Behind the Bastards

It Could Happen Here Weekly 256

2026-10-31

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file:

Israeli Elections and the Palestinians 2026 Elections (The Union Ones) ¡El Chupacabras! Kim Kelly's Morbid Labor Tales  Executive Disorder: Lula’s Victory, AI Election Ads, Voter Fraud, Revolt in Albania

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Sources/Links:

Israeli Elections and the Palestinians

Israel's Elections: What's at Stake?, International Crisis Group (Max Rodenbeck, Mairav Zonszein, Amjad Iraqi), 15 October 2026 A Jewish Currents Guide to the Israeli Elections, Josh Nathan-Kazis, Jewish Currents, 20 October 2026 Occupied Thoughts interview with Sami Abu Shehadeh https://fmep.org/resource/barred-from-knesset-elections-sami-abu-shehadeh-on-the-state-of-israeli-democracy/ Prospect magazine op-ed on the settlers and the state - https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle-east/75279/settler-rioters-are-israeli-state-policythrough-deniable-means

2026 Elections (The Union Ones)

https://linktr.ee/PamelaSH

¡El Chupacabras!

Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction and Folklore by Benjamin
Radford Governing Spirits: Religion, Miracles, and Spectacle in Cuba and Puerto Rico,
1898-1956 by Reinaldo L. Román En Qué Quedó Ep. 6 “El Chupacabras”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2r9ISXwgY7zTpWj2EJWcF1 Radio Ambulante “El vampiro entre nosotros”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hvdSD4aXHwoOWoMYAdN9x Sucking Vulnerability: Neoliberalism, the Chupacabras, and the Post-Cold War Years by
William A Calvo-Quirós https://web.archive.org/web/20230814111741/http://www.barriology.com/uploads/2/3/2/7/
23276452/calvo-quiros_sucking_vulnerability_rev.pdf El Chupacabra: Icon of Resistance to US Imperialism Species (1995) dir. Roger Donaldson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MGZnLsPSRc La Operación (1982) dir. Ana María García https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJoWMbRxvM&t=36s La Operación -Background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6XEuu_auR8&t=8s https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/se-registran-dos-ataques-del-chupac
abras/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/30/vieques-puerto-rico-us-navy-base-traini
ng https://www.navfac.navy.mil/Portals/68/Documents/Business-Lines/Environmental/Enviro
nmental-Restoration/NAVFAC-Atlantic/Vieques/Vieques_Fact_Sheet_03_Depleted_Uran
ium_in_LIA_Eng.pdf https://www.fs.usda.gov/r08/elyunque/recreation/discover-history/us-military-and-el-yunq
ue-national-forest https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24816374-the-history-of-the-us-department-
of-defense-programs-for-the-testing-evaluation-and-storage-of-tactical-herbicides-agent-
orange-in-pr/?q=puerto+rico&mode=document#document/p5 https://www.elvocero.com/actualidad/otros/las-grandes-sequ-as-que-marcaron-a-puerto-
rico-durante-el-siglo-xx/article_e6a37bce-5269-4040-836d-799a04358fc2.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/12/26/mystery-creature-ravages-p
uerto-rican-livestock/b7704250-dae0-4fa3-a886-561db637b463/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-03-mn-9730-story.html “Monsters and Messiahs by Mike Davis”  “Beast of Borikén" by Julio Anta, Daniel IriZarri, Patricio Delpeche, and Lucas Gattoni

Kim Kelly's Morbid Labor Tales 

https://proteanmag.com/2021/10/31/picket-lines-in-the-graveyard-a-history-of-cemetery-workers-strikes/ https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67168074 https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/dc33-strike-philadelphia-medical-examiners-injunction-20250703.html https://6abc.com/post/retrieval-dead-bodies-is-being-delayed-due-blue-collar-union-dc33-strike-philadelphia-officials-say/16936166/ https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/sacrilegious-bodies-piling-up-at-cook-county-morgue/ https://6abc.com/archive/8511845/ https://abc7.com/archive/8719820/ https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/02/archives/workers-strike-funeral-homes-100-establishments-hit-in-the.html https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/04/archives/state-fails-to-end-embalmers-strike.html https://thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2024/08/28/the-coffin-makers-strike-1872/ https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18720622-01.2.22&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-----------------------

