This is trio #1:

Pastor Raphael Warnock

Deacon James Talarico

Pastor Adam Hamilton.  

Warnock occupies the pulpit Martin Luther King, Jr., once did.  Talarico has famously preached that “there’s nothing Christian about Christian nationalism.”   Hamilton founded and leads America’s largest United Methodist church.

Their common bond is obvious.

If things go well, there will soon be three true Christian leaders serving in the United States Senate.  (Reverend Warnock is already there.)

I admire people who try to follow Christ’s teachings.  Can that be said of those who extend tax cuts to the rich while cutting health care for the sick and needy?

Who enable the bombing of children, the live-streaming of executions, or scenes like this?  Which is to say: virtually all the Republicans in the Houe and Senate?

Who enable chaos, cruelty, and corruption?

Where others get led astray (see: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds), these three admirable Christians, Warnock, Talarico, and Hamilton, will add to the Senate chamber some much-needed guidance and grace.

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BIBLE BONUS: I’ve just listened to Andy Beshear’s Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country.  How did he win the governorship — twice — in a state Trump won by 30 points?  It had a lot to do with living out his faith.

OR ARE WE BEYOND SAVING?

Trio #2:

Putin, whose unprovoked invasion has killed and wounded millions.

Trump, Putin’s admirer.  “Everything he touches dies.”  (See also Timothy Snyder’s latest post: Trump’s Superpower Suicide.)

Netanyahu. Seeking surrender from an enemy sworn to your annihilation is almost entirely opposite from what Putin has done, and the corruption for which Netanyahu stands trial (and of which he not yet been proven guilty) is nothing compared with Trump’s.  But still.  Like Putin and Trump, he’s been no champion of democracy (there were huge anti-Netanyahu protests before October 7).  And, like Putin, he is accused of war crimes.

Putin shapes our policy on Ukraine (going all the way back to Paul Manafort — see Heather Cox Richardson); Netanyahu, in his urging Trump to renege on the Iran nuclear deal followed by his urging to join a war of choice, our policy on Iran.

All three cling to power in part to avoid prosecution.

All three need to go.

> Rachel Maddow interviews Ari Emanuel.  So fun.   (What brothers these are! Ari–business, Zeke-health, Rahm–government.)  I can’t wait to read Roll The Calls.

> So now, after more than a decade of pretending that he is not associated with Russia . . .  

More on this tomorrow, but it’s a must-read.  Feel free to jump the gun.

Also: Trump’s Russian Diesel Deal: 7 Days of Fuel at What Cost? (2 minutes)

> My ballot’s in the mail.  To check on yours or find your early-voting place, visit Iwillvote.com.

See you this coming Saturday!

And now . . .

Bondage Photos Weren’t Part of the Campaign Plan.

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Chris Gallant [is] a Long Island-raised Black Hawk pilot in the Army National Guard who flew choppers during one of his two tours in Kuwait, worked for five years as an air traffic controller at John F. Kennedy International Airport, serves as a volunteer firefighter and is an unabashed gun owner as well as a union man who posed for those photos almost 17 years ago, not because he was manipulated but because he was into it. . . .

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It is well known that Republicans — especially those in Congress — have sex only for purposes of reproduction, never recreation; do not fantasize about sex; and certainly do not fantasize about anything kinky.

(Given that an estimated 61% of the adult population watches porn, it may fairly be inferred that they are all be Democrats and Independents.)

Republicans consider having fun with sex shameful and reason enough to vote against Chris Gallant.

Plus, they love that his opponent votes with Trump 95% of the time, which is why things are going so well.

It’s never been easier for Long Islanders to make ends meet; and when they travel abroad (on planes, one hopes, guided into and out of JFK by air traffic controllers who do not enjoy recreational sex) they are proud to say they voted for Trump, winner of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

And yet one wonders.

What if kinky sexual fantasies, or kinky sex itself, were not restricted to progressives and independents?

And while we’re at it — Why Are So Many Anti-LGBTQ Republicans Interested in Queer Sex?  (Did you know that red states record more Google searches for trans porn than blue states?)

Ultimately, it seems to me, it’s about freedom.  Which used to be a conservative value.

The whole point of being an American — the great thing — is that we are granted inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in any damn way we want, and certainly in the privacy of our bedrooms, so long as it’s legal and not hurting anybody else.

