For some reason, the second half of October seemed to speed past, compared to the first half. I'm sitting here working on this on Halloween night while I wait for trick-or-treaters.
It's now all but the last few days before the midterm election – finally! – which saw more attempted intervention from the Department of Justus against supposed non-citizen voters and the Mary Peltola Senate campaign in Alaska, the raid on Ilhan Omar's house, and the unbelievable Vivek Ramaswamy ad in Ohio. Somehow the Alaska story was more important to most of the media (especially the New York Times) than a new story of Trump raping a woman in 1993. It also became clearer just how much Elon Musk is trying to buy the election.
In other news, Actor Patrick Stewart died, the AI bubble showed signs of popping, and Musk and Trump blocked Ukraine from satellite access, helping Russia in its war effort.
Everything below the line is from the attributed account, and is in reverse chronological order, except some of the images, which I move up or down for better visual balance.
__
I truly think trunk or treat is a psy op. How confusing is it to LITERALLY TEACH CHILDREN TO TAKE CANDY FROM STRANGERS VANS??
Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social
Nothing like Halloween to radicalize parents about how fast people drive on neighborhood streets.
Flan @flanknits.bsky.social
A key question with delivery robots is whether we should cede our public spaces and pedestrian walkways. Cars have driven us from the roads. Will robot delivery, sometime in the future, drive us from the sidewalks?
Micah Corah
Our extra Saturday bridge brigade in Prospect Park (Minneapolis) over I-94:
@pattho.bsky.social
not gonna lie, it is crazy how every developed country has:
1. A colossal old age benefits system that amounts to a huge share of public spending
2. A public that bemoans excess "welfare" spending on undeservings but will riot at the suggestion of (1) being reduced
Pride Ott @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social
While the NYT can perhaps duck the charge that they are actively pro-authoritarian, they are against the sort of inclusivity and elite accountability that a just world demands (so in effect, pro-authoritarian). Part of this includes being outrageously Islamophobic and pushers of the idea that Black success contains elements of unfair play.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Here's the question I would ask if I were a reporter or editor: how many US service members were killed or wounded because scarce air defenses needed to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones headed for US bases were diverted to protect Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and gulf shipping instead?
mtsw
watching men respond to a woman’s LinkedIn post about how of the hundreds of people she has blocked for harassment, only like 3 of them are women by… harassing her. and somehow we still as a society behave as if men are the gender most naturally suited to leadership
Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social
The 22 billionaires who have spent or spoken against California’s Prop 40 have seen their combined wealth increase 64% in the last 20 months, yet you’d think from their reaction the sky was falling.
conifergirl.bsky.social
The most powerful disinfo operation against democracy in the world right now is the United States Department of Justice.
LOLGOP
Book Cover of the Day:
Rachel Deering
Only 48 hours before Republicans don't give a shit about fraud anymore.
Bob Collins @mylittlebloggie.bsky.social
Musk thinks he can buy the United States with a tiny fraction of his net worth. Is he right?
Brent Toderian
Sometimes I feel like the press is just bored. Trump hasn't canceled the midterms and the Democrats haven't unleashed "antifa" super soldiers. Instead Trump is just stumbling toward failure while Dems regain power the traditional way: elections. So they need to gin up some excitement.
The Alternate Historian
No idea how much this will effect the Alaska race specifically, but the fact that the Federal government is trying to preemptively decertify an election and the response from the Fourth Estate has been squealing, incandescent joy is something of a Suboptimal Indicator for democratic viability.
Nathan Goldwag
The Next Generation “Darmok” episode gets a lot of shit now for being an unrealistic portrayal of how language would develop, but it’s really an accidental parable about becoming too online and forgetting how to communicate with people who haven’t memorized 12,000+ posts
Tim Price
technically Darmok IS how a dialect developed, it's just a dialect that lets everyone know you need to log off more.
Big Dracula Energy @mayawest.online
That sounds baaad… And beef is 25 times worse than tofu, but I don't have a pun to meat the moment. 50 times worse than beans:
David Ho
There has been more ink spilled by the legacy media on the ballot stacking in Alaska than the president trying to end the citizenship of a lawfully elected representative.
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social
It's deeply weird that the Democratic recruiting of spoilers is a major national story even as the President of the US is ordering Republicans to do extreme gerrymanders/nationalize elections and refusing to commit to accepting results. The Democratic plot was scummy, but let's get real.
Greg Sargent
The governor of Alaska declining to certify the Senate election is a far, far bigger scandal than anything Peltola did, and the fact that the media refuses to treat it as such is embarrassing but not surprising
Sam @samd.bsky.social
the actual election scandal is the fact that the president of the united states is waging a whole of government effort against free and fair elections.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
The starkest thing about Star Trek: The Next Generation compared to most space opera today is how much it presents the eruption of violence as a total catastrophe, rather than something awesome.
Adam Serwer
A former Miss Switzerland who accused the president of rape isn't a trustworthy media source, but a disgruntled former Mary Peltola staffer who retracted her story is
Marisa Kabas
This remarkable Mycenaean owl appliqué was found in a tomb at Peristeria, dating to 1630 to 1510 BC. Measuring only 3.8 cm in height, it was made of gold sheet and was likely sewn onto a garment of the deceased. Currently on display at the special exhibition. Photo by me:
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social
It would cost approximately $37 billion a year to prevent chronic and acute hunger. $93 billion a year to "sustainably" end world hunger. Anthropic reported a net loss on paper of $80 billion this year so far.
