- Kellyanne Conway describing Pennsylvania Senate nominee and Lt. Gov John Fetterman (D-PA) doing objectively funny stuff

The news cycle continues to churn out more updates surrounding Mother Russia. And as you can probably guess, they’re not great. 
 

• According to U.S. officials, American and allied intelligence agencies are stepping up efforts to detect any Russian military movement or communications that might signal that Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Democratic lawmakers have unveiled plans to provide additional financial aid to Ukraine as part of a stopgap spending measure to finance the federal government through December 16th. 
   

• Kazakh officials reported that almost 100,000 Russians have crossed into Kazakhstan in the week since President Putin’s announcement ordering a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine. Kazakhstan and Georgia, both part of the former Soviet Union, appeared to be the most popular destinations for those crossing by car, bicycle or on foot. The Kremlin said no decision has been made on whether or not to seal Russia’s borders to stop a mass exodus of military-aged men fleeing the country. The mobilization currently only calls up men with prior military experience, but it’s clear that many Russian men of military age see the writing on the wall that a broader mobilization may be close at hand.
   

• Sudden and unexplained gas leaks detected in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines from Russia to Germany have prompted investigations by European countries amid fears of possible sabotage. The cause of the gas leak is still unknown, but a researcher for the Center for Maritime Operations at the Royal Danish Defense College says the timing is “conspicuous” and “if we look at who would actually benefit from disturbances, more chaos on the gas market in Europe, I think there’s basically only one actor right now that actually benefits from more uncertainty.” Spoiler: that’s Russia.

Lest you think we’ve forgotten about those pesky sham referendums, we certainly haven’t, and clearly neither has the international community. 
 

• Putin’s plan to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine lurched forward today as Kremlin officials claimed that the (bogus) referendums held there showed residents in favor of joining Russia by a comically high 95 percent. Maybe this is my America talking, but when was the last time you heard of any measure passing with 95 percent support? We could hold an “Is water wet?” referendum here and only max out at about 70 percent voting in the affirmative.
   

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with the United Nations Security Council today over video conference, and implored them to remove Russia from the global peacekeeping body in response to the country’s active land grab in Ukraine. Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.N.’s under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the Security Council that the referendum votes being carried out by Russian officials in Ukraine’s territory “cannot be regarded as legal under international law,” and a U.N. resolution to reject the sham referendum votes has been drafted. 
   

Diplomats say that the Kremlin’s increasing threats of nuclear war are simply meant to scare the West into reducing support for Ukraine. Whether that’s a misread of Putin or the genuine strategy of a psychopath who hasn’t heard the word “no” in over 20 years, they remain threats worth taking seriously.

Crooked is excited to announce that your favorite daily news podcast is adding a new host to its lineup! Starting the week of October 3rd, renowned political commentator and expert Juanita Tolliver will be joining What a Day alongside current hosts Tre’vell Anderson, Priyanka Aribindi, and Josie Duffy Rice. Tune in each morning as they break down the biggest news of the day, share important stories you may have missed, and show you what “Fox & Friends” would sound like if it were hosted by people whose parents read to them as children. 

You can listen and subscribe to What A Day, wherever you get your podcasts.

As we reported a few weeks ago, the people of Jackson, MS, were recently left without running water for several days, the latest and most dramatic crisis in the state capital where the EPA has issued 300 boil water notices over the past two years. Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) blamed city-level bureaucratic mismanagement, but as he climbed the political ladder earlier in his own career, Reeves had a direct hand in blocking money that would have funded water system repairs. Jackson-area lawmakers say the decaying water system is one example of Jackson’s status as a political punching bag for Republican officials, who control the Legislature and the state Bond Commission, and who cut their teeth on denying funding to the state capital in order to make a show of their fiscal conservatism bona fides. The city is 80 percent Black, and one-quarter of residents live in poverty, making it even more susceptible to getting caught in the crosshairs of Republican rhetorical games. But it’s not a game. Clean water is a basic human right, and the 165,000 people who live in Jackson don’t deserve to be treated as pawns while wealthy Republican lawmakers laugh at their misfortune.

The House January 6 committee has postponed tomorrow’s hearings, citing Hurricane Ian’s advancement on Florida.

Speaking of which, Hurricane Ian’s track has shifted about 25 miles south according to the latest advisory, with landfall of the Category 4 storm expected to occur tomorrow near Venice, Florida. The storm has already devastated western Cuba. 

