"Democrats don’t have an easy road ahead. But, paradoxically, the better they do in 2026, the more likely they are to ignore their party’s weaknesses with working-class and rural voters."

"Those weaknesses led to Trump winning the 2024 election, but they are likely to fade from the party’s memory as Democrats, buoyed by the fool’s gold of midterms success, attempt to placate an energized left. Celebration is easy; confronting underlying problems is hard. Thus, when Republicans get shellacked on Nov. 3, expect Democrats to see the result as an enthusiastic endorsement of the party rather than a repudiation of the GOP — a far more plausible explanation...."

Writes Ruy Teixeira, in "How a ‘blue wave’ ultimately could cripple the Democratic Party/Midterms success could blind Democrats to problems for 2028 and beyond" (WaPo)(gift link).

Sunrise in the woods.

The radio announcers were much better — I know, Meade put them on some of the time — but they screw up the not-quite-live TV coverage.

Love how this dude spoils the live coverage because he's listening on the radio, running 10 seconds ahead of the TV broadcast. https://t.co/uAG3ZhQfFK

— Ryan Nantell (@RyanNantell) October 29, 2026

"What the f–k does it look like I’m up to? I’m being an oyster farmer," said Graham Platner.

Quoted in "Accused rapist Graham Platner is pissed as ever after crashing out of Maine Senate race: 'Who the f–k are you weirdos'" (NY Post).

The Post pressured Platner to say how he felt about his life now and collected remarks like "It just seems to be, like, life, man" and "It goes the way it always goes, friend" and "People from away have no idea what it is we do for a living."

They won't let him melt back into obscurity. The word "rapist" in the headline feels lowly and mean. I'd have to look it up. I'll just publish this and click the "Graham Platner" link to to remember what that was all about... back when it mattered. Now, there's this other guy being the Graham Platner to Maine's Susan Collins. Don't know a thing about him. The details of midterm elections in states other than my own are not something I like to get tangled up in. I'll be glad when the 2026 election day is over and we can get back to endlessly mulling over presidential candidates. 

"At one point [Mary Peltola] required her staff to feed her family's pet chameleon, which is named Meatball, which only ate crickets."

"At one point, they had to feed Meatball in her congressional office when she was in Congress, and these live crickets escaped, and staff had to recapture them. So that was an example where they felt this was beneath their duties or somewhat demeaning of employees.... So one of the employees Mary Peltola fired in August was her campaign manager, a woman named Elisa Rios. I began talking to Elisa Rios, and she told me a pretty incredible story about what really happened with Dan J. Sullivan and the role Democrats played in his candidacy...."

I'm listening to today's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "A Plan for Two Dans: How Democrats Manipulated Alaska’s Ballot/An investigation by The New York Times looked at how two people named Dan Sullivan ended up on the ballot for the Senate."

The underlying NYT story was the subject of a blog post yesterday, but that one did not have crickets, and I can't miss a good opportunity to bring out my "insect politics" tag.

I mean, have you ever heard of insect politics? They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect....

A word to the wise politician: After you've demeaned someone by forcing them to scuttle about capturing crickets, don't fire them, not before the election. Better yet: Don't keep your pets in the office, especially not if they — or their food — creeps people out or smells like hell. That is, if you must keep a pet in your office and you are a politician, make it a dog. There are lots of dogs kept in the offices of congresspersons. Dogs are the official pet of politics. They signal that you are human and normal. You might need that. Trump haters love to tell us he's lacking a dog. And Nixon saved his skin by mentioning his dog named Checkers, Bill Clinton procured a dog (Buddy) to offset his cat (Socks), and Obama ostentatiously acquired the dog Bo. The dog is the animal if you want to be a politician.

Have you ever heard of dog politics? They're very friendly. No brutality, no live crickets. 

Random lady not random at all.

I am now being told that this is Miz's fiancee

— Carter Lowe (@cjlowehoops) October 29, 2026

Context:

The trees at sunrise.

And here's Meade's view of the sunrise....

"In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can."

"The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state.... Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot.... This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan. The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory...."

The NYT exposes Peltola, in "Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot/Operatives aligned with Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee for Senate, spent months recruiting candidates to peel votes from Senator Dan Sullivan, the Republican." 

