Isaiais: Lasting Impact
If you flew in to Pensacola today (Pensacola “International” Airport, because one time a plane en route to a Caribbean country had to land here in an emergency) you would look around and say “why is there still so much debris lining the road?”
The answer is: It just goes on and on. The big debris trucks are on their second and third rounds. The electricity guys have to keep going around and fixing things that were less damaged than the urgent outages. The insurance companies are lowballing most adjustments and FEMA is turning down just about everyone. It’s amazing how much insurance doesn’t cover. We had a very expensive “Act of God” to take care of, and we are among the luckier ones, with no water damage and no damage to our residence.
Hurricane recovery is a slow, ugly process.
The busiest roads are clear. Most of us have electricity. Many have air conditioners and water heaters that were hit by surges during the storm and will have to be replaced. Many are dealing with homes that need urgent repairs to be livable – you know, small things like a roof that’s been penetrated, or insulation in the walls that was soaked, or floors that were ruined by standing water. Some have adequate insurance. Most do not.
The experienced ones who can afford to wait, do so. Prices just after a storm fly sky high. Non-local storm chasers come in looking for a fast job. Some accept a down payment and disappear. Some do shoddy work. Occasionally, you find really good, honest people who will work with you and give you your money’s worth.
These are the lessons of Hurricane Isaiais.
Robert Reich on 2024 MidTerm Winners and Losers
Robert Reich says it better than I ever could and invites us to share:
The REAL Winners and Losers
The big picture of what happened Tuesday
7 HOURS AGO
Friends,
Rather than regurgitate the particular wins and losses that occurred Tuesday, I thought it more useful, at this point, to look at the big picture and identify the largest overall winners and losers for the nation as a whole.
Biggest winner: A diverse, equitable, and inclusive America. It’s Trump’s DEI nightmare. Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor in the nation. Texas chose Gina Hinojosa, the state’s first Latina governor and first Democratic governor in more than 30 years. California elected Xavier Becerra, the state’s first Latino governor. New Mexico chose Deb Haaland, the nation’s first female Native American governor. Florida elected Byron Donalds, the first Black governor in Florida’s history (a Republican).
For the U.S. Senate, New Hampshire chose Chris Pappas, that chamber’s first openly gay member. Minnesotans picked Peggy Flanagan, the first Native American woman elected to the Senate. Michiganders chose Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the Senate.
These are remarkable wins. Some are attributable to a surge in voting by Black people, many of whom were understandably incensed at efforts to push Black representatives out of Congress through overt racial gerrymandering. And by Latinos, enraged at ICE’s wanton arrests and detentions. Women upset by Republican efforts to outlaw abortion in their states. And LGBTQ+ people, angry about the blatant bigotry of Trump and his Republican enablers.
But many straight white men and women also disagree with Trump’s narrow definition of America. It turns out that the nation is far more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than Trump or his Republican enablers want (or believe) it to be. Trump and his enablers tried to make us fear and hate one another over our many differences. They indubitably failed.
Another winner: The new South. For as long as anyone can remember, the states that comprised the Old Confederacy have been regressive, conservative, intolerant, and, at least since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Republican.
No longer. On Tuesday, three of the four most populous Southern states (Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia) voted for Democrats up and down their tickets. Texas Democrats carried every statewide office from governor through lieutenant governor, attorney general, and even railroad commissioner. North Carolina and Georgia Democrats also scored stunning victories.
The biggest surprise was Annie Andrews’s win over Darline Graham in South Carolina’s Senate contest. As I write this, another possible gobsmacker: Black Democrat Scott Colom may actually win the Mississippi Senate seat held by Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Even Democratic losers in the South came remarkably close to winning: Democratic Senate candidate Jamie Davis was within a hair’s breadth of victory in Louisiana. Florida’s Angie Nixon almost snatched the Senate seat there.
What accounts for this new South? Partly a large and growing professional class (in metro Atlanta, North Carolina’s “research triangle,” and Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin) combined with an increasing flow of young workers and their families from other states, seeking more affordable housing. Add to this, an abundance of Latino and Asian immigrants. All told, the new South is more tolerant than the old. Much of it is also more sophisticated and more educated.
A third winner: Decency. During the run-up to the 2026 midterms, American voters were inundated with Republican attack ads, inflamed rhetoric, and personal smears against Democratic rivals. Those efforts backfired. Americans soundly rejected the politics of hate and fear, and embraced common decency.
Trump, JD Vance, and RFK Jr. did their worst to fuel Islamophobia against Michigan’s Dr. El-Sayed. Trump claimed if El-Sayed won, he’d “invite hordes of jihadis to our shores.” RFK Jr. baselessly linked El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their fear-mongering obviously didn’t work.
Vance suggested that Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico is gay. Another backfire.
Ohioans were so turned off by Trump-endorsed billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against his Democratic opponent Dr. Amy Acton — using Acton’s mother whom Acton hadn’t seen since she was 12, when her father was accused of raping her — that the ad may have helped fuel Acton’s win, the first Democrat to win Ohio’s governorship since 2006. (Trump thought the ad just fine, and Vance even blasted fellow Republicans who spoke out against the ad, calling their criticism “disgusting” and telling them to “stop whining” because “politics is a tough business.”)
