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How Trump and his allies seek to interfere in the US midterm elections

Meanwhile. . .

NY Times - Linda McMahon, the education secretary, plans to spend $43,000 on new furniture for her government office, a work space makeover that comes as she lobbies Congress to shut down her department. Ms. McMahon’s team has informed Congress that her current furniture is worn out and “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space,” according to Education Department records reviewed by The New York Times that have not been publicly disclosed.

Brain Disease Pervasive in N.F.L. According to New Estimate

NY Times - This summer, a scientific study sent reverberations through the football world, making headlines and deeply worrying players and families. At least 25 percent of retired N.F.L. players who died over a recent six-year period, the study found, had C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head.

But most of the other 75 percent of deceased players were never tested. That left a complex, high-stakes question — the actual prevalence of C.T.E. among deceased ex-N.F.L. players — open for analysis.

Now, the same research team has deployed statistical techniques to home in on a more precise number. In a new study published Wednesday, they estimate that three out of four former N.F.L. players who died between 2008 and 2023 most likely had C.T.E. in their brains at death.

11 ‘crimes’ you didn't know are legal

How Elon Musk Made Off With $16 Billion of Taxpayer Money

Stupid stuff

Congressional Insider -  Senator Ted Cruz mocked Abdul El-Sayed as a “jihadist leprechaun,” turning a heated Michigan Senate fight into a test of facts, faith, and political lines.

Cruz’s insult spotlights claims tying El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood despite no public evidence of his personal affiliation.  El-Sayed has disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood and rejected imposing religious law in the United States.

Critics lean on a half-sister’s old posts about family ties, which do not show El-Sayed’s own membership.

Things for Democrats to talk about

Ralph Nader - In media appearances and at public rallies, Progressive candidates should authentically summarize what they will fight for—that resonates with left/right voters struggling to have decent livelihoods.

1. Raise the frozen federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to at least $15 or $17 an hour. Twenty-five million workers will benefit.
2. Raise Social Security benefits, frozen for 45 years, paid for by raising the Social Security tax on the wealthy. About 60 million elderly people will benefit.
3. Enact an authentic child tax credit, cutting child poverty in half. Over 60 million children will be better off.
4. Catch up with Western countries and Taiwan by passing Medicare for All, lifesaving, far more efficient, and much less aggravating than the present profit-gouging, benefit-denying, corporatized system of greed first.
5. Crack down on corporate crooks stealing consumer dollars, worker wages, and pensions. (Saving trillions of dollars yearly and having 90% approval.)
6. Adopt child care, paid family sick leave, and other humane programs long in place in Western Europe and Canada.
7. Pass labor laws for safety, economic freedom to speak and band together, and pension protections put forth decades ago. (See: pensionrights.org).
8. Invest in crumbling public services and infrastructure in communities. Creating many good jobs.
9. Paying for the above by (1) restoring taxes on the very undertaxed or non-taxed super-rich and large corporations to the level of the prosperous 1960s, (2) by ending huge corporate welfare giveaways, subsidies, and bailouts, and (3) de-bloating the runaway, unaudited military budget, devouring over half of all operating spending by the federal government and getting more wasteful, fraudulent, and controlling corporate contractors by the year.

For more practical ideas, see the attached piece by former Secretary of Labor and current popular blogger Robert Reich, titled 10-Point Plan to Make America Affordable.

White House vs. Constitution

Ken Kuppenstein - Asked in a little-noticed Tuesday interview about what the government could do about foreign influence operations on social media like TikTok, White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka reply was shockingly frank:

“We have that knee-jerk: ‘Oh, First Amendment, don’t do anything’ — but there are things we have to do if there’s a threat to national security that actually comports with the U.S. Constitution.”

When the White House’s point man on counterterrorism calls First Amendment concerns “knee-jerk,” that’s a pretty good freedom of speech isn’t a top priority.