Everything Chris has done has been legal and consensual.  What does any of it have to do with the price of gas or groceries?   

And by the way?  Where ARE the unredacted Epstein files? 

Chris has nothing to hide.  Does the Trump?  Was everything HE did legal and consensual? 

Not according to at least one lawsuit he lost.  Or according to that allegation the FBI seemed to take seriously that he required oral sex of an unwilling 13-year-old.

If the freedom-loving conservatives of NY-1 could vote for Trump three times and aren’t comfortable giving him un-checked reign over the next two years, maybe they’ll give Chris a pass on his kinky pics, or even enjoy them.

Kinks aside, Chris has something of an action-hero’s resume.

No bone spurs, he.

Because 2024 Trump voters hate them . . . and that’s one more reason they may be having doubts, leaving MAGA, and voting blue.

We’re gonna win.

We’re gonna win.

Walter Cronkite (35 seconds) on shutting down “the enemy of the people” — “fake news,” as MAGA calls it.

We have to win.

> Have you checked your voter registration?

> Made a plan to vote early?

> Decided whom to rally with October 17 and where to go for a bite or a beer afterward?  If you can’t find anyone to join you, that’s all the more reason to go — you’ll meet people!  Don’t be shy!  Just compliment someone on their sign, ask them where they’re from — it’s the easiest place in the world to connect.  Plus, walking is good exercise!  And you need some fresh air!

> Are you looking for ways to help?

BONUS ADS

James Tallarico is going to win.  Enjoy this ad (47 seconds).

And guess who’s going to be the next governor of Georgia?  Do you think it will be the woman in this ad (30 seconds) — or the man?

I say again: with your help, we’re gonna win.

Telling that Trump endorses Paxton and Carl endorses Trump.

We’re gonna win.

Changing your mind as he did isn’t losing, he says — it’s learning.

The Carls in your life are dug in way too deep ever to change.

But for those having doubts that Trump’s lowered their electric bills — he promised he’d cut them in half by this past June (they’re up 18%) — or that abandoning Ukraine was the right thing to do (we used to oppose Russian aggression, not call it “savvy genius”) . . .

. . . or having doubts that he won 2020 by “a landslide” or is now presiding over “the greatest economy we’ve ever had by far” . . .

. . . or that Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth have the experience and judgement to run the FBI and Defense Department . . .

. . . or that it was smart to start a war with Iran or tariff wars with everybody else . . .

. . . or to cut taxes for billionaires while closing rural hospitals, keeping the Federal minimum wage at $7.25 an hour, and watching the National Debt soar) . . .

. . . or that he really does have “a concept of a plan” to deliver the terrific, affordable health care he promised

. . . or that it was wise to alienate our strongest allies around the world . . . or that we need a ballroom . . .

. . . or that he’s honest . . .

. . . well: they’re not alone.

This two-and-a-half-minute clip could be what pushes them over the edge.

There’s a welcoming, non-judgmental community waiting for them over at LeavingMAGA.org.

KANSAS!

A second Republican former Kansas governor has now endorsed Adam Hamilton.  Plus, of course, the current, twice-elected governor.

The reason is simple: Reverend Hamilton is a genuinely good and decent man.

Nine thousand of the 24,000 congregants who look to him for spiritual guidance are Republicans.

When the faithful in Kansas — and Alaska, Texas, Mississippi, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Florida, North and South Carolina, Minnesota New Hampshire, Georgia, Nebraska, and South Dakota — cast their ballots over the next few weeks, they should ask themselves, quite simply: what would Jesus do?

Vote to enable Trump — or restrain him?

CHERRY-PICK!

If you like shopping vintage, and/or a bargain, check out the beta of Cherry-Pick.com.  You could join the wait list, like everybody else . . . or you could jump the line and join the beta, because you know a guy.  (An investor.)

and a website — LeavingMAGA.org . . .

and then a billboard like this one in Southaven, Mississippi:

But then people started funding more billboards (in 29 states so far).

And others began making their own.

It’s become a movement.

Seen in Maine:

Seen in Washington State:

Seen in Arkansas:

Seen in Pennsylviania:

Seen elsewhere in Maine (Susan Collins is, no doubt, “concerned”):

Rich gets photos like these daily.

Someone paid to run this for 4 weeks in 2 New Jersey weeklies:

A huge blue wave is coming, and it will include lifelong Republican patriots like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who don’t recognize their party anymore — or their country.