Since Trump came on the scene, many Republicans have eagerly imitated Trump’s scurrilous character assaults. Such smears have become so common that we tend to forget that most Americans don’t particularly like this form of politics. They prefer Barack Obama’s tempered rhetoric and the late John McCain’s dignified and respectful way of disagreeing. Now, after the 2026 midterms, perhaps decency is back.
So who were the biggest losers? Besides Trump and his Republican sycophants, the biggest losers are the mega donors and super PACs that poured record amounts of money into failed Republican candidacies.
Top awards for strategic stupidity go to the crypto industry (which tried unsuccessfully to derail Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio); AIPAC (which did everything it could to block El-Sayed and prevent any mention of Israel’s genocide in Gaza); the AI industry, which spent loads of cash trying but failing to allay voter’s concerns about data centers; and Elon Musk, who sought, single-handedly, to save Ken Paxton’s doomed Senate campaign in Texas.
Musk deserves his own special place in the loser’s circle. The richest person in the world became the poster child in the 2026 midterms for billionaire greed, legalized bribery, and corporate welfare. He sunk almost a half billion dollars into failed Republican campaigns, the most that any single human being has ever spent on elections — and for naught. After Tuesday’s blowout, shares in Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla dropped off a cliff.
Once they’re in control of Congress, Democrats will want to know what personal data and information Musk ran off with when he ran his ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under whose authority he throttled Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellites, and why the U.S. government should continue to grant him an effective monopoly on satellites anyway rather than nationalize Starlink. To say Musk will be on the hot seat understates the temperature where he’ll be sitting.
In sum, considering the overall winners and losers from the 2026 midterms, I’d say America came out way ahead.
Texas! It’s Time to Start Flipping Tables!
There was a movie we watched, came out in 2024, Civil War (this is the IMDB link). Exciting, scary movie speculating about the next civil war in the United States of America, pitting a unified Texas and California against a co-alition of the conservatives. What I couldn’t figure out then was how could it be Texas and California? Texas was part of the conservative core?
And then, Tuesday night, the paradigm shifted. All things became possible. The most gracious acceptance speech given by James Talarico, created options that would have been unthinkable. I want to share that speech with you:
We just took back Texas. We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. And we just sent a message to every billionaire mega donor, every trillionaire mega donor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system in this state, in this country: Power belongs to the people.
I’m reminded of that story from scripture of a shepherd boy who goes up against a giant. For 40 days, Goliath teases and taunts. On the day of the fight, he shows up in full armor. He’s carrying so many weapons. He needs someone else to carry his shield. In this race, we went up against our own Goliath.
The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world and the entire Washington D.C. establishment. David wasn’t as big or as strong as Goliath. He didn’t have as many weapons, but he had hope. He had faith and he had a slingshot. You were my slingshot. The people of Texas were my slingshot. And tonight, and tonight we defeated Goliath.
Scripture has taught me, my own life has taught me, always bet on the underdog. Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher. I taught language arts at Rhodes Middle School on the west side of San Antonio. And as I always say, teaching middle school is the best preparation for politics.
The West side is a beautiful historic neighborhood. It’s also one of the poorest zip codes in the entire state of Texas. Every day, my students struggled heroically to overcome a rigged system. My students weren’t just kids. They were survivors, dreamers, fighters. I saw it in their eyes every day, this unshakeable resolve, this unconquered spirit.
Growing up, I saw that same fight in my mother, a preacher’s daughter from Laredo who left home at 19.She moved up to Austin and met my birth father, a 21-year-old high school dropout whose drinking problem sometimes led to violence. One night he became abusive again, but that night, that night, my mother’s love rose to meet that abuse. She packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort. She drove me to the hotel where she worked. She begged the manager to let us stay in one of the rooms until we found this little apartment in East Austin. There wasn’t room for a nursery, so I slept in a crib in her closet and she was so proud of that closet. She decorated it with pictures and toys. No one was going to tell her it wasn’t a nursery.
Always, always bet on the underdog. We were the underdogs in this race. We went up against nearly 40 years of doubt and disillusionment.We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deep fakes that money can buy. Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment. The death rattle of a status quo that knows its days are numbered.
They played dirty because they were desperate, but we never lost hope. We never lost faith. And against big money and long odds, we took our power back. Always, always bet on the underdog.
We built a movement unlike any this state has ever seen. We united Texans from all backgrounds and beliefs onto one team to take on this broken, corrupt political system. First time voters, three time Trump voters, working people from every corner of this state who are fed up and ready for change.
This win, this win is for every underdog who’s been counted out and left behind. This win is for every teacher and every nurse, for every farmer and every rancher, for every young person who’s trying to buy a home, for every parent who’s trying to put food on the table. This win, this win is for every Texan who’s ever wondered if anyone is listening. I heard you. We heard you. And tonight the world hears you.
To the Texans who supported this movement, I am humbled by your trust and I will work every day to be worthy of it. And to the Texans who didn’t vote for me, I will be your senator too. I will always serve you. I will always fight for you. This win is not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s much bigger than that.
There is something broken in America. Our economic system is broken. Our political system is broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken. That’s because the most powerful people in the world want it that way.
My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, and when I was little, he told me that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave us two commandments, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor.
Every single person bears the image of the sacred. Every single person is holy, not just my neighbor who looks like me, not just my neighbor who prays like me, not just my neighbor who votes like me. I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself.
Because despite our differences, we all want the same things; a safe neighborhood, a good job, a high quality, well-funded public school, and the ability to see a doctor when we need one.
