Jen V-E

there are a ton of hilarious examples of this but none will ever top the participant in the NYT's recurring 2024 "focus group" who worked for one of the largest Republican political consulting firms in America.

New details about another rape allegation against Trump, this time from a former Miss Switzerland.

“How long can we tolerate Elon Musk deciding our elections and foreign policy? How critical is it that investigations immediately begin if and when the Democrats take back power? Should Starlink and SpaceX be nationalized to minimize Musk’s power?” www.americaamerica.news/p/how-long-c...

JUST POSTED: Today at The NYT we are publishing a major investigation into how President Trump used his executive powers to expose millions of Americans to greater cancer risks. A six month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records. Read it www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

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...

Always remember that Donald Trump watched on TV for 3 hours as a mob beat up police officers. It made him feel good because they were doing it for him.

RAGBRAI (The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) is one of the most celebrated bike rides in the world.

OMG, all of us urbanist sickos need to get our member's only shirts immediately!

At a time when fascist tech zillionaires are using their obscene wealth to fund the entire Republican Party, it's absurd and self-defeating for any Democratic politician to oppose this. This isn't rocket science. They're the bad guys! The people want you to fight them!

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

Wild moment in Krugman’s post about Musk and Starlink today. Krugman actually says outright that the right to hold private property is not actually the fundamental right in a democracy. ‼️ This is new thinking and SO NECESSARY to normalize if one day we really are going to phase out fossil fuels.

Pete Hegseth, the repulsive degenerate cosplaying as "Secretary of War," wanted the globe of Dwight Eisenhower, a real American war hero, for his office. of course he broke it. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton spoke to CNN’s Lauren Fox as backlash grows against her opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign put out a controversial ad featuring her estranged mother. Read more: https://cnn.it/4zNbefC

Minnesotans are good neighbors. abcnews.com/amp/GMA/News...

Elon Musk threatens Congress.

Mega-donors giving $1M+ make up 54% of GOP fundraising so far this cycle. It’s not just billionaires lining up for Trump’s open air auction of federal policy and contracts. The GOP also spammed and grifted its own small-dollar base into oblivion.

The IDF just detained the man who’s about to be elected US Congressman for NY’s 10th district, per his social media.

Et tu, Guardian? Disappointing to see this given their generally great climate coverage. (fixed it for them)

My brain cannot process this level of corruption. She was being paid $50 million to engineer a pardon from Trump *while working at the Justice Department* as a "Special Government Employee." And it worked. He got the pardon, and she got the money. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/u...

Insanity

The Plot to Delete Democracy The Nerd Reich shows how Silicon Valley billionaires have pushed a fringe ideology—what is popularly called techno-fascism but is closer in aspiration to straight-up totalitarianism—into the affairs of state. 🎁 link www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Fear is not a byproduct of MAGA; it is central to their theory of political power

“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy.... Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” — Dr. Gustave Gilbert, U.S. Military Chief Psychologist in the Nuremberg Trials, Nuremberg Diary

Clyburn wants Hakeem Jeffries as speaker. I can only assume the context of "affordability" in Jeffries's recent conversation with Jared Kushner was the affordability of buying politicians.

We’re back with our second story about how Trump’s purge of the FBI killed a sweeping bribery probe in D.C. This time, we take you to South Carolina, where two powerful politicians escaped scrutiny: Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. James Clyburn. THREAD 👇

The man who asked the question is a literal white nationalist operative who is suggesting El-Sayed is a terrorist and these fucking twerps are like “He came off a little smug”

Talarico: "We just found out that [Elon Musk] is almost single-handedly bankrolling this effort to install Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate and defeat this movement...Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants his very own personal United States senator. He is trying to buy Texas."

It's a key part of conservative ideology: "I have no obligations to you and I can treat you however I like, but you are required to love me."

This design appears to completely eliminate the much-beloved loop road and public park at Hains Point, and cut down the cherry trees which line the road. The park is a public space used by tens of thousands of Washingtonians and heavily visited by tourists. /photos not my own.

Since we're talking about Jan Crawford's bigoted comment about @abdulelsayed.bsky.social, here's a post I did about how she helped Bill Barr impugn the Russian investigation. emptywheel.net/2019/05/31/b...

🚨 BREAKING: Meta pulled down the main No Kings Instagram accounts. We demand answers for why this happened during our National Day of Action Meanwhile, millions are mobilizing—they cannot silence us Follow for updates: @ACLU.org , @MoveOn.org , @publiccitizen.bsky.social & @Indivisible.org -TN

One widely loathed, ketamine-addicted, white-supremacist billionaire can single-handedly keep a failing political party afloat, through the brute force of money. Excellent system we've set up here.

I have tried not to say anything about this because it would make me too sad. And I still can’t really think hard about this or else it would break my heart. People with disabilities and their parents fight so damn hard to get their kids a public education. And then this happens.

I’ve never liked the term “settlers.” They’re not settling anything. They’re robbing and pillaging, evicting people from their homes. Colonizers seems more fitting. Really, they’re fascists, fueled by avarice and delusional, genocidal ideology. And Israeli society lets it happen.

Michele Tafoya following her debate today: "There is no excuse for the spike in crime that we have seen here in Minnesota that has families and parents and businesses worried." Violent crime in Minnesota dropped 9.3% last year and murder was down 25%. This year, homicides have dropped another 25%.

The president of Brazil has won a court case against Meta, after accusing them of restricting his posts and algorithmically favoring his opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro www.nbcnews.com/world/south-...

In LA, police and federal agents are shooting out the eyes of people protesting ICE. I detailed the accounts of 5 young men who lost their eyes after protesting for @capitalandmain.bsky.social capitalandmain.com/he-went-to-d...

This is a pogrom, no different than what the Cossacks did to Jewish communities in the Pale of Settlement.

Democrats need to run hard against Elon Musk. They need to warn the public that the world's richest man is spending $276 million to attempt a hostile takeover of our government.

Q: Can you name a time when you voted against Trump and it changed the outcome? SUSAN COLLINS: At one point, I had organized people to vote against Sec. Hegseth. At the very last minute one of our Republicans changed his mind. Otherwise he would've been defeated. Q: So it didn't change the outcome

Michele Tafoya trying to distance herself from Trump is ironic, considering she: -Said she would be “honored” to have his endorsement -Called Trump’s tariffs “good policy” -Repeatedly defended January 6 rioters

If they're pro cheap labor, being antiblack serves those ends. So does misogyny and xenophobia.

Donald Trump's ICE has separated over 6,200 children. Michele Tafoya still welcomed his endorsement. Peggy Flanagan will defend Minnesotans, not ICE

The preliminary Niño 3.4 sea-surface temperature for October 13 just broke 30°C for the third time, and is now 3.3°C above the 1991-2020 baseline. This marks the 22nd consecutive daily temperature above the previous all-time record high of 29.815°C. set on Nov. 17, 2015.

Bonus Book Cover of the Day: