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Listen, I get it. You’ve been lurking in this creaky old house for centuries. It’s your time to shine—Halloween is your Super Bowl. But could we maybe hold off on the supernatural terror until after the election?

I’m barely keeping it together. You’ve been doing a stellar job with the whole “creepy footsteps in the hallway” routine and the bloodcurdling screams at 3 a.m. Chef’s kiss. But I live in a swing state, and between the ad blitz, campaign flyers, and the fifteen daily texts from Tommy with Democracy Matters, I just don’t have the emotional bandwidth for your spooky nonsense right now.

The Florida governor is taking unprecedented steps to undermine citizen-led efforts to protect abortion rights and legalize marijuana.

The post Inside Ron DeSantis’s Quest to Trample the Will of Florida Voters on Abortion appeared first on The Intercept.

Veterans of California’s Fontana Police Department blow the whistle about the racism within its ranks.

The post An Insurrectionist Once Helped Lead This Police Department. Insiders Speak Out About Its Culture of White Supremacy. appeared first on The Intercept.

If you’re like many of my friends, I know what you’re thinking: OMG, how is it even possible that half the country is going to vote for that guy? And there’s a slightly less common corollary to that: I mean, really, who are these people who say that they’re undecided? Who doesn’t know enough to know which way they’re going to vote? Well, it turns out that I’ve met a fair number of those undecided voters in person, going door to door canvassing in eastern Pennsylvania, where, it’s fair to say, the 2024 election may be decided. They’re real people, with perfectly real everyday concerns. They have families living in pleasant suburbs in and around Easton, Bethlehem, and Allentown, their... Read more

Source: Pennsylvania’s Undecideds appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Robert Inlakesh examines claims that Israel’s policies propped up Hamas to justify its continued occupation and derail a two-state solution.

The post Hamas, Oslo, and the Peace Process: Did Israel Use Hamas to Sabotage Peace Efforts? appeared first on MintPress News.

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

With apologies to Edgar Allan Poe.

Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I slumbered, weak and weary,
In a cozy townhouse
In the suburbs of Cleveland,

While I dozed off, nearly snoring,
Suddenly there came a roaring
From the baby monitor
That lay on my nightstand.

“’Tis just the wind,” I murmured then,
“That howls like the damned.”

And quoth the baby: “Waah. Waah. Waah.”

Quietly, so quietly,
My eyes flew open, wildly.
I prayed that my young child, he
Did not need a helping hand.

I did not want to rouse, you see…
(The clock had just struck twelve, you see.)
And still I hoped that I’d receive
The REM sleep I had planned.

“’Tis just a rainstorm,” I demurred.
“There’s no reason to stand.”

And quoth the baby: “Waah. Waah. Waah.”

Labor has lost office in Queensland after nearly a decade. While early polling indicated an LNP landslide, in the end Labor managed to avoid total humiliation—but still suffered a substantial 7 per cent swing.

The post Last minute lurch left not enough to save Queensland Labor first appeared on Solidarity Online.

- by Brian Klaas

Read at Aeon

- by Joel Frohlich

Read at Psyche