Thursday, October 22, 2026
For Israel’s sake, Netanyahu has to go
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-israels-sake-netanyahu-has-to-go/
He failed us on October 7, and every day since by refusing to answer for it. He clung to power, and now promises the same shameful coalition, with the same divisive and dangerous policies
'We Now Deserve to Lose': Ramaswamy Ad Deepens GOP Panic in Ohio
The fierce and bipartisan backlash to gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's decision to feature his opponent's estranged mother in an ad left Republicans in Ohio and Washington reeling on Wednesday, as both Ramaswamy and Vice President J.D. Vance doubled down on the divisive strategy.
Mike Murphy, a strategist who was in Sen. John McCain’s inner circle when he ran for President in 2000 and headed Gov. Jeb Bush’s super PAC in 2016, wrote a brutal assessment on social media, saying it “is looking more and more like political suicide.”
And former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who ran against Ramaswamy in the 2020 presidential primaries and was a frequent critic of him, was even more direct. “He’s a bad guy,” she said. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it.”
The addition of this ad so close to Election Day roiled races in Ohio up and down the ballot. “I would not have run that ad,” Republican Sen. Jon Husted, running in a tight and expensive race for re-election against Sherrod Brown in Ohio, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Other players in the state's Republican circles say the ad has all the pieces of a misfire, especially among women.
Trump thought his biggest political trick made him invincible. Not anymore.
For the past decade, President Donald Trump has operated as if he discovered the political cheat code to winning elections: entertain the base and feed it red meat. He’s so certain of the formula that he’s bragged it makes him invincible. In 2016, he claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing voters. Earlier this month in Tennessee, he told a partially empty arena of MAGA faithful, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.” The crowd roared with laughter and applause.
As the midterms approach, Trump’s luck is running out. His approval rating has hit a record low, with just one-third of adults saying he’s doing a good job. The incumbent president’s party almost always loses House seats, a trend usually exacerbated by a weak economy or an unpopular executive; in Trump’s first midterm, Republicans lost 41 seats, though the economy was chugging along.
It’s bad advice this year. Early voting is underway, and voters’ top concern apparently isn’t inflation or health care; it’s government corruption, according to a Fox News poll. A record-high 89 percent of Americans believe corruption is widespread in government, an increase of 30 points since 2006. And Trump gets the blame: An overwhelming majority of adults believe he prioritizes his business interests over the country and ordinary Americans. Nearly 60 percent think he’s done something illegal or unethical in the process. Voters expect politicians to maneuver for political advantage, but using elected office to get filthy rich doesn’t play well. In a democracy, casting a ballot in high-stakes elections should empower voters, not make them feel like easy marks. When that happens, the majority party pays.
Where Trump sees a deal, Putin sees a win for Russia
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/21/world/trump-putin-deal-analysis-latam-intl
If only Donald Trump were President of Russia, he would surely agree a quick and easy deal to end the brutal Ukraine war, even – he might suggest – in as little as 24 hours.
But, of course, Trump is not the President of Russia. That would be President Vladimir Putin, and the actual Kremlin strongman appears to have very little interest in compromising his stated war aims in Ukraine, either for the sake of Russian and Ukrainian lives or even for billions of dollars more in his state coffers.
It is a fundamental misunderstanding that has driven the Trump administration’s fruitless efforts to broker an end to the fighting, and which was again on show during the latest critical meeting in St. Petersburg between Trump’s business buddy-turned-top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, and Putin himself.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Ohio governor’s race takes ugly turn with viral video featuring Acton’s mother
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6161344-ramaswamy-ohio-governor-race-controversy/
A new viral video targeting Amy Acton is roiling the increasingly ugly Ohio governor’s race, where the Democrat is running against GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy.
The clip features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling the Democrat “a liar” and urging Ohioans to vote against her. It’s unclear who is behind the 60-second spot, which did not appear to have aired on television as of Tuesday afternoon.
Acton’s brother Philip Stearns slammed the Republican for “a despicable low.”
He said it was an “attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point” and noted he and his sister were removed from the custody of Donna Arthur.
Ohio governor’s race in uproar over ad featuring Democrat’s estranged mother
Ohio’s bitter governor’s race got even uglier Tuesday when an attack ad surfaced featuring Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s long-estranged mother calling her daughter “a liar,” prompting Acton’s brother to accuse Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, of turning childhood rape “into a political talking point.”
Ramaswamy’s campaign, in a statement from spokeswoman Connie Luck, echoed the claims in the video: “We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor.”
Meanwhile, Acton’s campaign provided extensive documentation, from court records and contemporary reports in local media, that corroborated her account that she and her brother were removed from their mother’s home after her second husband, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and indicted in 1978 and charged with rape of “Amy Stearns being less than thirteen (13) years of age.”
Karlin-Stolin Rebbe Attacked By Charedi Extremists Over Support For IDF Enlistment
The Karlin-Stolin Rebbe, Rabbi Baruch Shochat, was attacked by a group of ultra-Orthodox extremists in Beit Shemesh on Sunday evening, with rioters hurling stones and other objects at his vehicle as he left a family wedding. The attack, apparently linked to his support for military enlistment programs adapted for charedi men, has sparked widespread outrage across the charedi community.
The attack is the latest in a series of confrontations between the Karlin-Stolin Hasidic movement and radical anti-conscription activists, who have repeatedly targeted the Rebbe over his willingness to cooperate with the IDF in establishing military service frameworks suitable for charedi men.
The hostility toward the Rebbe intensified after he held discussions with Defense Minister Israel Katz and military officials about creating specialized enlistment programs for members of his community. According to earlier reports, the proposed arrangements would allow approximately 200 Karlin-Stolin Hasidim to serve in the military under conditions designed to accommodate their religious lifestyle, including professional training, gender-separated environments and, potentially, service without conventional military uniforms.
To save the midterms, Trump is recharging the grievance politics that made him president
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/trump-midterms-racial-religious-rhetoric
Donald Trump is playing one of his final cards in the midterm election race: fear of an American civilizational collapse.
It’s that White, Christian culture could be destroyed unless his Republican monopoly on Washington power is preserved in the midterm elections.
In one of the most foreboding closing arguments of any of his political campaigns, Trump is flinging racially charged rhetoric; conjuring Islamophobic paranoia; and stirring up false visions of kids being mutilated in mass transgender surgeries without parental consent. He’s also acting as an arbiter of others’ faith and American identify.
At his most vulnerable political moment in nearly six years as president, Trump isn’t responding with compelling, innovative defenses of his record on affordability or foreign policy. He’s intensifying the scorched-earth imagery that made his name and seeking to replenish power by weaponizing painful national divides.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Trump Uses ‘Shylock’ Term Again—A Year After Claiming He Didn’t Know It Was Antisemitic
President Donald Trump once again used the term “Shylock,” widely considered antisemitic, while defending Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., at a campaign rally in Kansas on Monday night, more than a year after he faced widespread criticism for his use of the term and claimed he was unaware that the term had antisemitic connotations.
Marshall worked as an obstetrician before entering politics, and the Times reported that the lawsuits led to some patients having their paychecks garnished and others being arrested after missing court appearances.
“And they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” Trump said, arguing that Marshall had been unfairly criticized over his past medical debt collection practices.
Trump previously faced criticism over the term “Shylock” in July last year at a campaign rally in Iowa, where he was touting his domestic policy bill. He said “Think of that: no death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowings from in some cases a fine banker. And in some cases, Shylocks and bad people.” The use of the term drew immediate pushback, and the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement saying it “evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous,” and added: “President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible.” The term originates from William Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice,” which features a character named “Shylock” who is a Jewish money lender.