Things are still down, but trending upwards. The #NoKings marches were a huge success, Russia's economy is literally on fire, and the infection control leaders who blew off scientists in the infamous "very big mistake" and botched COVID are about to fall off the last line of the narcissist's prayer.

This!

Money, Women and Taxes: Jeffrey Epstein’s Fiery Friendship with a Wall Street Titan

This got missed in all the happy protest posting yesterday, but the NYT continues to do revelatory work on the life and career of Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s another very, very wealthy man giving E lots of money for services of uncertain value.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/b...

See the difference? 👀

#NoKings

🎯💯 an addiction for which I will never want a cure. 📚

Spotify is running ICE ads. I went to cancel on mobile and saw that this isn’t allowed on mobile. They make you cancel on desktop. You think that’s gonna stop me, Spotify? I will erase you and forget you ever existed.

THOU SHALT CANCEL SPOTIFY!!!

You are performing an incredibly emotionally difficult public service. Thank you.

The UK fired their ambassador to the US over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Meanwhile, Epstein’s best friend remains the President of the United States.

Post from Donald Trump on Truth Social: A really deadly weekend in Chicago. 6 dead, 27 hurt in crime sprees all over the city. Panic stricken Governor Pritzker says that crime is under control, when in fact it is just the opposite. He is an incompetent governor who should call me for help. Mayor Johnson is no better. Make Chicago great again!

According to federal data, 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of those cities are Chicago.

8 of the top 10 states in homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states are Illinois.

And yet Trump is sending troops here.

As expected. Noted antivaxxer Geier, who has had many retractions in the lit and was fined for practicing medicine without a license, is who Kennedy hired to "find the cause of autism."

CDC workers are a huge benefit to public health IF they can perform their duties. They are passionate, dedicated public servants even after having 500 rounds (unacknowledged by Trump) fired at the main campus. Effective leaders know they would be next to be fired.They are Public Health.

Heartbreaking.

The idiocy of this memo. Thank goodness IL Gov Pritzker has consistently raised his voice against Trump’s authoritarian moves and the direction it is moving the nation. Dems can listen to him for free, vs Blue Rose.

Concur.

I would concur except…if red state govs want the show of force to intimidate their resident noncitizens, and any non-maga, non-white, non-LGBTQ, non-conservative Christian people. That may mean targeting some of their own large cities. Red states can have blue pockets, often in their major cities.

Starting with DC, Trump clearly plans to numb Americans into accepting the use of US military on US soil broadly. Red states are sending their NG to DC. Red state Govs will facilitate, not fight Trump’s insertion of NG into their cities. The authoritarian in chief’s tentacles are spreading.

@jamestalarico.bsky.social on a California gerrymander to counteract Texas' gerrymander: "You can't lay down. We've seen that appeasement doesn't work, especially when you're facing fascism."

@raskin.house.gov: "The grand jury files relate ONLY to the prosecution of Epstein himself for what HE did and Maxwell for what SHE did, but it doesn't include the whole universe of other people that we're interested in... it's a complete distraction."

“May the odds be ever in our favor.”

The National Weather Service is now predicting an 85% chance of rain and thunderstorms during Trump’s Vanity Parade in DC.

@coko.bsky.social @gwenie.bsky.social @bluestormcomin1.bsky.social @sassysister27.bsky.social @filosia.bsky.social @resist4harris.bsky.social @halostarmusic.bsky.social @terriresists.bsky.social

Don't let them lie to you about Senator Padilla. DHS is claiming the agents DID NOT KNOW he was a senator. He CLEARLY says (BEFORE he is tackled and cuffed) "I am Senator Alex Padilla and I have a question for the secretary."

What Moran reported was demonstrable fact. Indisputable fact. Yet they suspend him.

This is the advantage that Trump and his ilk have. They are so beyond the moral pale, so beyond normality, that it is considered impolite, impolitic, or intemperate to describe them as they are.

Spot on.

Both pitifully low.

Murphy is still getting a paycheck as a lawmaker, so what does he care if the already very spotty HC availability, especially for rural poor, gets far worse? Shameful. It won’t be him that takes the hit. Lost in his vote is that he was trained as a healthCARE provider. First do no harm, right?

House GOP is holding a hearing on their tax bill at 1:00 AM because they don't want us to know about their scheme to strip 13.7 million people of health coverage & they think no one will stay awake for it.

I’ll be there, testifying & offering amendments to protect our families.