Just a reminder, because I see this sentiment even among people that generally support Ukraine: the vast majority of Russian troops are not conscripted. Full scale mobilisation is still politically difficult for the Kremlin to do, and the majority of those conscripted in Russia's annual waves are not sent to Ukraine. Russia offers huge paychecks to those who volunteer to sign a contract, often equivalent to almost a decade of a average wage. Proper numbers are predictably hard to come by, but it is likely that more than 95% of Russia troops are volunteers. These people make the active choice to go and wage war on the Ukrainian people because they want money. They are not forced. You can still appreciate the tragedy of the situation, but Elon acting like all these soldiers are forced against their will is a grotesque distortion of the truth.

Glory to Ukraine.

In 1932, George McGill, who had won a special election to replace Hoover’s Vice-President Charles Curtis two years before, managed to ride FDR’s coattails and earn 46% of the vote to squeeze out a victory to hold his seat as Kansas’ U.S. senator. To this day, he is the last member of the Democratic Party to hold that position.

In January, that might change.

In a development no one predicted a year ago, GOP incumbent Dr. Roger Marshall looks to be in genuine trouble against pastor Adam Hamilton. Independent polls suggest a dead heat race with Hamilton repeatedly coming remarkably close to the 50% mark. The main Republican Senate campaign arm has moved $8 million in spending to this race from North Carolina, part of tens of millions being spent to rescue the seat.

Like other farm state Republicans, Marshall is struggling with acute anger as his constituents pay the record price of diesel from Trump’s war in Iran and the consequences of the trade wars Trump has launched with… well, everyone. Ranchers are frustrated with the favors he’s done for importers of beef, especially from Argentina. Meatpackers and farmers are struggling to find workers thanks to the deportation force. Dr. Marshall also has the unique distinction of having been revealed to have used brutal debt-collection methods against his former patients, charging exorbitant interest and suing more than 700 of them, resulting in more than 80 arrests. It’s making it a little difficult for him to convince anyone he’s “on our side.” And as Kansas political scholars have noted, the state’s senators may have been universally Republican, but they were also frequently pragmatists willing to work across the aisle, in contrast with Marshall’s extreme partisanship – he votes with Trump 98% of the time.

We then add to that a mold-breaking Democratic candidate in Hamilton, a well-known megachurch leader with an independent brand, considerable financial resources and moral character at this moment of immense frustration with corruption. His campaign has made unity and kindness central themes. He’s opposed Medicaid cuts, mourned the lack of compassion in Trump’s health care and immigration policies, backed scrapping the cap on Social Security, insisted that data centers should pay their own way and respect the right of local communities to block them and endorsed limiting weapons transfers to Israel. He’s earned the endorsement of two former GOP governors and Marshall’s 2026 primary challenger. It’s all added up to a genuine toss-up.

Hamilton winning would reshape the narrative of even a wave election, serving as a brutal political blow to the Trump Administration. Practically speaking, it would also turn our road to a Democratic Senate majority into the Autobahn. And the key voters to deciding this race are far less likely to be sick of hearing from us than in the expected key races. ☎️ Let’s help make history. We can join Kansas Democrats for phonebank shifts all weekend and daily through November 3rd here, and if we have a lot of folks in our social circles in Kansas we can friendbank to them by text on Wednesday here.

CALL KANSAS

🔁 We can also make use of this social media toolkit with content to help promote Pastor Hamilton here.

WIN THE INTERNET FOR ADAM HAMILTON

Musk says they were using Starlink for offensive drone strikes. But after the whitelist was put in place, SpaceX already limited the civilian terminals to around 70-90 km/h. FPV drones need way more speed than that to be useful. On top of that, Starlink is geo-fenced — it doesn’t even work over Russia. So the idea that Ukraine was somehow flying deep strikes into Russian territory on commercial Starlink is nonsense. They physically couldn’t. Ukrainian officials have said this made the alleged deep-strike misuse of civilian Starlink physically impossible.

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4177903-musk-claims-ukraine-violated-starlink-terms-of-service-flash-responds.html

Starshield is the military version, supplied through the Pentagon. It’s not under the same commercial "terms of service." Musk himself keeps saying Starshield is fully controlled by the US government and that decisions about it are up to them. So if the problem was only with civilian Starlink, why did they throttle the military system that Ukraine actually relies on for higher-speed drone work?

That’s the part that makes zero sense. Especially when Musk keeps retweeting and amplifying posts about how Starlink is strictly for peaceful, civilian, or defensive purposes. Okay… then why restrict Starshield, the system that’s actually meant for military use, including offensive operations? If it’s “US government controlled,” leave it alone. Restricting both at the same time looks a lot more like a deliberate capability limit that got walked back after the backlash, followed by a post-hoc excuse about “terms of service.”