And Texans, I would bet, like George W. Bush, who will quietly vote for James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa.

And former mega-MAGAns like Rich Logis who at some point began to have doubts, then realized full on that they’d been conned, and started putting up billboards.

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In the midst of elevated threats from Iran, Kash Patel demoted two top counterterrorism officials for not being adequately attentive to Stephen Miller’s wife.

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And it just gets more awful from there.

The final segment — on Russia’s current election interference — is straight out of bizarro world.

It would be amusing if it weren’t all real.

But the answer isn’t to agonize, it’s to organize.

Have you got your plan for October 17?  Are you recruiting a dozen others to join you?

“You can’t wring your hands when you’re rolling up your sleeves,” as another apt saying goes.

Have you read or (even better) listened to Ben Wikler’s This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy.

Have you given all you can to the races Oath currently assesses can most effectively use your help?

Have you decided to listen to Monday’s Maddow right now, or on your way to work or as you climb the StepMaster, to see what’s got me so cranked up?

I’m sorry to be so annoying (I assume you’re inured to it by now), but we just can’t let Trump and Putin — and Stephen Miller and the Proud Boys, et al — win.

We need a massive, Hungary-like, too-big-to-rig repudiation of Trump’s cruel, corrupt, chaotic, erratic, shameful, spectacularly dishonest, shoot-from-the-hip, unsuccessful, profoundly unChristian, profoundly unAmerican “leadership.”

And I think it’s coming.

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Donald Trump’s Joes are starting to feel like they overpaid for the front row.

The Front Row Joes — the roving band of the president’s most ardent supporters, many of whom have dedicated portions of their lives to traveling to as many Trump rallies as possible — once represented unbreakable, unconditional, unprecedented devotion.

So when Trisha Hope tells Playbook that Trump is “a fraud and liar,” and Rick Frazier says “he can’t be trusted,” Republicans should hear alarm bells.

Hope joined the Front Row Joes in 2018 after publishing a book of Trump’s posts on then-Twitter called Just the Tweets. It helped pay for travel to rallies across the country in an RV she bought after giving up her apartment in Texas.

During Trump’s first impeachment, she spent two weeks in Washington roaming Capitol Hill to defend the president: “I went to every single senator’s office as well as Republican congressmen,” Hope said. “I did everything I could for him.”

But now, the one scenario that would bring her back to Washington for Trump’s sake? “If we do lose the midterms and he is impeached again, I will be walking the halls of Congress in support of that impeachment,” Hope told Playbook.

Hope saw her faith shaken during a July 8, 2025 Cabinet meeting when a reporter asked then-AG Pam Bondi about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Before she could answer, Trump interrupted: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years.”

“It was like a dagger in my heart,” Hope said. “It was like a light switch went on and a veil lifted, and I saw him for who he was, and I have not been able to unsee it since.”

The war with Iran vindicated those feelings. “He’s said the war is over 600 different times. He tells us they don’t have a military, they don’t have a navy. They’re still blowing up things. It’s just all lies.”

Frazier, a founding Joe, shares her frustrations.

“Epstein crimes and feeding the industrial military complex … those are big nos for me,” Frazier told Playbook. “He promoted himself as a no-war president. That didn’t work out.”

Frazier has been to over 100 Trump rallies and creates content for the group. Now he’s feeling done with politics. “I’m to the point of not going to the polls in November,” he said.

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In case you want to want to put up a billboard — we’re in 29 states and counting (here’s one from Tallahassee) — just me-mail.  It’s surprisingly cheap.

TREEDOM

Israeli bulldozers smashed Palestinian olive trees last week.

An estimated 49,000 so far this year, up from “just” 27,000 in all of 2025.

As you know, olive trees symbolize peace.

As you may also know, they can live for 500 years, producing harvest after harvest.

Fortunately, none of the Treedom For Palestine farms some of you’ve helped fund has suffered damage.

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Of the over 100 Freedom Farms planted [Treedom founder Cyrus Copeland reports], all remain safe and in the hands of the farmers.  This seems astonishing given what we are hearing, but The Palestinian Farmers Union is exceedingly good at risk management.  (It’s also a reminder that you only hear about what goes terribly wrong vs. what quietly works—which has the unfortunate effect of scaring away the kind of investment farmers need.)

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Have you made your plan for October 17?  Which event are you going to?  Where are you and your friends meeting for beers after?