Martin Pfeiffer @nuclearanthro.bsky.social
Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice both used private email addresses identical to Clinton's setup, as had many other members of the Bush administration. This was not covered as a scandal for any of them. So sort of makes you wonder if the media actually cared about the email security/records issue
mtsw
The news media (and I was in it) covered Hillary’s emails as a scandal because Trump said it was a scandal. He was the media’s assignment deskhead and to this day dictates how the media frames democrats simply because he’s “unpredictable”
Matt Negrin
When Democrats take power in 2028, they should also pass proportional representation in the House and ranked choice voting in the Senate, so we can truly have a multiparty system in Congress. We need to unrig the political system, so people like Elon Musk can't buy the system anymore.
Max Berger
So we’re supposed to believe there’s no money for health care, but there’s enough money for ICE to spend nearly $500 million buying an abandoned private prison in MN that was originally offered for sale at $75 million just last year?
Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov
This man should be taxed to insolvency:
Sean McKnight @ynot1989.bsky.social
Every evangelical preacher in the US is telling their congregations how to vote every Sunday, and I don't see any particular reason why the pope shouldn't do the same tbh
Aaron van Dorn
The scenarios used by the IPCC assume we will see *massive* increases in novel carbon removal. But the problem is there is no *real evidence* to justify this rosy view. And many, many reasons to be skeptical. I think this is reckless, unwarranted, and irresponsible.
Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social
every AI innovation is "what if we took normal human interaction and turned it into the police"
Niko Stratis
once the AI bubble bursts not only will everybody say they have always been against it, everybody who was horrible to those who stood up will say they supported us or even worse lies
Olivia Guest @olivia.science
By the way, this whole "Black voters are struggling with Abdul El-Sayed" is purely a creation of elite discourse. The latest poll has Abdul up 88-7 among Black voters. Kamala Harris got 86% of the Black vote in Michigan in 2024.
W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social
"The war with Iran has been very lucrative for American oil companies, which have earned more than $130 billion in profit as people pay much higher prices for gasoline, diesel and other fuel":
James Downie
Fossil fuels for data centers could wipe out 15 years of US greenhouse gas reductions, causing the power system to generate 42% more emissions by 2030 than it did in 2025.
Paris Marx
4: the number of days since we learned of a new, vetted violent rape accusation against the President
0: the number of stories in the NYT, WaPo, and WSJ combined
Grudgie the Wail
Focus on the Family in the 90s: "Here's how you make good, obedient kids who will do the right thing because they're scared shitless of you beating them."
Focus on the Family now: "There's an estrangement epidemic!!"
Dex Anderson
Black turnout is surging in Southern states that passed new gerrymanders or threatened to after SCOTUS dismantled Voting Rights Act. The post-Callais backlash is real and I saw it firsthand on the ground in Alabama.
Ari Berman
Rest in peace to a real human being:
Evil John 2: John By Dawn @johnryanwrites.bsky.social
The greatest gift and the greatest betrayal of the science fiction I grew up with was the way it made "Whether or not I understand you, whether or not you are anything like me, it suffices that you are a person." feel almost mundane.
Electric Kool-Aid Bechdel Test @i-rohl.bsky.social
If you want more Patrick Stewarts, then you publicly fund the arts and learning programs, so that working class kids can find their way into making a career in them.
Jessica Ritchey
Since it’s almost the anniversary of “War of the Worlds,” I’ll add that we have the WPA Federal Theatre Project to thank for Orson Welles and many, many others
A. Brad Schwartz
There was a moment in the 1990s when Newt Gingrich was sneering about public funding for the arts and said something like "Arthur Miller didn't need government money!" and then Arthur Miller wrote an op-ed noting that he had, in fact, been saved in the Depression by Federal Writers Project.
Kevin M. Kruse
Remember the dot.com "boom" where countless companies promised massive returns despite running huge deficits? Multiply that 1,000X and you get AI accounting and the mass delusion sucking up more and more of our national treasure.
Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social
A few months ago, I was in Dnipro train station. We were waiting for a train after delivering an SUV to a brigade commander. I took this photo of kids play area. Today Russians murdered children who had been playing here. Republicans could stop this. They don’t. If that’s not evil, what is?
stuartpstevens.bsky.social
I feel confident there is a big correlation between “voting in every election” and “volunteering and organizing in other ways.” I am also confident “not voting” correlates a lot with “NOT volunteering or organizing.” Yet some keep claiming voting makes you MORE likely to not do anything else.
Faine Greenwood
ICE paid CoreCivic $495 million for a prison in Minnesota that's only worth $75 million. Asked why, CoreCivic said, “The federal government ultimately determined the sale price following its assessment process.” CoreCivic donated half a million dollars to Trump.
Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social
it actually is making me a little crazy to see people treat “got a guy with the same name to get on the ballot” as the height of scandal. people have used more cutthroat tactics to win student council seats!
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
“shut the fuck up” is the only response to anyone complaining in any way about the dan sullivans in alaska. literally just shut the fuck up you stupid little piss babies
shut
the
fuck
up
Andrew Lawrence
We don't have to entertain complaints from conservatives. They tried to murder congress, like not that long ago
Antifascist Militant
Mike Luckovich
Deeply fucked up that thousands of Twin Cities school children have fled because they are not safe here, but this fuckstick is guaranteed safety by the loser ass president
Elle Ess @viamarsala18.bsky.social
Just my 2 cents on the vibes right now: Prices increasing of things that you have little or no discretion whether to buy or not — health insurance, homeowners' insurance, daycare, electricity, gas etc — hurts a lot more than increases in the prices of discretionary items
mtsw
Mississippi didn’t ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, until 1995. Then it actually forgot to file the required paperwork to officially abolish slavery for another 18 years, and only did so in 2013!
Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social
Black enrollment at Harvard has fallen by 50% in three years. After a brief period in which African Americans were well-represented among at Harvard College, we have now returned to the centuries-old pattern of black underrepresentation.
stevelevitsky.bsky.social
Glenn D Stockard
I can’t afford gas or groceries, and I can’t sleep due to the endless noise from the data center on my street. But at least international fugitive Flavio Bolsonaro will be able to live free in Florida.
NY Times Pitchbot
The real issue with [an American civil war] is not 'who would win' but 'everyone will lose' (except America's enemies) because there would hardly be a country left with the blood stopped flowing. We do not want that – not wanting that is why we bother with elections.
Bret Devereaux
i think one problem is that when americans think "civil war" they think our unusually orderly one (which even that is overstated, see: missouri) and not the typical experience of civil conflict which is largely just random murder
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
In 2024, 89% of Kamala Harris's policies were found to have majority support while only 48% of Trump's did. On average, Trump's positions had only 51% support while Harris's had 67%.
Matthew Sheffield
The number of people who do not know that Trump has once again been credibly accused, THIS WEEK, of rape or sexual misconduct by 5 different women while in or near the presence of Jeffrey Epstein... is truly shocking to me. I know the legacy press is trying to bury it, but Christ alive it's working
ElieNYC
Parking meter near the White House serving up facts:
David Ho
The New York Times will publish a hit piece on the Democratic Alaska senate candidate six days before an Election but won't mention a new rape allegation against the President of the United States.
Marisa Kabas
Trump said in Michigan yesterday that everyone in a Louisiana community got $10K checks from a neighboring data center. “Everybody in the community got a check for $10,000, and they loved it. They said, ‘Where do we do our next data center?’” A local news fact-check finds that no such checks exist
Laura Bassett
I think if a facility has changing tables in the women's bathroom but not the men's, management should be required to make themselves available at all times to change diapers themselves.
Ned Resnikoff
Wild and revealing interview with Steve Bannon about Trump's attack on universities. "'Universities,' Bannon said, are the only reason that Democrats are 'able to compete with us.'"
Ryan Enos
University leaders trying to engage the right wing assault on higher education is such a bad idea because the criticism is bad faith, good faith will never be reciprocated, and they have the demolition of the university as a core movement goal. You can’t make peace with it, you can only defeat it.
Joshua Foust
Universities cannot appease these arsonists and should stop trying to negotiate with them.
Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social
I've known Charlie since he was in elementary school, and now he's old enough to vote. This year, he gave me the honor of being represented in the Minnesota State Fair seed art competition. It's true—MN fights back:
Ilhan Omar
Politico wrote up Zohran playing basketball with the uncovering-a-big-scandal tone the same day the NY Times wrote up "credible allegation that The President of the United States raped a woman" as a political strategy story. Broken media in a nutshell
mtsw
“As I write this, the Washington Post has published at least 4 articles about Obama’s Cheesecake Factory line, and 0 articles about a new allegation of rape against Donald Trump, who has already been found liable for sexual assault.” –Jamison Foser.
Heidi Li Feldman
Not sure when a new, on-the-record rape allegation against a sitting president isn’t considered news — especially considering Trump was found liable by a jury in a similar case — but it was ignored by most mainstream media outlets
Judd Legum
Like Kwame Ture said, the power to enact violence against the marginalized is a more urgent issue than individual attitudes. People are welcome to stew in their hatred. But they must never be able to act on it.
Talia Bhatt
ACW1234
A serial rapist was elected twice as President, a fact we don't reckon with nearly enough. Now one of two major political parties has been molded in his image, run for and by violent sexual abusers who hate women.
Marisa Kabas
The political media is visibly chafing at the current situation, where Republicans are glaringly awful, fucking everything up, running deviant candidates everyone hates, and Democrats are just being normal and winning. The force is out of balance. They are viscerally eager to go after Democrats about something. The minute Dems gain any power at all, watch them descend like locusts, hyping an endless series of fake scandals fed to them by the same right-wing slop machine that's been playing them for fools for decades. They can't wait.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
i think it’s a genuine question if a sustainable society can be made up of people who, on average, are exposed to 100s of advertisements every day of their life.
Snowden St.
When fighting fascism, debate is not an anchor for discourse and inquiry, but a cement block, drowning reality. People of bad faith do not deserve debate; their messages must be drowned out.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
I wonder what percentage of voters know that Musk is the largest donor to the GOP, and single-handedly the reason they have a huge money advantage?
David Roberts @volts.wtf
The man who has spent more money on politics in the last 2 years than George Soros has in his entire lifetime never says anything positive about his guy Ken Paxton. But he does serve up a steady diet of this stuff.
Ron Filipkowski
Minnesota: The Whistle Rebellion
Justin Sarriot @justindavidh.bsky.social
Re: Brazil. It is so long past the time when we needed to stop thinking about digital platforms in terms of corporate 1st amendment rights and whether or not they are publishers, and start thinking about them as extralegal political actors engaged directly in social and political manipulation.
ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com
Everyone should read these threads I did about industry lobbyists and the EPA and understand them. Take the time to see the unambiguous evidence of what's happening now at this moment inside the EPA. Please retweet them. Please read them. Each one of the threads. It's happening in slow motion.
Eric Lipton NYT
Eric Lipton has led an effort over the past two years to document the destruction of environmental protections under Trump II. It has gone for the most part unnoticed compared
to, well, many other things, probably because it’s happening far from the Oval Office. But it’s very important.
Peter Sagal
Just out of frame of this lifted monstrosity are dozens of children playing in a public space. A grown man is cutting through a plaza just to peacock, yet the biggest safety panic in our city right now is about e-bikes:
Brandon - "Fietser" @americanfietser.bsky.social
The founding principle of the modern GOP is that the exercise of government power by Democrats is facially illegitimate.
