Smart Dissent

Glad to be among the thousands moving to Blue Sky. Nice to see you all over here. Hoping to eventually have a fraction of the 60k "followers" we used to have on the artist-formerly-known-as-Twitter.

NEW EPISODE: With less than a week before the midterm election, I've been inundated with questions about what I am most worried about. In this episode I outline my top five concerns, from most immediate to most dire, and what we can do to fight back. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzqR...

USA Today's Rex Huppke often writes with humor, but he's dead serious here as he launches a new series on "America's Looming Farm Crisis." It's a really important topic, and Rex shows his reporting chops here. Take a look.

Hasan Piker has filed a $72.5 million defamation lawsuit against Scott Jennings, alleging that Jennings falsely told his podcast listeners that Piker advocated for lynchings to resume in the United States.

what voting looks like for some iowans: boltsmag.org/iowa-voting-...

i'm in the @nytimes.com today, on why local elections matter — and which you should know about www.nytimes.com/2026/10/28/o...

Republican Roger Marshall's mayor says the senator is not a Kansas resident. "Look, it's quite obvious he doesn't live here anymore." "He lives in Florida. He has a little hunting lodge south of Great Bend in Stafford County. And I think that's an issue for people, from what I hear."

100%

“We” are making a fortune. We as in he, we as in the Trump family, we as in his billionaire cronies and oil execs. You and me? He could not care less.

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has ordered a police investigation into alleged ties between a donor network co-founded by JD Vance and the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro in the run-up to Sunday's election.

Remember polls don’t vote. We do.

There’s been a ton of discourse on the Minnesota senate race with little public polling to back up (or disprove) any of it. The NYT is just the 3rd nonpartisan pollster to test it this fall, & finds Flanagan leading 54/40. Other NYT Senate polls: —South Carolina: 48/48 —Florida: Moody +6

It’s a stain on American journalism that major media refuse to warn the public that the president is out of his mind.

Astute observation. A serial rapist not only shouldn’t be clutching the levers of power, he shouldn’t be free to roam the streets.

To Republicans, telling blatant lies is a routine political activity, like putting a bumper sticker on your car.

For the next week, the Democracy Docket paywall is down. Every analysis I write and all premium reporting, free to read in full in your inbox. The legal fights move fastest in an election’s final week. Read it. Share it. Join the fight: hubs.ly/Q04Cxv-F0

The super-rich want to keep corrupt Republicans in power so they can keep getting super-richer. Elon Musk is No. 1 in spending – about half a BILLION. Boycott Tesla. The Uihleins are No. 2. Boycott Uline shipping & packaging products. If you support Tesla or Uline, you're buying a dictatorship.

Love ya, Kamala Harris, but hard disagree. Impeach in the House. Don’t care if the Senate doesn’t convict. If I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, I’d feel duty-bound to impeach in the House. To at least try. And to be as much of a thorn in the side to this administration as I could be.

NEW: Iowa's constitution is extremely harsh on voting by people with past convictions—you can't vote for life. The governor issued an executive order to loosen the rules in 2020. But new reporting by Bolts finds widespread confusion among voters, plus errors by public officials, keeping people out.

It's a problem when major media tack "critics say" onto statements of obvious truth. It turns facts into mere opinions. It injects partisanship. It weakens the message. I wrote about this last year in my Stop the Presses newsletter, which you should subscribe to. (My weekly newsletter is free.)

The NY Times quotes DOJ assurances that its election maneuvers aren't politically motivated. Then NYT says: “Yet it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile reassurances with reality, critics say.” What the hell is “critics say” doing in that sentence? NYT knows it to be true. Just say it!

The government must begin reviewing foreign language documents in the Epstein Files while it appeals the district court's decision in plaintiff @katiephang.bsky.social's favor. The result is squarely compelled by the law, so why does DOJ continue to resist?

BREAKING: Dolores Huerta, the labor and civil rights leader, has died. She was 96.

2. Marshall failed to report the purchase for nearly a year

1. Roger Marshall bought $250,000 worth of stock in an obscure, privately-held pharmaceutical company Days later, the company received clearance from the FDA to conduct human testing on its experimental cancer drug

A great American.

Another indicator leading into the midterms: Fox’s Trump audience is fleeing, down 27 percent.

🚨BREAKING: Nearly 2,900 voters in one Georgia county have yet to receive the absentee ballots they recently applied for and are blaming their local officials’ hiring of an out-of-town vendor for the delays, they charge in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

A federal judge demanded to know the precedent for sequestering ballots as he heard arguments on the Trump administration’s emergency bid to force the state to set aside and not tabulate ballots from 20,000 people. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

BREAKING: A federal judge just disqualified Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in southern California, from overseeing several cases — part of an ongoing legal battle over whether the Trump appointee has stayed in a temporary role longer than allowed by law.

Before we all move on, can I just say that this patriot’s declaration made me laugh out loud?

Raskin: "When historians look back on this miserable period of our history, they might say that the first problem was disregarding all those women who told us back in 2016 that they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Donald Trump."

If you want to understand Jim Comey’s argument that the Information (it’s not an indictment) against him should be dismissed, I lay it out for you, with statutes and the caselaw, here. (Also, there is a chicken). joycevance.substack.com/p/another-re...

Russia’s Ukraine war could end immediately if the Russians just got the hell out.

NEW: Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska just endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor — crossing party lines in the final week ahead of Election Day.

Some of us are not afraid to say it, as I did in a recent newsletter, but the NY Times and the TV networks are either cowardly or complicit.

Trump: "So I'm studying him. And I made the mistake of saying that I started off by studying his ass. I just wantasink. And then I looked at his feet & they were massive. I made the mistake of studying his anatomy. Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton, but I'm not sure your body is gonna qualify."

Scoop: Fox News will finish October with its worst ratings in years, an ominous sign for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Compared to last October, Fox News is DOWN 27% in total viewers and 32% in the 25-54 demo. MS NOW and CNN are up. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/fox-news-r...

1. 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

In Maryland, just 50 miles from DC, a sheriff has relentlessly targeted local immigrants for over 20 years. He is running for reelection next week in a county that went for Harris over Trump. Make sure to share story: boltsmag.org/frederick-co...

Election officials in Alaska are asking a federal judge to "immediately" dismiss the Trump DOJ's lawsuit seeking to block the Senate results, claiming it has "no legal basis." "[T]he United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate."

Two headlines in the last 24 hours: New York Times: "The New Worst-Case Scenario for Election Officials: Federal Interference" Me: "Republicans have cheated in elections for a long time"

Georgia is one of the main states to watch for Republicans to redo their WI/NC playbook of using the lame duck session to entrench power after losing elections. New reporting on what they might do if they lose: www.ajc.com/politics/202...

2. Details in today's Popular Information:

“The choice is not particularly nuanced. Stick with the Republicans who have chosen cruelty, chaos & corruption. Or vote in Democrats who recognize the crisis…can hold the criminals accountable & are motivated to pursue a more equitable & affordable future.” www.americaamerica.news/p/showing-tr...

It's not just California: The Trump admin just asked Washington state to set aside ballots received from more than 400 people it claims are suspected to be registered to vote without U.S. citizenship.