Meanwhile. ..

 It slipped by unnoticed, but last month the White House withdrew the nomination of E.J. Antonini, Trump's pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after pushback from multiple Republican senators. In fact, the Trump administration has withdrawn a record number of nominations this year.

Election Day is just around the corner, and voters in 14 cities and counties will use ranked choice voting (RCV)! This reform offers voters better choices and better campaigns, letting them vote their conscience without worrying about “spoilers.”

NPR - This year marks the 75th anniversary of Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, an initiative where children collect coins to donate to the agency that supports children in need worldwide. Since the initiative began, approximately $200 million has been collected.  

Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted since Trump takeover

Two federal judges order Trump regime to continue funding SNAP

Axios -  Two federal judges today ordered the Trump administration to continue funding SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. In separate cases, the judges said the USDA must tap contingency funds to keep benefits available, at least temporarily. Payments were set to freeze beginning tomorrow.

The rulings could provide some support and reassurance to the millions of families who rely on food stamps — and, in the process, make it easier for Democrats to keep holding out rather than quickly voting to end the shutdown.

• But if the Justice Department can successfully appeal those orders — as it has with any number of other court orders — the stop-start-stop of critical benefits could create significant confusion for low-income Americans.

The USDA had said it could not legally tap a $5 billion contingency fund to pay for SNAP benefits. Not only can it do so — it's required to, Judge Indira Talwani said in the Massachusetts c ase.

 Several states — including California, New York and Virginia — have either declared emergencies or otherwise redirected funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing, at least temporarily, More 

TheBlaze  - According to the USDA, almost 90% of SNAP recipients are born in the US, and another 6% are naturalized citizens. 

SNAP crisis

 NPR - SNAP benefits have never been cut off due to a shutdown, and now a federal judge is stepping in to decide whether to order the Trump administration to find ways to get people money to buy food. The Agriculture Department posted on its website that “the well has run dry” and stated in a memo that it doesn’t have sufficient funds for SNAP benefits for next month and cannot legally use contingency funds. Democratic governors and attorneys general from about two dozen states sued, arguing that SNAP is an entitlement that cannot be simply cut off.

Even if the ruling comes soon, there will still be a delay in states receiving the funds they need, according to NPR's Jennifer Ludden. This is because the federal government sends funding to the states before the first of the month, and then it takes days to get it onto the debit-like cards that people use. An added complication is that the full SNAP funding for November is approximately $9 billion, but the administration reports that there is only about $5.5 billion in the contingency fund. Recalculating for partial payments could take weeks, resulting in people not only having to wait but also getting less money. 

Global Network changes Brunswick vigil

 Global Network - Today we decided to move our weekly Brunswick vigil to a new spot.  The traffic downtown has slowed considerably since the bridge to Topsham has closed one lane.

Next Thursday we are moving our Brunswick weekly peace vigil to the super busy intersection at 85 Pleasant St - just across from the laundromat and the police station.Still from noon to 1pm

Collapse of democracy

NY Times Editorial Board - Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12.  

Our country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march often continues. We offer these 12 markers as a warning of how much Americans have already lost and how much more we still could lose. More 

Climate emissions of largest meat and dairy companies equals that of some of the biggest oil firms

 Institute for Agroculture & Trade Policy - Just as we found in 2018 in our Emissions Impossible series, the emissions from the largest meat and dairy companies are extreme, on-par with some of the world’s biggest oil companies. Of the 45 companies included in the report, the five largest emitters — JBS, Marfrig, Tyson, Minerva, and Cargill — together surpassed emissions reported for Chevron, Shell, or BP.

Trump's illegal war on boats

ABC News - The U.N. human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.

 The Intercept -   Over the past two months, Donald Trump has killed at least 60 civilians in 14 separate airstrikes against what he claims — without evidence or a shred of due process — to be “narcoterrorist” drug boats.

A high-ranking Pentagon official admitted to The Intercept weeks ago that these strikes are criminal attacks on civilians.

Since then, the U.N. has explicitly condemned Trump’s boat strikes, saying, “International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers.” Georgetown law professor David Cole put it even more plainly: “We are simply engaged in cold-blooded murder.”

Polls

Washington Post  A majority of Americans oppose President Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found. Twenty-eight percent say they support the demolition project. 

