Walk (2025)

So rather than being able to tag @FoundOnYouTube in this review to call this short to their attention, the only way to do that is to mention (and potentially link to) it in a non-sequitur comment on a...

boxd.it

Santa Barbara has been invaded by out-of-area signature gatherers working for real estate developers to put the City's rent stabilization ordinance and State Street Master Plan on an upcoming ballot for voter approval. Did you sign the anti-rent control petition? You can change your mind, see below

Continued Thread: Kyiv Post! The Trump administration offered Moscow major economic incentives – unfreezing up to $100B in assets, greenlighting Lukoil sales, and potash sanctions relief – to secure a limited truce. Kyiv demanded equal funding and defense guarantees. www.kyivpost.com/post/86720

US Offers Russia Asset and Trade Incentives for Energy Ceasefire

Washington proposes unfreezing assets, a Lukoil deal, and potash relief, to entice Moscow into an energy or naval ceasefire.

kyivpost.com

Matt Leeds@mleeds2048.bsky.social · 4d ago

This Was The Purpose Of Their Putin Meeting Last Month! 🤔 Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff pushed a multibillion oil deal with Russia as part of peace talks that will bring profits to their family business partners. A new front for Trump-era criminal activity. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...

Blaise Pascal invented public transit in the 1660s. As the greatest mathematician of his age, he saw the math problem that only transit would solve. I wrote about this amazing story here. humantransit.org/2024/12/one-...

One of the Greatest Inventions in the History of Human Transport — Human Transit

Blaise Pascal knew he was dying.  He was in his 30s and had been sick most of his life, but at least he didn’t have to worry about being forgotten.  He had already made transformative innovations in m...

humantransit.org

Per Bloomberg, since 2025 began, initial US jobs reports have been revised down in 16 of 20 months, erasing 793,000 jobs. That’s nearly 40,000 jobs a month that were reported, then quietly erased. They just vanished like the donations for the Kennedy Center. unusualwhales.com/news/us-jobs...,

Jobs reports revised down in 16 of 20 months, erasing 793,000 jobs

Since the start of 2025, initial US jobs reports have been revised lower in 16 of 20 months, cutting a total of 793,000 jobs, an average of nearly 40,000 a month, per Bloomberg.

unusualwhales.com

If I were a birder, I'd probably have already added this to my #GoogleMaps bookmarks. I'm not a #birder, but bookmarking it since this seems like the type of experience that could change that. A trip to Australia—to visit friends, & even family—remains on my #BucketList, so this has been appended.

Stunning photos demonstrate why Darwin is known as the 'city of birds'

With hundreds of unique bird species, from loud curlews to colourful finches and even a rare all-black kookaburra, living in the Top End, it's no wonder Darwin is known as the "city of birds".

abc.net.au

😡😡😡 “Meta employees acknowledged in internal communications that the Instagram accounts of Brazilian ​President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were hindered by ‌restrictions during [Brazil’s] election” & that Meta “recommended the profile ​of challenger…Flavio Bolsonaro” & “his ​WhatsApp channel…” 1/

Discourse: please update yourself re Tesla. Shares are now down on the day after more people throw cold water on Thursday's Roadster event. arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10...

Tesla turns to 50-year-old stunt technology as it tries to Roadster again

If you want to make a car spin in the air, compressed gas is a good way to do it.

arstechnica.com

3/22/2011, in Van Nuys, CA: 《Me: "Do people often tell you that you look just like the actor Robert Morse?" Guy in Vietnamese restaurant: "Yes, all the time. But also, I *am* Robert Morse."》 [Added another post so that our verbatim exchange could be shared outside the confines of the alt-text.]

As a fun interlude at dinner this evening, btwn film & the 5⭐ Fantagraphics event, I again found myself seated near Zander Schloss! Visited @theshq.bsky.social after ordering food, & said hi after eating. Heard a loose outline of REPO MAN 2: THE WAGES OF BEER! He's also in Cox's new DEAD SOULS take.

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 3y ago

... seated out front one afternoon, and the other party turned out to be one Zander Schloss —whose role as Kevin in REPO MAN is the achievement I feel most strongly about, with his part in hardcore band The Circle Jerks also looming large. Met more eventual friends at the Hyperion location.

This #LetterboxdFriday my #LastFourWatched again include the hot subject of the coming week's #FilmSky discourse, seen unspoiled & not yet hyped into unrealistic-expectations territory, plus a seasonally-appropriate Looney Tunes classic, plus logging backdated viewings of formative/favorite films!

