MONDAY: Who will win those Senate seats?

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2026

There's a chance we might even find out: Who will win the (thirty-five) Senate seats at stake in tomorrow's elections? A new report by the New York Times reports the numbers from a final set of NYT/Siena polls:

Democrats Show Strength in Final Days of Race for the Senate, New Polls Find  

Democrats are ahead of Republicans in almost all of the seven battleground states that will determine which party controls the Senate, according to the final set of polls from The New York Times and Siena University before the midterm elections.

The surveys found that Democrats hold sizable leads in Texas, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, and Kansas, which has not elected one since 1932.

To win a Senate majority, Democrats need to defend all the seats they currently hold and flip at least four seats that are currently held by Republicans. It has been seen as an uphill battle because many of the seats they need to win are in Republican strongholds.

But the new polls found Democratic candidates ahead in five states that now have Republican senators and effectively tied in a sixth. They hold leads in Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas and a narrow edge in Alaska. They are effectively tied in Iowa.   

And so on from there.

Happy Days are here again! But only if the actual voting turns out that way tomorrow!   

We humans! Endless time is being burned today with endless prognostication.  Of course, even the most recent polls are already out of date! 

Meanwhile, who's gonna win those thirty-five seats?  If we can wait for one more day, there's a chance we might even find out!


SELF GOVERNMENT: Or current attempts at same!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2026

Solon changes her mind: We humans are allowed to change our minds. We're also allowed to change our public positions.   

Yesterday, Haley Stevens may, or may not, have changed her mind, But she definitely changed her public position. 

She had endorsed Candidate El-Sayed—but yesterday, she flipped, endorsing Candidate Rogers! When we humans attempt to engage in self-government, it will sometimes look like this. We'll highlight a few key points:

REP. HALEY STEVENS (11/1/26): Well, thank you. And greetings to the press corps.

My name is Haley Stevens. I'm a proud Democrat. And I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate.

I am one vote in this state. Michigan is a swing state. And I have a divided household, as some of you have heard, up until last night. But even my own mother cast her vote for Mike Rogers as my own father cast his vote for Abdul.

This is a very close election. We all know that. But Abdul made very clear that I was not welcome in his campaign. That he didn't need me there, that he didn't want me there. And at some point, you got to look at who's standing for country.

You know, there's always a lot of elections taking place in America. And this is one. I'm going to cast my ballot. I still haven't done that. And 90 percent of the votes I'm going to cast are going to be for Democrats.

My vote for Senate, I am just one vote, as is every Michigander, my vote for Senate is going to be with Mike Rogers. And I will tell you why:

Because we have to stand with country. We can't stand with hate. We can't stand with Hasan Piker.

A friend of mine was talking about how education is on the ballot, and it's very true. There's a lot of young people looking at this election.

You know, I was a young person once. And we've got to make a choice about who is standing with them.

I think that Chuck Schumer is going to become the majority leader, you know. And I think that there are incredible Democrats and incredible activity taking place across this country.

I stood with my party and I was booed off the stage. And, you know, it was violently shouted down. You know, I was up there with other Democrats. Those people who were on that stage with me, they're going to make their choice.

The ballot box is still very personal and private. And today, in a moment of faith, tied to my faith and to this great city, by the way, I'm standing here with a guy named Mike Rogers.

And there's another guy named Mike who ran the city of Detroit for 12 years. And a lot of Detroiters voted for him. And, you know, he kind of looks like this guy.

And you know what happened with that Mike? You know, he stepped out of his party. He put up his hand for a brief while. He was running for governor.

You know, I don't know everything that's going to happen, you know. And all I can do is lead with love and integrity.

This was a personal and private decision. I woke up this morning and I decided to go to church. And I'm here with the person who I am voting for, for United States Senate.   

Hmm. She decided to go to church, and then she was there with Mike Rogers!

For the record, many people in the state of Michigan are going to vote for Mike Rogers. If we were voting in Michigan, we'd vote for Candidate El-Sayed, but there's no way to prove that the other vote is "wrong."   

That said, it's hard to miss the sense of self-involvement in this first attempt by Stevens to explain her last-minute flip. We refer to such statements as this:  

"I have a divided household, as some of you have heard, up until last night." 

That was an apparent reference to herself and her fiancĂ©, who had already come out for Rogers. Also, the solon now copped to this:  

Abdul made very clear that I was not welcome in his campaign. That he didn't need me there, that he didn't want me there.

Solon, please! Nominees routinely decide who they will, and who they won't, gain votes by campaigning with. That statement made it sound like Rep. Stevens was taking it personally—like she might have changed her vote because her feelings had been hurt. So, of course, did this:   

I stood with my party and I was booed off the stage. And, you know, it was violently shouted down.

Some Democratic Party voters booed her! It's natural to be hurt by some events, but should that have helped decide who she would endorse?   

The whole thing sounded quite self-referential. Moments later, so did this:   

REPORTER: What’s your message to Democrats who are upset that, throughout the primary, you said you would endorse the Democratic nominee, and you’re not doing so today?  

STEVENS: Yeah, and I’m sorry people are upset, and I understand that. I did endorse the Democratic nominee, and he chose to close his campaign by saying I wasn’t welcome.

I’ve never been invited to a campaign event? That’s fine! You know, he’s busy, he’s running all around. I’ve had primaries before myself. It’s not about that. 

This is about leadership and integrity. his is about looking in the mirror, about how real Democrats for Rogers are, constituents of mine that are out there putting themselves out there publicly, and others who aren't.

And that's fine! There’s going to be people who agree with me, people who disagree with me—all the love to them. And all the excitement for what is down the road. 

Amid the piffle, there was a strong hint of self-involvement in that statement too. She's never been invited to a campaign event, she said, even as she assured the world that her flip wasn't about that.  

Personally, we would vote for Candidate El-Sayed; several million Michiganders may vote the other way. Before moving on, we want to record one more set of facts:

To borrow from Stevens' repeated lnguage, it's a set of facts "about country"—about the country shared by these same-age pols: 

Haley Stevens: 
Stevens is 43 years old. She was born and raised in Michigan.  After graduating from high school, she went to American U. in D.C., where she received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and philosophy and a Master of Arts in social policy and philosophy.   

Abdul El-Sayed: 
El-Sayed is 42 years old. He was born and raised in Michigan.  After graduating from high school, "he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with highest distinction" from the University of Michigan, then went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. "In 2014, he completed a Doctor of Medicine degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons."

Our translation: Each was born and raised in this country. What was Stevens trying to say? 

We humans are allowed to change our minds. We're even allowed to be wrong! 

Routinely, we're less than perfectly rational. That can make self-government hard.

 Tomorrow: Sunday New York Times, page 1 (print editions only!)


SATURDAY: Small girl smiling inside Barbie box!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2026

Our Halloween edition: This being the day called Halloween, we bring you a picture of delight. 

Yesterday morning, at 5:59 a.m. Eastern, just before Morning Joe started, Ali Vitali, hosting Way Too Early, described this holiday scene: 

VITALI (10/30/26): And finally, some Halloween news to end our show. 

President Trump kicked off the start of Halloween by welcoming families to the White House yesterday evening. The president and first lady Melania Trump handed out full-size chocolate bars to trick or treaters. 

About six thousand people were on the South Lawn taking part in this annual event.  

[...]  

It was quite the way to kick off this holiday weekend.  

Vitali's a good, decent person. If you watch the videotape of her brief report, you'll see boys and girls sporting some excellent Halloween costumes as they cadge those full-size candy bars. 

For our money, the little girl presenting as the Barbie doll inside the Barbie box will be hard to beat this year for pleasure, joy, excitement and fun. For a still shot of this outstanding effort, go ahead—just click here.

There's a great deal more to be said at this time. But the ghosts and the goblins are all about, and Reds and Blues both enjoy this day, and so we'll just leave it right here.

Next Tuesday, spirits will be using us! The danger facing our struggling nation will motor ahead from there.


EMERGENCE: The Towel-Snapping of the Bros!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2026

Creepy obstacle to an emergence: The towel-snapping topped the pile at Mediaite this morning. Grown men need to start telling these undergrown boys that it's time for them to shut the frump up.

