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Monday, Oct. 26
As the Josh Turek campaign unveils another ad highlighting the Democrat’s support for trans sports bans and federal restrictions on gender-affirming care — which LGBTQ+ reporter Erin Reed called “one of the worst anti-trans ads yet” — new research is circulating linking proponents of anti-trans sports laws with general sexism.
A survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by political scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found the strongest supporters of bans on trans athletes tend to have the most hostile beliefs about women (e.g. women seek control over men, are too easily offended, exaggerate problems they face at work, etc.). 79% of people with sexist views were in favor of trans sports bans, compared to 28% of the least sexist respondents. And 70% of Title IX opponents said they support restrictions on trans athletes, compared to 43% of pro-Title IX people.
Tuesday, Oct. 27
A new report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee includes witness accounts from 11 women linking Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein.
“The evidence demonstrates that Trump has lied about the nature and extent of his relationship with Epstein dozens of times … [and] indicates that Trump abused, assaulted, and even raped numerous women alongside, and in coordination with, the most infamous sex trafficker in history,” according to the report’s summary.
It also provides evidence of a “relentless cover-up” by the Department of Justice to benefit Trump “and other probable accomplices and co-conspirators” of Epstein, including by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche when he interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell in prison on July 24, 2025.
“The transcript of that meeting shows that on at least three separate occasions, Blanche directed Maxwell not to discuss one individual, Jane, whose report to FBI implicated Donald Trump in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, but whose claims were not yet known to the public.”
You can read the report, which has gotten startling little mainstream media coverage in the first 24 hours since its release, in full here.
Wednesday, Oct. 28
Today marks 108 years since the founding of the independent nation of Czechoslovakia. Seated in George Washington’s “Rising Sun” chair in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk signed a proclamation establishing the Czechoslovak Republic on Oct. 28, 1918, surrounded by international leaders. Masaryk then became the nation’s first president, serving until 1935. He oversaw a period of democratic strength and stability in the CSR.
A decade earlier, in September 1907, Masaryk had delivered a lecture at the Czech School in Cedar Rapids, founded in 1870 with the arrival of Czech immigrants to the area. Masaryk, then a professor at Prague University and a proponent of feminist and progressive causes, gave a well-received speech on free thought to Iowa students. Learn more by visiting the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village/New Bohemia District.
Thursday, Oct. 29
HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was back in Iowa yesterday to flout the Hatch Act and campaign for Republicans Zach Lahn and Joe Mitchell, both endorsed by the MAHA Action PAC. While nothing new was revealed about the candidates at the rally — Lahn still wants to ban mRNA vaccines and Mitchell is still perfecting his Trump impression — it’s worth mentioning what RFK Jr. has been up to recently.
At a Trump rally last week, Kennedy said, “There’s 500 million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science,” don’t win prestigious awards, and “don’t produce literature” — claims as virulently racist as they are factually absurd.
RFK Jr. is also changing HHS rules to allow the sale of six peptides popular with some alt-medicine and “anti-aging” gurus, despite the fact they aren’t approved by the FDA. He tweeted back in October 2024 that the FDA was “corrupt” and waging a “war” to suppress access to peptides, along with “raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine,” and even “vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise.” Zach Lahn retweeted the post.
Friday, Oct. 30
Wednesday saw the deaths of two accomplished, well-loved public figures: Dolores Huerta (1930-2026) and Sir Patrick Stewart (1940-2026).
Huerta was an American civil rights icon who helped found the United Farm Workers union, lead the successful 1965 Delano grape strike and organize the 1972 rallies in Phoenix against an Arizona law prohibiting collective bargaining, strikes and boycotts. (Politicians reportedly shouted “No, no se puede” at the demonstrators, to which Huerta replied, “Si, si se puede!” It’s been a rallying cry every since.) She spent her life advocating for worker rights, racial justice and gender equity — including in 2026, when she revealed she had been raped by Caesar Chavez, and confronted the complex reasons why she stayed silent.
Not unlike Dolly Parton, Patrick Stewart is the kind of celebrity that feels like the wise teacher, father or grandfather in every fan’s life. Along with his many stage, TV and film credits, he was a steadfast supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, gun control, feminism and mental health care. Having grown up in a poor Yorkshire household witnessing his father abuse his mother, Stewart was a lifelong opponent of domestic violence and the social forces that foster it.
Of Star Trek: The Next Generation, he said, “It was about truth and fairness and honesty and respect for others, no matter who they were or what strange alien creature they looked like. That was immaterial. They were alive. And if they needed help, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, his team, were there to give it.”