Deportation

Independent, UK - Donald Trump’s administration is imminently expected to forcibly remove dozens of Afghans from the U.S. to Afghanistan, marking the first large-scale deportation flight of Afghans back into the hands of the Taliban, aid groups and human rights lawyers warn. Roughly 15  Afghans are reportedly scheduled for the removal flight, which is being routed from Louisiana to Pakistan, where officials are expected to expel them to their home country. Afghans on the flight include family members of U.S. allies who worked alongside military forces and aid groups, among others who could face discrimination and violence upon their return — including at least one LGBTQ+ person.

Election

Newsweek -   Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has been ordered to stop threatening to prosecute or launch investigations into election workers—following weeks of aggressive tactics intended to root out ineligible voters that the court said were likely “interfering with the lawful administration” of the 2026 midterms.

On Friday, a federal judge issued the temporary restraining order after a number of labor groups brought forward a lawsuit against the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As summarized in the court order, the agencies' officials were accused of engaging in a campaign to “intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election.”

The Guardian -  Donald Trump is waging a brazen effort to interfere with voting in this year’s midterm elections, escalating concerns that the federal government will try to slow down certification of election results – a strategy that could create chaos when the new Congress is seated next year.

Experts are certain the administration’s efforts to subvert America’s elections will not work. And some have bemoaned “fearmongering” about far-fetched scenarios that are unlikely to go anywhere in court.

But after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, voting lawyers and other democracy groups aren’t dismissing the possibility of anything.

The potential for interference is related to how close the contest winds up being, said Ned Foley, a professor at the Ohio State University and an expert on disputed elections.

“The more it looks like a blowout or a ‘blue tsunami’, the harder it’s going to be for any attempt to make mischief to get any traction,” he said.

“I put the probability of these impactful nightmare scenarios materializing at under 50%, so I’m not expecting them to make a difference,” he added. But, he said there are “risks of weird things happening, and you need to pay attention to them even if the risk is rather low”.

The Trump administration’s efforts to interfere began last year with an effort to collect detailed voter roll information from nearly every state. And it has continued into the final days of the election, in which the government has sought to sequester ballots in California and filed a legally thin lawsuit to try to stop the certification of election results in Alaska, where there is a hotly contested US Senate race.

The US constitution gives the states, not the federal government, authority to run elections. And it gives the president no power when it comes to voting. 

Press Herald -  At a crucial moment for U.S.-Israeli relations, a major pro-Israel lobbying group has dropped millions on Maine's U.S. Senate race, according to campaign finance data - throwing its support behind Sen. Susan Collins' reelection bid.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is a group that endorses and puts money behind pro-Israel candidates. It is far and away the largest donor to Collins' campaign and leadership PAC this year, Federal Election Commission data shows.

The group has contributed about $2.8 million so far - more than her next 20 top donors combined, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit campaign finance tracking organization.

The Guardian -  A federal judge issued a sweeping order last night barring the Trump administration from threatening or intimidating election officials in the days leading up to the midterm elections. The eight-page ruling prohibits any action that could “threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local election officials or workers” into halting the processing of ballots from registered voters the administration believes are ineligible to vote.

In her decision, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson wrote that the administration’s efforts “are likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters.”

The order extends through Nov. 16, nearly two weeks after Election Day. It follows efforts to require states including California and Washington to segregate ballots the administration says may have been cast by noncitizens.

Axios - Pro tip: Don't stay up for the Senate results in either Maine or Alaska.

• Even a clear win (or defeat) for Collins may not be obvious until Wednesday. In 2020, when she won by nearly 9 points, the AP didn't call the race until lunchtime Wednesday.
• Alaska, with its ranked-choice voting, could take weeks

Donald Trump

The Hill - Washington, D.C., and Virginia sued the National Parks Service and Interior Department to block President Trump’s proposed triumphal arch on Saturday, a new court filing shows. The planned arch would resemble arches in other cities, including Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, and be constructed on the border between D.C. and Virginia.

In the court filing, the plaintiffs call the arch “flagrantly unlawful” because Trump did not seek congressional authorization to construct the project. “In their rush to break ground on the Arch, Defendants have made only half-hearted gestures at complying with these requirements,” the lawsuit reads. “Perhaps recognizing that the project is legally indefensible, Defendants have made clear that they will attempt to outrun judicial review.”