We offer thanks to David Gilmour. His report starts like this:

‘How Is This Real?’ JD Vance Mocked for ‘Tone Deaf’ Opener to MAGA Voter’s Affordability Question   

Critics ripped Vice President JD Vance as “tone deaf” after he responded to a young supporter’s concerns about housing affordability for families by cracking a joke about Senator Jon Husted’s (R-OH) butt during a Fox News town hall.

The awkward exchange unfolded Thursday night when Texas Christian University student Kate White, vice president of the school’s Turning Point USA chapter, challenged Vance over how Republicans expect young Americans to marry and start families when homeownership remains out of reach for many. 

“How does the right and yourself expect us to start families young when you know the average price of a home in America now costs more than $415,000, which just feels out of reach for us,” she asked.

All in all, Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! 

It wasn't just a "MAGA Voter," as the headline reported. The question came from a young woman whose values and understandings have led her to Turning Point USA, the movement Charlie Kirk built! 

We aren't fans of the bulk of Kirk's work, but Ow ow ow ow ow! The young woman had asked a serious question. 

Here's what the pair of Bros did: 

(Continuing directly from above) 
Rather than immediately addressing her concerns, Vance began by pointing out that almost nobody in the audience had asked about Husted.

“Well, first of all, again, thank you for the question and thanks for the support,” Vance said. “I want to point out that I think that I’ve been asked four or maybe five questions by my count, I’ve only been asked one question about Jon Husted’s a*s and it was by Jesse Watters.”  

Watters, who was moderator, laughed, insisting it was what people were talking about, before Vance quipped: “Maybe you should run for Senate on the Democratic side here in Texas, Jesse.”

The clip quickly went viral on social media, however, drawing criticism from commentators who questioned why the vice president had opened his response to a serious economic concern with an unrelated political joke.   

And so on from there. For the record, it wasn't just a "political" joke. It was a towel-snapping sexual side-trip of the type these underdeveloped men keep inflicting on this nation's failing culture.  

To see this creepy throwback "mutt culture" at work, click here for Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on last night's Gutfeld! program. Meanwhile: 

In fairness to Vice President Vance, we've said it here several times in the past. Almost surely, someone who was abused in his childhood the way Vance was is likely to show the effects of that mistreatment later on, as a chronological adult.

Our view? It's time for grown men in this struggling nation to tell these creeps to shut up. That said, we know of no salaried Blue American journalist, male or female, who has ever said a word about the undisguised misogyny which rules the Gutfeld! show most nights.   

Yesterday, down in Texas, a young woman asked a serious question. Before her question was addressed, two classic frat boys had some fun. 

So it goes as candidates like Amy Acton and Annie Andrews try to let a saner day emerge—as a candidate like the Rev. Adam Hamilton threatens to win a Senate seat in Kansas. 

(Candidate Hamilton is "senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States." It's beginning to look like he could snag that Kansas seat for the Dems.)

As you know, Candidate Acton (like Candidate Andrews, she's a doctor) was mugged by a campaign ad last week—by an ad which probably backfired. The ad came from the camp of Vivek Ramaswamy, one of our current collection of billionaire bros.

We thought we'd show you what stands in the way of a fuller emergence at this time for our badly endangered nation. The obstacle takes shape when people like this, from Trump on down, spread their gruesome values all through the culture—as Blue America's salaried "journalists" all run off and hide. 

Here goes:

The analysts loved Candidate Acton's messaging after Ramaswamy's ad appeared. We ran through that messaging in Monday's report, but this is some of the stuff of a badly needed emergence:   

Candidate Acton / Hints of emergence

Eric and I want to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support, and all the love, you have shown us this past week, and every day on the trail. 

Thank you. Thank you.

[CHEERS] 

My name is Dr. Amy Acton—

[CHEERS]

I'm an Ohio girl through and through. I grew up in Youngstown.

[CHEERS]

It's the stuff of Bruce Springsteen songs... 

When I grew up, we didn't know what party you were in. We knew what union you were in!

[CHEERS]

We knew what branch of the military you served in, we knew where you worshipped. We knew what civic groups you were in. 

But the biggest thing we knew was that you had one another's back, and if it weren't for the tough, deeply resilient community I had, I wouldn't be here today

They had my back when I needed it most...   

In Ohio, we work hard and we watch out for one another. My opponent just doesn't get it. 

Mr. Ramaswamy, you are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself and you're a danger to my state. Apparently, there is no low to which you won't stoop. But look:

I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown—

[CHEERS]

—and scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight!  

If you want your nation to stage an emergence, that is helpful rhetoric. 

She's inviting the churches and the military back into the tent, but also, of course, the unions. And with everyone back inside that tent, she's saying we have to look out for each other, that she'll never back down from that fight.  

("Eric and I," she says as she starts. An assurance is lurking there too. If you're inclined to flip out at this point, you may be a helpmate for MAGA.)   

We Blues are going to have to admit that we've been wrong in many of our attitudes and ideas. It will be good for us to admit that because it's a well-known fact that it's true.   

Needless to say, the billionaire nut-balls, the throwback males, rushed out to support that braindead ad. With that, we take you to last Saturday's broadcast of C-Span's Washington Journal.   

Mimi Geerges was moderator that day. To watch the program, you can just click here. 

As C-Span callers frequently note, Geerges has a superb disposition. She was also playing by C-Span rules, according to which moderators almost never offer their opinion about the matters at issue.   

The program started at 7 a.m. Eastern. If you click ahead to 7:36, you'll see Geerges play tape of Vance saying that Acton "is unfit to serve as governor of Ohio." 

If you click ahead to 7:40, you'll see Geerges play tape of the sitting president supporting "the terrible things the mother said" about Candidate Acton. He does so at great length.  

When powerful people behave in such ways, citizens do get misled. If you click to 7:36, you'll hear Sarah from Indiana saying, at considerable length, that Candidate Acton "is not a good person" and that she is "not fit to be in the office."

The next caller will be Roy from Cameron, Texas.  You'll hear him confidently cite the mother's claim that Acton is a liar. 

(Quoting: "Just because somebody had a traumatic experience when they were younger doesn't mean they have a right to be a liar later on in life.") 

As men like Vance and Watters and Gutfeld take their cues from the disordered Trump, our culture is in a dangerous downward spiral.    

These are the Bros who just can't adjust. Tell us when you see any Blue American journalist telling these apostles of an ugly, dimwitted throwback culture that it's time for them to grow up.

That it's time for them to stifle themselves. That it's time to shut the freak up. 

Emergence is struggling to be born. A lot of very helpful vision is coming from ministers and doctors and women.

The Bros—the fellows who can't quite seem to grow the f*ck up—keep fighting to push it on back.


THURSDAY: Candidate Turek on The Last Word!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026

In search of an emergence: "I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown," Candidate Acton has said. We Blue Americans could surely gain from the emergence of some scrappy new blood. 

Senator Ossoff has emerged as a master of punishing but reasonable rhetoric. On Tuesday night, Candidate Turek went on The Last Word to offer a version of his closing campaign pitch.   

Josh Turek is the Democratic nominee for the Iowa Senate seat from which Senator Ernst is retiring. It would be a Democratic Party pick-up, but Iowa has seemed to be quite Red of late.

At present, the Iowa race seems to be roughly even. Here's a bit of the leading authority's overview:   

Josh Turek

Joshua Peter Turek (born April 12, 1979) is an American politician and wheelchair basketball player serving as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from the 20th district. He is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Iowa.

Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Turek played wheelchair basketball for Southwest Minnesota State University and professionally in Europe and competed with the United States men's national wheelchair basketball team, winning gold medals at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Turek was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022 and reelected in 2024. He has been described as a moderate and a prairie populist.

[...]

Born with spina bifida, Turek underwent multiple surgeries as a child to improve mobility and has used a wheelchair since childhood. He has linked his spinal condition to his father's exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.  

We Blues could possibly learn a few things from a good solid "prairie populist." Here's part of what the candidate said when he appeared with O'Donnell:

CANDIDATE TUREK (10/27/26): My political North Star is actually a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt where he said, "The test of our progress as a society is not whether we add more to those with  abundance, but whether we have enough for those with least." 

And I can tell you, I grew up with a lot of economic struggle. In my family, come from a working-class family, working-class community.  We went to the Goodwill for clothes, we shared clothes, had the wrong color lunch tickets. I know what it's like to worry about missing a meal. 

Also born with my disability, 21 surgeries by the age of 12. I say that most people in that circumstance, it breaks them. but the ones that come through that have a mental strength that can't be broken.