Washington Post -  More Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats for the nearly month-long government shutdown, according to a Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

Jeffrey Epstein

Independent, UK -  Just weeks after Jeffrey Epstein died in jail in 2019, banking giant JPMorgan Chase alerted the Trump administration to more than $1 billion in potentially suspicious transactions involving several high-profile U.S. business figures, as well as wire transfers to Russian banks.

The report, which JPMorgan filed – and which was released this week among hundreds of pages of previously sealed court records – flagged over 4,700 transactions, amid concerns they could potentially be related to human trafficking operations involving Epstein.

Among the names highlighted in JPMorgan’s suspicious activity report are: Leon Black, co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management and former MoMA chairman; billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin; celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz; and trusts linked to retail magnate Leslie Wexner.

Though each man appeared in connection with financial dealings tied to Epstein, what those transactions involved, and precisely how Epstein fits into the picture, remains unclear. None of them has been charged with crimes in connection with the disgraced financier. 

Decline of air travel

 Newsweek - November is a month of peak travel as the Thanksgiving holiday is a major time for both road and air travel. Last year, travel around the holiday hit record numbers—1.7 million more people traveled than in 2023, with 79.9 million going to destinations at least 50 miles from their homes, according to the American Automobile Association.

Throughout October, delays and cancellations have hit many of America's airports. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also warned that exhausted, stressed and overworked controllers, many of whom have reported needing to get second jobs to cover bills while their paychecks are paused, could increase risks of issues arising at airports, and more have been calling in sick.

Staffing has reportedly been reduced by 50 percent in some areas since the shutdown started.

Delays have been accumulating at airports across the country, with some experiencing average delays of three hours and others having to wait as long as 6 hours and 30 minutes in more extreme cases.

By the end of the day on October 30 alone, there had been over 900 flight delays, and more than 200 cancellations, according to Flight Aware's Misery Map.

The election

 Bowers News Media - In the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, three Democratic Supreme Court justices--Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht--are facing their ten-year retention elections. If a majority of voters choose to retain them, Democrats maintain control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court until at least after 2030. If a majority votes not to retain all three, then the court will be split, and the 2027 elections will determine control.

When Democrats took control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after the 2015 elections, they struck down the egregious Republican gerrymander of the state's congressional districts. After the 2020 elections, the state Supreme Court rejected lawsuits that tried to overturn the election in Pennsylvania.

NY Times -  There are only three liberal justices on the Supreme Court — and they are not on the same page. They are responding very differently to their lack of influence as conservative justices yield to President Trump and burnish his executive power. And, according to a story published today, their relationship is straining.

In one camp, Justice Elena Kagan believes in building consensus and picking off conservative votes to avoid the most extreme rulings. In another, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest member, is more confrontational. Her opinions speak more to the public — and to history — than to her conservative peers, whom she sees as beyond persuasion. More

Healthcare

Washington Post - Maine Family Planning lost Medicaid funding in July as a result of President Donald Trump signing his One Big Beautiful Bill. Tucked in the tax package was a ban on Medicaid funding for health care providers that perform abortion services and receive more than $800,000 a year in Medicaid payments. Critics have claimed the measure was written to cripple Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider. It also swept up Maine Family Planning.

Both groups provide abortion, but they bill Medicaid to offer their patients birth control, prenatal care, cancer screenings, STI treatment and other services free or at a significantly reduced cost. Medicaid funding cannot be used to pay for abortions except in rare cases such as rape and incest.

Without that funding, Maine Family Planning decided to shut down its primary care services as of Friday.

The group’s clinics will continue providing abortions and other family planning and reproductive services using state and federal grants, fundraising and private donations.

Andrew no longer a prince

 Time -   Prince Andrew, the British royal with ties to Jeffrey Epstein, has been stripped of his remaining titles and evicted from his royal residence, as Buckingham Palace faces mounting pressure to address his associations with the late sex offender.

In a statement Thursday, Buckingham Palace said that King Charles “has today initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours” of his younger brother, who should now be referred to as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The palace said the former prince will also have to move out of the Royal Lodge mansion near Windsor Castle...

