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TikTok denizen Kickoff (Weichmrbtza) brings us astonishing, hilarious entries in Japanese costume competition:
- tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors points out that Trump violated the law in suspending sanctions against Putin’s Russia. He notes that someone ordered Starlink to disrupt Ukraine defenses. He connects the giant dots and reposts the obvious.
The United States is actively helping Putin murder civilians in Ukraine. Trump is doing everything he can to force Ukraine to surrender to his friend and ally Putin so they can be subjugated by the Russians again.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) October 17, 2026 at 7:57 AM
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson starts with detailed evidence of responsibility as the White House betrays Ukraine by ordering a satellite disruption of Ukraine defenses just as a Putin attack on population centers begins.
The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.
- In Hackwhackers, Putin wants a summit with his friend Trump and China’s Xi to decide on the terms of surrender they will force on Ukraine. Ukraine will not be invited.
- As Trump prepares to meet with Putin and Xi to formulate the terms they will dictate to Zelensky in giving up Ukraine, Annie Asks You finds an apt historical comparison.
“Peace For Our Time…”
Those were the words of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he returned to London after signing the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938. To appease the Nazi leader’s thirst for power, Chamberlain agreed to let Hitler take a portion of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.One vital difference:
He made what most historians regard as a terrible error in judgment that had huge ramifications, but he wasn’t a venal man. In fact, his reforms in government policy improved working conditions for the English people.
In contrast, there’s Donald Trump. - At The Moderate Voice editor Joe Gandelman reveals that he has been a professional ventriloquist for 36 years, which gives him special insight into the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit suggests one reason Trump is bowing to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.
She brings us another perspective from The Lincoln Project::
- Dave Columbo explains that Trump campaign promises were actual promises:
- From The Borowitz Report, millions of Americans react to Trump’s campaign offer of a cash award if Republicans win:
Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesIn a proposal that experts called unprecedented, on Tuesday over twenty million Americans offered Donald J. Trump ninety dollars each to resign from office. - Author and educator Amanda Nelson briefly reviews, item by item, a whole host of items that are super horrible election items for Republicans generally, and Trump specifically:
- @whiskeywhistle98 has some fun with Weird Wednesday’s weird incident: Trump interrupting himself:
- Right Wing Watch brings us right wing pastor Hank Kunneman with assurances directly from the Lord about the coming election. He channels the voice of God for the congregation, and God says Republicans will win:
- Hard to imagine the thinking behind this.
A 12-year-old child is raped by her stepfather.
The stepfather is indicted.
The little girl’s mother runs away with the rapist and is gone for 50 years.After that half century, they are caught and the rapist is jailed.
Meanwhile, the girl overcomes the trauma and grows up to be a successful public figure, even running for the US Senate.
Her Republican opponent thinks it’s a great idea to create an attack ad featuring the estranged mother attacking the character of the now grown-up rape victim.
Could it possibly get any worse than that?
Well…yeah, it could.in case you’re wondering how the vivek campaign is responding to the uproar (from even some republicans) over this, he’s now not only owned it, he’s done a $4 million ad buy to be sure MORE voters see a woman who stayed married to her daughter’s rapist calling her a liar
— shauna (@goldengateblond.bsky.social) October 20, 2026 at 8:41 PM
It really needs to be emphasized that the woman Vivek is featuring in these videos fled with an accused & indicted child rapist and successfully helped him avoid trial for 20+ years.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) October 21, 2026 at 7:35 AM
The truly vile will always be with us.
Julian Sanchez suggests a level of evil that loses contact with normalityHad a similar thought: Someone depraved enough to think that ad was a good idea is so deep in the fever swamps that it presumably didn’t occur to them that normal people would find it repugnant. Though this IS a country that elected Trump twice, so maybe they were betting on decency being dead.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) October 20, 2026 at 3:23 PM
And it does not end with one morally obtuse individual.
I can't help but notice that J.D. Vance has descended precipitously into amoral nihilism ever since he claims to have found God.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) October 21, 2026 at 11:43 AM
- Infidel753 has voted, mostly but not exclusively for Democrats. He is, after all, politically independent. He voted for Oregon Senator, Democrat Jeff Merkley, despite the incumbent’s call for a Palestinian state, which Infidel regards as a huge red flag.
… but in practice it just means that, like many politicians, he’s out of touch with reality on that one issue. It has no practical effect since there will never be a Palestinian state, no matter what US policy is. Gaza was a de facto independent state since Israel withdrew control in 2005, and we saw the result on October 7 of 2023. There’s not a chance in Hell that Israel will ever make that mistake again.
On that point, I pretty much agree, although I don’t see it as an eternal obstacle. For the foreseeable future, he has it about right.
I hope to be voting next week, assuming my physical condition holds up.