But the billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they want us at each other’s throats. They want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same. They want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them.
The real fight in this country is not left versus right. It is top versus bottom. The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided, because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power. We saw it in this race. We saw it in every billionaire funded attack ad.
The people at the top divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets. That they are defunding our schools, that they are gutting our healthcare, that they are raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves. It is the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer.
But tonight we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top. We will not be conquered. I think it’s safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other. We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been 10 years of this kind of politics, politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as professional wrestling.
It tears families apart. It ends friendships and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time. People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love.
My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe. Love is not passive. Love is not neutral. Love is not weak. Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink. That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be. That kind of love is revolutionary. That kind of love is creative.
Hate is predictable. Hate is boring. Hate can’t lower our energy bills. Hate can’t teach a child to read. Hate can’t build a future. But what hate can’t do, love can.Love can turn a student into a scholar. Love can turn a closet into a nursery. Love can turn an enemy into a friend. Love can turn a campaign into a movement. Love, love can heal what’s broken in America. We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game.
In my experience, when you extend an open hand rather than a closed fist, you’ll be surprised by who takes that hand. We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors, or shaming our neighbors, or ridiculing our neighbors. We embodied a new kind of politics, a politics rooted in a deep love for our state, for our country, and most importantly, for all of our neighbors.
We mobilized. We mobilized our 60,000 volunteers in every corner of the state, and together we delivered bottled water to Sand Branch, a community south of Dallas with no running water. We donated school supplies to an elementary school in El Cenizo, a small town on the border. We collected more than 20,000 pounds of groceries for families in Fort Worth who are struggling under the high cost of living.
Before the world changes in ways you see on TV or read about in newspapers, the world changes person to person, neighbor to neighbor. In each moment when you choose to be kind, in each neighbor we choose to love, in each prayer that we save for someone who would not pray for us in return. This is how we won Texas. This is a win the size of Texas. And now we have a mandate the size of Texas.
This election was about chasing a vision of what this state can be. Texas public schools that are the envy of the nation, a Texas economy that is second to none, and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than they’ve ever been before. It won’t happen overnight, but a giant state deserves giant dreams. And we know how to get there. We must get big money out of our politics, so no billionaire or trillionaire can buy our elections.We must unrig this economic system that only benefits the top 1%. We must pass universal healthcare, so no one goes bankrupt just because they get sick. We must invest in our teachers and our students, so every underdog has a fighting chance. We must end these corrupt forever wars that are driving up prices and killing our great men and women in uniform.
And we must heal the deep spiritual corruption at the root of all of these crises. We must bridge the divides between us and repair the ties that bind us. We forged a new kind of politics here in the Lone Star State, an answer to this decade of division.
We showed that when working people come together across every dividing line, we can do extraordinary things. We won this race because people who are desperate for change now are going to get change.
That old politics is dying and a new politics is being born through each of us, through every underdog, through every David against every Goliath, through every Texan who believed in our state and believed in this movement. Now the real work begins.
2,000 years ago when the people at the top hurt his neighbors, that barefoot rabbi didn’t stay in his room and pray. He walked into the seat of power and he flipped over the tables of injustice. As this movement heads to the seat of power, as we head to the United States Senate, we know what this moment requires of us.
Texas, it’s time to start flipping tables.
What the Victors are Saying
I love the messages I am reading from the Democrats, summarized in this speech by Kentucky Governer Andy Beshear:
“Remember, we’ve got to celebrate today but we’ve got to govern tomorrow,” he said in a video posted to the social platform X. “It’s now on us. The American people say they trust us more than Republicans to deliver them results. So no getting cocky, no getting arrogant. Our job now is to better the lives of people, to bring down the cost of groceries, to bring down the cost of gas, to make sure anybody who’s sick can see a doctor, and that all of our kids have enough to eat.”
The focus is on good governance. Governance by the people, for the people. Keeping it simple. Acting in good faith, with good will. On! On!
Celebrating D E I
I will tell you that not all of my candidates won last night, but the races tightened in blood red Florida, and Florida elected the first black governor in the USA. And then, another! And then, a Native American!
In my wildest dreams, I never expected the abundance, the sheer waterfall of good people elected to office, shifting the entire tone of our Congress and our Senate. In the face of vile attacks, they returned good humor.
I got a good night’s sleep even before the last returns were being tallied. Some amazing races, some amazing victories, some amazingly tight races where no one expected them. The dazzling backlash against the greedy attempts at redistricting to insure a win.
LOL at the big bully!
Love Those Norwegians: Making Shithouses Great Again
Just as this explodes into one of the worlds worst elections ever, Norway comes up with a Visit Norway theme that gives us all an opportunity to laugh. And to admire their excellence in design. Not a sign of gilt.
Huge thanks to the Guardian for this timely story.
‘We make shit houses great again’: Visit Norway cleans up after Trump’s insult
Tourist board responds with toilet humour after US president expresses ire over failure to win Nobel peace prize, labelling it a ‘shithouse country’
Jon Henley Europe correspondentThu 29 Oct 2026 13.22 EDTShare
Some might find it decidedly incommodious to be dumped on by Donald Trump as a “shithouse country”. Not the Norwegian tourist board, which chose instead to lift the lid on some of the nation’s loveliest lavatories.
“Are these the world’s best shit houses?” asked Visit Norway on its website, days after the US president vented his fury once more over failing to win the Nobel peace prize by describing Norway as a “shithouse country” at a rally on Sunday.
