Bill Kristol

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How much hopium would a Woke Bill smoke if a Woke Bill could smoke hope? Would you believe winning senate seats in FL and LA? youtu.be/Rho5Qsf5fvg?...

Good news from Serbia and Brazil, and from the early vote across the U.S. Elon freaks out at the idea of accountability, and MAGA thinks we’re not allowed to laugh about the Cheesecake Factory. An upbeat podcast! youtu.be/Rho5Qsf5fvg

When the next US Congress investigates corruption, Trump's oil-deal-of-the-century with Alejandro Betancourt, the face of Venezuelan corruption, should be top of its list. Two kleptocracies working together. Brilliant essay by @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

"So it was a good day for the opponents of despotism. But the future of both countries remains in doubt. Their prospects would be brighter if the U.S. were a staunch champion of liberty. But for now the U.S. is as likely to be on the side of despotism as liberty." www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-rall...

"Once upon a time, this stuff actually seemed to work for Trump. He built a whole lurid Technicolor artificial world for his supporters to live in. He lied and lied, and from time to time he won. But now it’s over. He’s done, the jig is up. Nobody believes." www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-rall...

Dunno, but this feels like one of those headlines from 2006 we were all looking back at in 2009 -- "Wall Street celebrates new ways or reducing mortgage risk" or the like. "Meta unveiled a plan to raise up to $95 billion in waves of stock offering." www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

“The party and its donors let themselves get too defeatist in the Trump era, convinced that parts of the country were just too far out of reach for Democrats to have a real shot at competing. Those operatives hope next week’s results will help shake that malaise.” www.thebulwark.com/p/what-a-blo...

look, nothing is simple and i have no parsimonious explanation for anything here, but a student protest movement, focused on corruption & authoritarianism, just won a major european election. a big deal.

Liberal democracy remains a towering achievement of humanity and it is worth fighting for.

No fatalism please. A victory agaibst the odds over an authoritarian.

A lively and interesting talk, I thought. Take a look or a listen—there’s no World Series game tonight, so why not?

“Rubio’s account of the West oddly demoted virtue and liberty. By failing to mention justice and moderation, he distorted classical Greece. And Rubio omitted from his discussion of American greatness the universal rights on which the nation was founded.” www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/202...

If still debating whether Donald Trump or Elon Musk willfully crippled Ukraine's missile defense, helping to slay innocent civilians, you are a rube. If the U.S. President had no role, then an oligarch governs national security. If not, the U.S. President serves Russia. Both answers are mortifying.

Heads-up. Today's Bulwark on Sunday won't be at noon, as it usually is, but will be live at 4:00 pm. Discussing Dem prospects in some key Senate races (Mississippi!) with Lauren Egan.

"Early voters are ~10 points more Democratic this year than in 2024. This will translate to an electorate ~Harris +3 nationally...Add cross-over voting from Republicans, plus the solid Democratic lean among independents, it’s easy to see the blue wave forming." open.substack.com/pub/gelliott...

Trump-Putin scandal in Alaska. "Joel Riddle, chief executive of the company, Polar LNG, until he resigned in September, said he had been misled...The true source of at least some of Polar LNG’s money was Novatek, a Russian energy giant under partial U.S. sanctions." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

I voted yesterday at our local community center. There aren't competitive races in our CD or state (VA), but fwiw turnout seemed robust, voters energized and eager. In the sewer of Trump's smears and Elon's money, voting is the great disinfectant.

Re Trump and Elon and all the rest of them, Gramsci said it best: "In this interregnum a great variety of morbid phenomena occur." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-monste...

"Put together, these actions suggest a far more sophisticated legal strategy to overturn elections than we saw in 2020." Get ready. Start by reading this:

"The MAGA intellectuals—and yes, there are some—imagine that they are keeping the United States from decline by supporting Trump....But it is Trump’s record-shattering corruption that is rushing us toward Third World status."

"Anyone committed to Ukraine’s freedom and sovereignty must be committed to stopping Trump. And professed Ukraine supporters who have acted as his enablers could start by admitting that they were wrong instead of lecturing Zelensky on manners."

“It is a microcosm of the broader Trump agenda: professing support for the vulnerable while shielding their abusers.” @crampell.bsky.social on Trump’s embrace of Ramaswamy’s vile attack ad:

Never been prouder to be a Bulwarker.

Tim Miller on Elon Musk threatening us: “I’m not scared…I also think it’s funny that he’s such a pathetic little boy.”

