Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to Mississippi as “sweltering with the heat of injustice.”

“The state has long been associated with political dispositions that would have rendered Colom’s rise as an African American and a Democrat unthinkable — from its poll taxes and literacy test in the Jim Crow era, to the murders of activists trying to register Black people to vote, to aligning with deeply conservative politics that propelled Donald Trump to a 22-point win in Mississippi in 2024,” says The Washington Post.

“Mississippi voters made history because they refused to be intimidated, discouraged, or counted out,” said Derrick Johnson, the national president of the NAACP, in a statement. This year, the NAACP opened 11 field offices and registered more than 17,000 voters, he said. The Jackson office still has bullet holes from the time Medgar Evers worked in the state, when he faced several assassination attempts before being killed in his driveway.

Colom’s “breathtaking victory” solidifies Democrats’ ascendance in Washington and the potential for a political realignment in the South, the Post says.

Incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R, congratulated Colom on his victory in a video posted to X. “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said.

Colom was born to a prominent family — his father was a Reagan-appointed judge and his mother was an attorney. At 28, he became the youngest and first Black judge appointed in the history of Lowndes County and later the first Black city prosecutor for Columbus. He successfully ran for district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Circuit Court District in 2015, running on a reformist agenda emphasizing diversion programs for nonviolent offenders, and unseated a nearly 30-year incumbent. As district attorney, he personally prosecuted more than two dozen jury trials, obtaining guilty verdicts in nearly all of them.

After the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year further weakening the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Colom tapped into the backlash among Black voters angered by attempts to dilute their voting power.

At Tougaloo College, where Colom gave his acceptance speech on Wednesday night, supporters danced and wept, says a separate Times article on the celebration.

Vonda Reeves, 68, a doctor in Jackson, said that when she learned of Colom’s victory, “It was like I was levitating because of the joy I felt.”

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled ‘‘60 Minutes’ and Trump: the extended version’

Also in the news

World leaders urge stronger, faster action at UN climate talks

NYTimes investigation: Immigrants being systematically returned home despite court orders

Diminished DOJ braces for fresh fights after midterm loss

Trump administration wants to sell public lands to states, tribes, local governments

Trump administration proposes rule that would make it harder to get grocery assistance

White House top lawyer Will Scharf’s letter of warning to Rep. Garcia

House passes bill to increase compensation for many veterans, with some floor drama

House GOP blocks effort to impeach Pete Hegseth

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan elected to lead House Republicans in the minority

Senate Republicans vote to keep South Dakota Sen. John Thune as leader

Alaska judge rules that a request by Peltola campaign for ballot data in Senate race is ‘not reasonable’

After GOP midterm defeats, now what for Trump, the parties, the courts, the economy, more

Nine members of Kennedy family join lawsuit to block Trump arch, saying it would obstruct sightlines and cast shadows over family graves

Alina Habba Mildon fired by family firm that gave her a $50 million contract weeks before Trump granted a pardon to the family’s patriarch

Heather Cox Richardson on Veterans Day ceremonies, veterans’ healthcare, more

Robert Reich on the affordability and anti-corruption agenda

NYTimes Magazine: AI agents go rogue because they’re ‘incorrigible’

U.S. brain drain claims another scientist

World’s fastest ocean liner is sunk to become largest artificial reef

KFF: Dubious buys raise alarm over local control of opioid settlement funds

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Here is the video of the briefing.

Among other things, the ACLU had mobilized more than 100,000 “democracy defenders” — citizens who were prepared to take action in the event of voter intimidation during the elections.

Now, the ACLU is urging citizens to take action to make sure our elected officials are advancing civil rights.

Here is an ACLU form to send a message to Congress to:

— Roll back the cuts to Medicaid

— Rein in ICE violence

— End partisan gerrymandering and ban mid-decade redistricting

The ACLU also is asking citizens to sign up to be “people power” volunteers, involved in texting and calling campaigns, community outreach, leadership development, and organizing trainings.

Here is the form to sign up.

Note to readers

John and I will be taking off the Veterans Day holiday on Wednesday. See you Thursday!

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled ‘‘60 Minutes’ and Trump: How did it go?’

Also in the news

Three-way talks among Russia, Ukraine, U.S. open Tuesday in United Arab Emirates

Russia’s top independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, closes its Moscow office after 3 decades, citing official pressure

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduces 8 articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth

Senate votes 73-25 to take up contentious permitting-reform bill that would speed construction of oil, gas projects as well as clean energy ones

Congressional Democrats plan subpoenas outside Trump administration as they investigate corruption, lawbreaking

Supreme Court allows Trump to go ahead with border wall in Big Bend region of Texas; only Justice Jackson dissents

Democrats flip Georgia state House, giving them new control of at least 12 legislative chambers nationwide

California voters reject first-in-the-nation tax on net worth of billionaires

Floods bring some relief to U.S. Southwest reservoirs as Lake Powell rises 20 feet

Takeaways from AP report on school closures across the country

Parents are suing schools because their children got bad grades

What we know and don’t know as Nvidia investigates alleged spy plot involving CEO Jensen Huang

FDA says labeling of all GLP-1 drugs will include warning of possible rare side effect leading to permanent vision loss

KFF/NYTimes: What to do when a gun owner shows early signs of dementia

ProPublica: Firm linked to Trump sons got nearly $40 million in federal contracts to screen for Ebola, other diseases

ProPublica’s investigation of where our generic drugs come from

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

But then, on Friday, he replaced Chief of Staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller.

“Where Wiles served as something of a guardrail — making sure Trump was fully briefed and that he understood the risks and pitfalls of any decision — Miller has played the role of an accelerant for a president who already has rash tendencies,” says The Atlantic.

In Trump’s first term, Miller had a role in the separation of migrant families at the border and Trump’s travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries.

In the four years Trump was out of office, Miller mapped out the second-term agenda, overseeing the team drafting the dozens of executive orders that Trump signed immediately after returning to the White House.

In this term, beyond Miller’s well-known mass deportation efforts, he’s pushed Trump’s lethal strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean that the administration has claimed were carrying drugs, helped use the powers of the federal government to target political opponents and universities, overseen the federal crackdown in D.C., and has been heavily involved in the efforts to assert more federal control over elections, says a separate Times article.

Marc Short, who was the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, says Miller is “intertwined” with Trump. “Most of the shots are being called from Stephen’s office in the West Wing.”

Miller “was kind of already running the White House in so many ways, so you can expect more of the same from the White House,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a video posted on X. “Only this time he’s going to go into a hyper, hyper mode because they’re about to get investigated in every way possible by the Democrats who are going to control the all powerful House and Senate committees.”