“Norway makes shit houses great again!” the agency continued above pictures of some of the country’s most striking public conveniences, adding: “These toilets are worth a visit, both when you really have to go – and when you don’t.”
Trump delivered his tirade at a rally in Michigan days before the US midterm elections. “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually,” he declared, using a term he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
He added that he would welcome migrants from some countries but not Norway, “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize”. Earlier this month, Trump denounced the decision to award the prize to Navi Pillay, a former international criminal court judge.
“This is an indelible stain on the country of Norway and those people that made such a disgraceful and embarrassing decision,” he said. “I never heard of this person. The Nobel peace prize has been forever discredited … And we will not forget, Norway.”
Along 18 designated scenic routes around Norway, Visit Norway said, leading architects had been tasked with transforming the humble wayside privy into an attraction in its own right. Several have since won international architecture awards.
The agency pictured a series of designer public conveniences, many of them architecturally striking and all offering breathtaking vistas overlooking fjords, beside rushing rivers and foaming waterfalls, and at stunning scenic viewpoints.
They “invite you to take your time and enjoy the scenery, even if you don’t have any business to take care of”, Visit Norway said, highlighting – among others – the restrooms at the Stegastein viewpoint in the Sognefjord region of western Norway.
This particular comfort station, the tourist board noted with uninhibited pride, had been ranked among the 10 best public toilets in the world by DesignCurial, the online architecture, design and interiors magazine.
Combining clean, minimalist lines with the fjord’s rugged and brooding landscape, the loos are famous for their large, black-tinted glass windows, which allow visitors a sweeping view from the throne while remaining invisible from the outside.
It also highlighted the unique, wave-shaped Ureddplassen loo on the wild coast of Helgeland, the southernmost district of northern Norway, hailed by several international publications as the most scenic restroom in the world.
Also featured are the solar-powered modernist bog at the Utsikten viewpoint, the “Instagram-worthy” Tungeneset loo (“looks pretty good underneath the northern lights”), and the world-famous triangular “golden toilet” on Senja island.
Jens Kjeldsen, a rhetoric professor at the University of Bergen, said that under the circumstances, Visit Norway’s response was well judged. “It’s like the bully in kindergarten,” he told NRK public television. “If you get too serious, the bully wins.”
Evgenia Egorova, a senior consultant at Visit Norway, told the broadcaster the response to its social media fightback had been immense. “The world needs a little laugh,” she said. “We thought: let’s meet them with kindness, and a little humour.”
Visit Norway said it had more stylish loos in the pipeline, including a forest-inspired latrine using dried wood from more than 60 trees. “Get ready for the pit stop of your life,” it urged, before signing off with a cheery: “Toodeloo!”
The Nobel peace prize is famously not awarded by the nation or even the government of Norway, but by the Nobel prize committee, which operates independently – something Trump “knows very well”, the foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said. “We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering.”
Authors note – it wasn’t that long ago that the toddler in charge was talking about getting more nice (white) Norwegians to come to America. LOL.
Sweet Words of Truth: “Don’t BOO! VOTE!”
Thank you, Robert Reich, for printing this inspirational speech in it’s entirety, and encouraging us to share. I intended to scan, but I found myself reading every word. So much political speech is jus blah blah blah. Obama is so real, and his words so civil, polished and full of good will that I couldn’t stop reading. I hope you will enjoy this:
Friends,
If you haven’t yet had a chance to see or read Obama’s speech in Cleveland Saturday night, please do both. And then share it as widely as you can.
TEXT (I have taken the liberty of putting certain sentences in bold type.)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Ohio!
Yes! Hello, Cleveland! (Cheers/applause.)
All right, all right, all right, settle down! Settle down, come on!
(Cheers/applause.)
Thank you! Thank you! All right, all right, all right!
Hold up, hold up! Y’all got too riled up. (Laughter.) Man, it is rocking in Cleveland right now! (Cheers/applause.) It is good to be back. (Applause.)
It is great to be with your next governor, Amy Acton! (Applause.) Your next senator, Sherrod Brown! (Applause.)
And by the way, if y’all got seats, feel free to sit down. I’ve got some stuff to say here today. (Applause.)
Let’s face it, I’ve been doing this a long time. Sherrod talks about the first time I came here, did not have a single gray hair, not one. (Laughter.)
And so, I’ve been doing this a long time, and some people might say a little too long. And one of those people is Michelle Obama. (Cheers/applause.) But she gave me a hall pass this weekend.
And when you have been campaigning as long as I have been campaigning, when you’ve worked as many elections as I have, you can tell when an election comes along that just feels a little bit different. (Applause.)
An election where people are so ready for something new, so hungry for something better, so sick and tired of being sick and tired that everywhere you go, it feels like change is in the end. (Cheers/applause.)
And in Ohio, that’s how I’m feeling right now. That’s what you get a chance to do in 10 days. After two years of chaos and cruelty, and corruption, and incompetence, the likes of which we have not seen in modern times, you get a chance to say enough’s enough. We are voting for change right here in Ohio! (Applause.)
And the great thing is here in Ohio, you can vote early through November 1st. So don’t procrastinate, don’t equivocate. Make a plan to vote early in person or on election day. If you need to find out how to do it, go to iwillvote.com/oh.
AUDIENCE: I-O!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: O-H?
