Dear Everybody:

The big story today is a great one. I had thought that Zelenskyy’s blowing up the Russian oil terminal and thereby thwarting Trump’s plan to get diesel from the Russians was the best thing he could do, but I was wrong. This weekend he blew up a major data center, hitting it with drones three separate times (he had hit two other data centers earlier), and the Russian troll farms went suddenly silent:

–The minute the data center was bombed, there were suddenly far fewer pro-Trump and pro-conservative and pro-MAGA posts. The Reddit conservative sub-groups went silent.

–And it wasn’t just in the US. There was suddenly a complete lack anti-immigration posts in Ireland, right-wing AfD supporters in Germany, and conservative and pro-Brexit groups in the UK.

–This follows the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s statement this weekend that the Brexit election was heavily influenced by the Russians: “It’s clear Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum.”

–Angry drew the obvious conclusion: “None of these far-right movements are organic.”

–By eliminating the data centers, Zelenskyy has destroyed the propaganda structure of Putin’s Russia, which has been a HUGE part of his war effort–and of Putin’s meddling in the US midterms.

–Tech experts say there’s almost no chance of the data centers coming back on line before the midterms are over.

–Even better, the absence of particular accounts tells us exactly which accounts were, in fact, Russian bots, thus rendering them far less dangerous even if they manage somehow to get back online.

–Dan Sutterfield: “From the fascist party in Germany to the Ukraine invasion, climate change, ICE supporters, to the separatist group in Alberta and of course the MAGA bigot brigade in America…one thing in common: When the cloud data centers in Russia were hit this weekend, they all went quiet. MOST OF WHAT YOU SEE ON THESE SUBJECTS IS PROPAGANDA FROM RUSSIA (caps mine).”

–It’s also obvious that Elon Musk was heavily involved in that propaganda. He posted on Twitter: “Zelenskyy has gone too far.”

–Observers are calling the strikes “Operation Quiet Piggy.”

–David Obelcz: “The Russian war machine has suffered more damage than a hundred refinery strikes.”

–Outspoken: “Ukraine took out Russian bot farms, and suddenly the internet has a suspicious shortage of Trump supporters.”

–randym77: “You’re laughing. Your uncle in the Rochester, New York, suburbs just lost all of his online ‘friends’ in a drone strike, and you’re laughing.”

–Andrew Weinstein: “Ukraine is taking on the machinery of foreign disinformation directly at the source. President Zelenskyy deserves our full, unwavering support for doing it.”

–Jack Hopkins: “Zelenskyy should get the Nobel Peace Prize, if for no other reason than silencing so many fucking trolls in one fell swoop. The level of peace that has already (been introduced on social media…holy shit.”

–Christa: “This is the sort of October surprise that we needed!”

In Republican Dirty Tricks news:

–Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was sidelined for almost two weeks with the flu.

–The Republicans decided to use his absence to spread the rumor that he didn’t have the flu, but instead was being treated in a mental health facility in Ohio. On Saturday night, they released an alleged recording of a phone call that a Republican operative had had with an unnamed employee at the Lindner Center of Hope who said Talarico had been with them the whole time and had just been discharged that evening.

–Talarico promptly posted, “I’ve never even been to Ohio,” but he had no way to prove it because HIPAA rules don’t allow information about patients to be shared, not even whether someone is a patient there. (See Mitch McConnell.)

–There was just one problem–Talarico wasn’t in Ohio. He was in Austin and in public on Saturday night, at a Kacey Musgraves concert at which he went onstage with the performer.

–The Lindner Center of Hope then released a statement saying, “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.”

–Ron Filipkowski: “Another MAGA ‘citizen journalist’ hoax debunked. Next.”

–Will Sommer: “The right’s evidence for a James Talarico mental breakdown debuted with a lot of fanfare this afternoon–and imploded within hours.”

–There’s evidence that Elon Musk was behind the fake story. He reposted the original phone call several times, and he posted, “The campaign is hiding something big that voters ought to know about,” and “Talarico is not being honest about what’s happening.”

–Laura Bassett of Jezebel posted: “It’s all hands on deck trying to make the fake Talarico story stick.”

–She also pointed out that Musk suspended the Twitter account that Sortor used to post the so-called phone call and that Musk also prevented community notes on the Sortor post (which could have checked the facts of the post.)

