Vivek Ramaswamy may have lost himself the election
It’s Selection Day, and I’m not taking anything for granted. Here’s the Weekly Sift’s 2026 election-watching guide. And The Republican Party & The Far Right: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
There’s a danger of counting on a blue tsunami. “Republicans are winning over late-deciding voters by 9 percentage points in seven battleground Senate races, according to a new poll suggesting the GOP is gaining momentum ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“The New York Times/Siena University survey, released Sunday, found that voters who made their choices within the past month favored Republican candidates, even as Democrats maintained leads in six of the seven contests.
“‘There are still some undecided voters, and voters who decided only in the last month favored Republicans by a nine-point margin,” the Times reported.”
More broadly, Are Polls Overstating Democrats’ Midterm Leads?
MI
Haley Stevens, Abdul El-Sayed’s opponent in the Michigan Senate primary, endorsed Mike Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in a race critical to control of the Senate.
In his blog The Farce, Jason Sattler offers a message for any of his fellow Jews who happen to live in Michigan: Religious bigotry, even if it takes the form of Islamophobia, will eventually hurt Jews. He asks them to reject Mike Rogers’ campaign of hate and vote for Abdul El-Sayed.
AK
My buddy Jim pointed me to Explaining the Case of the Two Dan Sullivans on Alaska’s Ballot.
OH
Vivek Ramaswamy Attack Ad Backfires As Ohioans Switch Votes to Amy Acton. Expect this to blow back on J.D. Vance, who supported the ad, if he runs for President.
FOTUS
I think it is readily apparent that 47 is a wackadoodle. Or in more specific NYT language, “he is more profane, more absolutist, longer-winded and less coherent than he was in 2016.” So, per Weekly Sift, “you watch any significant chunk of his speeches, read the increasingly bizarre rants he posts on Truth Social, or listen to his ridiculous self-aggrandizing fantasies (‘I would have won the Vietnam War in a week.‘ He would have won the Afghan War in three weeks — ignoring the fact that he had troops in Afghanistan for his entire first term and didn’t win.), it’s obvious that this man is insane.” I’d settle for him ending the Iran War, a conflagration of choice, NOW.
That said, DOJ plans 1,000 election monitors in all 50 states for Election Day. The Justice Department told a court no FBI or ICE employees will serve and monitors will not carry firearms; the NAACP calls the plan voter intimidation.
Already done
My wife and I cast our ballots on Sunday past. I voted straight Working Families line, folks who had been cross-endorsed by the Democrats, except for the comptroller, which I passed on. I voted for a few unopposed Democrats. For Albany County, was a YES on the coroner/medical examiner issue, and NO Establishing Additional Qualifications for County Legislators because I felt the procedures for investigating and disciplining County Legislators for violating these rules was a bit too fuzzy for me.
CDC Issues Emergency Response for Florida Dengue Outbreak.
Ahead of Biodiversity Summit, UN Chief Warns Countries Are ‘Subsidizing Suicide’ by Backing Fossil Fuels. “I urge governments everywhere to end these handouts once and for all, and to use the savings for people and planet instead,” said António Guterres.
Voters in Oil-Rich Alberta Strongly Reject Leaving Canada.
In Virginia, Racism and Redlining Are Fueling a Flock Camera Backlash.
Dolores Huerta, Labor Leader and Force for Civil Rights, Has Died. She co- founded the United Farm Workers.
Tom Skerritt has died at age 93. I watched him in many movies and TV shows, but my favorite was his run on Picket Fences.
Walter Koenig, Chekov From ‘Star Trek,’ Has Died. As the Russian navigator of the U.S.S. Enterprise, he was a mainstay of the original television series and seven films. He was 90.
The Dominican Baseball Factory – A teenage prospect’s family was promised $1.8 million, and most of it was gone within a few years thanks to the moneylenders who circle young players.
A Final Scream at the End of the Movie. Not quite an end credits scene, but worth the wait.
Ohio’s Republican Governor Calls on Vivek Ramaswamy to Take Down Attack Ad. It features the estranged mother of Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, and has drawn widespread criticism, though FOTUS strongly defended it.
Could House Republicans refuse to seat Democrats? FOTUS might try
FOTUS Signs Order Exempting Russia From Sanctionss Law. The sanctions were part of a measure that was named after Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died in July.
“I’d Like to Report a Theft”: Bernie Mocks FOTUS’s Anti-Fraud Tipline. “A man inside our government illegally spent nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars on bogus campaign ads praising himself. He now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
902 pregnancy-related prosecutions in three years after Dobbs. Pregnancy Justice found that most cases involved child neglect or endangerment charges
FEMA tells states to handle disasters on their own
Women are disappearing from top roles in the regime
Musk chose to restrict Ukraine’s access to SpaceX satellite network
Most of Ken Paxton’s Money Can Be Traced to Elon Musk. The world’s richest person, who has become the biggest known midterm donor, gave $158 million to a group that quickly spent that much to help Mr. Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas.