At a gala at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Miller said: “If it wasn’t for President Trump, the United States of America would not exist right now. I swear to you and I pledge to you, Mr. President, my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment and my total devotion to your success and the success of this country.”

An early test for Miller will be whether he can satisfy Trump’s desire to punish his perceived political enemies, says The Wall Street Journal. One of Trump’s biggest frustrations with Wiles was that she and the Justice Department weren’t doing enough to go after people seen as leaking classified material, to jail reporters who publish such material and to prosecute his opponents.

Here are some “memorable” statements of Miller’s over the years, from The Associated Press.

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled “Americans voted on quality of life. Will the press cover that for them?”

Also in the news

What to know about the annual UN climate talks starting Monday in Turkey

Inside the operation that helped Ukraine reverse some Russian territorial gains

Israel president gives opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form the next government

Who is former general Gadi Eisenkot?

Defeated Republicans return to Washington Monday with 55 days left and a long wish list

Pete Hegseth is facing scrutiny from both parties

House Democrats will start their majority Jan. 3 focused on boosting healthcare and ending the Iran war

Sen. Chuck Schumer, once besieged, is on track to remain Democratic leader after election blowout

The newly elected Democrats who flipped seats, and whom they unseated

Trump and his Justice Department take defiant stance as Democrats prepare investigations

Justice Department drops bid to force California to set aside disputed ballots

Two Justice Department officials resign, including Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney who oversaw investigation of Trump foes

Staff at U.S. center for AI safety are reporting to the White House, raising independence concerns

On deportation, Trump tells ’60 Minutes’ that ‘I think it was too tough’

Melania Trump, LSU announce $7.2 million to endow scholarships for former foster-care students

Democrats win Arizona House, Senate and governor’s office for the first time since 1966

Heather Cox Richardson on upcoming Democratic investigations and what a lack of accountability has meant since the Civil War

How Elon Musk frittered away nearly $500 million on the midterm elections

Tesla Cybertruck to cease production after years of hype and division

Nvidia opens investigation after reports that CEO Jensen Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence

How the thinking on AI of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was shaped

How accurate were prediction markets in picking midterm winners?

Trump ally Laura Loomer was paid thousands for political tweets, say people familiar with the arrangements

The reading list for the hottest Harvard class

Consumers’ Checkbook: Investment and retirement accounts aren’t protected from scams; here are steps to protect yourself and your family

KFF: Midterm wave sets course for ‘Medicare for all’ effort

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

— “If a corporation can have rights, then why can’t a tree or a mountain?” asks Fix the News. Panama is proposing United Nations talks on a non-binding declaration affirming that nature has inherent rights. Panama wrote nature’s rights into law in 2022, and more than a dozen countries, including Spain, Ecuador and New Zealand, have something similar, reports Inside Climate News.

— A year after New York City launched its congestion pricing policy, fine particulate pollution in Manhattan’s congestion relief zone was 13 percent lower, according to a new analysis published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

— Scientists have discovered preserved collagen in 66-million-year-old dinosaur bones, overturning a long-standing assumption about fossilization, reports Science Daily.

“This could unlock new insights into dinosaurs — for example revealing connections between dinosaur species that remain unknown,” says researcher Steve Taylor, chair of the Mass Spectrometry Research Group at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics.

Voting rights on John Dineen’s briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

And America just did, in a way that would have made John Lewis proud! Here are voting rights resources from the midterm elections.

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled “Salon, internet news pioneer, says goodbye after 31 years.”

Also in the news

How Democrats won races across the South

Democrats who opposed Trump’s election intervention efforts soon will control the top election office in nearly every significant battleground state for 2028

The reactions of Never Trump conservatives to the GOP’s midterm losses

In wake of midterms, tech billionaires’ political alignment with Trump may have become a liability

Harmeet Dhillon resigns after radical overhaul of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division

Adam Liptak: Why merciless Supreme Court rebuke to Trump administration on election eve matters

Federal judge blocks construction of Trump arch after Trump-allied panel approves it

Trump signs proclamation making Oval Office a national monument

Ways a Democratic Congress could help D.C.

D.C. officials to call for new Democratic governors to withdraw their states’ National Guard troops

Hegseth authorizes National Guard to use boats, humvees, light medium tactical vehicles in D.C.

Nithya Raman wins Los Angeles mayoral race in victory for progressives

California Gov. Gavin Newsom moves to commute sentences of all 548 people on death row to life without parole

MAGA faithful confront the unthinkable: Is this the end of MAGA?

After midterm rebuke, OpenAI pledges to be more collaborative with data center towns

Heather Cox Richardson on the plans of incoming House and Senate committee chairs, more

Robert Reich: ‘The big picture of what happened Tuesday’

U.S. infant bleeding episodes increase dramatically as vitamin K refusals rise, 2 studies find

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Tom Jones of Poynter led with “wow” in his piece about Tuesday’s election, quoting the reaction of more than one commentator trying to wrap their heads around the magnitude of the outcome:

On Tuesday night, the word “wow” might have been uttered on TV more than any other interjection ever. Anchors, analysts, election experts — you name it — all ran out of words to express their surprise at a variety of races. NBC’s Steve Kornacki might have been the league leader in “wows.” Or it might have been CNN’s Jake Tapper. Or maybe it was MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow.

Even Fox News anchors, stunned by Tuesday’s results, couldn’t help but blurt out the word.

The New York Times contrasted the MS NOW evening with Fox News.

Two years ago, back when the network was called MSNBC, hangdog faces dominated as President Trump clinched one battleground state after the next. On Tuesday, Chris Hayes was looking giddy.

“There are races on the board right now that have no business whatsoever of being close,” he said, marveling at the reach of a blue wave that was sweeping even obscure Democratic candidates into Congress. “I’ve never seen these people’s names before! The Democrat — I’m like, ‘Who’s this dude?’”

The mood at Fox was decidedly different.

Over on Fox News, the mood was subdued. The buoyancy of Mr. Trump’s 2024 election night was replaced with pensive exchanges about what it meant for the Republican Party to be repudiated so starkly.

In a rare concession, Sean Hannity, perhaps Mr. Trump’s most loyal television defender, acknowledged that the president’s foreign policy had proven politically unsound. Asked by Bret Baier if the war in Iran had changed the night’s outcome, Mr. Hannity replied: “One hundred percent. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.”