–There’s lots of speculation about why they chose a mental health facility so far away from Texas. Some people suggested that Musk might have been treated for ketamine there.

–One of the reasons for this dirty trick was to distract from the fact that Ken Paxton has been refusing to debate Talarico. The Bulwark: “If they’re so sure Talarico is a quivering pile of nerves who’s one bad break away from a breakdown, it seems like all this detective work is a little bit superfluous. Why not just talk Talarico’s opponent into getting up on stage with him for a debate?”

–Interestingly, GOP Rep Tom Kean disappeared for four months earlier this year without no one having any idea where he was. When he emerged, he made a brief statement saying he was at a mental health facility being treated. MAGA didn’t blink an eye, and in fact is supporting his re-election.

–Adam Parkhomenko: “They’re so goddamn desperate they went deep into the vault and pulled out the Eagleton smear.” (See historical news below for what the Eagleton smear is.)

In Trump Destroying Washington DC news, Saruman Edition:

–Trump wants to turn one of DC’s public parks and golf courses in East Potomac Park into one of his private golf courses and to that end, he cut down over 500 trees this weekend, purposely choosing a 3-day weekend so the courts couldn’t stop him till it was too late.

–Minutes before 5 p.m. on Friday (at the beginning of a three-day weekend) Trump lawyers filed a notice with the court that they would be cutting down trees at Washington, DC’s East Potomac Park. They claimed this was not a renovation or redesign of the golf course, but they were just “addressing the undergrowth.”

–Three to four dozen workers arrived at 5:30 a.m. Saturday, and were given orders to cut down as many trees as possible. They were told to cut down ALL the trees and to cut them down as fast as they could. They were specifically told to cut down 529 on this go-round, and that more would be cut down later.

–Entire groves were cut down using bulldozers and other heavy equipment, including the oldest grove of cherry trees in Washington, DC. The earth around them was ripped to pieces.

–Save East Potomac: “What happened today was a blitzkrieg on a public park…This is fundamentally a question of if we the people own our public lands or the temporary resident of the White House does.”

–The DC Preservation League and two golfers who play on the public course filed an emergency motion for a restraining order, which, of course, couldn’t be heard until Monday morning when the courts reopened–and after 430 trees had already been cut down.

–At an emergency hearing before US district judge Reyes on Monday morning, she ordered the Trump administration to stop cutting down trees and demanded to know who gave the order to start. She was furious. She said the government can’t be trusted after it cut down hundreds of trees. “What has happened here cost the government all credibility with me in this case.”

–At the court hearing today, the government lawyers said they knew of the tree cutting on October 7, but didn’t tell the court until the 9th.

–The order came from the deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Greg Wisher. The judge has called him to testify under oath. No more trees can be cut down until he does.

–They managed to cut down 430 trees before rain stopped them. None of the trees were hazardous, diseased, or a danger to the public.

–Raw America: “LAWLESS: By destroying these beautiful trees for his new golf course, Trump is directly violating a court order from a federal judge to provide prior notice before doing any major demolition work.”

–I instantly thought of the return home to the Shire by the hobbits after the defeat of Sauron in JRR Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS: They rode down the road, “where the Hobbiton Road ran close to the bank. An avenue of trees had stood there. They were all gone…all the chestnuts were gone. The banks and hedgerows were broken. Great waggons were standing in disorder in a field beaten bare of grass…”They’ve cut it down!” cried Sam. ‘The Party Tree!’ He pointed to where the tree had stood under which Bilbo had made his Farewell Speech. It was lying lopped and dead in the field.”

–Ron Filipkowski: “I’ve said this before–Saruman without the intellect, real hair, and fashion sense.”

In Mar-a-lago face news:

–It’s Not Satire did an in-depth substack (with before and after photos) into the way people in Trump’s orbit (like Laura Loomer, Kristi Noem, Kimberley Guilfoyle, and this week’s Susan Dell, whose appearance went viral, change their appearance completely so that they look unrecognizable–and creepy. I highly recommend reading the whole thing. You can read it here:

https://itsnotsatire.substack.com/p/susan-dell-is-only-one-of-six-shocking

In What We’re Up Against news:

–The DOJ just departed from their long-standing policy of not investigating anybody who’s running for office during the last 60 days before an election to raid Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s house three weeks before the midterms. Tom Homan ordered the search-warranted raid supposedly to look for immigration paperwork filled out by her father when she was a child.