- Tamra Brown pays close attention to political ads, so she can be an educated voter:
- News Corpse brings us Trump’s ever grinning economic guru Kevin Hassett with
strongstrange evidence the economy is doing great.Quoting Hasset:
If the economic polls that you’re talking about were correct, then people wouldn’t be taking trips to nice hotels. They wouldn’t be flying.News Corpse translates:
Trump’s Economics Czar Brags that the Economy is Booming for People Who Stay in Nice Hotels - Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has more numbers as American adults are polled. Two-thirds want Medicare-for-All, despite Republican opposition.
- Noted author John Scalzi finds a set of AI regulations he considers pretty close to ideal.
Subvert is a creator-owned music platform, catering primarily to indie musicians; think of it as Bandcamp if it was a co-op.
Basic idea for appropriate use:
These tools handle backend processes but not creative processes, which are the ones Subvert is primarily concerned about.Credit due:
… this policy was developed by the Subvert community, not presented top-down by a board or executive entity to a membership or community that didn’t have any input on it, or might not even have been aware such a policy was being developed. - PZ Myers pays attention as Trump reveals the actual reason he ordered a raid on the home of Congressional Member Ilhan Omar.
She originally came from a country in Africa he hates.He directed federal authorities to find a reason, any reason to send her back to Somalia.
Quoting Trump:
She’s a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military. All they do is shoot each other, and she comes into our country and she says, ‘I have a constitutional right…Professor Myers finds yet another reason Trump hates anyone with the bad judgment to have been born in Somalia:
It seems they came to Minnesota, known for it’s thousands of lakes, and made all those lakes disappear.
Again quoting Trump:
You know I remember Minnesota in the old days, what a beautiful, beautiful, with lakes all over the place, they had more lakes than any place I’ve ever seen. It was so beautiful.
They’re destroying it, probably, maybe they’ve destroyed it… - In Rural Missouri, Jess Piper encounters an elderly woman with a medical education who, in decades past, was denied admission into medical school. Today we recognize the reasons as outrageous discrimination.
Two years after we passed reproductive rights in Missouri, the Republican state legislature keeps reintroducing anti-abortion amendments, this time with brute force level deception.
Jess will be thinking of that new friend while she votes NO on Amendment 3
I can’t change what happened to her, but I can decide what I do with her story.
I refuse to let it become my daughter’s. - Max’s Dad continues a West Coast tour with a stop at Portland during No Kings Day.
Off to the mean streets of Portland. Ya know, the city MAGA can’t stop saying is burning down because ANTIFA HQ is there.
Turns out MAGA often does not possess the virtue of truth:
Portland is a nice calm city. People walk around at night, they sit in parks, they go to bars and convenience stores. No problems. Conservatives are such scaredy cats. - Brian Beutler says Democrats should identify their true opponents and campaign against them openly.
Dems play the expectations game by, e.g., saying private polls are closer than public ones. What they should say (because it's true) is that they're up against aggressive cheating by the richest, most powerful people in the world, and winning in spite of it. 🧵 www.offmessage.net/p/donald-tru…
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) October 21, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Not only a financial flood.
A single example of widespread dirty dealing:All in the same direction… www.offmessage.net/p/donald-tru…
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) October 21, 2026 at 9:37 AM
- Jason Linkins rejoices at an increasing embrace of incivility by Democratic candidates, not so much as a campaign strategy, but as a moral necessity.
He describes a generally felt disappointment:
…our greatest civic maladies: degenerative Senate brain, the very condition that leads a Sheldon Whitehouse or a Martin Heinrich to work with MAGA filth bent on desecrating the constitutional order.Jason sees a growing trend, personified in Georgia:
On the other hand, we have Senator Jon Ossoff, who has taken the debate stage twice in recent days to tell his Republican opponent to his face that he’s a racist scumbag.Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff speaks to supporters in Roswell, GA
Megan Varner/Getty ImagesThe case against collegiality:
…the GOP is essentially a criminal syndicate, aiding and backstopping a corrupt and self-dealing presidential administration. There can be no collaboration with Donald Trump and his goons on any level. - Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara has developed a simple shortcut to knowing with certainty what Democrats want:
To Understand the Democratic Party’s Ultimate Goal, Listen to its Most Radical Wing
He posts the results of this decoder ring.
That is why I quoted DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer as saying “Our Goal is to Destroy Americans’ Liberty.”Well…
Not exactly. To be fair, he does quote Romer:Power only cedes itself to a greater degree of power. We will win by making conditions so intolerable to the ruling class that they would rather give in to our demands than live with the disturbance we cause until we are able to fully seize power ourselves.He only slightly leaves out a bit of context. She was speaking, not for Democrats, but on behalf of what she refers to as the working class.
Michael offers his rebuttal:
After all, the United States of America has no ruling class, neither economic nor political, by design of its Founding principles.Well…that settles it then.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson pretty much doesn’t like Congressman Derrick Van Orden, who doubles as a chronic bad guy.