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 2w ago

I wrote no review of DIGGER lest I telegraph any spoilers; I successfully went in cold to an IMAX screening last night, & found it highly worthwhile. On reflection, a reworked version of this very skeet will likely serve as my non-spoiler review there. 🤷🏻‍♂️ #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Here, via @archive.org, is a pdf of the BACK TO THE FUTURE novelization (retyping the title & such to make this findable via a search of my own posts later.) #BackToTheFuture

Christopher Walsh@awkwardisallowed.bsky.social · 2w ago

You are not ready for how insane, and I mean insane, the BACK TO THE FUTURE novelization is. @ryannorth.ca wrote a whole ebook about how bonkers it is. www.tumblr.com/btothef/2941...

On Prop 40: "We’ve tried to keep this simple because it is actually pretty simple, and because particular kinds of complexity and nuance can be and are being and will be very instrumentally used—ideologically and misleadingly—to obscure that simplicity" www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/voting-guide...

Prop 40: Hell fuck yes

It’s not complicated. It’s a moral test.

oaklandreviewofbooks.org

Just RSVPeed for this Saturday 2pm panel hosted by the Carsey Wolf Center (for film & media studies.) I've known maybe 3 SB locals who were on reality TV, including one whom THE BACHELOR producers I once met plausibly declared their nicest-ever contestant in the title role (Andrew Firestone.)

Reality TV: Confessions from the Inside - Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara

carseywolf.ucsb.edu

I am glad this short film—about the invasive species that is the grey squirrel when encountered in northern England—is still available for free streaming (at least in the US) via POV on PBS. Links embedded in the review. Probably available elsewhere as well. #FilmSky #squirrel #Documentary #rewatch

A ★★★★★ review of Nutkin's Last Stand (2009)

WHOLPHIN was a "DVD magazine" published quarterly by McSweeney's for 15 issues. There are a lot of fine and somewhat forgotten short films in there, check the link. NUTKIN'S LAST STAND here was a high...

boxd.it

Apparently the topic of #MarALagoFace is going to be with us for a while, as are some adjacent issues, which has me again thinking back to this standout episode of Fresh Air aired over the summer, in which @jiatolentino.bsky.social is interviewed about a piece she wrote for @newyorker.com

In pursuit of 'Instagram face,' are we losing the imperfections that make us human?

Plastic surgery is becoming so normalized and undetectable, it's changing our relationship to reality. The New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino considers how beauty standards have dovetailed with AI.

npr.org

Rude Law Dog@esghound.com · 2w ago

obligatory must watch www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B5J...

Okay the best political ad of the year is here from LA-DSA

Not doing this after all—there's already a fun plan in store for both kids at another library across town. Better, since I won't have to undermine my recent campaign vs the kid ever riding in the front seat of my (basically student driver) wife's car. Last week kid & I walked past this bad scene:

1 Dead, 1 Injured After Parking Garage Crash in Downtown Santa Barbara

One person was fatally injured and another was taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon after a single-vehicle crash inside a downtown Santa Barbara

noozhawk.com

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 2w ago

So all this by way of arriving at a plan in which I transport the kid & her friend to a post-museum playdate tomorrow, to feature collaborative art & some rounds of hide & seek that I hope don't frustrate too much midterm exam prep. My kid in front seat will be given goggles & other protective gear.

It just occurred to me that if commercial landlord Jim Knell succeeds, State Street will "reopen" to a law that wasn't in place last time it saw car traffic. When I was a kid, weekend nights on State were memorable for the cruising scene there. That scene's return would be an amusing consolation.

Once harassed by police, lowriders can cruise across California under a new law

The law lifts restrictions limiting how low cars can ride, and it prevents cities and towns from passing bans on cruising.

npr.org

Kevin Kasch （他妈/他妈的）@tenletters.bsky.social · 3w ago

The biggest commercial landlord in Santa Barbara has petition-wavers all over town in an effort to trigger a special election. His cause: to get the city to pull back from a popular plan already underway to revitalize our pedestrian-friendly downtown. The cost of that election alone will be $300K.

This is being reported elsewhere with only the SFPD account. Take note that the victim did not, in fact, die by accidentally hitting his own head on a bus stop

Mission Local@missionlocal.org · 2w ago

San Francisco police say a suspect fleeing on a scooter struck his head on a "street fixture" this morning, & died. Witnesses say he was tackled into that fixture—a metal pole at a bus shelter—by a man who appeared to be a plainclothes officer. missionlocal.org/2026/10/san-...

We've entered the "few tickets left" phase of the FREE reservations process for those near L.A who want to commemorate 5 decades of comics-publishing greatness in person, so step to it if so inclined. I'll be coming a distance to be there on a school night, myself. www.eventbrite.com/e/fantagraph...

Fantagraphics@fantagraphics.bsky.social · 3w ago

We're celebrating our 50th anniversary in LA: Eric Reynolds will be joined in conversation by Secret Headquarters founder Dave Pifer at The Loved One on 10/15 at 7:30 pm! Stick around after for a book signing + party with a bunch of our artists--RSVP at https://ow.ly/IRl050ZULS1!