AUDIENCE: I-O!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Some things don’t change. (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Barack!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: I love you back! You know that.
Now, you’ve heard some great speakers. I do not have to tell you how tough things are out there, but I do think it’s worth reminding ourselves how we got here, and the promises that the current occupant of the White House was making on the campaign trail two years ago.
AUDIENCE: Boo!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Don’t boo! And by the way, y’all must not have been to my rallies before, because you know you’re not supposed to boo. What are you supposed to do?
AUDIENCE: Vote!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Correct. They can’t hear your boos. They’ll hear your vote! (Applause.)
Now, two years ago, there were a lot of people who, they weren’t crazy about the guy’s character, but they were frustrated about post-COVID inflation.
They were seeing prices go up, and they heard him make a bunch of promises to get costs under control.
And those weren’t the only promises he made. He also promised he’d impose tariffs that would bring down the deficit. He promised he’d stop getting us involved in unnecessary wars. He promised he’d pass a beautiful healthcare bill, the most “beautiful bill” that would make everyone’s lives better. So, I think we should examine how did these promises work out.
Well, first of all, if you thought everything cost too much before you know who, everything is more expensive now. Your mortgage costs more. Your healthcare costs more. Your utility bills cost more. Interest rates are up, and then there’s gas, $4 a gallon, $5 a gallon. Diesel is over $y and climbing.
Now, I want to be fair. As a former president, I can tell you sometimes, factors beyond the president’s control end up foiling the best laid plans; that happens. A president doesn’t have control over the entire economy, but that is not the case here. (Applause.)
In this case, this administration’s actions are directly responsible for rising costs. The current president chose to make a series of bad decisions. Most importantly, he decided to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for and nobody voted for. (Applause.)
Now, this is something I know a little about. Let’s think about this Iran war. The original rationale was, we’re going to go in there and get them to give up their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons.
Now, the thing was, Iran didn’t have nuclear weapons because I had put a deal in place — (Applause.) — that everybody acknowledged kept them from getting nukes. And I didn’t have to fire a missile to do it. I just had to engage in diplomacy.
He pulled out of it, starts this war. Seven months later, six months after they declared victory, because remember they said, “Oh, this is the best war ever, it’s going great,” seven months later, how’s that war going? Our allies and our bases have been attacked. Americans have been killed. Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We have run down our stock of missiles, and Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to the world market.
This is the reason why the price of oil is up. Nobody disputes that. This is the reason the price of diesel is up. This is the reason why the price of just about everything is up. Meanwhile, you’ve got the defense secretary, who’s squarely focused —
AUDIENCE: Boo!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Wait, wait, don’t boo! Wait, wait! No, no, no, he’s very focused on important matters like the jawlines and testosterone levels of our troops — (laughter) — and live streaming executions, because that’s how he thinks you cultivate that manly warrior spirit.
How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking himself in the mirror in the morning? (Laughter.) I mean, you know he’s working his hair because that’s how warriors look.
These are not serious people. They’re not serious people, and the problem is you end up having to pay the price for their lack of seriousness. (Applause.)
Now, oil prices aren’t the only reason prices keep going up. There’s also this whole tariff business. Our current president loves tariffs, loves them, tariffs!
Now, he was warned at the time, when you impose tariffs, consumers pay the tab because it’s not just the goods that you use directly that have been imported from someplace else. It’s also the car you build here in America. They might need a part from somewhere else, and now suddenly there’s a tariff on it, so the prices go up. He was warned about that. “No, no, no, that’s not what’s going to happen. It’s going to be great. Everything’s going to turn out great.”
No, that’s not what happened! In fact, tariffs helped contribute to rising prices. And the big trade war he’s starting now is with that well-known evil empire, Canada! (Laughter.) Canada! I mean, these are the people who gave us maple syrup and Martin Short. (Laughter.) Canadians, they’re the nicest people; they’re so nice! They’re like our friendly neighbors to the north, and he’s picking a fight with them. And instead of bringing down deficits like he said with these tariffs, we’re now running a debt to the tune of $40 trillion, 40 trillion!
Now, you would think that with all this going on, our current president must have at least passed some legislation to bring down prices. You would think, right? But the only bill they passed of any significance in the last two years was a trillion-dollar tax break that mostly benefitted the richest Americans.
AUDIENCE: Boo!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: What did I say? What did I say? Don’t boo, vote!
AUDIENCE: Vote!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Vote! Now, I’ve heard the argument, the president’s done some things folks wanted him to do, like tightening up the border. And you know what? I believe that we do need to make sure that our border is orderly and secure, and that people who want to come here do so lawfully.
And in fact, when I was president, I got criticized by some close Democratic allies for tightening up enforcement at the border. But I don’t recall anybody campaigning on sending masked agents running through our streets. I don’t recall anybody talking about law-abiding citizens being arrested, detained, or shot! We did not ask for that! That’s not what we have to do to get our borders under control. (Cheers/applause.)
When you go through all this, the tally of promises, things have not worked out the way we might have expected, although I must say, I did expect it. (Laughter.)
And let’s be honest. Does anybody really think this guy in the White House right now is spending all that time thinking about these issues?
AUDIENCE: No!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. (Laughter.) The guy’s building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House. He’s paved over the Rose Garden, put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and there’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold? (Laughter.) Everything, more gold. He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. (Laughter.) Just gold everywhere. (Applause.)
