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October 12, 2026

90 posts · Monday

Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 191

Blue Wave Update

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 191: Blue Wave Update

Don Bacon Considering 2028 Presidential Run

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“Rep. Don Bacon said on a new Our Republican Legacy podcast episode that he’s mulling over a run for president in 2028,” Nebraska Public Media reports.

Said Bacon: “I won’t lie. Yes, I would love to, but I would also just be happy to be the right-hand or the left-hand man to someone else that has the same values.”

He added: “But in the end, I want our values to dominate in our party. And I think our country needs people who are not using the FBI, the IRS going through their adversaries, or the attorney general. We want people to be respectful. I like that Ronald Reagan had Tip O’Neill at the White House at times, and had a glass of scotch, right? I think we need leadership that stands as an example of decent humanity and represents Christian values.”

Catholic Soldiers Told to Refuse Firing Squad Duty

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“Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the Catholic Church’s pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, is condemning the proposed livestream of the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan,” Politico reports.

“Broglio, in a statement Monday, also stipulated that any Catholic soldier assigned to the U.S. Army firing squad should ask to be excused from that duty, which he described as contrary to the teachings of the church.”

Mikie Sherrill Says Democrats Need a New Approach

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“Gov. Mikie Sherrill says Democrats haven’t been effective — and she’s holding up New Jersey as a model for how they can do better,” Politico reports.

“Nine months into her first term, Sherrill, 54, is calling for a ‘new generation of leadership’ to break with the party’s old habits. She also acknowledged that she has fielded calls about a presidential campaign of her own.”

Trump Posts a Made-Up Quote From Denzel Washington

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“President Donald Trump posted a laudatory, but fabricated, quote from Denzel Washington on his Truth Social page Monday morning, the actor’s team confirmed,” the Washington Post reports.

“The quote, in which Washington purportedly says he has ‘never met anyone braver, smarter, or who cares more about America’ than Trump, has circulated online before.”

Mediaite: Trump elevates viral — but fake — social media rumor that he has Denzel Washington’s support.

John Fetterman Increasingly Votes with the GOP

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Philadelphia Inquirer: “An analysis of his voting record with the full Senate, meanwhile, shows his votes along the Democratic Party line have fallen from nearly 100% under the final years of President Joe Biden’s term to less than 80% during President Donald Trump’s first two years.”

“Among Democrats, only Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has voted with Trump’s priorities more often.”

Another Bonus Quote of the Day

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“When I was at the opening of the Obama Library, which I hope you all get to visit. And, you know, Bill and I were up there with the former presidents and first ladies, and was sitting behind, you know, Barack and Michelle and their daughters. So, when Michelle gave that very touching and clever speech about all the things that her husband had done that the other guy hasn’t, and when she got to, and then, you know, the Nobel Peace Prize, I just burst into laughter.”

— Hillary Clinton, quoted by NewsNation.

Talarico MAGA Conspiracy Theory Is the Latest to Blow Up

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Aaron Blake: “Two weeks ago, GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri saw his conspiracy theory about former special counsel Jack Smith implode spectacularly at a congressional hearing for all to see.”

“Rather than seemingly learning a lesson from that episode, the MAGA movement in recent days embraced another sketchy theory that quickly fell apart — that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was missing from the campaign trail because of a mental health episode.”

Rolling Stone: The right’s desperate conspiracy theory about James Talarico goes up in flames.

Trump’s Message to Ukraine Is Now Crystal Clear

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Anne Applebaum: “The president has implied that the point of his new policy is to lower fuel prices for Americans. Perhaps he wants to convince voters that the cause of high prices is Ukraine and not his own war of choice in Iran. But this is not a sufficient explanation or justification for these dramatic actions. The amount of fuel that Russia could export is too small, the impact on pricing too slight, the narrative too late to shape electoral outcomes.”

“This looks, instead, like something very different: an abrupt, Hail Mary attempt to force Ukraine to surrender and to save the Russian economy, perhaps in order to finally complete the multiple business deals that the Russians are known to have discussed with American negotiators and others in Trump’s orbit. These include deals involving the Nord Stream gas pipelines, mineral mining in the Arctic, the Russian assets frozen in European banks, and more.”

Is the GOP Funding Ads for a Socialist Candidate?

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“Some Ohioans received political flyers in the mail touting an independent candidate in Ohio’s nationally-watched U.S. Senate race,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.

“Turns out, Greg Levy isn’t behind them − and his campaign contends something nefarious is afoot.”

“Levy, a socialist, is running against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Libertarian Bill Redpath in the Nov. 3 election. The race has attracted more than $400 million in ad spending as Republicans and Democrats fight for control of the Senate.”

Disrupting Politics

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Just published: Disrupting Politics: A Front Row Seat to the Collision of Technology and Democracy by Katie Harbath.

What happens to democracy when technology moves faster than we can govern it?

New · Out October 6, 2026Disrupting Politics
A Front Row Seat to the Collision of Technology and Democracy
by Katie Harbath · Indigo River Publishing
Buy on Amazon
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Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

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“Trump is a coward who is weaponizing his DOJ to fuel hate and intimidate his opponents with baseless attacks like these, just like he’s doing with Rep. McIver, Lisa Cook, and Tish James.”

— Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), quoted by the HuffPost, on the raid of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) home early this morning.

What Trump’s Chatbot Told Me About the Election

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Toluse Olorunnipa: “Around the same time that the world learned that swarms of autonomous AI agents were escaping their testing environments and carrying out sophisticated hacking attacks this past summer, researchers who focus on election security were running tests of their own. They wanted to see whether the safeguards that top AI companies had enacted to prevent their technology from disrupting the upcoming midterms would work in the real world. The results were ominous.”

“In response to sample prompts designed to create misinformation, several chatbots produced realistic photos of a man stuffing ballots into a mailbox, a man holding a foreign passport while trying to vote, and FBI agents investigating a voter-registration organization. The chatbots also created fraudulent government documents and deepfake videos of government officials purporting to substantiate election-conspiracy theories.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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