Internet

Bloomberg - The internet has gotten too good at taking your money. Hidden fees, forgotten subscriptions and addictive feeds reflect a growing imbalance between the value companies create and what they claim for themselves. AI could tilt that balance even further.

Religion

Alaska' s Dan Sullivans

The Guardian  -  The top federal prosecutor in Alaska confirmed on Friday the existence of a criminal and a civil investigation into an alleged scheme by Democrats to confuse voters by recruiting a spoiler candidate on the ballot for US Senate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent, senator Dan Sullivan.

Speaking at a news conference in Anchorage on Friday, US attorney Michael Heyman cited reporting by the New York Times which suggested that the Senate campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola and national Democrats had, in his words, “orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy to recruit and prop up Daniel J Sullivan as a sham candidate”.

Both Dan Sullivans – one a Republican senator and the other a retired schoolteacher with no prior political experience – qualified for the ballot.

Trump's golf course controversy

Independent UK - A federal judge is opening an investigation into whether government lawyers lied to her court or violated ethics rules in a blockbuster lawsuit against Donald Trump's proposed multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded renovation plans for a public golf course in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration has insisted for weeks that there were no imminent plans to close the park despite the president's Truth Social announcements outlining his vision for the project.

The Department of Justice finally admitted in court filings this week that the president's plans to close East Potomac Park on November 15 are, in fact, in the works.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes repeatedly erupted at government attorneys during a heated court hearing on Friday before finding that Justice Department officials "intentionally" timed the abrupt removal of hundreds of trees to evade judicial review - and may have been misleading the court about plans that have long been in the works.

"The third highest ranking official at the Department of Justice is telling me, telling a federal court, that he cannot say that when the president posted the 'course will close on November 15,' what he meant was, 'the court will close on November 15'?" Reyes asked.

Trump vs. climate facts

Democratic Conservation Alliance: TRUMP SAID: “It’s been getting cooler, not warmer.”

FACT CHECK: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the summer of 2026 (June through August) was the hottest summer on record for the contiguous United States.

TRUMP SAID: “The ice caps are bigger than they’ve ever been.”

FACT CHECK: Though sea ice naturally fluctuates on a seasonal schedule, yearly minimum and maximum measurements show that it’s declining overall and becoming thinner. This year’s maximum was the lowest on record.

TRUMP SAID: “We were all supposed to be dead in 12 years. Nobody died recently, did anybody die recently?”

FACT CHECK: Yes, they have! Climate change is responsible for the rapid worsening of catastrophic weather events, including recent disasters like the historic flash floods that killed 130 in Texas last summer, the Los Angeles wildfires that killed 31, and August’s extreme tornado outbreak that killed Americans across the central states.

Ralph Nader was right again

The Guardian - A corporate plutocracy. A broken healthcare system. Massive and widening inequality. Cash-soaked elections. Angry people struggling to pay their bills and disgusted with lawmakers in Washington DC.

Nearly everything that pushed famed consumer-rights advocate Ralph Nader to launch the 2000 presidential run that made him a political pariah in Washington is front and center as the US gears up for the 2026 midterm elections. But this time, things are much, much worse.

Nader, now 92, has been seething from his home in north-west Washington as the Trump administration rips the guts out of the hard-fought consumer and safety protections he built in the 1960s and 1970s. He’s once again calling for a revolution in a Democratic party that still wants nothing to do with him.

The Supremes may be more damaging than Trump

Sam Smith - The Supreme Court has probably damaged America’s constitutional democracy more than what’s left of Trump’s life. On June 30, the court ruled that limits on political party coordinated expenditure limits violate the First Amendment. In other words, there are lots of ways you or Elon Musk can give money to a candidate in atrocious sums.

For example, the Maine Morning Star reports: “With Maine’s entire state Legislature up for election in November, even incumbent lawmakers aren’t safe in their reelection bids. With outside groups — that don’t have to disclose their donors — increasing their involvement in state elections, the legislative districts with the most outside spending feature lawmakers up for reelection. According to data from the Maine Ethics Commission as of Thursday, Oct. 29, outside groups spent roughly $4.6 million in state races.”