[...]

I think we have a lot of people that go to D.C. from wealth and privilege We don't have a whole lot of people that came from a place like Council Bluffs, Iowa with lived economic and health care experience—struggle.  

When you've experienced that struggle yourself, you'll have a different level of empathy, a different level of compassion, a different level of understanding, and a different level of fight. That's what we're missing right now in D.C., fighters for the working class, for the everyday Iowans, not just billionaires and large corporations.  

Turek seems to be finishing his campaign with fairly conventional Democratic Party rhetoric, tied to a stress on personal background and personal character.

People, we're just saying! We're hoping that Turek wins this seat, helping Dems take the Senate.


EMERGENCE: Spirits are using us as Tuesday nears!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026

Voices of outreach emerge: "Spirits are using me," Stephen Stills wrote. "Larger voices calling."   

In the famous song in question, Stills was discussing a marriage which failed. That isn't exactly this—what we're all dealing with now. 

Stills wasn't discussing this. But just for the record, here's part of the leading synopsis—and a key word is lurking here:

Southern Cross (Crosby, Stills and Nash song)   

"Southern Cross" is a song written by Stephen Stills, Rick Curtis, and Michael Curtis and performed by the rock band Crosby, Stills & Nash. It was featured on the band's Daylight Again album and was released as a single in September 1982. With a theme concerning the healing power of sailing amongst the natural world, it was a hit for the group and has received classic rock airplay in the decades since.

[...]   

Stills explained, "The Curtis Brothers brought a wonderful song called 'Seven League Boots', but it drifted around too much. I rewrote a new set of words and added a different chorus, a story about a long boat trip I took after my divorce. It's about using the power of the universe to heal your wounds. Once again, I was given somebody's gem and cut and polished it."  

Spirits were using him, Stephen Stills wrote, as he was trying to heal.  

We focused on the concept of healing a few weeks back. To our reckoning, spirits are floating around in the news as next week's elections draw near.   

This nation has a desperate need—a need to find a way to heal. Various spirits are lurking about as an ancient battle is fought. Let's start with the fury of Senator Bernie Moreno, (R-Ohio).  

Yesterday, Moreno spoke at a Republican rally in Chillicothe, Ohio. As reported by Mediaite, with videotape provided, some very familiar spirits seemed to be speaking through Moreno:  

[Moreno] Says Non-Christians Are Unfit for Senate: ‘Should Be Nowhere Near Washington’   

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said on Wednesday night that anyone who does not believe that Jesus died for their salvation is unfit to serve in the Senate and “should be nowhere near Washington.”

Moreno spoke at a rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he was joined by President Donald Trump and Sen. Jon Husted, who is in a close race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

During his remarks, Moreno turned his attention to Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is in a similarly tight contest with former Rep. Mike Rogers. If El-Sayed wins, he would be the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate.   

“On Monday, I went up and campaigned with Mike Rogers because he’s in a race with somebody that just is an affront to me as an American,” Moreno said. “By the way, an affront to me as a naturalized citizen to this country.”

Did Moreno really say what Mediaite says he said? Did he really say that you're unfit to serve in the Senate unless you believe that Jesus died for your salvation?

It's hard to believe that he could have said that. But here are a few more of Moreno's peculiar remarks:

“This character, Abdul El-Sayed, can be nowhere near Washington, D.C.,” he continued before saying non-Christians have no business in the Senate. “Do you think he understands that concept? That our rights come from God Almighty? That Jesus came here for our salvation? He should be nowhere near Washington, D.C. And Mike Rogers is gonna kick his ass on Tuesday.”

Astonishing! On balance, we aren't fans of the prickly way Candidate El-Sayed has conducted his Senate race. At times, it has seemed to us, perhaps incorrectly, that his prickly ways might be costing him the Michigan Senate seat.

That said, does a person have to believe "that Jesus came here for our salvation" to be allowed to serve in the Senate? An ancient part of the war of the (human) world was playing out in those astounding prehistoric remarks. 

Ancient spirits of tribal conflict were in the air yesterday—and it isn't just Senator Moreno who has brought that prehistoric impulse to the ongoing campaign. In this report, USA Today describes intemperate remarks by the furious Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas):   

GOP makes Islamophobic attacks against El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race   

Republicans are ramping up Islamophobic attacks against Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, using recent campaign trail appearances to claim he would be a threat to American security if elected. 

At an Oct. 28 event near Detroit, Sen. Ted Cruz called El-Sayed a "jihadist leprechaun" and said he believed El-Sayed was a "passionate supporter" of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group the Democrat has disavowed. The Texas Republican said that if El-Sayed wins and is put on the Senate Intelligence Committee, there is a risk that "Americans will die as a result."

Cruz said he believed the Democratic candidate could use the panel to help terrorists avoid detection by U.S. troops or intelligence operatives.  

"We have every reason to believe that Abdul El-Sayed, if he found out, 'OK, they're about to apprehend these terrorists,’ that he would let those terrorists know," the senator said.   

Cruz’s comments are the latest escalation in Islamophobic rhetoric from Republicans against El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim American elected to the U.S. Senate if he wins on Nov. 3. 

Can those remarks fairly be called "Islamaphobic?" It's hard to say that the answer is no.

Fear of The Other is bred in the bone. It's part of the way our imperfect species is wired. Spirits are using us as we proceed toward Tuesday's midterm elections.   

Up in Alaska, the Peltola campaign—and, we'll suppose, Peltola herself—has engaged in the kind of braindead behavior which may keep Democrats from winning control of the Senate. From the standpoint of Blue America, it would be a disaster if ridiculous conduct of that type allows the the sitting president retain control of that body.   

On the other hand, possibly this:   

Last night, Candidate Annie Andrews made a brief appearance with Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word. Earlier in the day, the New York Times had reported its new poll, in which Dr. Andrews was running even in the South Carolina Senate race.   

Could some such breakthrough really occur in the Palmetto State? As in Ohio, so too here—the Democratic Party has turned its hopes over to a female candidate who is a doctor—who literally is a healer. 

Last night, the analysts came out of their chairs when the healer in question said this:   

DR. ANDREWS (10/28/26): There is so much hope and optimism and energy on the ground because we've been building a campaign that's for everybody, not just the Democrats who are feeling hopeful in South Carolina, but for Independents who are ready for change and for Republicans, like my own Dad, who care more about South Carolina than they care about politics in D.C.    

The candidate was speaking the language of the healing of rifts! Soon, this exchange occurred:  

O'DONNELL: Your Dad is not the only Republican voting for you. You've got a former Republican governor of [South Carolina] endorsing you, in a kind of team endorsement with a former Democratic governor of [South Carolina]. What is your pitch to Republican voters?   

DR. ANDREWS: Yeah, I'm really excited to have the support of former Republican South Carolina governor and David Beasley and former Democratic South Carolina governor Jim Hodges....They ran against each other. They disagree on a lot of things, but they're coming together because they see in me a senator who will put South Carolina first, and that's what I'm hearing from the over one hundred Republicans across the state who have endorsed me... 

The spirit of outreach was again being voiced by the candidate on the Blue side of the aisle. Elsewhere, the spirit of civilizational war was being expressed.  

Spirits are using us as this prehistoric conflict is being played out again.  Elsewhere, the spirit of Puck prevailed:

‘Pitch Perfect!’ Critics Delight as Obama Mocks Trump’s Cheesecake Factory Joke ‘Tantrum’  

Former President Barack Obama took another swipe at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, days after the commander in chief’s furious reaction to his Cheesecake Factory joke, much to critics’ delight.

Obama reignited the bit on Wednesday night at a Democratic campaign rally in Atlanta, mocking Trump for apparently taking greater offense at being compared to the restaurant chain than to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

And so on, with laughter, from there.

Is Obama wiping the floor with the sitting president? Next Tuesday, we may find out. But larger ancient voices are calling as this struggle plays out once again. Spirits urging the end of war may be using Blue America's newest candidates. 

We Blues will have to cop to the ways we've been wrong. It can't just be the Reds. 

Tomorrow: Attention C-Span callers 


WEDNESDAY: Did Dems just lose the Alaska race?

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2026

Staffers strike again: We've been semi-wondering when some sch snowshoe might imaginably hit the fan. Mediaite sends in the sled dogs:   

Alaska Dems Spent Months to Find New Dan Sullivan to Derail Republican Foe...

Alaska Democrats working for Senate hopeful Mary Peltola engaged in a coordinated effort to find someone named “Dan Sullivan”—the same name as the Republican in the same race—in a bold bid to confuse voters, a bombshell New York Times report has alleged.   

The Times report, which is sure to shake up the closely watched Alaska Senate race, alleged Wednesday that Peltola staffers worked for months to find another “Dan Sullivan” who could draw votes away from incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan (R)... 

“The plan worked,” according to The Times, when they found Dan J. Sullivan (unaffiliated), who threw his hat into the ring earlier this year.

Ugh! 

"Name's-the-same" ballot misdirections have a long history in American politics. That said, they're always an unsightly, unattractive attempt to fool a helpful number of voters, possibly tipping the scale in a close election.

On MS NOW, obedient anchors have been rolling their eyes at the very thought that Alaska's sophisticated voters could possibly be so fooled. Unfortunately, a campaign doesn't go out and find a "name's-the-same" entry unless they think the unattractive answer is an unattractive yes. 

Amazingly, here we go again! Rather, here they go again. We refer to the hapless, self-involved Peltola staffers who were involved in the earlier New York Times report about the troubling way they were dragooned into the care and fee3ding of Peltola's pet iguana, Cricket—or was Cricket really a hamster?

Actually, Cricket was a chameleon, but these staffers are always the same:

The Times report cites Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former aide and campaign manager, who was fired in the summer.

“Alaskan voters need to know,” Rios told the paper. “There was a lot of speculation, and voters should get the full picture when making their decisions.”

While Peltola is “definitely aware” of the effort, she was not directly involved, Rios added.

Last week, however, Rios told The Times she no longer wanted to participate in the story, and said she wanted to retract her previous statements to the paper.

“As discussed on our call earlier today, I am confirming that I have retracted all statements made regarding the 2026 Alaska Senate Race in connection with any article you may or may not be writing,” Rios reportedly told the paper. “I am not willing to be a source for any story in any capacity.”

The firing may have been a mistake. That said, how did this person ever get hired to begin with?

(For the record, no. You can't unsay what you've already said to a major news org!)

Hopeless! This could help the GOP win the Alaska Senate race. Given the publicity it will create, it could conceivably help the GOP win elsewhere as well.

(Yesterday afternoon, we asked a version of this question: Could a Blue American player ever do something wrong?)

For the TIMES EXCLUSIVE itself, you can just click here.

EMERGENCE: The president's disorder is the curse...

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2026

...from which we need to emerge: "I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown," the Ohio candidate said.

"And scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight!"

At this site, the analysts loved that bit of rhetoric. They liked it all the way down.

For the record, that self-proclaimed scrappy kid is sixty years old at this time. It's her first run for elective office. She's running for governor of her state, and she's expected to win.   

The analysts also like the cut of the jib of the rest of the rhetoric she put on display last weekend. Meanwhile, out in Iowa, a scrappy Senate candidate also offered some striking rhetoric as he spoke with Lawrence O'Donnell last night. 

Personally, we'll go with the rhetoric of Candidate Amy Acton in Ohio over that of Candidate Josh Turek in Iowa. But various forms of new rhetoric—new ways of challenging and inspiring the American public--are struggling to emerge as November 3 draws near.   

New ways of thinking are trying to be born! And from what nightmare do these new voices seek to let us emerge? 

Yesterday, in Corpus Christi, a thoroughly disordered person was seen making outlandish claims toa lrge group of people in a thoroughly public setting. The RealClearPolitics site offers videotape of some of the president's comments. 

Inevitably, the sitting president refers to Candidate James Talarico as "Talafreako" all through his remarks. Below, you see the transcript of some of his remarks, the evidence of a profound disorder. 

(We would recommend discussing it as an untreated medical matter.)

We include the headline from the RealClearPolitics site. Here's part of what this nation's disordered president said in this disordered session:

Trump on Talarico: "No Politician In History Has Been More Obsessed With Turning Your Young Boys And Girls Transgender"

President Trump launched a full-scale culture war attack against "James Tala-freak-o" during a rally for Ken Paxton on Tuesday in Corpus Christi... 

[...]

TRUMP: Talafreako wants to get rid of the guns. He wants to get rid of the oil. He wants to get rid of the meat.

But he wants to keep the transgender mutilization of your children, open borders. He wants to keep men playing in women's sports. Figure that one out.

This is what Talafreako stands for, and it's what he is, it's where he is...But no politician in history has been more obsessed with turning your young boys and girls transgender. I mean, he wants to—he said that recently.

I saw a thing where he said, "What do you like the best?" He said, essentially, "Transgender children." That was a straight— That was a straight—

You know, look. That's the way it is. You're not going to change it.

You know, it's like meat. He's going around to so many barbecues. That's probably why—either that or he has a mental illness. 

[...]

And not only did Talafreako state that God is transgender, he actually said that if Jesus Christ himself came and visited the Texas legislature, Jesus would be promoting sex changes for little children.

You know, just—I'm not an expert on it, but I will tell you, I read enough about it. I find it amazing, you know, many of those little children, as he says, when they turn 22 and 25, they say, "Who did this to me? Who did it to me? Why did you do this to me?" Many, many.

[...]

But the only man standing between Texas and this raging lunatic is a man named President Donald J. Trump. Thank you. And I need the help of Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate. I need a little help, please. I need help. He's the perfect guy. 

In the iconic film, On the Waterfront, Father Barry famously says this:  

Jesus Christ is down here on the waterfront.  

The sitting president has now disgracefully told a Texas audience thissss:  

Not only did Talafreako state that God is transgender, he actually said that if Jesus Christ himself came and visited the Texas legislature, Jesus would be promoting sex changes for little children. 

The candidate never made such ludicrous claims. It is from this manifest, undisguised madness that the rhetoric of a scrappy kid in Ohio is attempting to let us emerge.   

This morning, Morning Joe played tape of those claims by the sitting president. In response to this inexcusable madness, Joe Scarborough said this about what the Trump operation has done:

SCARBOROUGH (10/27/26): They've twisted and perverted the gospel. It's extraordinary. 

It's just extraordinary how much they've twisted and perverted it and created their own new religion. And they have! A completely new religion that lets them feel good about voting for people like Ken Paxton and Donald Trump. 

So said Scarborough, who runs the best policy and political discussions seen on American TV.   

Morning Joe played the tape of that insanity; Scarborough offered his view.  But the New York Times and other Blue orgs have been running away from this, an act of cowardice and incompetence, all through these past years. 

This madness needs to be reported and discussed on page 1. If the paper's journalists aren't up to the challenge of discussing what's going on, those journalists need to step down.

We badly need a type of emergence. Many are refusing to serve.

Tomorrow: Candidates Acton and Turek


TUESDAY: Could a Blue star ever do something wrong?

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2026

As we all know, the answer is yes: On Saturday, October 17, we closed our report with remarks which have been described, by at least one site, as a "record shattering statement." 

We were describing the way we Americans might be able to find our way out of our current journalistic / political / academic mess.  It's considered bad form to quote oneself. Today, we make an exception:

We Americans can't fact-check or name-call our way out of our current national mess—"back out of all this now too much for us," as Frost confusingly had it. 

Instead, we'll need to emerge into a world of deepened American values—some of them seeming to be a bit Reddish, some of them tilting toward Blue.   

If we want to emerge from our current (dangerous) mess, we'll need to concentrate on values. And some of the values on which we settle may tend to come a bit more from what is currently the reddish end of the pile.  

We thought of that "record shattering" suggestion as we perused Elie Honig's recent piece for New York magazine. Honig is a senior legal analyst for CNN. He's also a regular contributor to New York.

Honig's essay concerns the ongoing pursuit of Rp. Ilhan Omar by the current DOJ. The headline seems to tilt in a Blue direction. Under current circumstances, the opening grafs may perhaps seem to tilt Red:  

DoJ’s Ilhan Omar Probe Reeks of Politics  

Last week’s search of Ilhan Omar’s home was abnormal in several key respects, and she’ll have an opportunity to contest the government’s actions if she does find herself on the wrong end of an indictment. But the truth is, at this point, anyone who definitively proclaims Omar’s guilt or non-guilt is just guessing.  Let’s start with what we do and don’t know. 

