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(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Steve Breen, Creators.com)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.substack.com)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Lee Judge, King Features)
(Rob Rogers, gocomics.com)
(Joel Pett, Tribune Content Agency)
(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)
(Steve Brodner, stevebrodner.substack.com)
(Daniel Boris, @danboriscreates)
(Adam Douglas Thompson, @adamdouglasthompson)
At his rally yesterday in Vandalia, Ohio, the increasingly frantic and delusional Malignant Fascist saw his followers start to head for the exits after 45 minutes of his rambling, shit flinging speech. From Raw Story:
"President Donald Trump's Saturday rally in Ohio started losing its crowd before he finished speaking, according to a New York Times White House reporter who was in the room.
'Upper level of this rally is emptying out about 45 minutes after the president started speaking in Ohio,' Times reporter Katie Rogers wrote on X.
Her video, shot from the floor of the high school gym in Vandalia, shows Trump at the podium in front of a packed floor of supporters, many wearing red hats. In the upper level, people are on their feet and moving toward the exits, and parts of the balcony have already cleared." (our emphasis)
The video clip at the link shows the audience filing out. Eventually, even some of the most ignorant and hateful of his cult will tire of hearing the same incoherent dreck over and over, especially when it doesn't match their experience. It's a telling sign that the economy and the war on Iran is leaving its mark on his cult. It's not the only time that the MF's lost his audience recently:
"The night before in Mobile, Alabama, MS NOW host Jen Psaki said Trump 'couldn't even fill half the seats" in an arena that holds 10,000 people.'"
He's only campaigning in areas where he can expect a more friendly crowd, but his approval ratings are so low even his most faithful cult members are not showing up, and when they do, they drift off before the clown show is over. November 3 is coming hard, and we need to make sure the MF and his toxic cult are defeated decisively.
This is part of Cardinal Robert W. McElroy's homily on the occasion of the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, delivered at St. Matthew's Cathedral, Washington, DC, on September 27. The full text is here. Please feel free to share it.
... For the last year and a half, the people of the United States have witnessed the suffering of the undocumented in our midst, purposely and strategically magnified by our government, and for the most part, we have simply passed on by.
At the beginning of 2025, when we were told that ICE enforcement efforts would be confined to securing the border and deporting those who had committed serious crimes, we told ourselves that this is acceptable. After all, Catholic teaching itself says that a nation has a right to secure its borders and deport serious criminals among the undocumented in our midst.
But then we witnessed the indiscriminate raids on farmworkers and Home Depot parking lots, nursing homes and schools, and we recognized that this was a war on every undocumented immigrant in our land, including those who had been here for decades and contributed enormously to the economy and the culture of our nation.
We saw their suffering and the injustice of it, but we just crossed to the other side of the road and passed on by.
When the expansiveness of the net of deportation began to touch us more intimately, ensnaring mothers and fathers and children and families whom we knew, fellow parishioners and coworkers who exemplify all of the best qualities that our nation is so desperately searching for, we were deeply troubled. But in the end we told ourselves that I cannot save them alone. And emotionally we crossed to the other side of the road and passed on by.
When our government laid siege to the city of Minneapolis with wanton violence and the killing of those who had spoken up in resistance, we were outraged. We could not believe that the mask had become the new symbol of American justice. We said it is unacceptable for our government, in our name, to send poorly trained troops en masse into the streets of our cities to crush the growing opposition to the wholesale war on so many innocent people. But in the end we as a people saw the suffering, crossed to the other side of the road, and passed on by.
We have been told for over a year that the reason the federal government is expelling immigrants is that they broke the law by entering or staying in the United States. In recent months the government has shown us how hollow that claim is. More than one million immigrants who came to the United States for asylum or as refugees under the TPS program were legally admitted here because of the danger that a return to their homeland would pose for them. Now, our government has decided that these endangered immigrants will be deported from the United States and returned to the danger in their homeland. These refugees never broke any law. They are being deported because of a general desire to exclude immigrants from American society. They are being deported because the bigotry that has often tarnished American immigration history is rampant once again in our nation. We know this, but so often we cross the road to the other side and pass on by.
In January, five year old Liam Ramos was arrested by ICE officers, wearing his Spider-Man backpack and wearing a blue bunny hat, totally bewildered, he was brought by agents to his home, as his school said, to use him as bait to get his mother to answer the door and be investigated for deportation. Taken to a detention center in Texas along with his father, he was imprisoned for a month until an outraged federal judge ordered him to be released. In the release documents, the judge included pictures of Liam alongside two verses from the Gospel: the first verse was “Let the little children come unto me and do not hinder them, for it is to just such as these that the Kingdom belongs.” The second verse in the judge’s order was brief: “Jesus wept.”