–This is clearly a vindictive, revenge-motivated attack. Steven Miller’s wife Katie posted a newspaper headline about the raid with the caption, “Promises made. Promises kept,” and then promptly deleted it. (But not before everybody got the screengrab of it.)

–Minnesota Dem Senator Tina Smith said, “I’m outraged by this attack on Representative Omar. This latest action, even as voting has already started in Minnesota, is a transparent attempt to interfere in our elections.”

–Dem Rep Ayanna Pressley: “Trump is a coward who targets black women.”

–Jim Acosta: “A sign of just how desperate some MAGA Republicans are becoming about the upcoming midterms, somebody left these threatening flyers on car windshields in Alexandria, Virginia near Washington, DC. They warn non-citizens not to vote in the midterms. Of course, it’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in our elections.”

In promising news:

–Trump has the lowest pre-midterm approval ratings of any president in US history.

–In a new AP/NORC Center for Public Affairs research poll, only 26% approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and only 17% approve of his handling of the cost of living. 17%!

–The post-Labor Day poll readjustment and tightening which Republicans were counting on (and talked about endlessly) failed to materialize.

–Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams urged her audience to vote in November: “Fuck all these people, man. Fucking MAGA pieces of shit. The KKK look different and they will not win.”

–Politico: “Ship has sailed: “New poll shows even an end to the war or lower gas prices may not save Republicans.” They quoted a GOP operative who said, “There’s nothing that Trump can do, and frankly, even if he did something, no one would believe it anyway at this point.” (Note: I guess he could play some dirty tricks. And cut down a bunch of beloved trees. That might change a few votes.)

In historical news:

–Thomas Eagleton was George McGovern’s running mate for vice-president in 1972. He had had bouts of depression throughout his life and had been hospitalized several times, though that had been successfully kept from the public until shortly after McGovern picked him.

–At that point, various newspapers began getting anonymous phone calls and tips, exposing Eagleton’s hospitalization. Who made those calls was never proven, but later releases from the Nixon archives revealed that Nixon aides Charles Colson, Pat Buchanan, and other members of Nixon’s dirty-tricks “Plumbers”–the same group that orchestrated the Watergate break-in–had actively worked to amplify the scandal and use it to damage the McGovern campaign.

–Pat Buchanan wrote a memo to Charles Colson that said, “Let’s get together and make a determination as to how we can get this material investigated fully…perhaps it should come rolling out, in the fall or in late October.” Colson answered, “Pat–no need to talk about it; I’ve already taken care of it.” Attached was a 3-page letter to Rosemary Woods with all the information about Eagleton’s depression and hospitalizations.

–When McGovern was asked about it lately, he said, “Looking back, you realize they would do anything to win.”

–The scandal caused LOTS of damage and resulted in Nixon winning in a landslide. And here we are again…

In other news:

–On Sunday morning, the White House abruptly canceled all of Donald Trump’s scheduled events right before he was due to attend a MAGA, Inc. fundraiser at his Virginia golf course.

–A US military archbishop says Catholic soldiers should not serve on the firing squad for the planned live-stream execution in December.

–The victim of the Cornell fraternity gang rape has had her house swatted after a fake 911 call. She and her family are receiving death threats.

–The Feminist Lens: “This is exactly why rape and sexual assault survivors hesitate to report. We are not safe.”

In good news:

–The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford for their work in microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization, which means reducing the economy’s peaks and troughs (translation: booms and depressions.)

–Lyft agreed to pay the state of California $272.5 million dollars to settle claims it stole drivers’ wages by mislabeling them as independent contractors rather than employees.

–The FTC opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies over potential dangers posed by their products.

In Worst Idea of the Day news, Elon Musk posted this about a brand-new function of his AI Grok: “To buy stuff, you can just take a picture of your credit card, drop it in the chat, and Grok will scour the Internet for the best deal on the item you want and order it.” (What could possibly go wrong? The only thing that could make this idea better would be if you also sent your social security number along with your credit card.)

Finally, today is Indigenous People’s Day. In honor of the day and of the people who came here long before most of us did, here are two relevant quotes (especially in light of Trump’s tree-destroying):

From Qwatsinas of the Nuxalk Nation: “We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren, and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can’t speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish, and trees.”

Best comment of the day, from Chief Seattle of the Chippewa Tribe: “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

Keep calm and carry on,

Connie Willis