Van Orden does have a bad boy rep, getting drunk and screaming at high school age Senate pages for taking souvenir pictures, calling pretty much every critic a communist, threatening one critic to a face-to-face face‑off (James) then slinking out of it, and of course:
…actually using his campaign funds to march on the Capitol on January 6.Naturally the Congressman was so delighted at the news, while the prospect existed, of a public execution, he felt compelled to a civic minded gesture, spelling error and all:
Now, James relates what may seem to be a carefully staged event with Derrick Van Orden helping a citizen start her car, thereby proving that Derrick is a nice guy.
Amazingly, despite the cold weather, the whole Good Samaritan act was somehow caught on camera. Because what good is a good deed without a good set of photos? - Vanity Fair published excerpts from a new book containing explosive allegations about Jared Kushner:
Jared’s control of billions in secret accounts, covert operations, warlords, a hitman, and manipulation of Jared by Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Journalist Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel looks into it and finds the evidence thin. She urges caution and details why.
- I was in the fourth grade when my little kid hero search settled on John F. Kennedy. I didn’t quite understand most of his inaugural at the time, but I still remember the last few words:
…here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.
Occasionally, I am reminded of that youngster’s fascination.
North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz refers to himself as a semi-retired optimist, somewhat disillusioned to discover that checks and balances sometimes don’t work, that decent people can’t be counted on to do the decent thing.
But he is looking for a personal revival:
I want to come out of retirement and be fully optimistic again, but it will be a whole lot easier if a whole lot more people will discard the naive hope that the arc of the moral universe will invariably bend toward justice—and decide to be the courageous arc-benders themselves.
I hope people of faith and morality and conscience all decide that they won’t leave the future to chance, that they will not be found waiting for someone else to rescue them.
No, America, things will not be okay unless we wake up and work and vote and fight like hell—and make them okay. - Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has thoughts about spirit, how he sees it, whether it is subject to proof.
“Proof” belongs to the material world. The spirit world, or should I say the spiritual world, trades in a different currency, personal experience or sometimes faith.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce remembers his pastoring days, and his change of mind about congregants who don’t study the Bible.
He asks:
Should we expect Evangelicals to read and know the Bible?
His advice about Evangelicals might apply to others of us who are in the faith:
Just because Evangelicals “say” they know the Bible doesn’t mean they do. Remember that when you engage in discussions with Evangelicals. Take the long road and be patient with them. Resist the temptation to insult them; that is, unless your goal is to be an ass.Atheist Bruce Gerencser often teaches me to be a better Christian.
Perhaps his advice could apply to other encounters as well.
I’ll work on it.
- In Happiness Between Tails, da-AL guest hosts psychologist and author Yvette Prior, suggesting ways to get creative.
We create with what we have, build on what has come before, learn through the process, and sometimes discover something about ourselves along the way.
- One thing we can learn from Josh Johnson, especially those among us who are about to be convicted of corporate fraud.
Unless you are really really good, don’t dance around him.
- Dave Barry is inspired, while lining up in an airline line, by a little boy spitting contest. So he explores behavioral differences between boys and girls, and men and women.
This is not just a stereotypical generalization on my part. This is a documented scientific fact based on more than 250,000 hours of me being married to my wife, Michelle. She talks to people WAY more than I do. She deliberately goes out of her way to talk to people.
Dave has found a solution to communication in an AI app:
I don’t know how Bernice works, but here’s what she can do that got me excited: She can call people on the telephone, and she can talk to them in my voice.Typical reaction among close friends:
So how did Bernice do as my surrogate? How did my friends react to receiving phone calls from her, in my voice?
In answer to those questions, I present the words of one of my friends, Adam Mansbach, who told Bernice, quote: “Tell Dave to go f**k himself.” Although he did not use asterisks. - Sarah Cooper unites past and future with ordinary shopping transformed by tricky technology
- In Canadian satire, The Beaverton finds a study showing a link between automobiles and heavy traffic.
- At The Onion, authorities investigate a collision of trains, one coming from Chicago and one originating in DC. Can they locate the site?
- A treat for me:
M. Bouffant at Web of Evil brings us the late great cartoonist, journalist, playwright James Thurber, with links, video from 1956, and a brief sample.
- The Propaganda Professor sees the recent victory by the Brewers against the Dodgers as a morality play, with a hopeful lesson: massive money superiority doesn’t always win.
It was unexpected:
The Dodgers’ payroll was greater than that of the other three championship playoff teams COMBINED. And in Amurrca, the big pocketbook is supposed to conquer everything, squashing the challengers like bugs.It doesn’t always happen, but it always could:
In recent days, American politics has turned into a puppet theatre manipulated by billionaires. Could it be that the billionaire Goliaths are about to meet their downfall too?Hope:
The thing about the David and Goliath motif is that Goliath usually wins. Which is what makes it so surprising — and so inspiring — when David does. - The weather is changing, and SilverAppleQueen has cool, very cool, cats.
- Scotties Playtime carries Scottie’s own set of selected links with more detailed excerpts.
Now we seek more traditionally astounding wisdom from our usual suspects:
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