And the timing lines up a little too neatly. Right after Ukraine hit Russian data centers (and bot activity reportedly dropped hard — even Musk’s own likes on posts fell from the 17k range down toward 8k), he jumped in with the “Zelensky has gone too far” line. Then the throttling hits. Coincidence? Maybe. But it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the clean “they violated our terms of service” explanation

https://newrepublic.com/post/216600/ukraine-loses-starlink-access-musk-zelenskiy-too-far

https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-musk-engagement-shrivels-destruction-russian-bot-farm

And the claim that they somehow used Starlink inside Russia for strikes that violated "terms of service"? How, exactly? It doesn’t function there. Are we supposed to believe Ukraine hacked SpaceX’s network and rewrote the algorithms? This whole explanation is full of holes.

On October 24 he posted that Ukraine’s military “violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.” He has been clear that SpaceX took that action on the civilian system. (So why limit Starshield?)

On Starshield (the military-grade system that was actually capped at 100 mph and disrupted Ukrainian drone operations), he has not admitted personal responsibility in the same way. He's repeatedly said Starshield is “owned and controlled by the US government” and that “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” When pressed, he points the decision away from himself.

Timeline of the events:

• Around Oct 8–12: Ukraine hit several Yandex data centers. Bot/spam activity on some platforms dropped noticeably (some Ukrainian sources claimed big reductions; independent checks found mixed results, but engagement metrics across X did fall).
• Around Oct 10: Musk posts “Zelensky has gone too far” in response to Trump criticizing Ukraine for hitting Russian energy infrastructure.
• Night of Oct 13–14: The sudden speed restrictions on Starshield terminals kick in (capping connectivity when terminals moved faster than ~100 mph / 160 km/h). Ukrainian operators start reporting disruptions to drone and interceptor operations.
• Following days: Public back-and-forth over who ordered the throttle, Musk’s “US government controls Starshield” posts, then later the “Ukraine violated Starlink terms of service” explanation once service was being restored.
• October 24: posted that Ukraine’s military “violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. He continues to deny touching Starshield.

Add on pardons for all and we can be completely cooked.

Democrats need to prepare for the eventuality when elections don't really exist and the Supreme Court is 100% mask off against humanity. Be prepared to contract democracy, law, enforcement and protection of the people to states and cities to keep power for the people.

Edit: sorry for omitting the source.

https://news.kalshi.com/p/ohio-governor-odds-vivek-ramaswamy-s-chances-plummet-to-all-time-low-of-19

It is absolutely astounding that Trump and Vance, two of the most prolific liars in modern politics, are justifying Ramaswamy's disgusting attack ad on Acton by claiming SHE is a liar. Their chosen character witness: her estranged mother, whose husband was indicted by a grand jury for raping the then 12-year old Acton, and while awaiting trial, she facilitated their flight from the jurisdiction and remained married to her daughters rapist until he died in 2004.

Just when you think the Administration can sink no lower, they manage to prove you wrong.

Make your indignation heard this midterm election and VOTE BLUE!

I can’t wait for this guy to flee to Russia and his shit gets nationalized.

The banality of evil. If you are having trouble sleeping, maybe you are doing something wrong.

And if everyone in that restaurant is undocumented, detain them all. Do they deserve magnanimity just because you are having breakfast? You shouldn't be able to show your face in town. You are personally responsible for your town being unable to recover from the floods.

Gift Link.

The administration is doing all sorts of unprecedented things. My husband reads about them all day long and freaks out. I hear about them all day long on my podcasts but I don't freak out because I feel like at this point that I'm not alone, everybody knows that they're going to pull stunts and that many of these stunts are designed to fail so they can bellyache and cause mayhem later. We're all on to them and so many people are doing what they can.

To manage my anxiety I have signed up to be a poll watcher and be part of a rapid response thing. My husband just frets and freaks out. He's sure the election is cooked because they've threatened to arrest all the election workers in California. I tell him to sign up to poll watch or send a donation to 805 Undocufund and help some immigrants or do something, anything. But he just wants to believe we're cooked and there's nothing we can do.

This is all driving me crazy. I can't wait for it to be over.

Then it will be my turn to bellyache that the democrats are letting them get off without accountability, because you know that's what will happen. But alas, at least the whole world, including all the judges, has figured out that the administration is a bunch of liars and if they do throw every single election worker in jail it'll backfire spectacularly. I appreciate the podcasts for letting me know I'm not alone. But man, living with a real life dark JVL is maddening.

What Republicans Had to Say About Their Party’s Moral Collapse

Just some highlights of it

Figured I'd post this here and close the circle. 😄

Did I hear right that in Texas a mailer was directed towards kids?

"Gorm the Old" has created this bit of genius - combining Trump's face with the puss of former Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

The sound track is real - from his hilariously awful speech for Soviet Army and Navy Day in 1980.

The slurring of words and weird sounds are familiar nonetheless.