Andrew Burton @burtonad.bsky.social
TEN FUCKING YEARS OF "Did you see what he said today?"
Tom & Lorenzo
Kansas Dem Sen. nominee Adam Hamilton on trans rights: “I don’t think we should take a small group of people and bully them, pick on them, and hurt them. I understand one thing really clearly when it comes to transgender people, and that is Jesus told me I was to love my neighbor as I love myself”
BeshearStan
Sure Prohibition was handled poorly, but that doesn't mean that the issues with drinking at the time didn't exist. And right now our handling of online gambling is the equivalent of delivering alcohol directly to a problem drinker's home and not charging them a delivery fee.
The Alternate Historian
People don’t understand why I keep noting that BlueSky is not a bubble, it is a counterpublic. It serves its own organizational function: you can see in realtime in January 2025, on multiple types of social media, shouting that an executive order is instruction to an agency. This one stuck. It is ok to decide that—in the middle of constitutional crisis—that the job of social media is not persuasion, but organization and organization. It is also ok to decide that listening and persuasion does not have to involve violence and abuse.
Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social
Gordon @financecharg.bsky.social
New study shows one-quarter of data centers worldwide are located in water-stressed areas. In essence, these areas have no spare water to give, but thirsty data centers are moving in anyway.
John Kostyack
Honored to be made a "coastal elite" because I think the more than two centuries in which the White House wasn't a gaudy monstrosity was not in fact an insult to ordinary working people
Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social
Lula closing this election by saying that no sniveling nepo baby who never worked a day in his life was going to stand there and call him Nine Fingers when he lost his finger WORKING and how dare he insult the workers of Brazil… was about the sickest thing I have ever seen in my life
Alli DeJong
None of us should forget this. Meta should be subjected to corporate death penalty and permanently broken up into small pieces.
Greg Pak
I will not forget that Zuckerberg and Facebook shut down the accounts of the most popular presidential candidate in one of the largest democracies in the world, and he was elected anyway
Tom Pepinsky
Meanwhile this is good ammo:
Rebecca Solnit
Apparently, whiteness is what makes you an American, plus declared fealty to a Jesus whose teachings you ultimately scorn.
strongboris.bsky.social
I, for one, think it’s great that the online right has decided to make the president‘s expensive and largely illegal renovations to the White House the focal point of the election
Kevin M. Kruse
Making disparaging remarks about Saddam Hussein just shows how out of touch you are with Middle America’s Ba’athist working class
Ned Resnikoff
We'll throw away food by the ton and pour water down the drain but damned if we won't squeeze the last jot of toothpaste from the tube.
Peter Gleick
Trump administration has pushed off 13% of Americans enrolled in food stamps
The Guardian
What am I missing here? This seems to be an advert that reminds you that a creepy listening device powered by AI doesn’t actually understand what you need and annoys you with pointless suggestions that won’t help:
Arthur Snell
I think the GOP eating complete shit after running a billion dollars in anti-trans ads is the best outcome possible overall.
Katelyn Burns
as much as i’d rather build something new, we have to takeover and gut the democratic party. all that infrastructure belongs to the people, not the loser ass DCCC consultant class that has reduced it to nothing since the clinton era. we need a party with the actual courage to be the opposition. and we shouldn’t have to start from scratch
ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com
So let met get that straight: paying a wealth tax is impossible (“billionaires have no liquidity”, “it would be taxing unrealized gains”, “their wealth is virtual”) but one man paying half a billion to influence elections is possible. Did I understand well?
Jake Grumbach
I think your average modern Internet celebrity tops out at a level of fame similar to what a local news afternoon weatherman would have had in the 90's.
jzekis.bsky.social
I hate the suggestion that Trump has some special sort of power or brilliance. Yes, his celebrity has been of benefit to him, and sure, he has some rudimentary chops as a performer. But his greatest power is white power, and the American state will help anyone harness that.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Does anyone ever shame big dudes parking their big trucks unashamedly in handicapped spaces? No? Only women, the elderly, and actual disabled people? Huh, wonder why the discrepancy?
Anthrodiva
The 5-year cancer survival rate is up to 70%
SIDS deaths have decreased by over 50%
89% decline in tornado deaths
All thanks to federal investment in science and OUR tax dollars at work!
Colette Delawalla, PhD
Sandieglo
Just watched a Tesla drive the wrong way through the library drop box lane. Wonder who they’re going to vote for.
Gretchen @wokkax3.bsky.social
I hope Texas voters understand that Musk is not trying to buy a senate seat. He's trying to buy the state of Texas, and they probably need to read up on what he's planning to do with it before they cast their votes.
arknet
trying to think of a use of preemptive pardons that don't indicate deep failure of a political system. coming up short
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Seems like the Trump White House agrees with everyone who says the Trump White House had committed countless crimes
Kevin M. Kruse
You can't clean up plastic once it's in the ocean
You can't suck up fossil carbon once it's in the atmosphere
You can't (quickly) regrow a forest once you've destroyed it
Destruction needs to be addressed at source. It makes no sense to just damage everything and try to fix it afterwards
Dr Charlie Gardner
Anne of Bohemia, wearing an A+ outfit w/ super pendant hat ornament (distracting when walking!). Also fine lapdog. By Hans Maler, whose day is today:
Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
The Trump admininstration mailings to California election officials should be reported as mail fraud. There is no evidence of significant voter fraud makes their claims fraudulent.
