Yashar Ali 🐘

Voting began about 45 minutes ago in Israel, where it’s 7:45 AM and will continue until 10 PM. The first television exit polls are expected at 10 PM local time, which is 1 PM Pacific time and 4 PM Eastern time. This is Israel’s first national election since Nov. 1, 2022.

Neera Tanden — the president of the Center for American Progress — lifting up a conservative publication's reporting just one week before the election. Fascinating decision.

10h

The “!” after “Yashar” makes it feel gayer and also like Jeb! Bush.

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social

The final campaign ad from Israel’s Yashar! party, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is seeking to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

A woman in Iran bungee jumps from a hot air balloon.

The final campaign ad from Israel’s Yashar! party, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is seeking to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

1. Marissa Mayer has responded to the controversy over her comments in the New York Times about turning to Dazzle, the AI assistant from the startup she founded, when her daughter’s teacher asked for three bullet points on what makes her daughter special.

2. Oddly, even though this went super viral yesterday, her post has very little engagement.

1. Rick Caruso announces that he’ll be voting to re-elect LA Mayor Karen Bass, saying he feels it’s critical to put the past behind him.

2. He also goes after her opponent, Councilwoman Nithya Raman, calling her comments about firing LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell “reckless and dangerous” and saying “this is no time to turn the LAPD into a laboratory for risky DSA social experimentation.”

1. Great work by the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign. Just eight days before the election, instead of grilling Amy Acton about her policy positions or her record,

2. they’re asking her about the well-documented abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother and her mother’s partner, a topic that has understandably generated sympathy for Acton. Super strategic!

1. With the midterms just eight days away, the White House has used its official account to post an AI-altered clip from Charlie Wilson’s NPR Tiny Desk performance of “Outstanding,”

2. replacing the original performers with AI-generated likenesses of politicians, including Kamala Harris, Ilhan Omar, Hillary Clinton, and what appear to be Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.

1. President Trump says anyone who reports voter fraud, past or present, that leads to an arrest and conviction will receive a $1 million reward.

3. He also doesn’t identify who is administering the program and enforcing the promise. There’s no explanation of what happens if, for example, 10 people report the same crime and it results in an arrest and conviction. Does each person receive $1 million?

4. He also doesn’t say whether reporting fraud committed by one of his own supporters would qualify for the reward. At least 16 defendants in voting-related cases were Trump supporters, self-identified Trump voters, or people who submitted unlawful ballots for Trump.

1. President Trump says anyone who reports voter fraud, past or present, that leads to an arrest and conviction will receive a $1 million reward.

2. He doesn’t say where the money is coming from, how exactly he’s defining voter fraud, including which specific statutes qualify, or how people can submit reports that will be registered for the reward.

16h

Folks…I’m beginning to suspect that Elon Musk doesn’t like Talarico.

Smokey is a great name for a dog.

1. BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, the veteran federal prosecutor and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.

3. Furman rejected the administration's argument that it could fire career federal prosecutors without the protections provided by Congress, saying its position "flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent."

4. Comey, who prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean "Diddy" Combs, sued after her firing, saying she was targeted because of her father and her perceived political beliefs.

1. BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, the veteran federal prosecutor and daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.

2. Judge Jesse Furman ordered retroactive reinstatement and back pay covering her July 2025 firing through December 20, 2025. Comey has since moved into private practice.

Had to put President Trump’s latest Truth Social post — shared just nine days before the midterms — in scroll mode.

1. BREAKING: Flávio Bolsonaro is refusing to concede Brazil's presidential election and says he will seek to have the election annulled after losing to President Lula.

2. He's citing a Supreme Court justice's last-minute two-hour voting extension — which his own campaign had also requested. Brazil's electoral court has officially declared Lula the winner, with approximately 51.8% of the vote to Bolsonaro's 48.2%.

Just remembered that Lindsey Graham died.

I'm dying over how he gets his mouth ready for the drink first, starts demolishing it, and then transitions into straw mode. 😂

The latest Truth Social post from the president of the United States.

1. This is bleak. As a non-parent, I never judge parents unless there's a case of abuse or a clear case of really bad parenting.

6. And what makes this even more absurd is that the assistant came back with three of the most generic descriptions imaginable: empathetic, creative, and an animal lover. Those are lovely qualities, but they could describe millions of children.

7. And if you think this is a story that reflects well on you as a parent, let alone one worth proudly sharing with the world, you are clearly untethered from reality.

1. This is bleak. As a non-parent, I never judge parents unless there's a case of abuse or a clear case of really bad parenting.

4. There's a difference between using AI to help organize things, or even clean up something you've already written about your child, and relying on AI to answer a deeply personal question about what makes your child special.

5. Maybe Marissa Mayer already knew all three things about her daughter. That's not the point. The point is that she was asked to identify what makes her daughter special, and she outsourced the answer to AI.

1. This is bleak. As a non-parent, I never judge parents unless there's a case of abuse or a clear case of really bad parenting.

2. I've come to appreciate how difficult it is to be a parent and how parents sometimes have to make compromises to care for their kids that don't always meet the standards they've set for themselves or that, if shared publicly, might require a great deal of vulnerability.

3. But if your daughter's teacher asks you to name three things that make your own child special, and you turn to an AI assistant for the answer, I'm going to judge you as a parent.

Sending this text randomly to various group chats. Will definitely be kicked out of a few of them by next week.

BREAKING: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is projected to win re-election, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro. The victory would give the 80-year-old Lula a historic fourth, nonconsecutive term as president of Brazil.

President Trump praises Nicki Minaj’s ass at a rally and encourages her to stand up.

Nicki Minaj filmed herself aboard the Qatari-gifted Air Force One while campaigning with President Trump in Michigan today.

It could all be so simple But you'd rather make it hard Loving you is like a battle And we both end up with scars

1. It's amazing how people — ranging from Republican elected officials to Trump administration officials — still don't get this.

2. I'd say many Democrats don't get this either in the sense that we still have people responding to every Republican scandal with "nothing matters" — the only one that truly applies to is Trump.