MUSIC
The Smooth Jazz Show on The Soul Of London Radio– Thursday 15th October 2026. The “Album Of The Week” is the latest from vocalist Rebecca Jade. Released in 2022 and entitled “A Shade Of Jade”, Paul Russell features several tracks from the Album on the show. The interview came ahead of her LIVE performance at The Indigo @ The O2 on Friday, 16th October.
The Nobel Peace Prize announcement is that this year’s award went to Navi Pillay, a person of “exceptional courage” who has led accountability efforts against apartheid, prosecuted war crimes, and upheld international law for decades. The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay, who early in her career served as a judge on South Africa’s High Court, her native country.
Being Heard Is Not Enough. As the Cornell 7 case reminds us, institutional accountability is a must
A Photo of Mussolini’s Corpse Led Page 1. How It Got There Is a Tale.
When Your Charity Dollars Go Overseas, Can You Follow the Money?
Where to Take Your Unwanted Prescription Meds – The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has an online tool that lets you find the closest kiosk by entering your ZIP code.
Eva Marie Saint, from the movie North by Northwest, and an Oscar winner for On the Waterfront, is dead at 102
Mike Ditka has died. He and the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986, and after coaching, he became one of the sport’s most visible and enduring talking heads. He was 86.
70 Up and saying goodbye to the greatest documentary series of all time
The U.S. Supreme Court granted the regime’s request to resume third-country deportations, issuing an unsigned stay of a lower-court injunction. The Court added the case to its docket and scheduled oral arguments for December.
FOTUS wrote that the White House sees anyone who says “artificial intelligence” instead of “super intelligence” as “THE ENEMY”.
FOTUS’s decision to hold an international summit at his private golf club, an idea he rejected in his first term, shows how much he has shattered norms.
He personally told an aide to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him
The regime’s allies have sought to prove a “grand conspiracy” through a sprawling Justice Department inquiry. It has buckled under staffing shake-ups, internal disputes, and trouble finding evidence.
A scorecard from MAHA activists suggests the regime has broken most of its promises to the movement on food, agriculture, and environmental health.
This Land Is Your Land/Power to the People – Tom Morello leads an all-star finale featuring Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews, Stephen Stills, and more, performing live at the Power to the People Festival 2026! The whole 10-hour concert✊
My Minnesota Home – Gail Sparlin. I heard her sing this at the Reader’s Theater event in Albany, NY, on October 5, benefiting the Wizard’s Wardrobe tutorial program.
Taylor Swift joins Mariska Hargitay for a very special episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Bob Pettit, who was the N.B.A.’s first M.V.P., dies at 93
From MLB.com: Looking at the 2026 playoff teams, you might notice something: Three of them have never won a World Series. That’d be the Brewers, Rays, and Padres, who are three of the five teams that have never won it all. (To the other two, the Rockies and Mariners: There’s always next year.)
Close-up of the Constitution of the United States of America with quill feather pen
Lots of stuff that’s happened this past year has me, and plenty of others, moaning, “But the Constitution..!” It’s made me plenty anxious. BTW, here are the Amendments.
ITEM: From Liz Dye’s Public Notice: The important thing to know here is that this is all John Roberts’s fault.
“On March 31, Trump signed an executive order instructing the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the Postal Service to effectively seize control of state voter rolls.
“The Constitution vests exactly zero authority in the executive branch to police local elections, explicitly reserving that power for Congress and the states. But Trump vaguely gestured in the direction of his “unavoidable duty under Article II of the Constitution of the United States to enforce Federal law, which includes preventing violations of Federal criminal law and maintaining public confidence in election outcomes” and forged ahead.”
New York Times: “The Supreme Court had allowed the [regime] to move ahead with Mr. Trump’s mail ballot executive order, reasoning that a lawsuit challenging the order was premature because the administration had not started carrying out its plans.”
Thank you, whistleblower
A lot of legal back-and-forth took place, most opposing the procedures. But the key is, from US Senator Richard Blumenthal: “Anonymous whistleblower details ‘rushed,’ ‘risky and haphazard’ effort by USPS to implement EO restricting mail-in voting; USPS planned for September 1 launch date for brand new, untested online system to screen ballots submitted by state election officials .”
In the complaint: “As presently designed, if even one bar code on one single ballot in a bulk-mailing of 10,000 ballots fails to properly scan during the verification process, the entire batch is rejected and sent back to the state — effectively stopping the ballots from being mailed to voters. Even under ordinary circumstances, this would be problematic because of predictable errors in any barcode scanning process.”