Guardian @guardianofforever.bsky.social
Like public health, transportation is an inherently collective endeavor. "Your decision [whether to get a vaccine] is going to affect everybody else. It's the same thing with transportation. If you choose to get a big car, you're affecting the well being of everybody else on the street."
David Zipper
No, climate change isn’t going to kill everyone by 2100, but that’s not the metric by which we should judge how bad something is.
David Ho
Remember that episode when Trump sent thugs to sack Congress and kill his vice-president so he could overthrow an election and then billionaires paid the Supreme Court to say he was immune from prosecution.
David Hunter
Become ungovernable!
Tabitha Fringe Chase @tabby676.bsky.social
When this national nightmare is finally over, may we never forget who it was that nurtured the nightmare and that turned a blind eye to all its horrors, no matter how vile, venal, depraved, vindictive, lawless, or cruel: White Evangelicals.
Christa Brown
Abortion bans are violation of the separation of church and state.
Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social
“Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp states ‘AI will undermine the influence of highly educated, often female voters and give it to working class men. We have feminine energy running our cities and our courts,’ he complained.”
@amybisinthewoods.bsky.social
Elon Musk wants to buy America and turn it into a paradise for Nazis and pedophiles; the Republican Party is his very willing vehicle and collaborator. Sounds outrageous, but it is absolutely the case.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Hey dumb dumb demographics who shift every single election, let me make something clear: a Republican president is always going to ruin everything. A Democrat president is always going to clean up the mess and try to help us. Hopefully someday we leave this hell cycle but that’s how it is.
Elle Ess @viamarsala18.bsky.social
Trump has made more stock trades in his second term than all 535 members of Congress combined:
Steve Rattner
At some point after the election there'll be a lot of pieces puzzling out how the Republicans got away with being so generously funded by a notorious white nationalist and it wasn't treated as a big, problematic issue. From the same reporters currently not treating it as a big, problematic issue.
Schooley
"democrats are going force trans your kids" (Fake) vs "republicans are going to reintroduce child labor and make your daughter write a thank you letter to the pastor that molested her" (Real)
alexis simpson @amutepiggy.bsky.social
The thing about the President is that once he locks into a talking point he likes, he'll say it at every single rally. Which means that at least until Election Day we're hearing about Rep. Omar, Somali communities, trans people in schools, etc. Which. Yeah. We'll get through it. But. Tired.
Kat Rohn
“Severe heat killed more than 50,000 people in European cities and towns this summer, according to peer-reviewed estimates released by scientists in London on Friday.”
Dr. Genevieve Guenther @doctorvive.bsky.social
In 2025, terrorism killed just fourteen people in Europe, according to the Global Terrorism Index.
Erin Sikorsky
Xela Hart
The most dangerous person in America right now for our democracy is Elon Musk. He is DESPERATE to block Democrats from investigating him. Who knows what wrongdoing he committed but Musk knows and he is panicked. He has Spent $500 million legally to block Democrats. What will he do illegally?!
Dean Obeidallah
The fetishisation of "debate" as some sort of grand public good that everyone should do is so thoughtless and jarring to me because the more you actually do it the more it becomes apparent that genuinely constructive debate is actually a pretty niche thing. Like, to have a meaningful debate, you require at least two participants who:
- know a lot about the subject
- have some common values about the purpose of the debate
- hold conflicting positions on the subject
- but do not hold those positions particularly strongly 2/3
These are unlikely overlaps most of the time. People with the same values and knowledge are often going to tend towards the same position. People who lack strong views on a subject often aren't interested in knowing much about it.
Alex Says Stuff
Yeah, it really does need a savvy and independent audience. It basically doesn't happen, which is why I think reactionaries favour debate so much as a form of conflict resolution - it's a great medium if you wanna just coast by on your in-group cred and appeal to people's worst instincts!
Tristan Stevens
1950s pencil paper bags, originals, in stock now:
Present & Correct
There is evidence that the President of the United States asked the world's richest man to hamstring the air defenses of a democracy fighting Russian invasion, and it's the #12 story at NYT app this morning. #3 at WSJ. Can't find it at CNN. WTF?
Jeff Colgan
I’ve thought before that it might feel weird riding a bakfiets around when you don’t need the cargo. Like you’re “wasting” it. But no one would *ever* apply that thinking to cars:
Oh The Urbanity!
Mixed feelings here:
1) military enlistment is a mode of being in society, so allowing trans people to stay shows an interest in having trans people in society.
2) would love to see examples of the US standing up for trans people that don't involve participating in war, risking injury or death
Evelyn Olansky @credible-source.bsky.social
I 100% get this — my entry point into political awareness was the Iraq War and Abu Ghraib — but the military is also the country's largest employer and Trump is currently asking SCOTUS to endorse discrimination against us on the basis he is not acting with malice while literally calling us slurs. The legal argument is an effort to define gender dysphoria as disqualifying for any position of power, authority, or public trust. Nancy Mace has a bill right now to expand the military ban to thousands more federal positions as mundane as air traffic control. Then ask yourself how long before that then shows up in state legislatures banning us from teaching, working with kids, any licensed profession with medical requirements.
Gillian Branstetter
Amy Acton’s Estranged Mother Killed Kittens, Court Records Show
Mediaite
"I can't believe the fascist robots I built for the fascist robot factory are going to be used by fascists to do fascism" sobs man who hired on at the fascist robot factory:
Night of the Abigail @popeguilty.bsky.social
Remember when Republicans were very concerned about people in Ohio killing pets? Curious if they will have any issues with this.
The Alternate Historian
We need a RICO act for corporate crime. Dollar General routinely overcharges customers. In NY, it's paying $1.9M after it failed 43% of price inspections and overcharged on 14% of items. Many states have found the same. But it keeps happening, because the fines are too small.
