I opened my Sunday ink-on-paper New York Times to see my senator, Elissa Slotkin, wearing a grave expression in a Page One photo. The story was about increasing threats of violence to public officials. (Gift link, as always.)
Also “as always,” the copy bent over backwards to both-sides it. Subhed: Thousands of violent messages targeting U.S. Politicians Across Party Lines. The copy: They aimed at Republicans and Democrats alike, and at a range of officeholders from county clerks to United States senators. And the photo of Slotkin, a Democrat, was paired with one of Rodric Bray, a Hoosier state senator and a Republican.
But dive deeper and one politician in particular appears to be the wellspring from which the lion’s share of this violence flows. You’ll never guess who.
Consider the case of Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example:
What started out as a flood of threats primarily from the left evolved into menace from the right, too, after Ms. Greene’s break with President Trump last fall.
Ms. Greene’s dispute with the president centered largely on Jeffrey Epstein, the sexual predator who eventually killed himself in jail. Like many on the far right, Ms. Greene had agitated for the release of government files pertaining to Mr. Epstein. Then she began agitating directly against the president she had once fawned over, when his government refused to do so.
Her disillusionment expanded after Mr. Trump took the country to war against Iran. She believed his tariff policies and curtailment of health subsidies were hurting her constituents in rural northwest Georgia, she said, and flouting his promise to put “America First.”
…Ms. Greene reached out to Mr. Trump, hoping for compassion from a president she had stood by for years. She forwarded copies of the threats to him, hoping that seeing the threats against her family would be enough to tone down the attacks.
She got a five-word reply from the president: “Your fault, you deserve it.”
Ah, why go through this again? You can all read it; it’s a good story. And I know why the NYT feels it can’t put a foot wrong in this environment. And yes, yes! CHARLIE KIRK WAS ASSASSINATED. That was a bad thing, a very bad thing, if only because it pushed Erika Kirk into our brainpans, and that has been excruciating. Still, though: Let’s not let quote-unquote fairness undermine facts.
Meanwhile, here’s another thing to make you wish for an early death: Muse, the AI agent Mark Zuckerberg thinks you need:
In September, small businesses around the country started receiving strange phone calls. “Hi, this is [Name],” they would begin before informing the recipient they were calling on someone else’s behalf. “I’ll be transcribing this call,” they would disclose, then launch straight into a request: “I’m looking for a quote to install three bidets”. Or: “I’d like to book a karaoke room.” Or: “I’d like to place a cake order for pickup today.” Some businesses simply proceeded, asking follow-up questions about the cake, getting answers, and logging the order. Others were more reluctant to continue. “Are you AI?” asked an employee at a Seattle karaoke place. “I need the real person.” Asked if he could help with the “customer-supplied” bidet job, a Colorado plumber replied with a question of his own, which was automatically transcribed, sort of: “Can you soak my dick?”
The mysterious calls came through Muse, an AI-assistant tool released by Meta last month, which the company says “handles it all” — including online shopping, purchasing flights, making reservations, managing inboxes, and, for some users, booking things over the phone. While internal documents leaked to 404 Media indicate that some of the calls in question may have been joint AI-human enterprises — with a call-center employee taking a handoff from an AI agent before sending the task back again — from the recipients’ side, it didn’t really matter. Suddenly, they weren’t talking directly to their customers anymore.
Did you ask for this? Because I did not. I don’t know anyone else who asked for this, either. I would like to invite Muse, and Mark Zuckerberg, to soak my dick.
Happy Wednesday.
David C said on October 14, 2026 at 5:48 am
Enshitification is a built in feature of Muse, apparently. No real point in waiting, I guess. It’s going to end up there anyway.
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diane said on October 14, 2026 at 7:36 am
Going back to a topic on the last thread, I want to add a thumbs down on Theo of Golden. I was glad to see some other people here also did not care for it. My bookclub loved it.
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tajalli said on October 15, 2026 at 2:13 am
Muse is just another four letter word.
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LAMary said on October 15, 2026 at 10:34 am
Completely irrelevant comment: I’m going to be a grandmother. In April. It’s a girl.
My daughter in law is brilliant and amazing and my son is astonishingly reliable, smart, and will probably be a really good father.
I’m already crocheting the baby blanket.
Life goes on.
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Deborah said on October 15, 2026 at 11:48 am
Congratulations LA Mary!! How cool. It’s great to hear from you.
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Julie Robinson said on October 15, 2026 at 4:10 pm
LAMary, that’s the best news I’ve heard today! Congratulations! May this be for joy!
I’ve just completed my election training and they discussed challenges. This was a new one to me. Anyone can walk into the poll and challenge any voter FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. If someone really wanted to gum up the election they could challenge every single voter. It requires a lot of paperwork and a call to the election supervisor. I shudder to think.
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Cheez Whiz said on October 15, 2026 at 4:14 pm
Death threats are part of the toolkit Trump uses to keep the Republican party in line, but very little is reported on death threats in general. Of course the NYT has to report that “both sides” are sending and recieving them, part of the cultural tenor of out times, doncha know. If only there was some law enforcement organization that tracked them and had data showing who the targets were and how the distribution falls across party lines. Bonus points for actual planning or actions taken. But no, its just something in the air no one is responsible for and nothing can be done. So sad. What’s new on Netflix?
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nancy said on October 15, 2026 at 4:39 pm
Julie, that’s what the Republicans were doing at the absentee counting boards in 2020, when they saw the lead slipping away. They just challenged every ballot. However, in Michigan you need a valid reason, and they had none. That didn’t stop the ignorant from yelling that ThEy WErE taKIng ToO LoNg tO CoUnT tHe VoteS!!!
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Julie Robinson said on October 15, 2026 at 5:13 pm
Welp, turns out my daughter knew more than the trainer. Challenging more than one person would bring them to the attention of the election board and they would have to present legitimate reasons. If they don’t have them, they face fines. Now I feel better.
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Suzanne said on October 15, 2026 at 5:45 pm
I have been watching East of Eden on Netflix. It’s been a while since I read the book but so far, it’s holding my interest.
Congrats on the new grandbaby coming! We had our first (and likely only) grandbaby a few months ago. She is, of course, perfect but my goodness, the rules have changed! The first month, they were told to wake the baby every three hours to feed. I never ever woke a sleeping baby! There are just so many more rules now it’s no wonder parents are stressed.
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Dorothy said on October 15, 2026 at 7:49 pm
Suzanne I would hope new parents these days would consult with grandparents and get set straight. That’s nuts. The baby calls the shots for the first month or two. If mom is breastfeeding the baby and it’s been so long that mom is engorged, then wake up baby. I know there are always multiple theories but that seems a bridge too far to me. There’s time when they’re a bit older to start getting some structure to their feedings. Just when you think they’ve gotten on a ‘schedule’ then a growth spurt hits and all bets are off.
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Deborah said on October 15, 2026 at 8:03 pm
It’s been so long since I had a newborn, but lordy I would never wake up a sleeping baby unless the child had a serious medical condition that needed timed special medication or something. Times have changed.
Lots of stress these days, why make it worse?
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