Caitlin

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis: “To call Ken Paxton 'ethically challenged' is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”

[Pop Crave @PopCrave]

The Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s push to set aside thousands of disputed mail ballots in California ahead of the midterms, @AP reports.

[Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson]

Under pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran. The target would be Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one. “Bibi calls Trump about it every day,” says an informed observer.

Netanyahu is cornered and desperate. After last week’s election results, he can’t form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war.

To that end, he’s applied maximum pressure to his closest allies in the administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper. Both oppose a negotiated settlement to the war they’ve so grievously mismanaged; both are pushing to restart major combat operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe are also following Netanyahu’s lead, as are leaders of the Democratic Party. In a recent meeting on the subject, former president Barack Obama said he opposes the current Iran peace deal being drafted in Doha.

The rest of America’s longtime allies in the Middle East are terrified by the prospect of more war. On September 27th, Netanyahu flew secretly to Abu Dhabi to enlist the UAE in his lobbying effort for a final attack on Iran. The Emiratis refused. After eight months of conflict, Gulf economies are teetering. So are global energy and fertilizer markets. They won’t recover soon. Globally, there are a total of about 850 supertankers used to transport oil from producers to the rest of the world. In October alone, 11 of them were badly damaged in Hormuz. At this pace, a global depression is imminent. A nuclear strike would radically accelerate the destruction. Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickax Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people.

And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed. No country other than the United States has ever used a nuclear weapon in war. Some would like to. An American nuclear attack on Iran would set a new precedent. The Russians have already told at least two other governments that an American nuclear strike on Iran would free them to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Pakistan and India would be tempted to do the same against each other, as would North Korea against Seoul. After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.

We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months. Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called “battlefield nukes” easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.

Close observers say Trump is likely to decide by next weekend whether or not to use nuclear weapons. That would be November 7, six days from now. To his credit, he’s hesitating. At the moment, Trump is listening to his vice president, JD Vance, and to his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, both of whom argue a deal with Iran can be made.

They’re right, though it won’t be simple. The Iranians are famously frustrating to negotiate with under any circumstances, and elements of that government have become more radical since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family were killed in February. After decades of isolation, even relatively moderate Iranian leaders seem confused by how decisions are made in the West. (There is a widespread belief in Tehran, for example, that the United States government controls Israel.) But overall, people who have spoken to decision-makers in Iran say there is consensus there that more war is bad for everyone and a deal is worth making.

One group that hasn’t been consulted so far is the global population — the hundreds of millions of people who will be killed along with their children if Trump is pushed by Netanyahu into launching a nuclear strike next week. Now would be the time for them to speak up.

[Caitlin @caitsummertime]

@hsdtogethertour @hsdaily @occasionaldsco Iconic

[Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles]

Trick Or Treat People With Kindness.

[The Associated Press @AP]

Pope Leo XIV becomes the first pope in history to vote in a U.S. election, submitting a mail-in ballot in Chicago ahead of the midterms. https://t.co/ja0Dv3O4mL

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

Texas, Election Day is on November 3rd. Vote early until October 30th.

[Pop Base @PopBase]

13 years ago today, One Direction released ‘Story of My Life.’

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

It was actually our 250th anniversary.

Not that you would know — you spent it with the British.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Talarico: Ken Paxton is not one of us. He's not even from here. He moved here from California. Why is it always the Californians who are saying don't California my Texas?

[Team Talarico @TeamTalaricoHQ]

NEW AD: Have you seen these anti-Talarico attack ads?

Elon Musk paid for nearly all of them.

The world's first trillionaire knows if he drags the most corrupt politician in Texas across the finish line, Ken Paxton will owe him everything.

@ElonMusk: Texas is not for sale.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

It’s not just Vivek Ramaswamy choosing pedophiles over people.

Ken Paxton’s office offered a man who had faced child-sex-abuse charges a plea deal with one day in jail and no Texas sex-offender registration. Paxton now brags the man did 60. Hoffman served less than a month.

Donors named in the Epstein files gave nearly $4.7 million to Mike Rogers (MI) and groups backing him. Then Rogers said we have to “protect somebody who got on an airplane and rode with him.”

Michael Whatley (NC) appointed a convicted child sex offender to NC GOP leadership and kept him there after parents objected. Trump called Whatley “fantastic.”

As Arizona Senate president, Andy Biggs helped kill a bill to replace the police force in Colorado City, where Warren Jeffs’ child-rape cult held power. Marshals had helped return an underage bride who fled. Biggs says, “I knew what was going on.” And he did nothing when he could have.

Mike Collins (GA) voted against forcing the Epstein files out. Roger Marshall (KS) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS) voted to block an amendment that would have required their release. Now Epstein survivors are on TV telling voters what those votes meant.

And Trump and JD Vance stand behind every one of these corrupt pieces of shit.

This is the MAGA ticket. Every single one is on the ballot in two weeks.

MAGA: Protecting Pedophiles Over People Every Time.

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: The Dallas Morning News just announced they are endorsing James Talarico over Ken Paxton. The Dallas Morning News had previously endorsed Senator John Cornyn in every race he ever ran. This is amazing.

[jezz @JezziiB]

Just in case anyone forgot who Matthew McConaughey really is

1. He publicly opposed COVID vaccine mandates for children while knowing kids were already dying from it.
2. 2017, he urged americans to embrace trump’s presidency and work with him.
3. Went on RUSSEL BRANDS PODCAST and defended Trump against criticism in 2020, calling liberals “condescending” and “arrogant” toward Christians in Hollywood.
4. Promoted Salesforce's AI products during a period of layoffs In 2025.

[Pop Base @PopBase]

Early voting starts today in Texas for the 2026 midterm elections.

[Caitlin @caitsummertime]

Is this how a real person looks?

[Assistant Secretary Riley Barnes @StateDRL]

Ambassador Thornhill, welcome to the team. I’m proud to have such a dedicated leader join us as Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Human trafficking is a grave human rights issue and a transnational crime exploiting men, women, and children for profit. We will continue to go after traffickers, protect survivors, and deliver justice for the American people.

[𝒢𝒾𝓁𝒷ℯ𝓇𝓉 @AbakpaJob]

Here I am, a millennial manager raised by people who said “figure it out” who’s now leading a group of people who need step by step instructions for the simplest of task

[Caitlin @caitsummertime]

@AdamCrigler She got Laura Loomered

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

As of today, one man, billionaire Trump ally David Ellison, controls:

CBS
CNN
HBO
Discovery Channel
BET
Fandango
MTV
Nickelodeon
Paramount+
PlutoTV
Showtime
TBS
The CW
TNT
Warner Bros.
& more

Call it what it is: oligarchy.