While the evening was an avalanche of unexpected numbers — of many wows — some moments revealed something underneath the math. Jones, at Poynter, noted heartfelt comments by Simone Sanders Townsend at MS NOW:

Sanders Townsend said, “Today, America has elected its first Black woman as governor in this country. Keisha Lance Bottoms made history tonight, but she didn’t run on making history. She ran on the issues, and I think that resonated with folks in the state. … Whatever else happens tonight, this is a reminder that in America the people have the power. And Georgia has a governor named Keisha.”

She added, “I’m over here about to cry, Lord. After the 2024 presidential election, I myself, but Black women all over this country — it felt like a repudiation of us. The fact that in North Carolina, for example, in 2024, every Democrat that was on the ballot statewide won, except Kamala Harris. I’m like, well, what is this? So there were Black women, myself included, that felt like, well, maybe America just does not want us. And Keisha Lance Bottoms went out there, and to be clear, when she first was on the campaign trail, she went out there in some box braids this summer. And I was like, look at the mayor in her box braids. I don’t know if this is gonna help us win it. And she has won. She won going out there, being herself, talking about the issue, connecting with the people, and, you know, for the 92% out there that was feeling like, ‘Oh, maybe this, maybe the country just doesn’t want us.’ Georgia wanted Keisha.”

If you’re a journalist, the first few days after such a seismic change, grappling with the fire hose of news is the most you can hope for. As the shock passes, though, the challenge will be doing justice to the meaning underlying all those facts.

Also in the news

Israel president takes first steps on building new government after accepting election results

For Israelis, America’s midterms show how far their country’s relationship with U.S. has deteriorated

World leaders who sparred with Trump express relief mixed with caution at GOP election rout

NYTimes: Inside the Trump team’s historic collapse

WSJ: How Trump lost the midterm elections

How Trump and GOP lost the midterms, according to AP’s voter poll

Trump emerges after midterm drubbing and leads tour of ballroom, placid and eager to talk about construction instead

Vance blames Iran war for Republican losses, distancing himself from Trump

Speaker Mike Johnson won’t seek to serve as House minority leader in next Congress; here’s his letter to his colleagues

Justice Alito won’t retire immediately, despite election outcome

Even as progressive Democrats got the midterm spotlight, the path to Democratic victory was paved overwhelmingly by moderates

Democrats swept Texas, winning all the top statewide offices and flipping the Texas House of Representatives

These may be some of the Democratic Party’s new stars

Heather Cox Richardson: The midterms were a rejection of the GOP ideology ‘that some people are better than others and have the right to rule’

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lays out day-one road map for Congress

Indivisible (part of the No Kings coalition) invites you to join its weekly Zoom

OpenAI launches charm offensive to change voters’ views of data centers

Google to cut off search access for students at schools that reject AI

KFF: Trump administration delays awards to improve rural health

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Since World War II, the House and Senate have flipped from one party to the other in the same midterm just four times: 1946, 1994, 2006 and 2026, says AP.

Robert Reich concludes his Substack post this morning, “Thanks to all of you who have worked so damned hard to help bring about today’s extraordinary victory. Our democracy worked. It held. Congratulations, all.”

Paul Krugman says, “What happened last night was no ordinary election. It was a mass affirmation that most Americans still believe in our nation’s basic values, and a mass rejection of a movement that wants to destroy everything our nation stands for.”

Heather Cox Richardson’s post just says “Election Day,” and shows a photo of the sun reflecting on the water where she lives in coastal Maine.

Even President Trump was surprisingly serene in at least some of his comments on election night. He told Fox News anchor Bret Baier: “It’s just a point in time, Bret. Just a point in time. It’s the way it is. There was a mood in the air, I guess.”

Trump also told Fox News that Democrats “did a good job” in their campaigns, and he blamed GOP candidates for their losses. He said, “I don’t view it as a hit on me.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the elections and was prepared to work with Democrats. “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them.”

Top election lawyer Marc Elias says he’s continuing to be on the lookout for election interference. But he also points out that “Democrats did not just recapture both chambers. They did it by winning seats that Republicans gerrymandered last year to prevent exactly this result.”

“DEI is back,” says Ro Kanna on X, celebrating the election of minority, Muslim and gay governors and senators.

And as far as the billionaire money that was poured into races for naught, former Rep. Barney Frank, who said, “Money is important, but votes will beat money any day,” was proven right yet again.

Voting rights on John Dineen’s briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections.

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled “AI and data centers confront a new political landscape.”

Also in the news

Greenland lawmakers approve security deal with Denmark and U.S.

Euronews (EU’s international news channel): What Trump defeat means for Europe and global markets

NYTimes analysis: Voters usher in beginning to the end of the Trump era

Election Day unfolded with relatively few problems, despite worries about Trump election interference

Nine candidates for governor just made history

Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is first Black woman ever elected governor

Democrat Gina Hinojosa elected Texas’ first Latina governor, ousting Republican incumbent Greg Abbott

Democrat Deb Haaland elected New Mexico governor, becoming first Native American woman elected governor of any state

Democrat David Crowley defeats Trump loyalist Rep. Tom Tiffany to become Wisconsin’s first Black governor

Nevada Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford defeats GOP incumbent Joe Lombardo to become state’s first Black governor

Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate race to become first Muslim senator

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds is elected Florida’s first Black governor

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown flips Senate seat in Ohio for Democrats by ousting Sen. Jon Husted

Democrat Josh Turek wins election to Senate from Iowa

Voters back abortion rights and reject Trump redistricting in state ballot measures

After midterm losses, Trump stares down the specter of Democratic investigations and the race to succeed him

AP: Election night in photos

Do you know how AP counts votes and calls races? You can test your knowledge with this quiz

Monarch butterflies get tiny trackers to help scientists understand their migration (you can watch on a free app)

Brain injury made Edward Freytag a musical genius

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Consider: The New York Times on Sunday — two days before the election — published a new poll with strikingly good results for Democrats.

Is it accurate? Is it reliable?

Funny you should ask. Having written the initial polling story — that is, having created the news — the Times gets to ask and answer those questions, new stories covering the content they created. And other news organizations, having covered the initial poll, also get to follow up with the same questions.

Rest assured: After the votes are counted, we’ll be inundated with either fist-bumping or hand-wringing about the accuracy of the polls — as if they were ever the point.

The Times on Oct. 28 published a story in which one of its editors, Patrick Healy, interviewed members of their polling team: Nate Cohn and William P. Davis.

Healy cuts to the chase:

Let’s start with a point-blank question. Should people trust these polls showing Democrats running ahead or neck-and-neck in red states?

NATE COHN: You can trust them to a degree. You can trust the polls to usually be in the ballpark, but you can’t trust them to be exactly “right.” Polls are inherently imprecise and subject to many sources of error.