He’s clearly not focused on lowering prices for you!
Now, there is one thing he does seem to focus on in addition to home renovation, and that is how to enrich himself and his family and his children. Just look at the last couple weeks. We’ve got a United States Ambassador shaking down a donor to pay off a $100,000 credit card bill. Then we learned there’s a Venezuelan billionaire who wanted a pardon, paid one of Trump’s personal lawyers $50 million to be general counsel at a company nobody knows anything about. And lo and behold, he gets the pardon, falls out of the sky.
And this culture is set at the top. We have never seen a president excel so wildly and just straight up grifting on your dime. (Applause.) Never seen a president so intent on selling favors and shaking folks down. We have lost count of all the deals he and his family have done, from meme coins to taxpayer-funded contracts for his kids’ companies. And this is someone who has become billions of dollars wealthier in office.
And by the way, this is not disputed. I’m not making this up. It’s all there, and not a single Republican in Congress has done anything to stop it, not Jon Husted, not any of the Republicans on the ballot here in Ohio. Most of them have supported him every step of the way.
You remember that old thing about drain the swamp? The only thing that got drained was the reflecting pool in the National Mall after some no-bid contract got it all messed up. And then they tried to blame a three-time Olympian and say he vandalized it. (Applause.)
All right. I mean, the list could go on.
And here’s the tough part, all right? Like it or not, I want a little reality check. We’ve got two more years in this administration.
AUDIENCE: No!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Wait, wait, wait! I mean, wait, hold up. I mean, that’s how our system of government works, but you know what? You know what we’re not stuck with? We’re not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are enabling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty, and indifference for working people. (Applause.)
We’re not stuck with that. We’re not stuck with folks who are enabling policies that take more and more out of your paycheck, and cut your health care, and drive up prices. We’re not stuck with that.
This election is our last, best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration. (Applause.)
It’s the circuit breaker in the system. We need to flip that circuit breaker! We need to start bringing some accountability to this administration. And just as important, we need to start showing the American people, who are hungry for solutions, what real leadership looks like, what concrete plans look like that actually lower costs and actually make healthcare more affordable, and make housing more affordable and get utility bills under control. We can’t just be against this administration’s behavior. We have to start showing them what a future on the other side of this administration can look like. (Cheers/applause.)
And that starts with you, Ohio. That starts with you. That starts with electing Amy Acton governor! (Applause.)
That starts with sending Sherrod Brown to the United States Senate! (Applause.)
It starts with them.
I almost feel bad for their Republican opponents, almost, because after spending the past couple years just singing this president’s praises, doing his bidding, they’ve now come to realize everybody’s pretty upset about all these broken promises.
So, what are they doing? First of all, they’re pretending like they’ve never heard of the guy. (Laughter.) “Donald who? I’m sorry. Who?” (Laughter.) And then, of course, they’re also doing what they always do, we’re just running all kinds of scary ads to make you think Democrats are radicals and communists, and that the woke police will arrest you and force feed you tofu. (Laughter.)
We are not going to fall for that. They run that same okey-doke every election, and it’s tired, tired. We’re clear about the choice in this election. Jon Husted is a guy who, as Sherrod already mentioned, voted not once, not twice, voted 14 times to support the Iran war that’s helping drive up gas prices here in Ohio, 14 times.
AUDIENCE: Boo!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Don’t boo.
AUDIENCE: Vote!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Voted three times to block folks from reining in the tariffs that have been driving up costs, voted to kick hundreds of thousands of Ohioans off Medicaid and raise healthcare costs.
And by the way, this is the same guy who, as lieutenant governor, pushed so hard for data centers, he’s been called a data center’s best friend. Now, I don’t know if that’s a title I want, but that’s it.
You know who hasn’t been called that? Sherrod Brown. (Applause.)
If there is one thing we all know about Sherrod Brown, and I’ve known him for two decades, is that he is not looking out for the high and mighty. He’s not working on behalf of people living high on the hog. He’s looking out for folks who are doing an honest day’s work and are still having trouble getting by. And that’s who he is; that’s who he’s always been. (Applause.)
And by the way, you can tell by how he’s dressed. (Laughter.) I mean, this is not a guy who enriched himself, cozying up to corporations. He still is wearing the same suit he was in when I met him 20 years ago! (Laughter/applause.)
He got a haircut for this rally — (laughter) — but y’all know he’s too cheap to get a haircut more than, I don’t know, once every couple months. He’s got this quarter zip. Connie told him, you know what? We’ve got to spruce you up a little bit. (Laughter.)
Sherrod is not somebody pretending to look out for working folks. He has always been there for you — (Applause.) — even when it’s hard, even when he might lose an election, even when he knows folks are going to spend millions of dollars against him! He’s always challenging the status quo, always taking on the system, always fighting for you!
And that’s what he’ll do in the United States Senate. He’ll ban members of Congress from trading stocks, ban them for life from lobbying after they leave. He’ll put a cap on how much utility companies can raise rates. And when it comes to data centers, he’ll make sure corporations and not Ohioans are paying the full cost of their energy needs. (Applause.)
He’ll fight to make sure decisions about data centers are made not in secret deals, but out in the open by you, in Ohio communities. It’ll build on the great work we did because he was there every step of the way, passing the Affordable Care Act, and he’s going to make it illegal for drug companies to charge Americans more than what they charge in other countries — (Applause.) — and taking on insurance companies who are denying Ohioans care and protecting health care for hundreds of thousands of Ohioans. That’s who Sherrod is.