“Accountability is rarely pleasant, but it makes us better. Congressional Republicans need to be held accountable. That's not retribution. It's tough love. And for every faithless incumbent we vote out, a Republican will run in 2028 having learned the lesson.” www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...

Freshly back from Ukraine, historian @timothysnyder.bsky.social joins Bill Kristol and Tom Joscelyn to explain why Russia is losing on the battlefield, and why that makes Donald Trump Vladimir Putin’s best hope. Watch the conversation on the latest episode of It's Happening Here!

"People are leaving “I Voted” stickers on a memorial residents have set up to honor the late Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. 'Seventy of these stickers. We counted,' Araujo’s son Ronaldo beamed in a video. 'Thank you guys for voting and thinking about my dad.'” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

"There is no evidence the French protests have anything to do with immigration. There has been Islamist violence over the years...That’s not what’s happening and no desperate eagerness by Republicans to hijack protests for their flailing campaigns can change that." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-real-l...

“Ramaswamy’s ad embraces a woman who enabled sexual abuse—and uses the language of ‘parental estrangement’ to mobilize MAGA voters who can’t understand why their children won’t take their calls. But they know the reason. They just don’t want to accept it.” www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...

Trump and Todd Blanche are far more sympathetic to Epstein and Maxwell than to the survivors of their abuse. And now Vivek — followed byTrump and Vance — embraces the enabler of abuse and attacks the survivor. MAGA: Making Abuse Great Again.

"So there it is, the morbid phenomenon of late Trumpism on full display: Smearing a survivor of child sexual abuse; running an ad featuring a primary enabler of the abuse; and complaining that some decent people in his party are offended by this." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-monste...

Important from @crampell.bsky.social: "That Trump would now choose to try to discredit a child sex-crime victim is unsurprising. He was a close friend of Epstein...He has no qualms about throwing abuse survivors under the bus if doing so helps him politically." www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-crue...

"My last essay was about the depravity of Trump’s casual mockery of a mentally ill young man’s brutal death inside a tiger enclosure. That story barely made a ripple. But on Thursday, Trump called Vivek Ramaswamy’s despicable campaign ad, 'pay dirt.'” karenelizabethpark.substack.com/p/pay-dirt?r...

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

The public concerns that prompted our original letter remain unresolved. Tens of millions of Americans rely on Meta's platforms to organize, communicate, receive election information, and talk to their friends and family.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a slur to proudly announce he was ridding the military of all transgender troops...But just steps from the auditorium boards were doing the opposite. Instead of firing trans Marines, the boards were voting to keep them." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

"In recent weeks, Russia has ramped up those efforts. Most of the Russian content so far, spread by bot networks around the world, has targeted Democratic candidates, especially in closely contested Senate races that could determine control of Congress." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/u...

"One of the first orders of business of the next Congress will be the impeachment of Hegseth and his removal from office. I don’t suppose breaking Ike’s globe will make it into one of the articles of impeachment. But being handed an apt metaphor never hurts." www.thebulwark.com/p/everything...

“Disgusted? Not by the pedophilia, the abuse, the mother who proffered her own children as sacrifices to her lover? No, JD wasn’t “disgusted” by any of that. He was “disgusted” by Republicans who wanted no part in Vivek Ramaswamy’s lies.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Trump's Justice Department goes after blacks & Muslims. ICE goes after Latinos. Trump's allies at Meta try to undercut No Kings. The forces of authoritarianism are using racism, nativism, & intimidation to try to affect the 2026 vote. The public seems unimpressed. But will timid elites speak up?

"Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by curators. Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They dropped it...The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide." wapo.st/3WF2YQo

i don't think we can come to a reasonable compromise with this

“When Mike Pence blasted Trump for betraying the Ukrainians and bolstering Putin, Flynn blasted Pence, on a variety of fronts—including “You certified an election the base rejected.” Did you know that the Republican “base” has a veto over American elections?” www.jaynordlinger.com/p/france-afl...

Really instructive to see, day after day, the public deserting Trump, and elites—tech, corporate, legal, media, think-tank— hanging in there, rationalizing, excusing, and enabling away.

“For Texas Republicans, this is the Hail Mary: Insist Talarico and trans organizations are working to steal your children from your home, all in furtherance of their own dark sexual urges. It probably won’t work. But that doesn’t make it any less contemptible.” www.thebulwark.com/p/how-low-ca...