Twenty days before the election, Adam and Dick start with a Halloween song and work through a heavy news week. They cover the decision not to stream an upcoming execution, and the school shooting in Bend, Oregon, where a parent with a concealed weapon stopped the attacker. They discuss why the shooting doesn’t settle the gun policy argument and what practical gun safety measures could look like with so many guns already in circulation.

Then they turn to the midterms: the House looking likely to flip, competitive Senate races in Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina, Musk’s spending on the Paxton side in Texas, and the Talafrico nickname. Adam recaps the Ballots and Brews event at Cerebus and where El Paso County Colorado Progressive Veterans goes after Election Day, including legislation for Colorado veterans.

The Hormuz Watch looks at what Congress could do about the Iran war after the new session begins in January, including a war powers approach and how the courts might respond. The episode closes with RFK Jr.’s comments on the Pennsylvania measles deaths, his shift on vaccines, and the large new MMR and autism study.

Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson record a late-night edition of Left Face. They start with the federal government’s plan to execute Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, by firing squad and to live-stream it. Both hosts, who were serving at the time of the attack, say they won’t lose sleep over Hasan’s sentence. They argue that broadcasting it turns a forgotten murderer into a terrorist recruiting tool and the martyr he said he wanted to be.

Next, they cover ICE activity in Colorado Springs, including a child pulled from school after her parents were detained, and an ICE shooting during a traffic stop in New York City with a five-year-old in the car. That leads into a ballot question on local police cooperation with ICE. Dick explains where he draws the line between jail handoffs and following local police around.

Hormuz Watch looks at the U.S. buying Russian oil despite laws barring it, Rep. Adam Smith raising impeachment, Houthi strikes reaching Riyadh, a sitting senator denied access to U.S. bases in the region, and a CNN report on Hormuz traffic that didn’t match the ship trackers.

They close with the CD5 race between Rep. Jeff Crank and Jessica Killen as it turns negative, and with Progressive Veterans knocking doors for veteran candidates Mike Pearson in HD 22 and Michelle Tweed in HD 21.

Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson start with the congressional hearing featuring former special counsel Jack Smith. They argue it was performative clip-hunting ahead of the midterms that buried what Smith actually said about January 6th. They also cover the senator whose "gotcha" text messages fell apart when it came out that Smith was at an Iowa Hawkeyes game, not in Atlanta.

Most of the episode breaks down Secretary Hegseth's annual State of the Forces address, delivered this year to E-6s and O-3s instead of generals. The hosts go through the main pieces:

• Another 20 percent cut to general and flag officers by January
• Project Meridian, the think tank of Elon Musk, Newt Gingrich, and Palmer Luckey
• The new Autonomous Warfare Command
• The American Corps of Cadets ROTC push at schools like Liberty and Hillsdale
• A new Office of Religious Affairs reporting directly to Hegseth
• A proposed "Fortress America" megabase and an energy self-sufficiency mandate for every installation

Dick, a former intelligence analyst, weighs in on where drone warfare is headed. Adam questions what the religious office and the school list are really for.

They close with Tennessee's failed lethal injection and their views on the death penalty, deterrence, and the cost of getting it wrong.