So, if you want lower costs, vote for change. Vote for Sherrod! (Applause.)
You want to end the war and get gas prices under control, vote for change and vote for Sherrod. You want to stop corruption and grifting, vote for change. Vote for Sherrod Brown! (Applause.)
And then you’ve got a governor’s race here. Let’s talk about that.
Now, there’s one political observer who was recently asked whether Vivek Ramaswamy wants to be a good governor or some kind of political celebrity, and the political observer said, “I don’t know. I assume he wants to be both.” This wasn’t some Democratic pundit who said this; it was Republican Governor Mike DeWine.
Vivek’s own supporters know it’s all about what’s in it for him. We all know that guy, who’s just thirsty, just wants to get attention no matter what, willing to do anything. And in recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to, to try to get in the limelight. I mean, think about this latest ad he ran.
AUDIENCE: Boo!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do not boo. I want us to just focus on this. Wait, wait!
There’s a decency that we should expect out of our public officials. (Applause.)
And I don’t know what’s happened where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that. There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, no office is worth stooping that low, because you know what? Character matters.
Amy has spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced, and the abuse, neglect, and homelessness. And she’s never forgotten the people who looked out for her, who refused to look the other way when she needed a helping hand. And that’s why she dedicated her life and her career to looking out for Ohioans, looking out for people in need, looking out for people who maybe didn’t get a fair shot. (Applause.)
That’s what she did when Mike DeWine recruited her to join his cabinet and lead Ohio’s Health Department. And that’s what she’s going to do as governor. (Applause.)
She’ll cut taxes for as many as 775,000 Ohio families to lower costs and put money in your pockets and lift people out of poverty. She understands childcare shouldn’t bust the family budget, so she’ll make childcare more affordable, forgive medical debt, because no one should go broke because they need a medical procedure. (Applause.)
And on day one, as governor, she will sign anti-corruption executive orders to make sure Ohio’s government is working for Ohioans and not special interests. (Cheers/applause.)
Amy Acton is not in this to be some kind of political celebrity. She’s in it for you. (Applause.)
Look, these are unsettling times. These are unsettling times. The economy is changing fast. AI is here, and we need to make sure it benefits everyone, not just a few billionaires. We need to revamp our education for the new era that AI is ushering in. (Applause.)
We’re facing a housing shortage, and we need to build millions of homes. We need to rein in the cost of childcare so young families can afford it. We need to make sure no one has to worry about high healthcare premiums.
I get the frustration; I get the anger and the cynicism because the system is not working, partly because of gerrymandering, partly because rich and powerful folks are able to buy and sell elections like never before, pouring the kind of money we’ve never seen, partly because we’ve got a Republican Party that used to stand for smaller government and now seems to stand for corrupt government, or inept government, or no government — (Applause.) — and partly because this is also true too often, even among well-intentioned folks, including Democrats, there are times when we get so caught up in process and bureaucracy that we don’t deliver the goods fast enough to make a real difference in people’s lives. And people get frustrated. They don’t see enough change out there.
And that’s the reason we need serious people in Washington and in state capitals. These are serious times. (Applause.)
And what is striking about this moment is just how unserious the people in charge are right now, people who are more interested in performance, and flexing, and texting, and putting people down instead of lifting them up. (Applause.)
And what all that means is that when you see somebody like Sherrod, when you see somebody like Amy, somebody who genuinely cares about people, somebody who has a strong track record and is offering real solutions, somebody who isn’t in it to enrich themselves or because they want the limelight, but because they want to serve, then you’ve got to realize how precious that is.
And we’ve got to deliver for them. We’ve got to make sure we elect them as United States Senator and as governor. (Applause.)
Because Sherrod and Amy understand this election is not about them. It’s about you; it’s about us.
And there’s one other thing they understand. They understand that what ails us right now, what is throwing our country so out of kilter, it’s not just about prices. It’s not just about economics. Those things are really important, but it’s also about values. (Applause.)
There is a moral component to the choices we face right now. We are not going to fix the economic system or the political system that’s broken. We’re not going to unrig our economy, so long as we’ve got a culture where anything goes, and where people in the highest offices in the land think it’s okay to lie and cheat and bully, and where money is the only measure of our worth. (Applause.)
And that’s part of what’s going on right now. We have lost touch with those things that really matter in life, caring for our families, and helping our neighbors, and looking after our children, and laughing with them, and hugging them, and keeping our word, and having integrity, and treating other people with respect — (Applause.) — just basic stuff, stuff that used to be, it wasn’t Democratic or it wasn’t Republican. It was American. It was human. It was how we treat each other, just basic decency! (Cheers/applause.)
Yeah! That’s what we are missing in our public discourse, just basic decency.
We need to remember the words of a 25-year-old preacher who gave a sermon in 1954, where he said, “If we are to go forward today, we’ve got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind.” That was Martin Luther King, Jr. at 25 years old. (Applause.)
He said, “We haven’t learned how to be just. We haven’t learned how to be honest and kind and true and loving, and that is the basis of our problem.” (Cheers/applause.)
“The real problem,” he said, “is that through our scientific genius, we have made a world of neighborhood, but through our moral and our spiritual genius, we failed to make it a brotherhood.”