So if by “trust” you mean “assume that the leading candidate will win,” then the answer is “no.” The polls have been wrong by this standard before and they will be wrong again. But if trust means “rely on the polls as the best source of information on the electorate, even if an inexact one,” then the answer is yes.

So, if you ask me if I’m telling you the truth, if you should trust me — it depends on what you mean by “trust.” You can trust me to a degree (yes, “trust” is doing a lot of work there).

Feeling good about this so far?

The article concludes with this, from Cohn:

A poll is not a fact. It’s a best measurement. There’s no guarantee that a “best” measurement is good enough — whether in terms of The Times’s credibility or whether it improves our understanding of politics. Historically, there have absolutely been elections when it didn’t feel like polling passed that test. The 2016 election is the easiest example; there will be another election like it again.

That said, readers come to The Times to understand American politics, which includes an understanding of public opinion during an election. For better or worse, polling is really the only quantitative measure of the attitudes of the electorate. There just isn’t an alternative. The polls will still drive the political conversation, even if The Times doesn’t conduct any of its own polling. Campaigns run on polls. Our coverage would inevitably be affected by the polls that others are conducting. If that’s going to be the case, it’s probably better that we’re conducting our own.

At no point does Healy ask what is, to me, the only question that matters: Why conduct election polls at all? Who does that serve? How do polls help me with my fundamental task as a citizen and community member: voting.

Cohn conflates public opinion surveys and election polling, but they are distinct animals. A healthy debate over whether there is such a thing as “public opinion” began more than a century ago.

Jill Lepore writes in her U.S. history, “These Truths”:

The most stinging critiques came from University of Chicago sociologist Herbert Blumer and Columbia political scientist Lindsay Rogers. Public opinion polling is not a form of empirical inquiry, Blumer argued, since it skips over the crucial first step of any inquiry: identifying what it is that is to be studied. As Blumer pointed out, this is by no means surprising, since polling is a business, and an industry run by businessmen will create not a science but a product. Blumer argued that public opinion does not exist, absent its measurement; pollsters created it: “public opinion consists of what public opinion polls poll.”

Blumer’s disdain did not derail the industry. But the man whose name is synonymous with public opinion polling, George Gallup, took a dim view of the other branch of polling: election predictions. According to Lepore:

Time coined the word “pollsters” in 1939, and, in the public mind, the word “polls” came to mean two different things: surveys of public opinion and forecasts of elections. When Gallup started, he conducted forecasts only in order to prove the accuracy of his surveys, there being no other way to demonstrate it. That aside, the forecasts themselves were pointless.

Congress called for an investigation. “These polls are a racket, and their methods should be exposed to the public,” Walter Pierce, a Democratic member of the House, wrote in 1939. (Pierce, like many critics of polling, which tended to show that Americans favored entering the war, was an isolationist.) Part of the concern was that polls were fraudulent. Another concern was that they were interfering with the proper function of elections and of government. Polls don’t represent the people, one congressman wrote; Congress does: “Polls are in contradiction to representative government.”

Many journalists equate election polling — the horserace — with the campaign itself: “The polls will still drive the political conversation,” as Cohn puts it. Which makes polling sound like an inevitability, an act of God, rather than invented content, a journalism choice — I’d argue a business choice dressed up in editorial language.

Resources committed to breathless stories about a neck-and-neck race are smart commerce at the expense of the actual point of the election: citizens deciding their future — for themselves, their communities, the nation.

Today, and in the coming days and weeks, we’ll find out what decisions we’ve made. That’s what elections — not polls — are for.

CNN: Can you trust the polls this time? (Nov. 2)

The New York Times: The Final Polls Show a Blue Surge. Can We Trust Them? (Nov. 1)

The New York Times Are Polls Overstating Democrats’ Midterm Leads? Times Pollsters Weigh In. (Oct. 28)

American Crisis (Margaret Sullivan): Polls, pundits and horserace coverage are NOT what we need for the midterms. (Aug. 24)

The New York Times Why Polling Chaos Could Create Big Problems for American Politics (Aug. 22)

If you have a problem at the polls on Tuesday

The presenters at the No Kings training on Thursday night titled “Know Your Voting Rights,” were from the American Civil Liberties Union. They said:

“If there is a problem at the polls, do not assume your only option is to leave without voting.

• Try to resolve the issue at the polls so you can cast a regular ballot

• Call the Election Protection hotline at:

866-OUR-VOTE, 866-687-8683 and 866ourvote.org (English), administered by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

888-VE-Y-VOTA, 888-839-8682 (Spanish/English) administered by the NALEO Educational Fund

• Ask for a provisional ballot.”

Here is the video of the training. And here are the slides.

No Kings will hold an online event if there’s election interference

If necessary, No Kings will hold a virtual event on Wednesday, Nov. 4, from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern, “to share real-time updates, align on the election defense strategy, and provide clear next steps for attendees to take in defense of democracy.”

You can sign up to attend here.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

FDA approves generic version of world’s only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV, to be inexpensively available in 120 low- and mid-income countries

WSJ: U.S. military attacked Iran’s Qeshm Island Monday, the latest in a series of secret, small-scale strikes in recent weeks

Supreme Court quickly rejects Trump move to target alleged noncitizen voters in California

When to expect midterm results in each state

It could be days or weeks before winners are known in key states including Maine, Alaska, Arizona, California that could determine who controls Congress

Retired judges: ‘Exercise your constitutional rights to protect the rule of law’

Top election lawyer Marc Elias on what he’s watching for this Election Day

Robert Reich’s message as we await today’s results

Heather Cox Richardson on the cyclical American story of a small group rigging the system ‘to funnel the wealth produced by ordinary people into their own pockets’

Paul Krugman: ‘Oligarchy is on the ballot’

Longtime political analyst Susan Page: ‘Since 2016, every presidential and midterm election has realigned power in Washington’

Phillips O’Brien, international relations analyst: ‘If you care about national security you cannot support the party of Donald Trump’

Margaret Sullivan on some ‘strange’ media decision-making

Hard-to-predict scenarios that could affect the balance of power in the Senate

Judge cites ‘weaponization’ in dismissing charges for ex-FBI agents accused of lying about Hunter Biden

Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit demanding Harvard admissions data

KFF: A few miles from U.S. Capitol, dozens slept in their cars, waiting for free healthcare

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

And he’s “set loose torrents of hostility toward the men and women who oversee balloting nationwide,” Barton Gellman wrote last week in The New Yorker.

“In this election season, the familiar threats, online and often pseudonymous, have been accompanied by new ones from federal authorities,” Gellman says. The Department of Justice has warned election officials that they may face criminal prosecution and imprisonment if they fail to surrender state voter rolls and purge them as the President directs.

