Alex is finally back. In this episode, he starts by discussing how over the weekend, Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu warned defense officials in France, Turkey, Britain and the United States that Ukraine was preparing a provocation and the use of what he termed a “dirty bomb.” Alex discusses how this could be projection from Russia and Putin and his allies may be looking at a pretext for their own escalation. Later, Alex discusses midterm concerns over voter intimidation and escalating rhetoric. He also notes that it looks like the Democrats have lost their momentum and the Republicans could see a prosperous election season. FiveThirtyEight notes that “Democrats’ chances of holding onto Senate control have fallen from 66-in-100 on Oct. 13 to 55-in-100 today. And Republicans have gone from having a 69-in-100 chance of flipping the House on Oct. 13 to an 80-in-100 chance today.” Finally, Alex discusses the danger of Kanye West’s antisemetic rhetoric.