Polls

The Guardian - Government corruption has emerged as a top issue in the upcoming US midterm elections, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying US government officials use their public office for personal financial gain, according to an exclusive Harris poll for the Guardian.

Nearly nine out of 10 Americans said that government corruption, as defined as elected officials putting their own or their donors’ financial interests ahead of the public’s, is a problem, according to the survey.

Three-quarters (76%) of voters said that elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people. Voters were more likely to say that government corruption (65%) is more concerning than corporate power (29%). Just under 10% said that neither concerns them.

Christa Pike update

NBC News -  One month ago, Christa Pike survived what seemed impossible: a lethal injection in which two rounds of the drug had already entered her body. Medics took her from the Tennessee death chamber and she was placed on a hospital ventilator; she regained consciousness days later.

Now, Pike, the sole woman on Tennessee’s death row, says she is healing in a prison medical ward, but that the pain she still feels extends far beyond the physical.

“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” Pike, 50, said in her first public statement, which her legal team shared Friday. “My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn’t just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”

Pike, who has been on death row for three decades for murdering Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate, was discharged from the hospital and returned to her Nashville prison 10 days after the attempt to execute her Sept. 30 went awry. Her arms were left swollen and bruised after the execution team tried to insert intravenous lines to deliver two rounds of the lethal drug pentobarbital into her bloodstream, her legal team said. Medical experts have suggested Pike’s injuries could have been the result of incorrect needle insertion or the chemical leaking into her tissue.

IQ tests are only about a century old

Nautilus -  People too often forget that IQ tests haven’t been around that long. Indeed, such psychological measures are only about a century old. Early versions appeared in France with the work of Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905. However, these tests didn’t become associated with genius until the measure moved from the Sorbonne in Paris to Stanford University in Northern California. There Professor Lewis M. Terman had it translated from French into English, and then standardized on sufficient numbers of children, to create what became known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. That happened in 1916. The original motive behind these tests was to get a diagnostic to select children at the lower ends of the intelligence scale who might need special education to keep up with the school curriculum. But then Terman got a brilliant idea: Why not study a large sample of children who score at the top end of the scale? Better yet, why not keep track of these children as they pass into adolescence and adulthood? Would these intellectually gifted children grow up to become genius adults?

Social Security to run short of funds by 2032

The Congressional Insider - America’s main retirement fund faces a hard date: the Social Security old-age fund is projected to run short in late 2032, triggering across-the-board cuts if Congress does nothing. Trustees project the old-age fund will deplete in the fourth quarter of 2032. After depletion, incoming taxes would cover about 78% of promised benefits. The system’s 75-year shortfall grew to 4.42% of taxable wages, showing rising strain. Lawmakers split on fixes: benefit trims, tax hikes on the wealthy, or a mix.

East Potomac Golf Links

The Hill - The National Links Trust said this week it will cease operations at East Potomac Golf Links, Washington’s most popular public golf course, as President Trump eyes the property for redevelopment.

In a statement Thursday, the trust said it entered a new long-term lease agreement with the Interior Department and National Park Service (NPS) to manage, operate and rehabilitate Langston Golf Course and Rock Creek Park Golf, two other public courses in the nation’s capital.

East Potomac sits on NPS land and is prime real estate on a peninsula bisecting the Potomac River in central Washington, D.C.

The trust said its “role” at the property will end on or before Nov. 15, and its new lease for Rock Creek Park Golf and Langston Golf Course will span 50 years.

Under the trust, the East Potomac course became known around the country as a model for affordable public golf and catered to players of all skill levels and backgrounds. The park is also home to a number of walking and biking trails used daily by thousands of locals and tourists, and cherry trees bring waves of visitors to D.C. every spring.

 

Israel

The Guardian - The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that, with 97% of votes counted, the balance between the political blocs remains unchanged. Netanyahu’s coalition remains at 53 seats and Eisenkot’s bloc at 48. Parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel hold 19 seats.

Barack Obama on Cheesecake Factory

Mediaite - Speaking at a packed rally in Atlanta last night, Barack Obama addressed Cheesecake Factory-gate head on: "I am the father of two daughters. Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to the Cheesecake Factory? I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory. That was my jam for about a decade." And: "And the Treasury secretary, he happens to be a former hedge fund manager worth half a billion dollars, and he was out there in front of the Cheesecake Factory explaining how he ordered the delicious French dip cheeseburger instead of the egg rolls." 