Stacy Mitchell
I really don't think most people appreciate how much damage air pollution does to our bodies and brains. Even in the last 10 years the science has progressed a ton and everything it has discovered is *grim*. As I've said many many times, the health care savings *alone* would more than pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
I finally read the Acton/Ramaswamy stuff and I think it's a level of offense that would be appropriately responded to with a slap hard enough to warrant a visit to a dentist. A just world would have Ramaswamy hounded in public til he had to move. This is why I stopped reading national news. My body is just coursing with venom for a race I don't even vote in.
Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul
WHY DOES NASA HAVE A FUCKING PARAMILITARY. AAAGHHHHH
Martin #509
This video camera study showed that less than 5% of people on bikes broke traffic laws while riding bikes, yet 66% of people did so while driving. And perhaps even more importantly, if you REALLY want even MORE bike-riders to obey laws, build more protected bike infrastructure.
Brent Toderian
We found that as of right now 73% of your campaign donation goes back to the consultants and vendors (!!!), four times more than just 20 years ago. Only 13% to ads. Even I was shocked.
Jake Grumbach
Once mass spam texts were made legal, younger donors vanished, leaving a grassroots fundraising machine that subsists on squeezing vulnerable seniors, some of whom give hundreds of times a day. It’s a horrific model. Consultants get generationally wealthy, and the party hollows out its future.
• An 87yo in WI charged 17,766 times for $77k.
• An 89yo in D.C. charged 26,456 times for $429k.
• A 76yo in CA charged 27,236 times for $578k.
There are thousands of examples like these. Republicans are even worse. We shouldn't have to protect our elderly parents from this.
Adam Bonica
Man:
George Pearkes
Of all the reasons the establishment media won’t amplify our existential national crisis, the simplest one is that they’re on the side of the crisis.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
the height of #metoo we learned about the sexual abuse and exploitation of women and girl athletes is a big problem! yet bigots want us to be mad at trans people playing sports. they can eff all the way off
Wagatwe Wanjuki
The United States — in practice and principle — has wholeheartedly joined the side that is searching for a world order rooted in aggression, gangsterism, and white male supremacy. It’s tragic and disgusting, and as usual, it’s almost entirely the fault of Republicans.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Vivek Ramaswamy seeks to take political advantage of the fact that his opponent was raped as a child. But to his credit, unlike many other Republican politicians, he was not personally the rapist in question.
NY Times Pitchbot
woke up and remembered i have both a sticker printer and free-will:
ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com
Not just the fastest, or the cheapest, or the best, but the *only* possible solution to climate change is a rapid global buildout of clean energy infrastructure. If you're standing in the way of that, you're not working on climate change and should be honest with yourself about your priorities.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
Waymo really seems to have a deadheading problem. In California: "Between January 2025 and June 2026, Waymo's deadhead share [of VMT] fell from 53% to 41.9%, yet still exceeds human-driven ride-hailing by more than 50%." More deadheading leads to more traffic
David Zipper
A president saying clearly and with his full chest “I am directing the Department of Justice” to do … anything, would have been a five-alarm scandal in previous years. Now? It’s just a Tuesday.
Steve Mullis
If you think a test for dementia is an IQ test, you have dementia.
If you don't realize you have been given a test for dementia because your physician suspects you have dementia, you have dementia.
If you think being able to tell a giraffe from a whale makes you a genius . . . you have dementia.
Mrs. Betty Bowers
bluenose motel sign, bedford, nova scotia, 1979:
old roadside pics
Billionaires throw a fit at the idea of an annual wealth tax... but literally everyone else already pays one via property taxes (either directly as a homeowner or secondarily as a renter). The only reason securities aren't taxed the same is because that's where the rich keep most of their wealth.
Max Kennerly
I suspect that Trump 2 will be a bit like Covid, in that a) no one will really want to think about it once it's over, in part because b) everyone will be vaguely ashamed of how they acted during it. Almost everyone was complicit so almost everyone will just want to forget it and "move on." I'm a big supporter of accountability and I really want Dems to pursue it, but I just want everyone — pols and ordinary Dem voters — to be prepared for the scale of the pushback against it. It's going to be immense. It will take intense focus and commitment to really follow through on it.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
“Hey you can’t tax me on the unrealized gains on my stock! That’s not real money!”
Also Billionnaires: “Hi there, I’d like to borrow a few billion dollars cash against the value of my stock, please”
Jay W @jaydeedouble.bsky.social
"I went to Moon Palace Books and all I got was this whistle to fight ICE." South Minneapolis, October 2026:
daviss
The director of FEMA is not allowed to do this legally. The director of OMB is not allowed to do this legally. The President of the United States is not allowed to do this legally. They're a gang of criminals, and should suffer the consequences.
Jonathan Bernstein
I’m no foreign policy expert but no one should have this much power: “Starlink provides a lifeline for Ukrainian forces on the front lines attacking Russian troops and defending themselves from strikes. With a seeming flick of a switch, Musk has the power to alter the course of a deadly conflict.”
David Ho
My parting thought for the evening is that bus riders are like dog owners: the anchors of foot traffic anywhere they are. Eyes on the street, out at all times of day/night. Good places have a variety of uses at different times. Both bus riders and dog owners/walkers help mix it up throughout a day. You should want them both around.
la flaneuse
Matchbox, 20 October:
RRose @dawphin.bsky.social
there’s really something about republicans triangulating on “fraud” as their big issue while donald trump robs us blind that really triggers me! sometimes i feel like they are trying to drive me insane!@fiveburger.bsky.social
The fact that the tarp hasn't come down from the Kennedy Center is a metaphor for how feckless things are.
