Thanks to all!
Thursday, October 22, 2026
The Big Money
I used to correctly say that the Dem-associated fundraising world wasn't a big scam (or nearly as big, at least) like the conservative fundraising world was. It is now.
If your $100 was in response to a fundraising text or email, the single most expensive way to raise money in American politics, $65 is instantly consumed by the cost of asking you for it. Asking this often, and this aggressively, is expensive. It means paying the data brokers who traffic in your personal information, the digital copywriters who draft the inexplicably bizarre messaging, the email and SMS providers who specialize in slipping past spam filters, the compliance lawyers, and, of course, the fundraising consultants. Another $2 goes to strategic consultants for advice on how to spend what’s left, and $14 to administration, travel, and staff. Of the $19 that finally goes toward advertising for the actual candidate, $6 is skimmed off the top as a placement commission before a single ad airs. In the end, barely $13 of your $100 buys real airtime or digital ads.
Don't Think That Will Happen
Supremos will say 6-3 Trump can sue anyone he wants but also doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do.
Last week, the BBC asked the judge to order Mr Trump to appear after he cancelled an agreed date of 16 October, citing "matters of national importance".
The corporation argues the president is attempting to delay his appearance until January next year.
Judge Lett said Mr Trump must sit for a deposition by 11 December, or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit - unless the discovery period was extended past 18 December.
That might be a joke, but one way or another I doubt this deposition happens.
Everything He Touches
My first thought after reading the headline was that I bet they didn't enlist skilled movers and yep that was it exactly.
Two floor globes said to be used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II are housed in the Pentagon, where subsequent generations of Army leaders became custodians of the artifacts, according to people familiar with their lineage and an accompanying plaque dating them to the 1930s.
The historical significance was attractive to Hegseth, these people said, and his staff requested that the secretary’s office become the new home to one of the 30-inch globes.
Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.
All of these people reject the idea that anybody knows anything they don't, that there is anything to know that they don't, that other people actually have useful skills. Expertise is woke nonsense.
And they are all toddlers:
The history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown stemming from a dispute in Congress over aspects of the Trump administration’s immigration policy. When the experts could not be reached, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves, these people said.
It is unclear why Hegseth’s team did not wait for experienced help to move the artifact during the partial government shutdown, which ended the same day the globe was damaged. An “apparent lack of patience,” said one person familiar with the situation, appeared to be a factor.
Me want globe now!!!
Abundance!
The Abundance guys attempted to code all Nimbysm as misguided lefty stuff, knowing that was the easiest way to get all the usual marks on board. If hippies oppose something, it must be good!
West Jordan • When a data center campus moved in across the street from her quiet neighborhood, Susan Jurges said the first thing she lost was the view.The Oquirrh Mountains once stretched across the horizon beyond a grassy field, where goats and other animals roamed. In the mornings, from her kitchen window, she could watch the sun crest over the peaks.Now, three data centers obstruct that view, surrounded by generators that pump out what looks like black smog.Even so, Jurges said, “I could live with that.”Then came the noise.
Actual yimbyism was a lefty urbanist project, which they repurposed as right wing tech overlord "build smog belching unbearable noise factories next door" project.
It did serve as a useful way to flush out bad faith actors.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
We Got This
Jokes aside, it is the people with millions of dollars in campaign budgets, and who are extremely well-compensated, who are responsible, along with others with genuinely large platforms. I don't think this humble blog has zero influence on the world - and I do take that tiny responsibility seriously - but it is much much less than that of the CNN green room residents, your NYT "liberal" columnists, and the CEO of the Center for American Progress.
If things go well in the midterms, all of those people will take credit. If they don't, they will be desperate to blame people with much less power than they have.
And if those people can't pull it off when Republicans are this unpopular...
More Like This
Though most senior Dems haven't been better.
Today, while protecting Palestinians, Brad Lander & a group of American rabbis & others were taken by the IDF. Releasing Brad isn't enough, the Israeli govt must release them all. If this is how they treat Americans, imagine how they treat Palestinians. Trump & Rubio's silence fuels this impunity.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@vanhollen.senate.gov) 21 October 2026 at 19:00
Miserable Failure
Getting closer to sub-30...
More than three-quarters of voters see this election as their chance to change things up in Washington, the poll finds. Trump’s approval rating stands at a record low of 32%, and voters express broad dissatisfaction with both the economy and the state of the country nearly two years into unified GOP control of the federal government.
Sounds Bad
Our approach to war is that it's always unfair to respond in any way. And, well, maybe it is, but that doesn't stop it from happening.
Iran has threatened to cut undersea internet cables that run beneath the Strait of Hormuz to choke the global banking system.
Gen Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), described the communication lines on the seabed as “legitimate new targets”.
Severing the cables could affect global systems, disrupting financial markets, bank transactions, healthcare and the consumer internet.
This Year's Soccer Moms
Every election cycle, savvy pollsters invent an important voter category, like "Soccer Moms." This year it's "Pedophile Parents" and Ramaswamy is gonna make sure those people go to the polls.
Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for Ohio governor is pouring $4 million into a bombshell ad in which his opponent's estranged mother attacks her daughter — doubling down on the message despite fierce bipartisan backlash, Axios has learned.
Extremely savvy politics.
Asked for corroboration of that report, police and court officials in the Youngstown area could not immediately produce records from the 1970s. But the Acton campaign produced documents showing that Dr. Acton’s stepfather pleaded not guilty, was indicted by a grand jury and fled the state before trial. Though another warrant was issued for his arrest, he never appeared before a judge. He died in Pennsylvania in 2004.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Seize It
Not a surprise of course.
Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine
The SpaceX founder authorized the move and has been discussing Ukraine with Trump, but the president has denied ordering the restrictions
A feisty European prosecutor might meet him at the border, too.
Seems to be some buck passing between Trumpers and Musk, too, so who knows.
Some U.S. officials say that Musk acted unilaterally and that Trump didn’t specifically order any retribution against Ukraine. But a person familiar with the situation said Musk talked to multiple senior administration officials, including with Trump, before imposing the new speed cap, which Ukrainian officials said had allowed Russian missiles to evade their defenses.
Fundamentals
Most economic news seems to be average-to-bad, yet the stock market keeps soaring!
Who will be the bag holders?
Our Friends In The Middle East
Being a lefty noninterventionist (this is not an absolute position, just a strong lean), I, or people like me, get screamed at a lot for being too soft on whoever the Big Bad of the Day is. Iraq, Libya, Iran, Syria, Russia...
When we urgently have to go bomb the shit out of the Big Bad's innocent civilians, people like me tend to object, and not because we love Saddam or Gadhafi or Ahmadinejad or Assad or Putin usually, but because we don't like blowing people up and don't think we have a very good record of accomplishments when we do.
And then there's our ally Saudi Arabia. It might be the worst regime in the world, by whatever measure. Close to it, anyway. It isn't that I want to go bomb Riyadh, but I do wish that some of the people who love to scream at hippies for loving dictators would explain their silence on the country, occasionally.
The UK will deploy RAF Typhoon jets to defend Saudi Arabia in response to escalating Houthi missile and drone attacks, the government has said.
Sure there are always Realpolitik arguments, but lefty RealPolitik arguments generally don't get much consideration.
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