Jesus weeps all across our nation for the children who have been arrested, detained, transported to far-off centers with terrible living conditions, and cut off from their families.
For us as a nation we can pass by no more. We must stop, recognize the evil that is being carried out in our name, and fight every dimension of it. We must seek to convert our political representatives from tolerating this evil or replace them. We must shed our identities as priests and Levites and become like the Good Samaritan who recognized no boundaries in rescuing the victim by the side of the road. We must recognize that in abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and the Statue of Liberty we are losing our soul as a nation. And we must constantly see before us the families that are being broken apart, the fear that consumes the undocumented communities, the children who are in pain. We must act now and act together. For Jesus weeps, and he will continue to weep until we go to the side of the road, lift up the victim, embrace him and make his pain our own. (our emphasis)
If only this could be read in every church, synagogue, temple, and mosque by every every religious leader who calls themself a believer in a higher being. If only the message could be absorbed by those calling themselves Christians who've forgotten or never learned the meaning of brotherhood. But the silence from so many of these leaders, especially in the "evangelical" community, has been deafening. The actions of this fascist regime pursuing its white nationalist immigration policies, its abandonment of the rule of law, and its assault on our democracy have indeed been evil, and to let this pass means losing our soul as a nation, as Cardinal McElroy says. We have at least one way coming up on the horizon when we can stop passing by the evil: November 3, election day.
“After they see me, when their mothers are feeding them all that cashmere sweater and girdle ----- [expletive deleted by the New York Times], maybe they'll have a second thought - that they can be themselves and win.” -- iconic blues /rock singer Janis Joplin (1/19/1943- 10/4/1970), whose legendary career was cut short at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose.
(photo: Michael Ochs Archives /Getty)
Last night's Saturday Night Live cold open featured "Republican heavy hitters" recording mid- term election messages. The Malignant Fascist (James Austin Johnson), JD Vance (Jeremy Culhane), Whiskey Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost), Li'l Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) and Moscow Mitch McConnell (Mikey Day) all give it their best shots. But it comes down to what the MF says, whichever way the mid- term election goes: "We did it. We won."
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(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Jimmy Margulies, King Features)
(Jeff Danziger, The Rutland Herald, VT)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.substack.com)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Ingrid Rice, caglecartoons.com, Canada)
(Tom Toro, @yaleclimateconnections)
A teeny tiny sample of what is likely a larger trend in the red state of Ohio:
Sipping tea from beer mugs with his coworkers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing.
Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, five items cost as much as a full cart once did. And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio.
The layoffs — occurring just three days before Donald Trump's rally on Saturday at a nearby high school — were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio area. And they are one reason why Bos, 30, plans to spend the final weeks before the November election canvassing votes for Democrats.
Asked how many times he voted for Trump, Bos held up three tattooed fingers. But he said he's done with the president.
"Something has to change politically in this country," said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers who identifies as a centrist... [Ed.: if voting for Trump 3 times means you're a "centrist," that word has lost all meaning! But, hey, welcome to reality.]
More:
Kelly Savage-Radich grew up in a Republican-supporting Ohio family and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But today the mother of three, who lives in a Montgomery county suburb of Dayton, is facing the prospect of having to sell one of her family's vehicles due to the high cost of gas. Her grocery bill has gone up about $100 a week.
She lays the blame squarely at the Trump administration's door.
"He wants his name on everything," she said. "I'm sorry, but I don't give a shit whose name is on the Kennedy Center."
That wasn't the only matter on her list of grievances – Savage-Radich also brought up the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year. She said: "The shooting of an American citizen dead in the street, and no one was held accountable? I have two daughters, and I'm trying to teach them all the freedoms this country has, but it feels like our freedoms are being taken. [snip]
"Trump? I think he's a disaster," said a woman who declined to give her name as she stood outside a tattoo parlor in the Old North district, a working-class area north of downtown Dayton. [snip]
"To be honest, I think I'm going to vote Democrat all the way down, for everything. Because I want it not to be this way."
We're grateful for every one of these "centrists"/ Republicans who're finally (often once reality hits them personally) coming to the same conclusion the rest of us came to as we watched the Malignant Fascist descend the golden escalator at Trump Tower back in 2015: He's a disaster.
(Photo: Don Snoresalot / Reuters)
Operation Epic Quagmire: Saudi oil fire --
Fire, smoke seen near Aramco facility in Riyadh, witness says reut.rs/3TyiOLK
— Reuters (@reuters.com) October 3, 2026 at 8:05 AM
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Polls, polls --
The NYT dropped 5 major Senate polls this morning — and they tell you exactly why the GOP is freaking out about the Senate. Alaska: Peltola up 50/43 Texas: Talarico up 51/45 Ohio: Brown up 49/46 Kansas: a 45/45 tie Iowa: Hinson up 48/47.
— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) October 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Don’t get complacent. They’re still going to try to cheat. Check your registration. Vote early if at all possible.
— Angry (@angrystaffer.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 4:51 PM
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Trump family and friends' unending corruption --
Conflicts of interest? Really? That's what we're calling crazed corruption and betrayal of US national interests these days?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) October 3, 2026 at 9:50 AM
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Kushner’s private equity firm is the largest stakeholder in an Israeli financial institution that invests in Israeli defense companies.
— Forbes (@forbes.com) October 2, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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Guess who's helping to fund the Malignant Fascist's golden ballroom / military bunker? --
We’re screwed www.esquire.com/news-politic...
— John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) October 3, 2026 at 7:49 AM
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Ohio workers find out too late the MF's not with them. FAFO --
“.. The layoffs — occurring just three days before President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday at a nearby high school — were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio, area.” @apnews.com apnews.com/article/trum...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) October 3, 2026 at 9:51 AM
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Some good news --
Scoop: Podcaster Benny Johnson is being sued for defamation over his ICE ride-along videos calling protesters "terrorists." www.ms.now/news/benny-j...
— Brandy Zadrozny (@brandyzadrozny.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 10:09 AM
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The MF's criminal misappropriation of Federal taxpayer money --
These hideous Trump ads are outright theft from the taxpayers and election misconduct at the same time. $20 million in OUR MONEY spent on Illegal ads glorifying the would-be king. And his co-conspirators told him it was OK.
— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 9:56 PM
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The right man for the job --
Well, at least he's fixing the Reflecting pool. #DonaldTrump
— Paulley Ticks (@tomadelsbach.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 5:35 PM
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"... [T]he story does not end with [clown MAGAt Sen. Eric] Schmitt, because his story is part of a larger story – a conspiracy, you might say – to stop the public from fully understanding what the president did in the wake of his defeat to Joe Biden, which is to say that he's guilty of treason. As Jack Smith said Tuesday, 'the charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence. Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions ... Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.'
"That 'criminal scheme' is ongoing. There is a straight
line between the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and Schmitt's
humiliation. The president, or someone acting on his behalf, gave the
senator, via Chuck Grassley, text messages about Jack Smith's
whereabouts that they all believed was evidence that was strong enough,
at least by rightwing media standards, to smear Smith's integrity, thus
preventing the truth from being clear..." -- John Stohr, in The Editorial Board Substack, on "From J6 insurrection to Schmitt's humiliation, a straight line." If there's any truth to the quotation that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," Schmitt and all the other enablers and sycophants in and out of office will be known to history as part of "the malign project that is holding up Trump. Inept, incompetent, sinister, evil – the root of it all is corruption." The Jack Smith hearing was a debacle for them, and rightly so, because it exposed the strong, corrupt connections between the Malignant Fascist and his party/ cult that is determined to put him above the law, the Constitution, and what it means to be an American.
We're one month away from the November 3 mid-term elections. Register to vote if you haven't, vote early if your state allows it, same with mail-in ballots. Join get out the vote efforts, canvas, and contribute what you can to Dem candidates. If you've never done it before, this is the election to do it.
As we've noted, Dems are picking up momentum as the mentally ill Malignant Fascist's approval numbers drop. His tariff policies and his war with Iran have caused spikes in what Americans pay for everyday essentials, as his cuts to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and other popular programs take effect. Dems hold a 8.3 point advantage over MAGAts nationally, which would signal a blue wave, if not tsunami, and MAGAts are realizing their dire situation. If we put forth our maximum effort in the month remaining, we can make the polls a reality on Election Day.
It's been a while since we had the pleasure of having a Sarah Cooper video on the blog. In this recent gem, she's a confused Third Wife Melania Trump visiting The Criterion Closet and offering her opinions on "movies she's read." 😂
(click on images to enlarge)
(John Branch, King Features)
(Chris Britt, Creators.com)
(Michael de Adder, The Contrarian, Canada)
(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)
(Ruben Bolling, gocomics.com)
(Drew Sheneman, Tribune Content Agency)
(Theo Moudakis, Toronto Star, Canada)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Steve Jones, steve@jonesycartoons.com, UK)
(Jim Benton, @jimbentonshots)
From Peter Beinart, writing in The Guardian, about the self-destructive actions of Israel's supporters:
"Israel’s supporters keep proving its detractors right. Over the last couple of years, Americans from across the ideological spectrum – from Bernie Sanders to Tucker Carlson – have grown increasingly enraged by the way pro-Israel billionaires restrict Americans’ free speech. So, last month, along comes the New York England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, allegedly in tandem with other stadium owners, and pushes Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his US tour because the rapper uttered 'Free Palestine' on stage. It’s hard to imagine anything more likely to intensify fury towards the AIPAC class.