Royal historian Kate Williams described King Charles’ action against Andrew as a “huge moment in royal history.” The last time a prince or a princess was stripped of their royal title was in 1919. MORE 

Fake Health Insurance Luring People

Time -  Confusion about navigating insurance writ large and the Affordable Care Act marketplace in particular has led many people to end up with plans that they think are health insurance which in fact are not health insurance. They mistakenly click away from healthcare.gov, the website where people are supposed to sign up for ACA-compliant plans, and end up on a site with a misleading name that may provide them with an ACA-compliant plan but also might not.

Experts are predicting that this will happen to a larger degree when ACA open enrollment begins in most states on November 1. Because Congress did not extend enhanced premium tax credits, prices for ACA plans are going up an average of 75%. This may spur more people to search for less expensive plans and end up with something that is not health insurance, whether they know it or not.

“There’s no question that more people will end up with these kinds of plans if the premium tax credits are not extended,” says Claire Heyison, senior policy analyst for health insurance and marketplace policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research and policy institute.

Poop progress

Sam Smith - Because of some new prescriptions I was taking I stopped my vitamin pills for several months. Among the effects I noticed: a significant increase in constipation. I've since gone back to my old pills, including the one above. Effect: Significant poop progress. 

Trump regime will only allow 7500 refugees in

 The Guardian -  The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.

The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world...

No reason was given for the drop in numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000.

The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.

 

Nearly a quarter of Americans aren't taking a vacation

 Newsweek -  According to a survey from FlexJobs, 23 percent of U.S. workers said they haven’t taken a single day of vacation over the past year, with many citing heavy workloads, fear of falling behind and internal pressures to stay ahead.

Hollywood sales down

 Hollywood Reporter - Halloween is shaping up to be scarier than expected for Hollywood and its exhibition partners, but not in a good way.

Domestic box office revenue for October 2025 is expected to come in at roughly $425 million — the worst showing in 27 years, according to Comscore. This excludes October 2020, the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, when revenue was a mere $55 million, powered by Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.

Otherwise, the last time October was this low was 1997, when combined ticket sales were $385.2 million, not adjusted for inflation. In 1998, revenue jumped to $455.6 million before crossing $600 million for the first time a year later in 1999. The new millennium brought steady gains, save for a few bumps in the road, before the pandemic hit.

Polls

 Newsweek -  [A] poll, run between October 28 and 29 among 800 New Jersey likely voters by nonpartisan public opinion pollster SoCal Strategies, found that Newsom was ahead by a mere one point, leading Vance 43 to 42. That is a narrower margin than Kamala Harris’ six-point win in the state in 2024, and significantly smaller than Joe Biden’s 16-point victory in 2020.

The war on black progress

Yahoo - Today, we are witnessing a coordinated campaign to thwart the progress of Black communities by using the term DEI as a smokescreen. The goal is clear: to gain illegitimate control by erasing inconvenient truths, distorting reality, and suppressing dissent. The architects of this campaign are not just targeting Black Americans; they are also undermining the very foundation of American democracy, deceiving the public to consolidate their own power.

Last week, Onyx Impact released Blackout: The Real-World Cost of Erasing, Distorting and Suppressing Black Progress. This first-of-its-kind report provides a comprehensive analysis detailing how Black history and Black futures are under attack. What we prove is that the attacks we’ve seen from the administration and its acolytes are not happenstance; this is a coordinated disinformation campaign that has already caused real harm in Black communities. In just eight months, Onyx Impact found 15,723 examples of harm that put Black health, wealth and futures on the line – from $3.4 billion in federal grants being cut or frozen to 6,769 federal datasets containing research about Black communities being erased. All behind a disinformation smokescreen redefining DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—as a culture war.

We have seen this playbook before. After the Civil War, Reconstruction promised a new birth of freedom—only to be followed by the Nadir, a period when Black progress was violently rolled back, history was rewritten, and democracy itself was undermined. Today’s Blackout campaign is a digital-age replay of those tactics: erase the record, distort the evidence, suppress the dissenters. The lesson from history is clear: When we allow the erasure of Black progress, we all pay the price in lost freedom, diminished democracy, and weakened civic trust.  More

Meanwhile...

The artificial intelligence giant Nvidia notched yet another historic milestone, becoming the first company to be worth $5 trillion.

General Motors said it plans to lay off about 1,200 workers at its Detroit-area all-electric factory and cut 550 jobs at its Ultium battery cell facility in Ohio.