That's a gift link. It's a long article, so check it out, especially if you're inclined to think the NYT is always just trying to help Democrats.

"I was promised Kermit the Gangster Frog, and didn’t get a photo of such a poster."

Said Gus, the top-rated commenter at the NYT article "Kermit the Gangster Frog? Only in These Vintage Ghanaian Movie Posters/In the 1980s, video clubs in Ghana used hand-painted posters to draw African audiences to Hollywood movies. Now they’re attracting American film buffs."

Lots of great photos of posters at the NYT article, and here's the one they didn't think was worth a photograph but that proved so enticing as click bait. It got me. Sure, Kermit the Gangster Frog. I'm clicking. 

The lakeshore path at sunrise.

They're frying the animals.

Trump on solar panels: "They kill all the animals. The animals jump on them and they fry." pic.twitter.com/EShkbJ7oJ1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 28, 2026

"They came up big today. It's going to be hard.... It's when you're achieving something like this, it's going to have its adversity."

"You know, we had some things go our way yesterday. They had some things go their way this today. So that's the way it is. You just live with it. And if you're a competitor, you you wake up tomorrow morning, come ready to play. [Will the plan tomorrow be Misiorowski?] Yeah. And and to have that as, you know, your guy for this type of situation. Um Yeah. I mean, it's all hands on deck, you know, you just you can write it up and and hope that they perform like the best back of their baseball card, but that doesn't always happen, you know. So, you just you go with what you you believe is the the deal. And um you know, I trust our guys."

Pure baseball talk, from Brewers manager Pat Murphy, after last night's loss to the Rays.

"Just in case you forgot about the horrors of the world for half a second."

Watching everyone Stand Up to Cancer at the World Series reminded me of the most hilarious Bill Burr bit of all time 😂 #WorldSeries https://t.co/LCkT0GQCOn

— Junior Terrazas (@terrazas_junior) October 28, 2026

Hilarious, but he is obviously deliberately luring his antagonists to display homophobia.

Trump: I love the meat! Ahhhh! I love it, look! *gestures* pic.twitter.com/TV3OGDz4o0

— FactPost (@factpostnews) October 27, 2026

To see the homophobia display by Trump antagonists, read the responses to this video, here, at X.

ADDED: "This post got my 'homophobia politics' tag, and I clicked and looked back to see where that went. The original post that motivated me to make the tag was 'Emerging trend: Democrats insinuating that Republican politicians are gay ('I'm saying this is a trend to watch, because I'm seeing the second example of something within one week'). That was something that was going on in 2014. Remember? I didn't."

Why is that in quotes? Because I wrote it back in February 2020, in a post titled "You know I think Biden's new anti-Buttigieg ad is homophobic." And I'm using the tag again today and finding it interesting, again, to go back and see where I have used it before. 

AND: Here's Trump critiquing the press for excerpting the very thing I'm saying he knows they're going to excerpt and means for them to excerpt (and I'm crediting him with cleverness for setting multiple damaging traps and having fun with it):

Trump: The fake news only covered the ass part. They said 'what the hell was Trump doing talking about a man's anatomy? He was talking about his ass.' I studied his ass to see where the power came from pic.twitter.com/ClGLdKarW7

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) October 28, 2026

Sunrise on the lake.

Afternoon in the woods:

"What’s the most memorable place you’ve cried in New York? (Be specific!)"

The NYT is soliciting stories about crying in the city. Fill out the form they have at "New Yorkers, Where’s the Best Place to Cry in the City? To help us report an upcoming article, we want to hear about all the places you’ve cried — subways, sidewalks, stoops, saunas and beyond."

I know from listening to pop songs over the years that the best place to cry is in the rain.

You cry in the rain so no one can tell you're crying. Similar but importantly different is "Raindrops" by Dee Clark. There, the man is crying, but he's in denial: "Oh no, it can't be teardrops/For a man ain't supposed to cry." It's not raining at all.

And here's Flight of the Conchords playing with the same idea:

There's also the situation where it really is raining and you nevertheless are perfectly aware that a person is crying. Most notably: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."