We do know that federal prosecutors obtained approval from a federal magistrate judge, Matthew Sharbaugh, to search Omar’s home. (Magistrates are appointed by district court judges—not by the president—and can exercise certain administrative judicial powers, including review and approval of search warrants.) That means prosecutors convinced the magistrate judge that probable cause that a federal crime was committed exists and that investigators would find evidence of that crime in the place to be searched. We also know that prosecutors have issued at least a dozen subpoenas, which do not require any judicial review or approval. We don’t know, however, precisely what evidence prosecutors marshaled to convince the judge to sign off or how strong the current case is against Omar or others.   

Say what?  Anyone who "definitively proclaims Omar’s...non-guilt" would just be guessing at this point? Is Honig allowed to say that?   

Clearly, he's allowed to say it, but does it make any sense? After all these years of rumor-peddling on grimy MAGA programs like Gutfeld!, is it possible that Rep. Omar has actually done something wrong? Something for which she could (reasonably) be criminally charged? Something for which she could lose her citizenship?   

Honig, who isn't a MAGA adherent, says the answer is yes/ (Meaning yes, it's possible.) He also says it's possible that the answer will turn out to be no.  

(Concerning that magistrate judge, the Wall Street Journal's James Freeman has reported that "when he was a lawyer in private practice, Mr. Sharbaugh donated to various Democratic political campaigns, including those of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden." So there's also that.)

Honig runs through various possibilities, dismissing certain procedural objections which have been raised against a possible prosecution. As he closes, his headline comes into play—the recent announcement seems baldly political, he now seems to say: 

[W]e know that Trump and his allies would delight in an Omar prosecution, regardless of the strength of the evidence. The president has used grotesque, inflammatory language to attack Omar’s ethnicity, race, national origin, and family, often calling for her to “go back” to Somalia, as he has continued to do after the search. The appearance of a sitting president’s pliant DoJ investigating one of his nemeses in this way is disturbing...

Then there’s the question of timing. Federal authorities searched Omar’s home just 22 days before a midterm election in which the incumbent Democratic U.S. representative from Minnesota is on the ballot. That timing ordinarily would violate the Justice Department’s traditional practice—sometimes referenced colloquially as the “60-day rule”–of refraining from overt law enforcement actions (like executing a search warrant, which is plainly visible to the public) during the run-up to an election. There’s no binding law here. But the DoJ has imposed the prohibition on itself, for decades and under both political parties, to prevent prosecutors from influencing an election, or even appearing to do so.   

The timing here looks grimy, Honig says. That doesn't mean that there might not be some violation of law, he says once again as his essay closes:

The problem here isn’t necessarily the investigation of Omar itself; it’s the timing of the search warrant on the brink of an election. Omar might be guilty of some crime, or perhaps not. We’ll find out, eventually. Either way, the Justice Department has done institutional damage to itself, yet again, by letting politics drive its prosecutorial tactics. 

Has Rep. Omar done something wrong? Honig says he doesn't know; we ourselves have no idea.  

More generally, is it possible that one of us Blues did something wrong at some point in time? Everything is possible, including even that! 

As a nation, are we ever going to pull ourselves out of our dangerous downward spiral? If so, Blues and Reds will have to agree on an obvious point:  

Sometimes, people make mistakes (or not). But are we ready to say, as tribal beings, that people we favor on our own side can sometimes, just maybe, be wrong?   

In our view, the timing of the DOJ's announcement is just flatly wrong. Has Rep. Omar ever done anything wrong? Here at this site, we hope not.


EMERGENCE: As presidents feud about Cheesecake jibes...

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2026

...the future tries to emerge: And so, today, it has come to this! 

There it is, in the New York Times! If we're willing to state the truth just for once, this is our nation's deeply underdeveloped political culture in action:   

Obama’s ‘Cheesecake Factory’ Jab Rankles Trump on Mississippi Campaign Stop
Former President Barack Obama had cast his successor as out of touch while jabbing at his extravagant sense of style. Mr. Trump responded at length.  

Pitifully but accurately, that's the dual headline which sits atop the New York Times report. President Obama had indeed offered a jab, and President Trump had responded at length. 

In fairness, it wasn't quite as nutty / stupid as the sitting president's discussions of Jon Husted's ascot. But it was stupid enough to define our flailing political culture.

Filling you in on the inanity in question, the actual report in the Times had started out like this:

Obama’s ‘Cheesecake Factory’ Jab Rankles Trump on Mississippi Campaign Stop   

Former President Barack Obama has struck a nerve with President Trump.

Mr. Trump took time from campaign issues to defend his fixation on remodeling the White House in his second term on Monday after Mr. Obama jabbed that “he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Mr. Trump spoke for several minutes about the remark on his way to a campaign swing in Mississippi, then delivered an extensive aside there on the White House ballroom, helipad and other projects. He was in the solidly Republican state, which has been shifting toward Democrats, as part of his swing through ruby red America to shore up candidates ahead of the midterms.   

Mr. Trump...at times insisted he had spent “very little time” on redesigning the White House, parts of which he has demolished to make way for the new ballroom. But he also defended his focus on the renovations and eventually conceded that “I have fun doing it.”  

Obama's "jab" about the Cheesecake Factory had triggered a discussion—one which got dumber and dumber.  Later in his report for the Times, Chris Cameron describes the way "Trump administration officials and other Republicans responded with indignation" to Obama's joking remark, saying it showed that the former president is, in fact, an "elitist."

Cameron then checked his stopwatch regarding President Trump's reaction to the appalling remark:

No one appeared more insulted than Mr. Trump. In a six-minute gaggle with reporters on his way to Mississippi, the president devoted more than half his speaking time to Mr. Obama’s remarks. He spent comparatively little time repeating his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.   

“For you to say it’s a Cheesecake Factory, that just shows why you were a lousy president,” Mr. Trump said, before calling Mr. Obama “a stupid person.”

Once onstage, Mr. Trump devoted another six minutes to defending his makeover of the White House, and other parts of the nation’s capital.

“Nobody loved it like I do,” Mr. Trump said of the White House... 

In truth, the sitting president's various remarks were substantially dumber, and made less sense, than Cameron lets on.

In this report for Mediaite, Kathryn Wilkens provides a second report on this pitiful piffle. She includes videotape of the huffing and puffing by President Trump as he decamps for the South.   

Personally, we aren't fans of former president Obama's transition toward the role of stand-up comedian in chief, at times like these, in these post-presidential years. Meanwhile, the sheer stupidity of the MAGA pushback was evident on the Fox News Channel last night—for example, with resident nutcase Greg Gutfeld sounding off idiotically on The Five, the nation's most-watched "cable news" show.

He scolded Jessica Tarlov: 

You can go after Trump all you want. Don't go after the Cheesecake Factory, OK? You know, a lot of us don't have a personal chef. The Cheesecake Factory is a tribute to America. It is literally a melting pot, Jessica. That's why you hate it.  

Scolding the program's designated punching bag, the nutcase told the liberal Tarlov that she hates The Cheesecake Factory because she hates America. 

This is standard inanity on our failing nation's most-watched—and stupidest—"cable news" TV show. By the way, with a salary of $9 million per year, the resident nutcase could hire a chef if he ever chose to.

Alas, poor Gutfeld (age 62)! Increasingly, the manic insanity of this small, angry nut-ball defines the shape of American "news" and information flow. 

At 10 p.m., when his own show aired, he opened by describing the way Bill Clinton still enjoys "banging skanks" at the White House, then offered a joke in which he rather unmistakably described former Vice President Harris as a "drunk, crazy bitch."  

(It's the rare night on the Gutfeld! show when Harris isn't portrayed as a drunk.)

This is the stuff of primetime "news" within our braindead journalistic and academic culture. Incredibly, you have never seen the ugly content of this show described in the New York Times, or in the Atlantic, or even on any program on CNN or MS NOW.

Dearest darlings, use your heads! Giant salaries are at stake! It simply isn't done!

This is the ugly inanity our national culture has chosen. That said:

Over the weekend, even as this latest inanity was taking shape, we thought we saw a new improved batch of messaging starting to emerge.   

Amy Acton is the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio. She will probably win that race. 

She won't be the Democratic Party's candidate for president two years hence. But last Saturday, she spoke at a rally in Cleveland. In part, she energetically offered this:   

I'm an Ohio girl through and through. I grew up in Youngstown... 