Executive Disorder: Lula’s Victory, AI Election Ads, Voter Fraud, Revolt in Albania

https://x.com/aricnesbitt/status/2066923547964928106?a=kc7nT6MWbZZrCG5F3ho&s=20 https://x.com/reaganreese_/status/2064370476449669139?a=o_23wNhd8KJXG1_3jd8&s=20 https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2097325814689743049?a=-BXTLNGkR3wjP9lkgeE&s=20 https://x.com/AndrewSolender/status/2083629219980960030?a=U6bD8EFjG4McMm-xQCM&s=20 https://x.com/NassauExec/status/2096705749774631131?a=9MzOBMvGxcqDqhpGhgA&s=20 https://x.com/BlueprintFNDN/status/2078957886403670411?a=2Q_B5IADKyInPq5JQKE&s=20 https://x.com/PollTracker2024/status/2076099238363005194?a=GAD-fsC8RATzjNcbr5s&s=20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrw_hLs4O_0 https://x.com/JacobRubashkin/status/2113454492872045007?a=jb16JdrbsG8yhaW1ljI&s=20 https://x.com/NassauExec/status/2094800565452611646?a=wRx4Pm2YJdKDtLMz7Eo&s=20 https://x.com/NassauExec/status/2091865610233786666?a=q7ts8IGOQNOt_zkiCGE&s=20 https://x.com/AdImpact_Pol/status/2051314128468197851?lang=en https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0093650226142143 https://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases-101526/ https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-elections-and-campaigns  https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/when-ai-campaign-ads-fake-reality  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/politics/midterm-elections-ai-generated-ads.html https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/deciding-fake-images-candidates-are-using-ai-political-ads-get-vote-rcna605243  https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10.hjc-dems-staff-report-epstein-and-trump.pdf https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ly097zw1xwo https://www.daylightsandiego.org/ice-detainee-dies-at-otay-mesa-detention-center-in-san-diego/ https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2026/10/27/iraqi-court-sentences-seven-french-isis-members-to-prison/ https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/2113552255576092815 https://sana.sy/en/syria/2353795/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/10/27/flavio-bolsonaro-flees-brazil-us/92462116007/ https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3moy4zcl3b52a https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2114740388514697527  https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/netherlands-citizen-arrested-illegally-voting-2024-election  https://x.com/TheJusticeDept/status/2113703040444145701 https://apnews.com/article/california-voter-data-justice-department-lawsuit-0305190ba958051bb86741ac00da36a7  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-state-california-over-voter-list  https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1466286/  https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/2113794933236871180 https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-10-26-Order-.pdf  https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-charges-28-foreign-nationals-california-election-crimes  https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/trump-noncitizen-voting-court/ https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2087950683831931327a=2VozR5e62ZW8NoNmfl8&s=20 https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2087950683831931327 https://x.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/2115228635326242842 https://www.hennepinattorney.org/news/news/2026/October/election-charges https://citizens.al/en/2026/09/07/100-days-of-the-flamingo-revolution-the-new-culture-of-civic-protest/  https://www.balkanweb.com/en/On-the-14th-day-of-student-protests--citizens-and-young-people-gather-en-masse-in-front-of-the-Ministry-of-Education./#gsc.tab=0  https://www.tiranatimes.com/albanian-government-tightens-protest-laws-as-crisis-deepens/ 

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There’s a reason the History Channel has produced hundreds of documentaries about Hitler but only a few about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bad guys (and gals) are eternally fascinating. Behind the Bastards dives in past the Cliffs Notes of the worst humans in history and exposes the bizarre realities of their lives. Listeners will learn about the young adult novels that helped Hitler form his monstrous ideology, the founder of Blackwater’s insane quest to build his own Air Force, the bizarre lives of the sons and daughters of dictators and Saddam Hussein’s side career as a trashy romance novelist.