As we know, the founders of our country provided that the states and Congress are in charge of elections, not the president.

And “if one thing has been decisive in safeguarding the nation’s electoral machinery, it is the tenacity of state officials who willingly accepted the political, financial, and personal risks of defying the president. They did so in a strong majority of states, including some under Republican control,” says Gellman.

“In order to protect democratic institutions,” says Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth political scientist who studies democratic erosion, “we still depend on politically ambitious people sacrificing their careers.”

On Friday, a federal judge issued an order to block the Trump administration from threatening or intimidating election officials in the run up to the midterms. On Saturday, the administration appealed, reports NBC News.

In related news, blue cities in Republican states are preparing to combat election interference with the knowledge that the governor or attorney general won’t help, reports Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket.

And none of the law firms that capitulated to Trump early in his second term are publicly involved in the major legal efforts to check the administration’s attempts to interfere in the midterm elections, The New York Times says.

Norm Eisen, who leads the Democracy Defenders Fund, says there nevertheless are more than enough lawyers to counter Trump in court.

If you have a problem at the polls on Tuesday

The presenters at the No Kings training on Thursday night titled “Know Your Voting Rights,” were from the American Civil Liberties Union. They said:

“If there is a problem at the polls, do not assume your only option is to leave without voting.

• Try to resolve the issue at the polls so you can cast a regular ballot

• Call the Election Protection hotline at:

866-OUR-VOTE, 866-687-8683 and 866ourvote.org (English), administered by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

888-VE-Y-VOTA, 888-839-8682 (Spanish/English) administered by the NALEO Educational Fund

• Ask for a provisional ballot.”

Here is the video of the training. And here are the slides.

No Kings will hold an online event if there’s election interference

If necessary, No Kings will hold a virtual event on Wednesday, Nov. 4, from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern, “to share real-time updates, align on the election defense strategy, and provide clear next steps for attendees to take in defense of democracy.”

You can sign up to attend here.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

G20 foreign ministers wrap up Atlanta meeting without consensus on key issues

Trump administration approves proposed $2.1 billion sale of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine after alleged holdup

Trump White House maps path for how it will govern if Democrats win midterms

How Trump is dismantling America’s scientific research network

Lawyers for Democratic lawmaker suing to block Trump from closing Kennedy Center say documents indicate a ‘sham process’

DOJ subpoenas California officials in escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration

Appeals court rejects DOJ request for California to set aside disputed ballots

More than 40 percent of names on DOJ list of alleged noncitizens aren’t on California voter rolls, analysis finds

Judge dismisses Trump officials’ lawsuit preemptively contesting results of Alaska Senate race with 2 candidates named Daniel Sullivan

Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic primary rival, Haley Stevens, endorses GOP’s Mike Rogers in Michigan Senate race

ICE officer accused of intentionally striking man with a car in Houston

Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein birthday letter dismissed with prejudice

Virginia, D.C. sue over Trump arch, adding to legal challenges as administration wants to start work

Robert Reich: ‘Vote Tuesday as if your life and the lives of those you love depend on it. They do.’

Heather Cox Richardson on President Andrew Johnson’s actions so wealthy southern whites would be more powerful after Civil War than they’d been before it

WSJ: Pressure points are multiplying across the AI boom that’s propelled markets and the economy

How Binance $6.3 billion hack happened

Affordable Care Act open enrollment period is underway, with higher premiums and fewer coverage options

AP: What women need to know about new guidance on menopause symptoms

Takeaways from AP reporting on measles in Pennsylvania’s Amish country

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

This next generation of atomic clocks is an important advance in ultra-accurate timekeeping that has applications in navigation satellite systems and internet, cellular and fiber-optic communications, Reuters says. And it offers promise in helping us understand fundamental physics, such as dark matter.

“It gives access to a whole new physics universe,” says physicist Thorsten Schumm of TU Wien in Austria.

Voting rights on John Dineen’s briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections.

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled ‘CBS News leaders have thoughts on Abdul El-Sayed ... tonight on 60 Minutes?’

Also in the news

China confirms expulsion of 33 officials, as Xi’s anticorruption, disloyalty purge deepens

Trump and his aides helped Bolsonaro flee Brazil for the U.S.; officials say he’ll likely be granted permanent residency later

Pentagon inspector general refuses lawmakers’ bipartisan request to investigate Starlink slowdowns in Ukraine

Pentagon accuses newly fired general of leaking sensitive information to media

ProPublica finds more than 500 instances of U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents

Judge orders Trump officials to outline election demands sent to states trying to enlist them in effort to find evidence of voter fraud

El-Sayed, Stevens to make rare joint appearance as Democrats seek unity in Michigan Senate race

Ramaswamy attack ad featuring opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother is off the air in Ohio

Heather Cox Richardson on Bolsonaro, ‘but her emails’ kind of moment in Peltola Senate race, more

Joyce Vance: ‘An epic opinion from Judge Carter’ in California ballots case

Robert Reich: ‘How California’s billionaires are proving that billionaire wealth endangers democracy’

National debt reaches 100 percent of GDP, the highest level since 1946

Churches across U.S. are building houses on their property to sustain their ministries while easing affordable-housing shortages

KFF: ‘Your phone knows you’re at the doctor, and data brokers do, too — then profit from it’

Judge strikes down Trump administration’s definition of ‘medically frail’ in Medicaid work rules

KFF: Medicare drug plans hike premiums while Trump claims victory on medicine prices

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

So you can read Elias’ response to questions he’s received on what to watch for and what to expect next. I prefer a less anxiety-producing metaphor than he chooses, ranking threats to our democracy as sharks closest to the boat. So I’ll just note at the outset the calming conclusion of Elias’ writeup:

“We will be fighting a lot of battles on a lot of different fronts. The sharks will attack before we see them. But that does not mean we are not ready to fight back. When the sharks attacked in 2020, I won 64 out of 65 cases. And we will win again. The sharks may be circling, but they are no match for us.”

By the way, Elias’ piece refers to the Justice Department’s lawsuit blocking ballot counting in California as the shark closest to the boat. When he wrote the item on Wednesday, he was waiting for a judge to issue a ruling. As Elias expected, DOJ lost.

Other election-related news and events:

Reuters: In a court filing, Justice Department says FBI, ICE agents will not serve as poll monitors in midterms

Reuters: Trump administration issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding records on tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 states

Politico: OpenAI is launching election war room to track interference efforts

The No Kings coalition is holding an online training tonight, Oct. 29, from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern, on “what you can do to fight disinformation and understand what voter intimidation looks like in your community.” You can RSVP here.