Prisonculture
“Three out of four disabled people don’t drive. Stop using us as an excuse for car dependency.” –Anna Zivarts @nondriver.bsky.social. Mobility freedom comes from mobility choices.
Urban Truth Collective
Fear is not a byproduct of MAGA; it is central to their theory of political power
Don Moynihan
rotor ride, seaside heights, new jersey, 1978:
old roadside pics
None of us expected the apocalypse to be this dumb. No spiked collars and riding through the desert escaping diesel punks. Just a lot of sitting around going WTF? It ends, not a bang but with an ‘ugh.’
Brandy Schillace
Struggling to engage with the concept of “father and son Republican operatives Timmy and Tommy Teepell.” Come on man can even one thing be like 5% less stupid
Patrick Monahan @pattymo.com
ICE has been rounding up and killing legal residents. The Star Tribune framing this as “one side is against ICE being a secret police force VS. one side thinks immigrants who commit violent crime should be deported” is not only woefully inaccurate, it’s intently harmful.
Elliot Mann
I wonder if you turn in a Somali family, do you get their home. Like in that other regime they admire so much.
Patrick Chovanec
Somewhere in a Roman brickyard, around 1800 years ago, a fresh tile was drying peacefully ahead of firing – until a dog trotted straight across it. Centuries later, the tile has made it into a museum: not because of an emperor, but thanks to one dog who accidentally walked his way into history. Photo by me:
Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social
AI shouldn't be able to fire you, fire a weapon, or deny you healthcare.
Abdul El-Sayed
A president who now regularly says “shit.”
R(obert). J. Nello @rjnello.bsky.social
Crazy that you can be a full 25 minutes late to a movie now and previews will still be going when you sit down.
Stellbound: Stellraiser II @antlervel.vet
They are never, ever getting over the fact that affirmative action at elite schools resulted in Black success instead of proving that Black people were fundamentally incapable.
Mary Sisson
Americans deserve answers for why people under ICE’s care keep dying. The Administration is permanently ripping families apart and this careless cruelty will be remembered as a stain on our nation’s history.
Senate Judiciary Democrats
A beautiful fall bloomer that forms large colonies in moist areas, the hairy chaffhead:
Jim @pom137.bsky.social
The greatest challenge of our time isn’t to figure out how to get to Mars or become interstellar, but to figure out how to live sustainably on Earth.
David Ho
400,000 drivers illegally speeding in just a month on two streets [caught by speed cameras]? How can that be true when NextDoor tells me it’s always people walking and biking who break the rules of the road???
Gordon Padelford @gordonofseattle.bsky.social
From the Financial Times: "Investors are racing to buy credit default swaps to protect their portfolios in the event the AI boom unravels.... In a sign of investors’ increasing unease over the borrowing binge, the cost of buying CDS on many AI-linked companies has hit record highs this month."
Mohamed A. El-Erian @elerianm.bsky.social
conservatives resolutely do not see the purpose of education as providing social mobility but as reifying and deepening existing inequalities of status. they are as hostile to low income students getting admission to elite institutions as they are black ones.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
In this vein I find it helpful to remember Elizabeth Anderson's argument that the point of education is not to reward merit, but to create it.
James Lindley Wilson
Cartoonist: Dave Granlund:
ResJudicata22
The fact that the two most extreme, ideological, and openly corrupt members of the Supreme Court were appointed by so-called “good” Republicans and passed through “sane” Senate approvals, demonstrates that the problem was never just Trump
Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com
Reasons why personally owned autonomous vehicles would cause vehicle miles traveled to spike:
• People will direct their cars to do stuff w/o them in it
• Longer/congested drives will be less of a pain
• Owners won't have to worry about expensive/difficult parking; just direct the car to wait elsewhere (or circle)
David Zipper
The people who object to paying property tax are the same people who oppose bike lanes and building multifamily housing in the neighborhood and student debt relief. They see themselves as conservative or libertarian but in reality they just want government to focus on serving their interests.
Peter Flax
"Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends." –Lewis Mumford, sociologist and historian best known for his writings on urban planning and the social impact of machinery. #BicycleBirthday October 19 (1895-1990):
Cool Bike Art
Elon Musk has spent at least $366 million since July to boost Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. That’s just 0.0385% of his total net worth. Oligarchs can rig the system at the expense of everyone else, and only spend pennies doing so. We must get Big Money out of politics.
Robert Reich
Greg Abbott does have a pretty catchy campaign slogan: "Elon needs more money, Vote Abbott."
Dean Baker
A 56-year-old Mexican man held at a federal immigration facility in Laredo was found dead in his cell Saturday morning. His family says the center would not give him medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition. He is the 7th person to die in ICE custody in Texas this year.
Robert Downen
This is at least the fourth person with diabetes to die in ICE custody just this year. Many more have been hospitalized and/or reported starving themselves so they wouldn’t die after being denied care. Is anyone aware of any litigation specific to immigrants with diabetes?
Gillian Brockell
You can celebrate the French protests without asking why isn't America like that, because when the US is like that you get mad that protests associated with Black people burned down a CVS.
Kendra Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com
Honest question: how many Americans can actually answer the question "What is the Muslim Brotherhood?" correctly?
The Alternate Historian
DUNK (Proud Part owner of Canada) @noofieninja.bsky.social
“You are a Christian candidate. Why haven’t I heard you disavow Timothy McVeigh and the Ku Klux Kan? Seems sorta suspicious.”
Mrs. Betty Bowers
Boomers spent their peak earning years demanding lower income taxes now spending retirement years demanding no property taxes — that puts a very large burden on the income-earning generation squeezed between their kids and declining parents.