When I grew up, we didn't know what party you were in. We knew what union you were in!

We knew what branch of the military you served in, we knew where you worshipped. We knew what civic groups you were in. But the biggest thing we knew was that you had one another's back.   

So said Candidate Acton, energetically, early on. 

I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown, she later said. And scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight!  

We Blues badly need to find some scrappy kids. We don't need another comedian. We need to find a scrappy kid who might help let the future emerge.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the messaging in Acton's speech. It was delivered by a scrappy kid who's already 60 years old!

Tomorrow: Messaging from Candidate Acton

Thursday: What two C-Span callers had said


MONDAY: Obama too good for the Cheesecake place!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2026

Snobbery, hatred emerge: It's true! At that rally in Cleveland this Saturday, Barack Obama made a flippant remark about The Cheesecake Factory.

Actually, it was more like a joke! Headline included, Bess Levin starts to explain at the Intelligencer:

The Most Overheated Reactions to Obama’s Cheesecake Factory Line

Over the weekend, former president Barack Obama appeared at a rally in Ohio, where he gave an impassioned speech in hopes of galvanizing Democrats ahead of next week’s midterm elections. He called out the “chaos and cruelty and corruption” of Donald Trump’s second term and dinged the current president’s obsession with interior design and remodeling projects, on which he has been intensively focused since returning to Washington in between going to war with Iran and the free press.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he seems very focused on home renovation,” Obama said of his successor. “He should be on HGTV. Guy is building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House. Paved over the Rose Garden. Put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn. And there’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold? He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.”

That was fairly standard stuff, with the joking remark thrown in. That said, under prevailing rules of the game, tribal offense must be taken!

(continuing directly from above)
Trump’s preference for decorating every space he has ever lived in with gold is in no way debatable, nor is his longtime penchant for designing spaces where a dictator would feel at home.... But apparently the comment about the restaurant chain hit a nerve with conservatives, who reacted to Obama’s joke with the fury of a thousand Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecakes.

Former Democratic strategist Evan Barker, who voted for Trump in 2024, claimed the line was evidence that “the coastal elites hate Americana”...

Did Barker start it? We don't know, but you can see Barker's tweet simply by clicking here. Here's what the turncoat said:  

The coastal elites hate Americana. We know what they really think, and we know why they are so quickly defending Obama’s snobbery. They might think they are “too good” for the Cheesecake Factory, or find the decor to be tacky, but most regular Americans don’t.

In short, Barack Obama hates America. His Cheesecake snobbery proves it!

Many others took offense. We saw the caterwauling about the alleged condescension on several Fox News Channel shows. 

Please don't make us seek out the links. The election cycle will be over next week, and then the real problems begin.


EMERGENCE: "I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown!"

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2026

We never back down from a fight: Very early Sunday morning, we got extremely lucky here on this sprawling campus.   

We'd already semi-watched some endless comments by the sitting president. He had delivered his endless remarks at a rally the day before. 

As it supplied full videotape, C-Span summarized thusly:

OCTOBER 24, 2026
Campaign 2026
President Trump Speaks at GOP Midterm Rally in Perry, GA

President Donald Trump held a midterm rally for Georgia Republicans in Perry, GA. He claimed that crime had reduced in multiple cities including Memphis and Washington, D.C. since took office and touted other achievements of the administration. He spoke against Somali immigrants including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and asked why the United States took "so many" immigrants from nations he deemed low-quality instead of "people from Norway, Sweden…Denmark?" He urged Georgians to elect U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) and oust Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who he called "Pee-wee Herman."...

C-Span was being polite. You can watch the whole thing here. 

(You won't read about it in the New York Times. But it seems that something is wrong with the sitting president, a human being whose public statements and global behaviors are making less and less sense.)  

That endless stream of endless chatter had started at 3:39 a.m. We're not sure when we started watching, but the president's endless remarks seemed to go on forever. 

At 5:19 a.m., a second event went to air. We were surprised by what we saw. With C-Span supplying the videotape, we thought we saw an emergence:  

OCTOBER 24, 2026
Campaign 2026
Former President Obama Campaigns with Ohio Democratic Candidates in Cleveland

Former President Barack Obama, Ohio governor candidate Amy Acton (D), and U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown (D) spoke at a midterm rally in Cleveland. Acton and Brown discussed affordability and their respective opponents, governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R) and Sen. John Husted (R). Obama then spoke about the importance of voting for Brown and Acton. He also discussed current Trump administration policies...

Candidate Acton spoke first. She spoke for 17 minutes. 

We were surprised by her energetic, slightly hyper performance. With a bit of editing supplied by us, she started by saying this:   

Eric and I want to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support, and all the love, you have shown us this past week, and every day on the trail. 

Thank you. Thank you.

[CHEERS] 

My name is Dr. Amy Acton—

[CHEERS]

I'm an Ohio girl through and through. I grew up in Youngstown.

[CHEERS]

It's the stuff of Bruce Springsteen songs...

We performed in Youngstown once. We have the scars to support this hopeful's fond assertion.

This emerging presence grew up there. She now explained what that meant:   

When I grew up, we didn't know what party you were in. We knew what union you were in!

[CHEERS]

We knew what branch of the military you served in, we knew where you worshipped. We knew what civic groups you were in. But the biggest thing we knew was that you had one another's back, and if it weren't for the tough, deeply resilient community I had, I wouldn't be here today

They had my back when I needed it most...

They had her back when she needed it most? The audience knew what she was talking about on this particular day.

We'll show you more of this candidate's messaging as the week proceeds. Eventually, though, she said this, addressing her opponent:   

In Ohio, we work hard and we watch out for one another. My opponent just doesn't get it. 

Mr. Ramaswamy, you are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself and you're a danger to my state. 

Apparently, there is no low to which you won't stoop. But look:

I'm a scrappy kid from Youngstown—

[CHEERS]

—and scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight!  

Good grief! We've been waiting, and waiting and waiting, to see someone emerge from nowhere and start talking like that on the trail.

Tomorrow: C-Span caller speaks


GENDER: Should Shane Gillis have used that word?

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2026

The Five pretend to speak: Pumpkin-fueled squirrels were stuffing their faces in these environs this morning.   

You can't exactly blame the squirrels. On the other hand, this:

As we noted at the start of the week, Shane Gillis said there wasn't another way he could say it! In his monologue for Saturday Night Live, the hilarity had proceeded as shown:

Saturday Night Live: October 10, 2026
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now. Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe— Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts? Have you seen the shorts? Those neon—they're like artificial bait-colored, and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. 

“And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look...”   

The whores are now displaying their buttholes and cheeks! To watch the entire monologue, you can just click this.

Concerning Gillis' use of that word, was there no other way to describe it? In fact, there are a million other ways to describe it, assuming it even exists. But possibly without quite thinking about it, some of These Hard-Charging Bros Today may be inclined to prefer to take the misogynist insult route. 

We'll also note that the conceptual range among these gents may not be especially vast. Consider:

In the course of less than seven minutes, Gillis discussed the "two big fat bitch sisters" with whom he'd grown up. (There was no other way to say it.) One of them, displaying "her trucker forearms," used to accuse him of "masturbating in the shower" but also of having "bitch hips."  

Don't miss the slightly discomfiting story Gillis told about what went through his mind when, perhaps inevitably, he ran into "a beautiful woman, walking towards me, also by herself," when he went out to enjoy a hike in the woods. Also, time was devoted to name-dropping a pair of friends, Joe Rogan and Theo Von.   

He was concerned that his excessive weight made him "look like a lesbian." Also, a guy is "either gay or Hitler," given These Haircuts Today.  

What a pile of crap! And as we noted on Monday, a dispute broke out after Gillis' appearance on SNL. The question was this: 

  Should he have said that These Women Today are just dressing like whores?   

To us, the answer is fairly obvious. But then, we never would have approved a morally vacuous set like that for inclusion on a major American TV show. We'd more likely tell the performer to come back when he had something of value to offer.   

(Also, when he had something which wouldn't force us to expend a whole month's worth of laugh track.)

We feel sure that Brother Gillis is a perfectly good, decent person. But he did decide to go with the W-bomb, and several people out in the world said that he shouldn't have done that. 