Voting rights on John Dineen’s briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections.

John’s daily commentary on briefing.center

Here is John’s commentary today, titled “In journalists we trust? Not so much, the latest survey says.”

Also in the news

Israel election results show no clear winner between Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition and diverse bloc of opposition parties

Putin hosts Russia-Africa summit, part of effort to expand Russian influence across the continent

UN nuclear chief: Iran hasn’t tried to repair nuclear facilities damaged by U.S. strikes

New Pentagon estimate says cost of Iran war to taxpayers has increased to $47 billion

WPost: Hegseth’s team forces out another top general at Pentagon

WSJ: Trump administration’s stock portfolio spans more than 40 companies

Hegseth, Mullin say in court papers that Trump arch would be used to counter drone attacks, as a base for snipers

Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged; 2 officials had sought an increase

Website leaks data on more than 40,000 Homeland Security Department employees

Elizabeth Warren wants answers from Anthropic on ‘existential’ risks

Alaska GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy orders criminal investigation of Peltola campaign

Judge allows Democrats to intervene in Justice Department’s lawsuit over Alaska Senate race

Disinformation videos, likely from Russia, are exploiting real people to malign 2 Democratic Senate candidates

Right-wing activist James O’Keefe charged with unlawful voting, identity theft in Minnesota

Judge sentences key figure in Minnesota food fraud to 30 years in prison

Heather Cox Richardson on Flávio Bolsonaro, ‘rejection of MAGA,’ campaigns, more

WSJ: Google, Meta, others resist ICE demands for user data, trying to insulate themselves from potential Democratic-led probes

New Labor Department rule will require pharmacy benefit managers to disclose details about payments from drug companies

RFK Jr. eases access to unproven peptides despite ‘overwhelming’ pushback from FDA scientists

Dolores Huerta, labor leader and force for civil rights, dies at 96

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

“i am inviting anyone from a legacy media organization to explain to me why the house judiciary dems report on trump’s epstein’s ties and multiple allegations of rape isn’t worthy of extensively reporting on. i’m serious. i want to understand.”

She later posted she had gotten no responses.

She wrote on Tuesday to Patrick Healy, assistant managing editor for standards and trust at the New York Times, to ask the same question; no response.

The coverage of a report by House Judiciary Committee Democrats was, well, all over the map.

Late Monday night, the story led the home page of the Miami Herald, written by Julie K. Brown and Claire Healy. Brown received a special citation from the Pulitzer Board this year for her investigation into Jeffrey Epstein in 2017 and 2018.

The story also was featured prominently in Time magazine and People magazine. Other outlets that did cover it to one degree or another were doing so quietly as of late Monday.

The explanation within easy reach is that a lot of editors are wary of a story like this a week before the election. The Democrats presumably timed release of the report intentionally, and newsrooms don’t like looking like they’re being led around.

Hillary Clinton, an expert in October surprises, would like a word.

The New York Times reported the story, grudgingly, it seemed to me: We can’t avoid this completely, so here. It’s a short piece placing the report in the context of political strategy. Rape — there is a new allegation — is not mentioned.

The head: Democrats Call for Special Counsel to Scrutinize Trump Ties to Epstein
The subhead: The request comes as Democrats are working to paint Republicans as corrupt and highlight their plans to investigate Trump should they win the midterm elections.

The story, by Michael Gold, almost screamed not to be noticed:

A new report written by Democratic staff aides on the Judiciary Committee accuses Mr. Trump of being “an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of young women,” though it largely cites allegations that have already been public.

Whatever else is in the story, this paragraph tells us something the Times decided before the first word was written: We’re not making this a thing — “it largely cites allegations that have already been public.” Largely is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Editors make decisions on narratives every day: what stories are one-and-done, which ones have legs. Those choices are the craft; they are your editorial statement. A congressional report with a new development in a story that Trump and friends have managed to stonewall? That’s an easy yes unless your frame is already set on something else: We’re not making this a thing.

In contrast, the Cheesecake Factory food fight is a thing in many internet places.

And Politico has an exclusive: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been using a Police Department gym for evening pick-up basketball games. Grumbles have been heard.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Flávio Bolsonaro flees Brazil for U.S. after election defeat

Supreme Court allows Texas deal with Justice Department on deportation proceedings, with no noted dissents

AP investigation: Documents support claim ICE has detained mentally ill U.S. citizen since January

Trump administration moves to weaken methane emission rules for oil and gas

NYTimes’ ‘Extremely detailed ranking of the most gerrymandered states in America’

State and local election officials are teaching poll workers what to do if immigration enforcement officers show up

Wired: ‘Massive groups of volunteers are ready to face down ICE at the polls’

NYTimes: Early voting data offers limited insights, but there are some takeaways worth monitoring

Silicon Valley billionaires deploy $333 million political ad machine against proposed California wealth tax

ProPublica: Conservative election lawyer Cleta Mitchell is a key Trump ally in effort to assert federal control over voting

Grand jury declines to indict former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson, star witness of Jan. 6 committee

Heather Cox Richardson on concerns about Meta outages affecting opponents of Trump and his authoritarian allies, more

To make AI morally good, tech companies are turning to religion, but some say it’s not that simple

KFF: Hospital units dedicated to treating the nation’s critically ill children are disappearing nationwide

Drug-resistant germs a ‘growing threat’ to Americans, CDC report says

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

The Wall Street Journal Magazine says its annual innovators issue “recognizes groundbreaking talents from a range of disciplines,” and it’s named Demis Hassabis this year’s technology innovator.

“Ever since he was a boy, Hassabis dreamed of building a form of artificial intelligence that would be smart enough to crack the mysteries of the universe,” says the WSJ. “When he started the research lab that became Google DeepMind, he turned his life’s obsession into the mission of his company.”

“The ultimate goal was to build AI and understand the mind, then use it to understand science,” Hassabis says. “Step one, solve intelligence. Step two, solve everything else.”

Hassabis was a chess prodigy who was one of the best players in the world for his age when he was 12. Now 50, he’s been knighted and won the Nobel Prize.

Hassabis thinks we’re two to three years away from artificial general intelligence that meets or exceeds human capability.

He says his goal is to help humanity steward AGI into the world safely and securely for the benefit of everyone.

But what about the downside of AI that it could take us humans down?

“This summer, he spent his nights agonizing over every word of a proposal for developing the technology responsibly,” says the WSJ.

Hassabis wrote that he considers AI to be miraculous — “we’ve essentially found a way to make sand think” — and so consequential that it’s more like fire or electricity than the internet.