And Ohio, what was true then is true today. Yes, we need to lower costs. We need to put money in people’s pockets. Yes, we need to end this war and the corruption in Washington, but we don’t do any of those things if we don’t fix our moral compass as a nation, if we don’t return to some of those old-fashioned virtues –(Applause.) — if our fundamental attitude to each other is to try and hurt other people so they don’t hurt us first, if we’re driven by fear instead of by hope, if we think it’s okay to snatch children from parents or cut programs for the aged or the infirm, so the powerful can get whatever they want, we will continue to fester in anger and division.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being angry, and I’m tired of being divided. (Applause.)
I want to reach out and shake my neighbor’s hand. I want to get to work doing something for somebody else.
We didn’t get into this moment overnight. We won’t get out of it overnight, and none of us should pretend that any single person in any single office is somehow going to save the day for us, and that the rest of us can just go back to acting the same way. We’re going to have to all make some changes.
But Ohio, here’s what I know. This election can be a start. This election can be an inflection point. This election can be a course correction in America’s long journey toward a more perfect union — (Applause.) — because if we’re willing to turn out in big numbers here in Ohio and across the country, if we’re willing to vote for change and vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, then this election might just mark the moment this country began moving in a better direction — (Cheers/applause.) — when we leave our worst impulses behind and start aligning our politics with our highest ideals!
Ohio, you and I have proved before that it is hard to stop a change whose time has come. (Applause.)
In 10 days, you have a chance to do it again! So, I’m asking you: Are you fired up?
AUDIENCE: Yeah!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Are you ready to go? (Cheers/applause.)
Let’s make Amy Acton governor! (Applause.)
Let’s make Sherrod Brown senator! (Applause.)
Let’s get on the path to making America better!
Thank you! I love you!. God bless you! God bless the United States of America!
October 23, 2026 Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz
The Artificial Intelligence compilation on Google states this:
Current Traffic Status (October 23, 2026)
- Daily Transits: Roughly 14 vessels crossed the strait recently (9 inbound and 5 outbound, including 2 dark/untracked vessels), up slightly from previous days but severely reduced compared to the pre-crisis average of about 85 to 94 ships per day. [1, 2, 3]
- Operational Status: Listed as Restricted with ongoing GPS jamming, AIS spoofing, and elevated threats of vessel attacks or mine hazards near the waterway. [1, 2, 3]
- Control Dispute: The U.S. maintains the corridor is open under naval coordination—focusing largely on routes hugging the Omani coast—while Iran claims the strait is closed and demands explicit transit permits through its territorial waters. [1, 2, 3]
This is a visual of what it looks like:
The US attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, in an action unvetted and unapproved by Congress. We were told it was a limited action that would end in a week or so. It is now 8 months, at catastrophic costs to the USA.
From CBS News:
What to know about the Iran war today:
- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has told the Financial Times the war with Iran could last another year, but the Trump administration envoy said he hopes the Iranians “come to the table” before that.
- The price of Brent crude oil briefly crossed $117 a barrel Friday, its highest level during the war, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed to have disabled seven tankers near the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump accused Iran Thursday of lying about attacks on ships to drive up oil prices before the U.S. midterm elections.
- State-owned energy giant Saudi Aramco said Thursday that the amount of oil flowing through its East-West pipeline, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, had more than tripled from 2 million to 7 million barrels per day, as uncertainty hangs over exports across the Middle East.
Sometimes, It All Comes Together
My friend called me on Sunday, asking if we still needed help with our tree problem. “Yes,” I said; we sure did. She needed work done, had a team that did a great job, and asked if I wanted to meet them. “Yes!” I said, with enthusiasm, and they came over, talked with my husband, and made a deal.
A deal isn’t a deal until it’s done, as I see it. Lots of guys make promises and don’t show up. These guys showed up. They showed up with the right equipment and the right skill sets and experience.
I wasn’t there to watch. I had a commitment at a local elementary school where I volunteer, but AdventureMan kept sending pictures. He was pumped! These guys knew what they were doing. Most of the photos here are his.
While two guys went to work putting ropes on the BIG problem, our tree that ended up horizontal twenty feet off the ground over two fences and three back yards, one man went to work on the heritage pine tree in front, with a dislodged bough that never fell. He made short work of getting it down, and trimmed off a couple others that he thought might prevent a future problem.
Then, he tackled the Holly Tree which has leaned over the years until it was pointing directly at our house.
Finally, the BIG Problem. The tree over three yards. The good news is that our three backyards have large gates, so we could access all three yards. They brought in heavy machinery, and while they worked on different parts of the tree, the machine lifted it and held it up. The fences were undamaged, except for the one we were already preparing to replace before the storm because it was old and rotted.
When the loggers had finished, they saw one more long bough which was damaged, and likely to come down in the next serious wind, so they took that down, too.
These guys were amazing, and the job didn’t even take a full day. They were gone by early afternoon. They cleaned up, stacked all the logs, piled the boughs and blew the patios and drives clear. We were grateful, and impressed.
It wasn’t cheap. It was reasonable. The Pensacola News Journal had run a story on avoiding scammers, and gougers, and listed price ranges for work that were within a reasonable range; ours was right in the center, and they did a lot of extra work and all the clean up. We are so relieved to have the dangerous trees gone, and so relieved to have this great team to help us.
We are also grateful for the help from friends and neighbors, helping us with resources, good recommendations, good information and support as we went through this hurricane.
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Early Voting in Florida