Popular Taco Kits Sold in 28 States Pulled For Bizarre Seasoning Mix-Up

Shutdown hits more than 65,000 infants, toddllers and preschoolers

NPR -  More than 65,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers could lose access to their local Head Start centers across the U.S. beginning Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown. The federal program provides childcare and early learning for low-income families. 

 Without federal dollars, 134 Head Start programs are rushing to find alternative funding, NPR’s Cory Turner says. If the programs close, many working families may have to choose between going to work and taking care of their children. Corey Holcomb, who runs a Head Start program in Michigan, told Turner that her agency secured two more weeks of funding by pulling from other resources with the hopes that they will be reimbursed. They've also asked for deferments on some bills.

Casey Means

The Guardian -   The Senate has postponed its confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, after she went into labor with her first child, CNN reported, citing a Senate committee spokesperson.

 NY Times - Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, graduated from the Stanford School of Medicine but abandoned her residency before completion, and has spent the past half-dozen years as a wellness influencer and tech company founder. She says she left medicine when she realized she was training to treat the complications of illness rather than the root causes.

“With a wall full of awards and honors for my clinical and research performance,” she writes in her book, “Good Energy,” “I walked out of the hospital and embarked on a journey to understand the real reasons why people get sick.”

As the nation’s top doctor, the surgeon general is meant to be a trusted voice guiding Americans on matters concerning their health, bolstered by professional credentials and experience. Dr. Means, whose Senate hearings for the position were supposed to begin on Thursday, is a strange choice for the job. She is simultaneously boastful of her academic accomplishments and insistent on their uselessness. She references graduating at the top of her class at Stanford to establish her authority, only to then use that authority to argue that Stanford and institutions like it are fundamentally corrupt. She is an anti-expert expert, the doctor who believes doctors make people sicker. 

After Russia Conducts Nuclear Weapons Tests, U.S. Will Restart Its Own

Time Magazine

Israel's war on Gaza continnues

Intercept -  According to The Associated Press, Israel notified the Trump administration before conducting Tuesday’s strikes — presenting the question of whether the U.S. would hold Netanyahu accountable for the latest round of ceasefire violations.

“All eyes now are going to be on Washington,” said Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington DC. “Would they really be a referee that calls balls and strikes fairly? Or were they just there for decoration and were they just going to allow the Israelis to get away with murder, as they always have?”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance signaled that they would opt for the latter. He described the attacks as “little skirmishes here and there” and said that “the ceasefire is holding.” 

Pentagon now run by a CEO of War

 Duffle Bag -  The Pentagon announced today that former Secretary of Defense/former Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will now hold the title CEO of War, following what officials described as a “full-blown tantrum” during a cabinet meeting.

“Secretary is a lady job!” Hegseth reportedly shouted, while the adults in the room continued their discussions on real issues and tried to ignore him. “I’m not a lady! I’m a big boy! I do push-ups and pull-ups!”

 

Great PBS show on Benjamin Franklin's life before and during the Revolution

Money

Robert Reich - The richest 1% evade over $160 billion in taxes every year. That amount would fund SNAP for a year with money to spare. 

Health insurance

 The Guardian - People in the US shopping for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will face a steep 26% average price increase next year, according to new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation released just days before enrollment begins on 1 November.

The jump represents one of the sharpest rises since the healthcare program launched over a decade ago, with consumers using the federal healthcare.gov platform set to see even steeper hikes of 30% on average. State-run marketplaces are also expected to experience a 17% increase.

But the financial pain for many of the 24 million Americans enrolled in ACA plans, now a record number, could be far worse. Enhanced subsidies that have kept premiums affordable for millions are set to expire at year’s end, which threatens to more than double what many households actually pay out of pocket, according to KFF.

Polls

 Independent, UK -  President Donald Trump lamented aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that he is barred by the Constitution from running for a third term and observed, “The sad thing is, I have my highest numbers that I’ve ever had.”

That statement is contradicted by a new poll from The Economist and YouGov, which puts the president’s approval rating at just 39 percent, with 58 percent of Americans disapproving of his job performance, giving him a net approval rating of -19 percent.

Republicans Against Trump - 61% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom plan, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll. Only 25% support it. 

Newsweek - President Donald Trump's support among young people has hit a new low, according to a poll. The survey, conducted by YouGov/The Economist between October 24 and 27, shows that Trump has a net approval rating of around -50 points among voters under the age of 30.