Antarctic Sea Ice Decline Is Triggering Global Ocean Changes

Inside Climate News -  The rapid decline of Antarctic sea ice since 2016 has triggered a dramatic shift in a crucial part of Earth’s climate system, scientists say. In a paper published Wednesday, researchers documented a sharp salinity increase in a vast layer of the Southern Ocean, extending from 2,300 to 4,000 feet deep and encircling Antarctica. The shift reverses decades of freshening and echoes ocean changes usually associated with major global climate shifts over millennia but is now happening in just a few years.

The study combined six independent datasets to track changes in the Southern Ocean from 2004 to 2024. The data came from Argo floats, which drift through the ocean and periodically descend to different depths to measure water properties such as density and salinity, then resurface to transmit the readings. A 2025 study also detected increasing surface salinity linked to declining sea ice, he added.

Antarctic sea ice reached its highest extent in the satellite record in 2014 and suddenly dropped to a record low just two years later. The sea ice remained well below the 2014 extent and reached another low point in 2023, when it measured about 1 million square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average, with an area of ice about four times the size of Texas gone. As the ice dwindles, there’s less freshwater available during the melt season, making the Antarctic Intermediate Water saltier.

The role of cooperatives

Erbin Crowell, Green Energy Times -   The U.S. Department of Agriculture first proclaimed National Co-op Month in October 1964, reflecting the importance of co-operatives to America’s rural communities. Since 1971, the National Co-operative Business Association has continued this tradition, promoting co-ops as a trusted, proven way to do business and build resilient, inclusive communities.

Under the theme “Built for This Moment,” this year’s Co-op Month is a reminder that formal co-operatives were first organized to address the social and economic challenges of the Industrial Revolutions of the 1800s. Successive waves of co-op development have often responded to the market failures of their times, enabling people from all walks of life to work together to meet their needs. From electric co-operatives powering rural America when investor-owned corporations saw it as unprofitable to farmer co-ops supporting small family farmers locked out by corporate monopolies, worker co-ops securing livelihoods in unstable job markets, to credit unions enabling working people and immigrants to meet their financial needs, housing co-ops retaining affordable shelter amid rampant speculation to food co-ops building community food security, co-ops are a proven response to uncertain times.

In this sense, it may not come as a surprise that in 2016, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, recognized “the idea and practice of organizing shared interests in cooperatives” in its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Established on the principle that global cultural heritage should be preserved and made accessible to everyone as part of its efforts to offer solutions to the challenges of our times, UNESCO’s list recognizes that co-operatives “allow for community building through shared interests and values creating innovative solutions to societal problems, from generating employment and assisting seniors to urban revitalization and renewable energy projects.” Interestingly, many of the other cultural traditions identified, including agricultural practices such as the Argan Tree Oil harvest in Morocco and irrigation systems in the mountain of Europe, and artisanal customs like Shital Pati weaving in Bangladesh and Pinta’o Hats in Panama, are largely maintained by co-operatives.

It was partly in recognition of this fact that the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) launched its “Cooperative Cultural Heritage Programme,” with the goal of creating a world map of co-operative sites and traditions. It was an inspiring experience to serve on the working group for the project, offering the opportunity to identify co-ops from North America to be included in the inaugural list, including Adamant Food Co-op in Vermont, founded in 1935 and the oldest continuously operating grocery co-operative in the U.S.

Many 30-year-olds in New York City feel worse off than their parents.

Donald Trump

Newsweek - President Donald Trump is officially banning the terms "AI" and "Artificial Intelligence," he said Tuesday, escalating his effort to rebrand the technology as "Super Intelligence," or "SI," across the executive branch. "When will The Wall Street Journal start calling Artificial Intelligence (AI), a very bad and inaccurate name, SI (Super Intelligence), the name which virtually everyone else is using, or soon will be," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "In short order, we will be officially BANNING the term, ‘AI/Artificial Intelligence,’ in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy."