SUCCESSFUL TEST: SpaceX fires up huge Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of Nov. 1 launch.

HMM: Russia Now Has a Second Frontline Set Up Just to Kill Its Deserters: Intel.

Ukrainian intelligence on Thursday released an audio recording that appears to capture in disturbing detail the mayhem and internal rifts between Russian troops on the battlefield. In the five-minute clip, described as an intercepted phone conversation between a Russian soldier and his wife, the man says he and the other men in his unit are a comfortable distance from the actual fighting.

“They moved us back to the second line, there’s shooting somewhere ahead of us, but we’re back here for now in the trenches,” he says, before boasting that he’d been lucky and found a “Rosneft jacket covered in blood, but warm.”

“They brought the inmates here… from prison. But they led them somewhere way up front. And we’re sitting here as a retreat-blocking detachment, fuck. If someone runs back, we snuff them out.”

“What a nightmare,” his wife says.

“That’s how we have it set up. We sit on the second line, guarding the first. Behind us, there’s another line. If you go that way, you also won’t make it. So it’s impossible to run away. They shoot their own.”

This could just be Ukrainian propaganda. On the other hand, Stalin had the NKVD do the exact same thing during World War II.

I MAY REACTIVATE MY TWITTER ACCOUNT, AT LEAST CEREMONIALLY: Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and fired its top executives.

Related: Musk’s new broom sweeps clean on day one, will reinstate banned accounts.

Jazz Shaw is testing out the censorship to see if it’s still there:

IN THE MAIL: We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776. Looks interesting.

FAIRNESS: Plaintiff in Title IX Wrongful Discipline Case Against University May Depose His Accuser.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Might Be Time to Chill Champagne for a Republican Governor Red Wave. “Should I turn out to be spectacularly wrong about all of this, I will be the first to call myself a paste-eater.”

YES. THE ANSWER IS YES. Chronicle Of Higher Education Debate: Is UC-Berkeley Law School Discriminating Against Jews?

IT’S NEWS THAT IT’S NO LONGER NEWS: SpaceX launches 53 Starlink satellites, lands rocket at sea (video).

OH: Retired general’s pro-Saudi op-eds didn’t disclose financial incentives.

Over four years, Ret. Air Force General Charles “Chuck” Wald published a series of op-eds with Reuters, NBC News, The Hill, and Newsweek in which he promoted weapons sales, U.S. security guarantees, and closer military cooperation with Saudi Arabia while simultaneously working as a security consultant for the kingdom’s defense ministry.

Readers were kept in the dark about this potential conflict of interest.

Over 500 retired U.S. military personnel, many of them, like Wald, high-ranking officers, were approved by the State Department to conduct work for foreign governments, according to recently released records obtained as a result of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits by The Washington Post and the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO.

I’d ask why State approves such things but the answer has long been clear about the corruption of our institutions.

WHAT DID GREENS USE BEFORE CANDLES? ELECTRICITY! UK government has plan for winter blackouts. Britain has massive unexploited domestic energy reserves, but . . . “Modern life is literally impossible without electricity, and rolling blackouts will be a stark reminder of how the societal elites have grossly mismanaged the economy and world affairs. Only so much of the blame can be assigned to Vladimir Putin, give how prominent green energy has been in the plans of Western countries.”

IT’S BEGUN: Elon Musk Lays Down the Law in Memo to Twitter Advertisers.

IT’S WORSE AT THE BORDER THAN YOU THINK: No, I mean a lot worse. Issues & Insights explains.

WE ARE RULED BY CROOKS, INCOMPETENTS, AND CLOWNS: A DOJ Official Hyped the Jussie Smollett Hoax. Now She’s Holding a Seminar on Identifying Hate Crimes.

DEAL OF THE DAY: ComfiLife Gel Enhanced Seat Cushion. #CommissionEarned

THIS STRIKES ME AS UNWISE OR AT LEAST UNNECESSARY: U.S. makes unusual disclosure of ballistic missile submarine’s presence in Persian Gulf.

JOSH BLACKMAN: Justice Barrett and Affirmative Action.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: How a Diesel Shortage Could Cripple the U.S. Economy.

THEY CAN’T WIN IF THEY DON’T CHEAT: In Orlando, Jaw-dropping Allegations of Systemic Ballot Harvesting in Black Neighborhoods.

JEFFREY CARTER: Good Management Beats Good Ideas. “The question Facebook investors have to ask themselves is what are the goals of the management team at Facebook? Is it to enrich the shareholders? Is Metaverse a great long-term bet on the future that will have a more than 3x return to the valuation of the company? Or is it something different? . . . Facebook is a powerful platform and can recover. But, is management self-aware enough and can they abandon their personal ideologies to turn the ship around? I don’t think so. It’s a religion and fanaticism. It’s not operating a business.”

Get woke, go broke.

TOMORROW IS RELEASE DAY! Bowl Of Red.

ACCULTURATE REPORTING EVENTS WHAT KIND OF JOURNALISM IS THAT???  NewsNation fired reporter who questioned network’s ‘mission’ after airing Trump rally.

FAULT IS A WEIRD WAY TO SPELL PLAN: America’s Energy Crisis is Mostly US Democrats’ Fault.

I PICKED A HECK OF A DAY TO SEND MY SHOCKED FACE OUT FOR CLEANING:  Nancy Pelosi attacks media merger — after getting big campaign donation.

MY BELOVED STATE* IS UNDER VOTE FRAUD BY MAIL. THEY HAVE NO CHANCE:  Will a mad mom or a happy dad be governor in Colorado?

*I had to move, but my heart will always be in Colorado.

BEFORE OUR SCHOOLS ‘TEACH’ CHARACTER SHOULDN’T THEY HAVE TO DEMONSTRATE IT?  2 in 3 parents wish they were taught this when they were kids.