Then Benjamin Netanyahu does something equally self-defeating. Since 2018, Israel’s favorability rating among Americans has dropped by an astonishing 67 points. A plurality of Democrats with views on the subject consider Israel to be 'a state with segregation similar to apartheid' rather than a democracy. Yet faced with an American public that increasingly rejects Israel’s self-presentation as a bastion of freedom, Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has pushed to ban Arab parties, undercutting claims about Israel being a democracy for its Palestinian citizens. He’s undermining his own hasbara.
Kraft and Netanyahu’s actions aren’t merely morally loathsome. They’re politically stupid. Were pro-Israel leaders savvy, they would greet the turn in American opinion with tactical concessions aimed at salvaging Israel’s reputation. Instead, they’re doubling down." (our emphasis)
We would also include billionaires David and Larry Ellison, who are busy buying up major news networks and entertainment industry giants, as "pro-Israel billionaires" aiming to "restrict America's free speech," especially when it comes to any criticism of Netanyahu's far-right Likudnik regime. Their installation of Bari Weiss as CBS News chief is already proving that, and as CNN is brought into their fold you'll see the shift there, too.
(photo: Netanyahu awarding Kraft Israel's Genesis Prize in 2019)
Operation Epic Quagmire / November surprise! / did G7 bend the knee? --
Operation Save $10 Gas Until After the Midterms
— 🗽LOLGOP🗽 (@lolgop.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 6:52 AM
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thought we won already
— gg (@ggold328.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 7:06 AM
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The G-7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and other fuel from emergency stocks following President Trump's threat to ban diesel exports.
— The Wall Street Journal (@wsj.com) October 2, 2026 at 10:44 AM
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What’s the over/under on this being a complete lie?
— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.com) October 2, 2026 at 10:09 AM
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Another November surprise --
SCOOP: White House officials, led by Susie Wiles, have told DOJ to delay any abortion-related action until after the midterms Wiles suggested to Todd Blanche that an aggressive approach on abortion would be negative for the GOP in November @washingtonsun.com www.washingtonsun.com/campaigns/ab...
— Oriana González (@oriana.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 8:08 AM
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Trump's midterm message to Hispanic voters --
Trump: "The greatest ballroom ever built -- it's also a tremendous military complex with a drone port on top. Be careful. Don't fall over the edge. And only a Hispanic could survive that fall."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 30, 2026 at 2:38 PM
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Trump's midterm message/ lie to Iowans --
Looks like Trump’s new “steel plant” in IA, announced to shore up support in midterms from people his policies have crushed, where he said construction has already begun, is nowhere close to happening and contingent on Iowans giving tax breaks & incentives to a company in India.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Li'l Marco, Republican "moderate" --
Under Marco Rubio, the State Department is being by pro-Russian Nazis using State to foster fascism worldwide. edition.cnn.com/2026/10/02/p...
— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 9:19 AM
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Get out the vote! --
We need all hands on deck over the next 32 days to defeat the fascists and reclaim the power of the pro-democracy majority. Anyone can help get out the vote in the states and districts that will decide the midterms: indivisible2026.org?utm_source=b...
— Indivisible ❌👑 (@indivisible.org) October 2, 2026 at 8:59 AM
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Important message! Americans need to be ready for anything to happen as the election gets closer, but don’t fall for the regime’s tricks and lies, and be sure to exercise your freedom & right to vote. 🇺🇸 substack.com/@hart28/note...
— colara1999.bsky.social (@colara1999.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 7:53 AM
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Slam dunk! --
— Hookcity - 🚫“War Plan” DMs Please 👊🏻🇺🇸🔥 🫣 (@hookcity.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 11:35 AM
About to lose the farm (read the subtitles and Happy Friday!) --
MAGA is about to lose his farm
— Brent Terhune (@brentterhune.bsky.social) September 29, 2026 at 6:48 PM
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Today we have three songs about love performed by three bassists born on this day: The Police's Sting (Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner), born on this day in 1951; Mike Rutherford (of Genesis and Mike + The Mechanics), born on this day in 1950; and Ron Meagher (of The Beau Brummels), born on this day in 1945.
San Francisco's The Beau Brummels' April 1965's "Just a Little" was their biggest hit (produced by a young Sly Stone!). "Message in a Bottle" from September 1979 was written by Sting and was The Police's first number 1 single. Rutherford's "The Living Years" from December 1988 (co-written by BA Robertson) was Mike + The Mechanics' only number 1 single. Happy Birthday to all, and hope you enjoy.
