"I love the poorly educated." "Smart people don't like me." "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, ok?" Ever since the moment he came cruising down that damned gold escalator, Donald Trump has had a nasty little h...

Republican Majority whip Tom Emmer was reduced to spewing John Birch Society conspiracies while also confusing socialism with communism for the sole purpose of smearing the Democratic party, after he failed to blame Biden for Trump's horrific economy. Emmer reminded me of a...

Sunday was Rep. Glenn Grothman's turn to try to defend the complete clusterfuck that Trump has made of everything. He did as well as you might expect. GROTHMAN: I said, you know, gas was a lot more expensive under Joe Biden, but people have forgotten that. So we've gone...

I know you don't want to face it. And Lord knows, I don't want to face it. But we have to accept the fact that an American animated television program called "Partridge Family 2200 A.D." did exist and was aired on American television 52 years ago. And on this date in 197...

On this week’s Epstein Update, Kait & Cliff turn to Cornell, where follow up on a student assaulted by multiple fraternity members went nowhere for 2 years. Cliff, whose mother went to Cornell, and Kait, a mother of 3 daughters, wonder how many failed for no one to be c...

As Halloween approaches I was so looking forward to the new movie "Another Mommy," after seeing its very scary trailers, which have almost 50 million views.

I was also stoked to see Jessica Chastain as the lead in a horror movie.

Sinead Hanna is one of my favorite YouTubers who focuses on horror books, TV, and movies. She had reviewed the book earlier and went to see the movie.

She is not a fan.

"I really did not like this film. I'm so disappointed with it and it's such a waste."

Open thread.

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Remember Freedom 250? You are forgiven if you’ve already forgotten all the activities that were supposed to celebrate America, but pretty much no one attended because they were so tacky and low-rent. But hey, at least you’re apparently still paying for them!

Wait, what?

Yep. Despite all the explanations that “Freedom 250” was separate from the official “America 250” celebrations, and that the former was totally paid for by President Donald Trump’s Big Bribe Pals, a Freedom of Information Act request suggests that taxpayers are on the hook for a bunch of Freedom 250 events. Color us surprised.

The FOIA request was submitted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonpartisan watchdog group, and the numbers are shocking.

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A bill for cookies from 2020 for $678.75 that was never paid - until today - until today - probably cost Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) a million dollars in negative advertising. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles when you're a sleazebag. If you live in Kansas, vot...

Last week, after Whiskey Pete announced that he would order the Ft. Hood shooter to be executed by a firing squad, his drinking buddy, Rep. Drunken Van Orden, volunteered to make room to be on the squad: A little later, he quote-tweeted another post about the execution with one word: "Vulenteer." When a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked about the posts, a spokesperson for DVO did not bother responding. It was a rather stupid thing to do with less than a month before the midterm election in a race in which he is trailing and against an opponent exponentially smarter and much more sober than he is. And said opponent, Rebecca Cooke, did not hesitate to jump on it: In a statement, Cooke said Van Orden's comments were "frankly disturbing." read more

Jonathan Karl interviewed Senate candidate Adam Hamilton this morning on ABC's This Week. Watch the interview above, and you'll understand why this Democrat is polling ahead of Republican incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas. Republicans are freaking out about Hamilton flippi...

Fox's Larry Kudlow went on another unhinged rant over the supposed dangers of socialized medicine during an interview with Ted Cruz, where Kudlow was encouraging Cruz and Republicans to run on how great the economy is supposedly doing right now. Here's Kudlow's fear mongeri...

The New York Times described what happened when a plain clothes officer, with a drawn gun, approached the SUV driven by Dominican immigrant Oscar Belgal: “As the boy sat in the backseat, officers in plain clothes surrounded the car, Mr. Belgal accelerated and at least one o...

The CDC published grim news on Friday: A total of 4,080 measles cases have been confirmed in the U.S. this year. That’s nearly 2,000 more than the 2,318 cases confirmed in July, which was already the highest number in 35 years. That number will almost certainly go higher as...

And it’s not this guy: Trump has brutally snubbed the one-time favorite to succeed Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) October 9, 2026 at 4:10 PM It’s this gal: read more

Kimberly Guilfoyle apparently didn't take too kindly to being left off the guest list for a dinner with her former almost-in-laws. According to The Wall Street Journal, a recording captured the U.S. ambassador to Greece venting her fury after learning she wasn't invited to ...

Crooked Timber - how money matters;

Honest Graft - "Canada Effect" along the northern border for the midterms?

Mock Paper Scissors - about last week's debates;

One Damn Thing After Another - AI's Trumpian oversight: the ultimate human nightmare;

The Grim Historian - America's haunted grocery stores.

And here's Nora Ephron on something many New Yorkers (including me) understand - an unhealthy relationship with a building.

Send tips, requests, and suggestions to mbru@crooksandliars.com (with ‘for MBRU' in the subject line). Steve in Manhattan is on Bluesky.