“To make sure it doesn’t burn down civilization, he pitched an industry-funded body that would operate under federal oversight and test frontier models before they’re released. His plan was meant to be adaptable, updated in real time and ratcheted up if necessary, nimble enough to keep pace with the technology it’s trying to control,” says the WSJ.

Here is Hassabis’ Substack discussion of his proposal.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

NYTimes: As Israel votes on Tuesday, hard-right nationalism competes with the country’s founding ideals

AP: It could be weeks or months before winner of Israel election is known

Global cyberscams bilk Americans out of billions, and a fragmented U.S. response means few get money back

Judge temporarily blocks further alterations of D.C.’s East Potomac Park

Six citizens sue Trump, saying media ban from White House premises deprives them of news as audience stakeholders

House Judiciary Committee Democrats issue report on Trump-Epstein ties, call for criminal investigation of Trump

Appeals court declines to block California from counting 20,000 ballots DOJ alleges likely belong to noncitizen voters

Trump administration asks Washington state to set aside ballots from 400 voters it says may be noncitizens

Thousands of observers are expected at polling places to monitor the vote on Election Day

Justice Department brings more charges against James Comey, accusing him of leaks

Judge rules that Trump DOJ illegally fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of ex-FBI director

Legal analyst and former prosecutor Joyce Vance: ‘The day every judge ruled’

Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s ‘increasingly erratic and corrupt behavior’ as he fears election loss, impeachment

Robert Reich: ‘Musk wants me imprisoned’

NYTimes: ‘AI’s rogue behavior starts with its training’

Five experts on what the rules for AI companies should be

Anthropic reveals skyrocketing growth and spending plans in its IPO filing

Smithsonian scientists create most detailed simulation yet of early universe

New book by reporter Matthew Cole connects $2 billion in slush funds from Gulf leaders to Jared Kushner in effort to influence U.S. policy

NYTimes: Bob Woodward memoir is a condemnation of Jeff Bezos by his most famous employee

Microsoft offers buyouts to about 60,000 employees to contain costs as it spends hundreds of billions on AI data centers and chips

Four medical societies publish first unified women’s cardiovascular health framework

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

“Over the last 48 hours, two things have become unmistakable: Donald Trump is trying to steal the midterm elections, and Attorney General Todd Blanche will do whatever he can to help him.

“In California, the DOJ has escalated its threats against election officials and voters. On Friday, it sent letters to all 58 counties demanding they set aside mail ballots the DOJ has flagged or face the ‘risk significant federal scrutiny.’

“Meanwhile, in Alaska, Trump went further. He ordered his DOJ to sue to block certification of the Senate election if Democrat Mary Peltola wins. Asked about the lawsuit, Trump said, ‘Well, I’m one that said, ‘Do it.’’

“My law firm, Elias Law Group, has already moved to intervene to defeat this on behalf of Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Party.

“DOJ’s rationale for the lawsuit is ridiculous, and its legal arguments are frivolous.

“The pretext for this lawsuit is the fact that two men named Dan Sullivan are on the ballot: Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg. DOJ asserts this is confusing to voters and that the remedy is to certify the Republican the winner.

“For this astounding proposition, the DOJ relies on the National Voter Registration Act. Set aside that the law governing voter registration has nothing at all to do with the certification of elections. Set aside that the underlying factual claims in the complaint read like a cross between Mad Libs and an AI chatbot run amok.

“The Alaska Supreme Court has already rejected the effort to keep the second Dan Sullivan off the ballot. And the Constitution gives states, not the president or the Justice Department, the authority to govern the composition of their ballots and the criteria for certifying their elections.

“But this, in some respects, is beside the point.

“The clumsy execution of Trump’s whim in Alaska is less important than what it reveals about his intentions and Blanche’s willingness to be his accomplice.

“Trump’s goal is clear. He plans to try to steal the election by asserting control over the counting and tabulating of ballots. That extends to the certification of results.”

A New York Times analysis concurs with Elias on the action in Alaska:

“Mr. Trump harnessed the power of the federal government to try to interfere in the voting process before Election Day — essentially trying to nullify an opponent’s potential win before the game has been called.

“Even for a president who worked to undermine and overturn the 2020 presidential election, the anticipatory strike reflects a new intensification of Mr. Trump’s attempts to use his official powers to achieve the election results he wants — one that undermines the democratic process, according to election and legal experts. While they say the administration’s lawsuit is unlikely to be successful, the tactic could still further Mr. Trump’s goals by shaking the confidence of voters in the outcome of the race.”

“With each claim of election fraud, Mr. Trump is creating another platform to sow doubt about the elections and, some state officials and election experts worry, lay the groundwork to challenge the results of the specific contests.”

Elias is at work. The voter rights organizations are, too.

If you wren’t able to watch the hour-long No Kings election defense event on Thursday, you can see it here.

The event was introduced by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, author of “Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy,” and one of the founders of No Kings.

Weingarten said the best election protection is a decisive vote, and she called on Americans to make the vote “too big to rig.”

On Thursday, Oct. 29, No Kings will be holding a federal voting rights training from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern time. You can RSVP here.

Heather Cox Richardson’s item this morning also is about the election.

Meanwhile, voters — especially Democratic ones — in Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are discussing difficulties with touchscreen voting machines, reports The Associated Press.

“The reports erupt on social media every election year,” says AP. “Voters say they tapped a candidate’s name on a touchscreen voting machine, only for the wrong person to light up as their selection.

“With some trial and error, and occasionally help from poll workers, the voters are generally able to cast their intended ballots. Nevertheless, some come away from the experience assuming the worst — that the anecdotal issues are proof of a partisan election-rigging scheme.”

Election officials say the touchscreen challenges almost always are the result of user error or an easily fixed screen miscalibration, and say the number of complaints this year isn’t higher than in years past, despite the outsized attention on social media.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Longtime Serbia nationalist strongman concedes defeat in parliamentary election

Lula declared winner of Brazil election as Bolsonaro rejects result

Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado returns home after nearly 10 months in exile

Melania Trump brokers ceasefire deal in Russia-occupied Ukraine city so aid can be delivered, civilians can be evacuated

Pete Hegseth barred trans troops; military boards are rejecting those orders

Two former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about involvement in investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop

Trump, seeking to help Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, exempts some Canada imports from his 50 percent tariffs

Trump political advisers James Blair, Chris LaCivita confirm they donated their full Bosnia consulting fees to Trump presidential library

Corey Lewandowski always found his way back to Trump, until now

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals backs Trump on constitutionality of detentions

Mississippi DEI ban can take full effect after Fifth Circuit reversal

What Democrats plan to do with their power if they win back Congress

Congressional legislative proposals seek to offset potential job losses from AI

Heather Cox Richardson on the 1920s, when Republicans ‘turned the government over to businessmen’

AP: Some schools are banning caffeine pouches; here’s what parents and students should know

Medi-Cal cuts could push California seniors and people with disabilities off of coverage

KFF on how rising healthcare costs are upending the lives of Americans

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

In other news:

— Global life expectancy is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, reaching 73.3 years in 2023, close to the 73.4 years recorded in 2019, the World Health Organization says.