Even though the regime’s plan was ultimately thrown out, it required hundreds of hours of litigation to prevent what should not have been an issue.
And of course, because this entire system has been rushed and subject to court orders halting work, these are not “ordinary circumstances.”
Free press?
ITEM: From Daily Kos: Siccing the FCC on reporters. “After ‘Meet the Press’ host Kristen Welker said—completely accurately!—that his endorsements in recent primary elections got ‘mixed results,’ he hopped on Truth Social to say he was going to sic the Federal Communications Commission on her….
He “thinks that the public airwaves belong to him, not us, and he’s entitled to turn them into state media by using the FCC and the ever-present threat of lawsuits as a cudgel.” Ah, the idea of a free press – see Amendment 1 -isn’t free if it’s not agreeing with him.
“The Department of Justice subpoenaed New York Times reporters for accurately reporting on [his] bribe plane follies, when he swapped out his little gift from Qatar for the actual Air Force One.
“FCC chair and hatchet man Brendan Carr has been whining about accurate coverage of the war in Iran. Carr also not-so-subtly threatened networks that didn’t ‘voluntarily’ (yeah, right) agree to air ‘patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the [regime] today.’ Yes, if you’re not celebrating the deeds of Dear Leader, you’re not a real American.”
What IS that thing we’re doing in Iran?
ITEM: Is the Iran war, er, incursion, a war? Is Congress obliged to pay for a conflict it did not authorize? When do they engage in oversight? Aram Roston of the Guardian reported that the incursion has “driven the US military into a severe financial crisis.” Roston reports that the U.S. Navy, which is bearing the brunt of the operation, is transferring money from payroll to combat operations, creating shortfalls. Officials are covering that shortfall by raiding other accounts.
Slate: “A remarkable story in the Washington Post dramatizes how deeply the Iran war has degraded the U.S. military’s ability to fend off attacks by adversaries elsewhere in the world…
“The leaked document reveals that the three four-star commanders in charge of U.S. military operations in Europe, the Pacific, and South America, as well as the Navy’s top admiral, all informed Hegseth that because so many of their planes, ships, and other weapons systems have been diverted to the war in Iran, they could no longer perform their tasks if a war broke out in their part of the world.”
Voting rights?
ITEM: From Common Dreams – John Roberts Is the Biggest Con Man in US Politics. In his confirmation hearing, Roberts told the Senate he would call only “balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat.” He then proceeded to dismantle the Voting Rights Act.
“Flash back to 2005, and it is apparent that, at best, Roberts misled the judiciary committee. [Or he lied.] In response to a question from Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy about the VRA’s constitutionality, Roberts replied, ‘[T]he existing Voting Rights Act—the constitutionality has been upheld. And I don’t have any issue with that.'”
That was clearly untrue. His desire to crush precedent was available to those who looked. If you read the speech of John Lewis at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, it’s clear why the VRA was necessary. And, based on the series of recent redistricting, it still is. This is why “thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28 for the ‘March on Washington 2026: Defend the Vote.’” Check out Amendment 15.
Crony statism
ITEM: When the Wall Street Journal says access to some 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude oil is the deal as anything but conventional, calling it an example of “crony statism,” I listen.
Among the Journal’s biggest concerns: what is the Pentagon’s role? Newsmax: “Rather than committing taxpayer cash, the Pentagon reportedly would structure the investment through warrants, giving the government its equity interest.
“The legal authority for this is far from clear,” the Journal said. Why is the Department of Defense involved in a foreign oil venture at all “when it already faces enormous challenges modernizing weapons systems and fixing procurement.”
Weekly Sift: “Phillips O’Brien points out that there are all kinds of problems with this arrangement. For one thing,
it is not clear what element of the US government (if any) either can or will hold the equity stake in any new company
“The American stake would have to be controlled and overseen by some particular department or agency, and without any congressional action it’s not clear who could do that. And without Senate ratification, this isn’t an official treaty…
“There are also problems on the Venezuelan side…” And it goes on from there. Congressional oversight would be the NORMAL path.
Graft
ITEM: He is bought and sold. New York Times: The GEO Group has profited from the administration’s mass deportation campaign to the tune of $165 million a year in contracts. A subsidiary donated more than $1.4 million to FOTUS’s super PAC in July.
But there’s so much I can’t be bothered to keep track of. Fortunately, the oversight Democrats have provided the Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker. And here are the regime’s most corrupt transactions.
Today is Constitution Day. “How better to commemorate and honor the signing of the Constitution than by reading it? Through civics education, we can make America what the framers dreamed it would become: a more perfect union.” Aspirational, to be sure.
It’s Selection Day, and I’m not taking anything for granted. Here’s the Weekly Sift’s 2026 election-watching guide. And The Republican Party & The Far Right: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. 
Amazon Is Deploying 
AI Giants 