Matthew Gertz
When you have wealth, you want power.
When you have power, you want wealth.
When you have both, you want to live forever and be God.
That’s when you’re f—ked.
Gil Durán
Explaining what’s happening in the US to European colleagues invariably involves explaining the rapture and the tech rapture and then having them look at me like I’m a crazy man.
David Ho
peak-only bus lanes are such a spiteful concession to drivers. proponents say lower off-peak traffic volumes do not justify a transit lane. but logically that also means that car drivers don't really need that additional lane outside of rush hour either, since traffic is moving better then. so??
august @auguststreet.ca
A lot of my policy and political positions are informed by an underlying view that the status quo is carrying us at an accelerating rate toward various intersecting apocalypses, that hopes of changing course are pretty slim, and that the urgency of the situation warrants taking some big risks. At this point — though I try not to communicate in this register all the time, as it's exhausting to me & to readers — I think something close to panic is warranted and that anything with even a hope of knocking us off our current trajectory, even a little bit, is worth desperately clutching. For obvious reasons "desperate triage/harm reduction" is not a popular or particularly inspiring pursuit. It's not going to fire people up or activate them. It's not going to get normies out to vote or whatever. So I don't talk about it much. But for me at least, it's always there in the background.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
genAI boosters are always like “you think you’re better than me because you drew a picture? You think you’re better than me because you read a book?” and it’s like, well, no, but you seem very unhappy
Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com
Gutter bigotry is so entrenched in American life and politics that we have to call it “culture wars” in order to save face.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Retired guy whose healthcare bill is entirely paid for by working adults talking about how he shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s kids to go to school while standing in front of a mansion he owns is really just an excellent encapsulation of the Republican base.
Regime Accountant, CPA
Once more infuriated to find a weeklong depressive spell ended by one warm, sunny day and that I am basically a plant with opposable thumbs.
Keith Harris @usefulnoise.bsky.social
I really want people to understand that if you are sincerely committed to even the most milquetoast liberal beliefs, virtually everybody in a position of authority or influence in the American media and intelligentsia hates you and wants you to die.
Nathan Goldwag
I think a lot about how in January, an SUV driving recklessly crashed into an electrical pole across the street from my house, then four armed and masked men tumbled out of the car, tear gassed my street, and then disappeared, leaving their totaled car blocking the intersection, and the Minneapolis Police Department never showed
it’s me AC @wellgoshacs.bsky.social
extremely funny to me (speaking as someone who organized my local No Kings event yesterday for free but would certainly welcome a check from george soros in this fucking economy) that the only folks getting paid for activism are on the right
John Terry
To be fair, if my father was named Timmy Teepell and chose to name me Tommy Teepell, I would also likely become a villain
BrandEver
Paul Marvin
yesterday musk said that companies that "overstate claims about their product" will be banned from advertising on X, today he says that his cars are alive
Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social
We already have flying cars. They're called helicopters. They're really expensive and there are good reasons you have to have a pilot license and work with air traffic control to fly them. Putting jets on a sedan is not going to result in a better vehicle or transportation experience in any way.
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com
It's funny how Rural Americans remain the GOP's strongest soldiers even as the party seems fully intent to ground them into dust.
The Alternate Historian
Remember that Elon Musk bought Twitter on the basis of bullshit claims that its algorithm was not promoting conservative accounts fairly, and now we're seeing the tech right clamp down on liberals and the left across the board
Kevin M. Kruse
the political part aside, it seems like a pretty big problem that a social media company controlled by a conglomerate that includes two Hollywood Studios is banning an account dedicated to a film from one of its competitors!
Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz
Related: yes, Musk is spending a ton of money (a fortune, in fact), but perhaps more relevant is that it’s a completely insignificant amount for him (not at all a fortune). It’s the equivalent of someone with a net worth of $500K spending $79. Yes, you read that right!
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social
my only prediction if the democrats take the house and senate is we will be hearing a lot about the federal deficit
darth™️
Something very important to figure out before Jan 20, 2029 is whether, when a new President is inaugurated, they will control the computer system at GSA (i.e. doors to federal buildings) and Treasury payments system or if those systems will be somehow in the hands of DOGE cronies
mtsw
Today would be a good day for top editors in our major news organizations to call a meeting to announce to their staff that yes, he is a lunatic, and they should report and write accordingly.
Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News
“Until a drag queen walks into a school and beats eight kids to death with a copy of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” I think you’re focusing on the wrong shit.” –Queen Wanda Sykes
Johnathan Perkins
reptile gardens billboard, 1-90, south dakota, 1980:
old roadside pics
No country should have 36 school shootings in its entire history. But we have that in one YEAR and we'll be lucky to end the year without any more. There are many exacerbating factors, but the first and foremost is access to guns. Full fucking stop. If you think that's up for debate, just block me.
Tara Goddard @drtaragoddard.com
The owner of X is almost single-handedly funding the Republican midterm election campaigns. Here’s why Bluesky has an intellectual diversity problem.
NY Times Pitchbot
We already have a dumb as shit football coach in the Senate. We don't really need a dumb as shit football sideline reporter there as well.
Doc000
The last two years of this administration are going to be a blood bath and the only thing to debate is how much of it will be literal and how much will be figurative. Sigh.
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social
Two of the Lewis Chessmen currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Discovered in 1831 on a beach at Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the chessmen date to the late 12th or early 13th century. Photograph my own:
Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social
as you read the insane campaign fundraising numbers dropping today please recall that currently Elon Musk is personally responsible for about 1 in every 20 dollars spent on behalf of Republicans nationwide in 2026; I wouldn’t be surprised if when the dust settles that number is as high as 1 in 10.
ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social
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