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This cartoon says it all. Meanwhile, the right-wing media is attacking the victim. It's not surprising, but it is vile.

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In my previous life producing promos for various TV networks, record labels always sent me unreleased or newly released songs to use, hoping to give their artists a little publicity. Because of that, I got turned on to music I’d likely never have heard otherwise, especially...

Putin's propagandists were back at it on Fox "news" this Saturday. Trump's new Press Secretary Katie Zacharia joined the liars on Fox & Friends Weekend and was asked about Trump's announcement that he had struck a deal with Russia to import over 300,000 tons of diesel t...

As we discussed here, Trump has turned to Putin in a futile attempt to bring down soaring diesel prices. As the Kyiv Post reported, the Ukrainians basically told Trump to pound sand: Ukraine Vows to Keep Striking Russian Refineries Despite Trump Deal – FT:

Ukraine intends to press ahead with long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries despite a bilateral agreement between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply Russian diesel to US and international markets, the Financial Times reported.

A senior Ukrainian official dismissed US calls to halt operations against Moscow’s energy infrastructure, signaling that Kyiv will not adjust its asymmetric targeting strategy.

“We will burn [Russian] refineries,” the senior official told the Financial Times.

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J.D. Vance hasn't76 quite reached the Donald Trump level of the Liars League, but he’s certainly making a strong effort.

On Friday, Vance tried to hoodwink Americans about the crippling inflation his administration has thrust on so many of us.

“We’ve made a lot of progress. Inflation is way lower today than it was when we took office,” he lied. “It’s way lower today than it was at the peak of the Biden administration.”

Reality check: Not only has the inflation rate risen under Trump, but so has the more important consumer price index. It’s because of “businessman” Trump, his tariffs, and his stupid war with Iran.

Vance made his comments in Ohio, where 76% of likely voters recently rated the economy as fair or poor,

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As soldiers are already looking for a way out of Trump and Hegseth's brutal plan to live stream a firing squad execution at Fort Hood, his VP try to distance himself from the brutality as well. As we discussed here, Jon Ossoff tore into Hegseth and Trump on Jen Psaki's show this Thursday: "I think Pete Hegseth is frankly, Jen, a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality," said Ossoff. "All the while he's running a department that is falling into chaos." "The guy cannot run the United States military competently and is spending his time with this kind of obscene medieval spectacle. This administration is way off the rails." Trump doubled down on the brutality this Friday and admitted he was the one who approved it. Q: Did you personally authorize or approve the livestreamed execution? TRUMP: Did I approve? Absolutely I did read more

New reporting from ProPublica found that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken “nearly 1,000 trips during his tenure, costing $3.3 million in security.” Yet only 138 of the trips and $553,000 in security costs could be verified as state business. More than 800 trips l...

Donald J. Trump’s crybaby campaign to win a Nobel Peace Prize came to a screeching halt when the coveted award was given to Navi Pillay, a South African jurist and former United Nations human rights chief, who chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

Well, Trump's campaign came to an end, but he's still crying about it. Trump took to Truth Social to unleash a 600-word whiny complaint, saying he "should have won 8 Nobel Peace Prizes, not just 1."

"This is the woman who received the Nobel Peace Prize over the Great United States of America, whose Representative, ME, settled eight Wars, and many other things. I know nothing about this woman, and neither does anyone else!" he falsely wrote. "In fact, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever heard of her other than the fact that she, very obviously, hates Israel."

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The US Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Trump is attempting to manipulate Ukraine, our ally, into stopping attacks on Russian refineries after Trump just formed a new alliance with Russia. This is sick. Because of drastic fuel shortages brought on by T...

No matter how irresponsibly these rogue agents act, you can count on the propagandists on Fox to have their back. Rather than be horrified that ICE agents decided to shoot up a car in the middle of a residential neighborhood where people were picking their kids up from scho...

Matthew Arndt, a Green Party congressional candidate from Wisconsin, was arrested Thursday after being involved in a road rage incident. It started when Arndt caught up to an unnamed driver who had a "F Hamas" bumper sticker on his car. Arndt started driving erratically ...

Defector - a uniquely clunky sentence is a joy forever;

From Pine View Farm - Vaccine Nation;

Mike the Mad Biologist - AI makes a lot of problems worse: surveillance edition;

Obsidian Wings - RAF Fairford: another explanation;

The Editorial Board - how to de-shittify America.

Send tips, requests, and suggestions to mbru@crooksandliars.com (with ‘for MBRU' in the subject line). Steve in Manhattan is on Bluesky.

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Megyn Kelly has concluded that taking the pro-rapist side in the Cornell 7 case is a good career move. First, she body-shamed and slandered the accuser in the case on her podcast Monday: No one will even consider the possibility that this woman made a decision to get it on ...

YouTube: "After 50, you just stop caring about the little things, and luckily Karen Morgan is 55 and over, caring about the little things."

Have a nice weekend.

Open thread.

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