In a surprising coalition, progressive Democrats and Republicans in the Senate teamed up to oppose a bill backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that would have relaxed oil and gas permitting regulations, forcing lawmakers to drop the measure from the forthcoming government funding package. Aligning with Republicans is never anyone’s first choice, but whatever ensures Joe Manchin can’t frack our country to hell is probably a good strategy. 

A new Washington Post investigative report shows House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s multimillion-dollar strategy to weed out controversial GOP candidates like Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) ahead of this year’s midterm elections. 

An Indiana lawyer has sued to block President Biden’s plan to cancel some student debt, arguing that the policy will force him to pay state taxes on the forgiven amount, in spite of the fact that nobody’s required to apply for or accept debt relief. Sorry but this is extreme loser behavior. 

The newest member of disgraced former president Trump’s ever-changing legal team, former solicitor general of Florida Chris Kise, has been sidelined in the Mar-a-Lago case less than a month after being brought on. Anthony Scaramucci can rest easy knowing his record remains intact. 

Last year, when women claimed that the coronavirus vaccine temporarily changed the regularity of their periods, a lot of people didn’t believe them. A new study confirms that those women were right. 

The number of teenagers seeking long term contraceptive devices like IUDs has soared since the Dobbs decision, especially in states with abortion bans that make no exception for rape or incest. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have both endorsed a bipartisan electoral count reform bill in the Senate after a similar bill passed in the House. The bills seek to prevent a future president from trying to overturn federal election results, for no reason in particular. 

Jury selection began today in the trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four of his fascist brothers-in-arms on charges of seditious conspiracy, one of the most serious cases to emerge from the January 6th insurrection. We wish them all the worst.

According to new federal data, the number of asylum seekers entering Canada from the United States has reached its highest level since 2017. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) intercepted 23,358 asylum seekers crossing into Canada at unofficial entry points during the first eight months of the year, which is 13 percent more than all of 2017. On October 6th, the Canadian Supreme Court will hear a legal challenge to a 2002 agreement between the two countries, called the Safe Third Country Agreement (SCTA), which forces asylum seekers to make claims for protection in the first country in which they arrive, either the U.S. or Canada, as both countries are considered “safe” for asylum seekers. Human rights advocates plan to argue that the United States is not a safe place for refugees, and that the SCTA violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the States, the Biden administration is rolling out an updated asylum application process (featuring miniscule changes) designed in the hopes of expediting the timeline and addressing some of the myriad shortcomings of the “very broken system.” Conservatives who dream of a white American ethnostate like Stephen Miller, are of course vowing to fight the amendments to the process in the court system.

Crooked x Cariuma: Double the brands, double the impact.

A limited-edition collab with our favorite shoe brand is here.

You know we’re all about voting: doing it, registering people to do it, and of course giving a portion of the proceeds from the Crooked Store to VoteRiders to help inform citizens of their state’s voter ID requirements and secure them the documents they may need to vote. 
 

Why not add wearing shoes that support voting to that list?
 

Just in time for canvassing season, we’re excited to announce that Crooked and Cariuma have collaborated to launch our own co-branded OCA low-tops, in two designs that we think you’ll really love.

Choose from a clean white sneaker with the words “No Steps Back,” or our patented “I voted” sticker print. They’re both perfect for peaceful protests, voter registration drives, and/or grabbing bagels (heroes have to eat, too).

These shoes don’t just support VoteRiders (and your arches). Like all Cariuma shoes, they’re ethically and sustainably made from organic cotton canvas, natural rubber, cork, and recycled plastics, and your pair plants two trees in the Brazilian rainforest through Cariuma’s in-house Ecological Restoration program.

Be sure to snag your pair now before they sell out!

Jared Kushner’s property management company will pay a $3.25 million fine to the state of Maryland and reimburse tens of thousands of tenants in Baltimore whom his company had cheated and harassed. Just to check in on another matter: did Jared ever solve Middle East peace?

Student activists held school walkouts across Virginia today to protest Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) proposed changes to state guidance on school policies, many of which would roll back the rights of transgender students. 

Civil rights lawyers and some Democratic senators are pushing for legislation that would limit American law enforcement agencies’ ability to purchase tools to track people’s physical location via their cell phones, often without a search warrant. I’ll file that away under “very scary thing I didn’t previously know the police were doing.”

U.S. consumer confidence is up for the second month in a row as gas prices continue to fall.