On October 14, five Fox employees pretended to discuss what had happened. On this particular afternoon, it was the standard four reliables, plus the punching bag:

The Five: Wednesday, October 14, 2026 
Emily Compagno: regular panelist  
Jessica Tarlov: liberal punching bag   
Jesse Watters: regular panelist   
Dana Perino: regular panelist     
Greg Gutfeld: regular panelist 

To watch the pseudo-discussion, click here. The flimflam went like this:

For the MAGA stalwarts, the segment took a typical turn. Instead of evaluating Gillis' use of that word—the word was BLEEPed by Fox producers when tape of his performance was shown—the reliables spent their time critiquing what they described as over-reactions by a handful of lefty lunatics.

Eventually, it fell to Tarlov to state her view. Correctly or otherwise, we find it hard to believe that she said what she actually thinks.

In our view, it's time for Tarlov to leave this show. If we want our flailing nation to survive, it's also time for this braindead imitation of life to be yanked from the air.


GENDER: Psaki presented a brilliant segment!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2026

But first, the sitting misogynist: We're sorry to say that we agree with Sam Stein—with what he said in the first hour of today's Morning Joe.   

He said he isn't completely sure that the astonishing campaign ad in Ohio isn't going to work. Given the money being thrown in behind it, he said it's possible that Vivek Ramaswamy's gruesome ad could actually help him win.    

We're sorry to say that we agree with that provisional assessment. If we were betting, we'd bet that Candidate Acton will be elected governor of Ohio on November 3. But we also think that the force field of the moral squalor of this age may turn out to be quite hard to escape—harder than many pundits are currently imagining. 

Last night, we saw a brilliant cable news segment—the 21-minute opening segment of The Briefing with Jen Psaki on MS NOW. Psaki spoke with Jennifer Siebel Newsom about the source of so much of that furious moral squalor—the throwback feelings about gender and sexuality which are currently driving so much of the MAGA right. 

We'll link you to that segment below. First, here's Michelle Goldberg's summary of the basic facts concerning the gruesome campaign ad which is now being pimped by the sitting American president: 

The Meaning of the Republican War Over Ramaswamy’s Vile Ad 

[...] 

As you might know by now, the story behind Ramaswamy’s ad involves child sexual abuse. His Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, was 12 when her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, known as Bud, was arrested and indicted on charges of raping her, though he skipped town before he could be tried. Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, stood by him and lost custody of her children; she never saw her daughter again. (Bud Arthur died in 2004.)

In 2020, when Acton was serving as Ohio’s health director, Donna Arthur, fashioning herself as a concerned Christian, gave an interview to the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue attacking her estranged daughter. It was deeply if unintentionally self-incriminating. Arthur speculated that Acton got the idea to say Bud Arthur raped her from his daughter from a previous marriage, who’d made a similar claim. By Donna Arthur’s own account, then, she brought a man accused of sexually abusing his child into her children’s home.   

Now Ramaswamy’s campaign has dug up this elderly woman to make a video calling her daughter a liar who can’t be trusted to lead the state...   

Goldberg continues from there, as does the horror show of Ramaswamy's behavior. Yesterday, along came the sitting president to offer an endless Truth Social post. In it, he presents what has become the official MAGA Storyline: 

Official (Braindead) Storyline:
Acton's mother has called her a liar. Ramaswamy had the courage to state that important fact.  

Yes, that's what the president actually said. With apologies, here's the latest fruit of his ongoing madness, offered to you in full:   

Truth Details 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump 

Vivek Ramaswamy put up a very powerful Ad about a mother saying that her daughter, Amy Acton, who is running for Governor of Ohio, is a liar, and much worse. The Press, in a concerted and well coordinated attack, is trying to get Vivek Ramaswamy to “take down the Ad.” Frankly, anybody whose mother spoke about a daughter in that way would normally lead to the daughter being precluded from serving in Office, let alone the Office of Governor. If my mother, the legendary Mary MacLeod Trump, said anything bad about me, the Fake News would play it up. The Dumocrats would be totally supportive, and it would go down as the Ad of the Decade—Maybe the Century! It would win Awards for Excellence in Advertising. But, because Vivek, who will be a GREAT Governor, put it out, the “Artificial” News has teamed up against him in order to damage, demean, and embarrass a Republican who is leading in the Polls. Our RINO Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, who I unfortunately helped get elected years ago, when he was losing by 16 points prior to my doing a Rally for him was, as usual, disloyal to the Republican Party. He strongly suggested that Vivek should, “take down the Ad.” He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing. I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals! I only wish the mothers of my opponents would be so brave as to come forward and explain that their son or daughter is a liar, and much worse. That took a lot of courage to do but, essentially, what she was really doing was saving Ohio from making a truly horrible choice! The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it’s so good! Who wouldn’t use such an Ad? I would, it’s called, “hitting pay dirt.” The fact is, Lyin’ Amy Acton, who I’ve never even heard of before, has been lying about Vivek for the entire Campaign. I know the real Vivek, he is a brilliant and outstanding person who will cut Taxes, stop Crime and, MAKE OHIO GREAT AGAIN. He will be a fantastic Governor! President DONALD J. TRUMP   

 Oct 22, 2026, 2:38 PM   

That lunacy is the fruit of the sitting president's "untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen." We're quoting his niece, Mary L. Trump, Ph.D., with the key word being "untreated." 

That key word points to a personal tragedy, but one which is very dangerous.

(As we've endlessly noted, Blue America's leading journalists and top academics, to a man and to a woman, have refused to discuss this dangerous state of affairs. Stating the obvious, the people we Blues have been taught to trust have all taken a dive on what is sitting right there before us. For ourselves, we began to notice this overriding lack of quality during our freshman year at Harvard.)  

Trump and Vance, and others inside TrumpWorld, will be doubling down on that Madhouse Storyline. We don't think there will be any type of easy path back out of the crazy world this sitting president has brought us.   

Much of that madness stems from matters of gender—emerges from the fury put on display by furious, disordered men who loathe the people they think of as women. Last night, Psaki interviewed Siebel Newsom, a film-maker who doubles as first lady of California (officially now as "first partner"). 

In our view, it was one of the most instructive conversations we've ever seen on cable TV. We expect to discuss it more next week, but the basic background runs like this, or so says The Hollywood Reporter:  

Jennifer Siebel Newsom Thinks It’s Time Tech Leaders Faced Accountability...   

A lot has changed since 2011. The urgency of talking about the way women are represented in media, unfortunately, has not, according to Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

The documentary filmmaker and the current First Partner of California initially tackled the subject of media’s impact on the underrepresentation of women in positions of power in her 2011 documentary Miss Representation. Around 15 years later, she’s returning with a follow-up, Miss Representation: Rise Up, which chronicles how social-media platforms and AI tools are undercutting women and girls, enabling harassment and supercharging misogyny.

Like its predecessor, the film, which premieres in New York theaters on Thursday, with more screenings to come, enlists a series of high-powered female interviewees to make its point. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Amy Klobuchar, Jameela Jamil and Gretchen Carlson all make appearances. They show up in between footage showing young students speaking about the way social media has impacted them (“It makes me feel like, what is wrong with me?” asks one) and showing female candidates describing online abuse and harassment in political races...   

And on and on and on and on, tracking back to the Rage of Achilles at the dawn of western literature. 

In our view, Psaki and Siebel Newsom created a brilliant discussion last night about the harm done to girls and your women, but also to boys and young men, by that supercharging of misogyny.   

The monster Gutfeld was looking on, along with Watters and an assortment of tools. 

We'll report on Psaki's segment next week. If you want to watch it today, you can start by clicking here.  

Psaki does an opening chunk. Siebel Newsom's film comes on here.

Tomorrow: Briefly and quickly, The Five, including Jessica Tarlov


THURSDAY: There's nobody like Vice President Vance!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2026

Unless it's President Trump: Vivek Ramaswamy's gruesome ad has shown us how low things can go in this, the era of the sitting president.   

We'll extend credit to those who have known what to do about the gruesome ad. Here is Ohio's two-term (Republican) governor, Mike DeWine, speaking to reporters today, with tape at Mediaite:

 DEWINE (10/21/26): The ad, on its face, is deeply, deeply troubling. But when you know the rest of the story, when you know the backstory, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony, and then he took off along with the mother, and the children never saw, I guess, the mother after—when you know that, it just, to me, makes it more serious. It makes it just more wrong. 

