Source: The Bulwark
by Jim Swift & Andrew Egger

“Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s October surprise was supposed to make voters question Democrat Amy Acton’s character. Instead, yesterday, a leak of his attack ad featuring her estranged mother blew up in his face. By Tuesday evening, after the ad had been roundly condemned—including by other Ohio Republicans—Ramaswamy’s response was to announce he would spend $4 million promoting the ad. … This is not the first time Ramaswamy has had a problem involving a campaign ad and a child abuser. I reported just a week ago that Ramaswamy’s property-tax ad featured Vernon Edwards, a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty to two counts of gross sexual imposition involving his niece, who was younger than 13.” (10/21/26)

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-low-can-vivek-go-ramaswamy-acton-arthur-mother-child-abuse-ad-ohio-paxton-trans-kids-school-texas

Source: Townhall
by John Stossel

“I shouldn’t get so angry. It isn’t healthy. Last week, New York state summoned me to jury duty. I went, of course. It’s the law, and my duty. A jury may protect the innocent from government abuse. Ordinary citizens, not officials, decide if you are guilty. But doing our patriotic duty shouldn’t mean surrendering hours of our lives to bureaucratic indifference. Serving justice is important. Sitting around doing nothing isn’t.” (10/21/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2026/10/21/guilty-of-wasting-our-time-n2685026

Source: Semafor
by David Weigel

“From President Donald Trump on down, Republicans are very comfortable contending that Muslim immigration threatens America and that the liberal crusade for diversity is national suicide. They love running against El-Sayed, even in the 49 states where he’s not on the ballot. … This isn’t a swerve away from the GOP’s midterm message. It is the message: Foreigners are undermining America from within, and Democrats won’t stop them. (Never mind that El-Sayed was born in Rochester Hills.) Teepell was very much in line with the Trump-era Republican rhetorical strategy to demonize the ‘other.’ Where he went wrong was, in part, failing to go toe to toe with one of the most skillful extemporaneous talkers in Democratic politics.” (10/21/26)

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/21/2026/what-the-gop-activist-who-confronted-el-sayed-really-got-wrong

Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke

“Voters are concerned about high food and gas prices, and [Vivek] Ramaswamy is out here trying to use his opponent’s childhood trauma as some kind of cudgel. Perhaps the Ohio Republican was inspired by his party’s leader, President Donald Trump, who now spends his days at campaign rallies talking about what a nice rump he thinks Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio has. … Vile rhetoric and behavior won’t gain any of the GOP candidates a single vote. But I do applaud them for being their true selves.” (10/21/26)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/10/21/ramaswamy-acton-ad-estranged-mother-controversial-vile/92356432007/

Source: The Nation
by Alissa Quart

“I was hiking on a nature park that cuts through 45 miles of Northern Virginia, crisscrossing grassy terrain, wetlands, wooden bridges, and goldenrod, and then a dozen promontories offering the most unnatural of sights: indowless, hulking block-long data centers and their attendant transmission lines and substations. I heard ‘the hum’ of the centers before I saw them; their sound resembled a horde of cicadas on meth. I felt nervous, and somewhat overwhelmed, as I counted roughly 20 of them in just the two miles I walked on the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail in Loudoun County. Here is the country’s thickest concentration of data centers—233 centers in all, over 3 percent of the county’s overall land mass. Data Center Alley, as it’s called, is a harbinger of what is to come in this country if tech hyperscaling continues unchecked.” (10/21/26)

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/accidental-activists-data-center-alley/