So it’s wrong to run this ad. And even at this late time, my friend saw the ad run this morning on TV. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It’s just—it's just wrong.  

So the sitting governor has said. Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski was superb again on Morning Joe, describing the ad as "arguably the most depraved, monstrous and evil ad in American politics," and as "a chilling act of depravity." 

Perhaps the strangest assessments have come from Vice President Vance, speaking yesterday in Cincinnati and then a bit later in Sharonville, Ohio. Here was his statement in Cincy, delivered right around noon:

VANCE (10/21/26): Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. What is my concern is who's going to govern the next generation of American government. Who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio. Who's going to win the governor's race in the state of Ohio.

And I got to be honest that, when I see Republicans, people in my party, reacting so strongly, especially elected officials— Look, have the opinion you want to have on that ad. If you think it was too tough, say it was too tough. If you think it wasn’t tough enough, say that.   

But I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country, who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.  

If you think the ad wasn't tough enough, you should simply say it?  

Citoyens, please! This isn't a question of how "tough" the ad was. It's a question of the fact that the ad was grossly misleading concerning a series of sexual assaults committed against the Democratic candidate for governor when she was as young as nine years old. 

Concerning Vance, is there anything he won't say? Later, and astoundingly, he even said this:   

VANCE (10/21/26): The media, and the Democrats in the state of Ohio, are obsessed because—guess what? 

Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. And my message, ladies and gentlemen, is very simple. Whatever you think of any of the TV advertisements, focus on the substance and focus on the facts.

Ramaswamy had the audacity to call it out like it is—to call Amy Acton a liar? It won't be easy to solve our nation's ongoing crisis of values.  

The sitting president's slippery statement wasn't a whole lot better. To see these disordered men as they defend Ramaswamy's behavior, you can just click here.

UPDATE: According to the sitting president, the ad is true all the way down.

GENDER: Gurov spoke of "the lesser breed!"

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2026

Routinely, so does Gutfeld: We don't regard it as his "fault." But the Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld is almost surely the dumbest mother-frumper ever assigned to take part in a major American news program.   

How dumb is this dumb mother-frumper? We don't regard it as his "fault," but he's so dumb that he went out last night and offered this braindead attempt at a joke at 10:01 p.m. Eastern—one minute into his brain-dead "cable news" program. To see him do it, click here:  

GUTFELD (10/21/26): JFK Airport held a plane crash drill, complete with fake fire and screaming actors.   

And to make it absolutely realistic, they even had a female pilot.   

AUDIENCE: [On balance, general puzzlement]

In short, this guy is so stupid it squeaks. He's so locked into his loathing of the people he thinks of as women that he persists in presenting insulting jokes about the various things such lesser beings can't do—in this case, about the way a woman couldn't safely fly a plane. 

Believe it or not, it gets dumber. The little guy is so committed to the brain-dead stereotypes of the past that he offers jokes which drive the theme that women (and people of Asian ancestry) are horrible drivers of cars! More often, though, his spectacularly stupid concept of "conservative attack comedy" moves down this uglier path:   

GUTFELD (10/19/26): Greta Thunberg has found a new cause—supporting the riots in France. 

Although she still hasn't succeeded in her most urgent crusade, which is to find someone who will finally [BLEEP] her.  

For what it's worth, we know of no reason to say that Greta Thunberg, who's now 23, has supported the riots in France. None of that has anything to do with the ugly place the mind of Gutfeld inevitably goes when discussing the people he thinks of as women, with storebought tools like Tyrus and Timpf pathetically urging him on.   

(We don't regard it as his "fault" that his mind inevitably goes there. We've long said that Greg Gutfeld, age 62, deserves and seems to need some help, and that his criminally negligent corporate employer ought to be providing it.) 

In yesterday afternoon's post, we linked to Pemberton's guest essay in the New York Times. For non-subscribers, his essay is stuck behind a paywall, but it starts like this:    

I Have Never Seen the Online Right So Happy

The online right has that old spring in its step. The infighting brought on by President Trump’s chaotic second-term agenda has settled down, and the anonymous accounts have been posting at a furious clip. What is the source of this newfound unity? The accusations brought by Jane Doe against seven men at Cornell have given the online right what it’s been missing most: a woman to hate on.

The social media celebrities and talking heads of the right have jumped at the chance to pick apart Jane Doe’s allegations of a gang rape—labeling it a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” Unable to dispute the basic narrative of the assault, including a lurid fraternity group chat, they’ve elected to argue that Jane Doe is the actual aggressor, a once-willing participant in sexual debauchery now seeking vengeance against her hapless partners.   

Her most hostile critics on the right have sought to portray Jane Doe as a kind of out-of-control sexual fiend or “super slut,” as the conspiracist Alex Jones has labeled her...

Sad! But Pemberton continues from there. Indeed, angry misogyny has been a feature of the angry "conservative" internet ever since the internet was born. Incel-adjacents like Gutfeld are part of this wider throwback culture—a culture which traces back to the sawn of European literature with "The Rage of Achilles" in Book I of the Iliad.

We think today of an early passage from Chekhov's famous, widely lauded story, The Lady with the Lapdog. 

At its heart, Chekhov's story is about a man who is surprised by the discovery that he's capable of loving the woman he loves, a person who is "in no way remarkable."

"He thought and dreamed," Chekhov writes. It's a stunning four-word sentence, offered at the point when this discovery dawns. Early on, though, Chekhov ventures inside Gurov's previous loathing of the people he thought of as women:

The Lady with the Dog 
(Constance Garnett translation)

[...]   

He was under forty, but he had a daughter already twelve years old, and two sons at school. He had been married young, when he was a student in his second year, and by now his wife seemed half as old again as he. She was a tall, erect woman with dark eyebrows, staid and dignified, and, as she said of herself, intellectual. She read a great deal, used phonetic spelling, called her husband, not Dmitri, but Dimitri, and he secretly considered her unintelligent, narrow, inelegant, was afraid of her, and did not like to be at home. He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago—had been unfaithful to her often, and, probably on that account, almost always spoke ill of women, and when they were talked about in his presence, used to call them "the lower race."

It seemed to him that he had been so schooled by bitter experience that he might call them what he liked, and yet he could not get on for two days together without "the lower race." In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free, and knew what to say to them and how to behave; and he was at ease with them even when he was silent. In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature, there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed them in his favor; he knew that, and some force seemed to draw him, too, to them.

Experience often repeated, truly bitter experience, had taught him long ago that with decent people, especially Moscow people—always slow to move and irresolute—every intimacy, which at first so agreeably diversifies life and appears a light and charming adventure, inevitably grows into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable. But at every fresh meeting with an interesting woman this experience seemed to slip out of his memory, and he was eager for life, and everything seemed simple and amusing.  

That's very, very sad. He refers to them as "the lower race," can't live two days without them.

We'd rather that a different kind of care had been taken in the portrait of Gurov's wife. But Chekhov's picture of Gurov's anger at "the lesser breed" (David Magarshack translation, Penguin Classics) may take us closer to an understanding of Gutfeld's horrible conduct.

Gurov is attractive to women. His problem is that he was married, at an early age, to a woman with whom he's poorly aligned, and in the Russian society of the time divorce was not an option.

For the many boys and men in online incel culture, the problem takes a substantially different form. But for heterosexual boys and men, the ability to be happy in the world will likely be directly connected to their ability to form a union with someone from "the lesser breed."  

The fury which spills from people like Gutfeld, with people like Timpf and Tyrus urging him on, will routinely come from their inability, for whatever reason or reasons, to form such pleasing connections. On his nightly "cable news" program, Gutfeld keeps instructing boys and young men in the braindead attitudes which will only extend their problem.

In Monday's report, we started the week with a simple question: 

Should Shane Gillis have said what he said? 

Should Gillis have gone on Saturday Night Live and said that women are dressing like whores when they go the gym?  In our view, the answer is fairly obvious. More on that tomorrow.

Gurov emerges as a person in Chekhov's famous story. Can a modern America really expect to find its way in the face of the apparent misogyny which spills from unreconstructed people like Gutfeld—in the face of their endless denigration of the people who are often, simply put, much better people than they?  

From the sitting president right on down, the rage of Achilles is back with a vengeance. Should full-grown American men and women accept this state of affairs?

Tomorrow: The braindead world of The Five