— Gasoline-powered cars dropped below 50 percent of global new vehicle sales for the first time, as record fuel prices resulting from the Iran war accelerated the shift toward electric vehicles, Oilprice.com reports.

— The global goal to protect and conserve at least 30 percent of the Earth’s land and ocean by 2030 is in reach, the Campaign for Nature says.

By the way, it turns out that the “administrative stuff” Fix the News has been working on includes a now-complete searchable archive of every story it’s ever published.

“As far as we know this is the world’s largest and most accessible resource for stories of progress. It updates daily, and as a paid subscriber you have full access to all its features. Check it out here (also available in German and Spanish),” says Fix the News.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Trump-sanctioned International Criminal Court wins EU Parliament’s human rights prize

Brazil Supreme Court suspends permit for major Amazon gold mine

Trump administration’s mixed messages on limits to Ukraine access of Starshield

Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in his $10 billion lawsuit against BBC

Google Maps says no to Trump renaming Atlantic Ocean as Trump Ocean

DOJ opens criminal investigation of Corey Lewandowski, a rare instance of Trump ally or appointee being investigated

Powerful Democratic Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas accused of leading a marijuana criminal conspiracy

NYTimes: Lawsuits against tech giants create a new de facto regulatory regime

The Atlantic: Chatbots adding a new layer of chaos ahead of midterms

Supreme Court allows New Hampshire to fully ban use of student IDs for voting in midterms

Trump administration asks appeals court to intervene in California ballot lawsuit

ProPublica: Delays from Postal Service cost-cutting measures have endangered validity of ballots cast in rural areas across U.S.

Voting-related measures on midterm ballots include a voter ID push targeting mail-in ballots

Ford Foundation to overhaul its spending to counter what new leadership sees as mutually reinforcing rise of both autocracy and inequality

Reuters: Banks are blocking third-party AI agents access to customer accounts

Calley Means, a leader of MAHA movement, resigns from Trump administration, apparently frustrated with slow progress on nutrition goals

KFF: What you need to know if you’re shopping for an Affordable Care Act health plan

KFF: Medicaid at risk for hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants

First-of-its-kind mRNA cancer vaccine helps reduce chances of melanoma patients’ tumors returning

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

So I want to provide as much information as I can to help all of us maximize our and others’ power.

Yes, a lot of money is being poured into races at the last minute by Elon Musk and others. But I still believe what I ran every day on my previous website, from former Rep. Barney Frank: “Money is important, but votes will beat money any day.”

Election interference and voter intimidation sound scary, but understanding what to expect and, crucially, how to respond, can make it less so.

And, as voting-rights lawyer Skye Perryman writes in her book, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times,” we can act in a spirit of joy: “Humans across the world and across time have found ways to experience joy even in the darkest circumstances — joy has fueled movements for justice and freedom. Indeed, it sustains us on a long and difficult journey. We must challenge ourselves to find joy.”

We can take friends and family with us to the polls — and to a mass mobilization if that becomes necessary to overcome election interference or voter intimidation. When the frog costumes sell out, we can be Santas.

I found the Wednesday night No Kings online webinar to be energizing. There’s another one tonight, Thursday, Oct. 22, from 8 to 9 p.m. It’s a training to “prepare for engaging in sustained mobilization and results protection work depending on opposition response to election results,” No Kings says.

You can RSVP to attend here.

We know the 3.5 percent rule, that nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging just 3.5 percent of the population never have failed to bring about change.

We can do this!

The latest news:

Judge blocks most DHS field operations aimed at unearthing voter fraud, citing likelihood of hampering voter engagement, registration

States prepare for surge of DOJ election watchers

Democratic Party leaders sue to block Trump administration from usurping states’ authority to administer elections

D.C. attorney general issues know-your-rights advisory on poll monitoring and voter intimidation for D.C residents

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

NYTimes investigation: How Venezuela public housing towers were built to fail

U.S., Israel draw up plans for renewed strikes on Iran after elections

Russia agrees to resume negotiations on Ukraine war with Ukraine and U.S., Kremlin says

Russia frees American Stephen Hubbard after more than 4 years behind bars; U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’

Russia launched covert influence campaign to undermine U.S. candidates supportive of Ukraine, Intelligence Committee lawmakers say

Politico: Pentagon is quietly building elite new tech sabotage agency

Supreme Court blocks Trump from denying gender-transition care to federal prisoners, for now

After years of bipartisan effort, Arizona’s former Chiricahua National Monument becomes America’s 64th national park

AP analysis: Many states deciding control of Senate are seeing big boost in early voting

AIPAC says it’s ending candidate endorsements, PAC contributions

Takeaways from AP report on the taxpayer-funded growth of classical Christian schools

AP: U.S. military base schools putting new emphasis on Western civilization and Christianity

Some websites go dark as operators address AI-detected flaw in PHP web programming language

Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion — the biggest-ever fine against the tech giant — for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook

How Mark Zuckerberg pushed Meta to protect him from proposed California wealth tax

Consumers’ Checkbook: Sixty-five things you (probably) shouldn’t pay for

Paul Krugman: ‘Trump is destroying Americans’ healthcare’

KFF: Job-based healthcare plan costs rise, with little relief in sight

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

For example, a group of about 10 current and former national security officials has been “discreetly” advising state governments and congressional lawmakers on how to prepare, The Washington Post reports.

The effort, which hasn’t been previously reported, focuses on states and jurisdictions where tightly contested races will determine control of Congress.

Among the group’s concerns are that the Trump administration could deploy troops or immigration agents to polling stations or seek to nullify results based on claims of voter fraud, the Post says.

The meetings with lawmakers mainly have focused on raising awareness, especially among Republicans, of the potential for interference and on advising them to be prepared to publicly oppose any such efforts. With state governments, they’ve focused more on ways to harden election protocols that could be exploited by the federal government, members of the group say.

Meanwhile, ProPublica reports that a few months into Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: to secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.

The proposition was shocking to CISA career staff, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers, but the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to standard practices.

“My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don’t like,” says one of the former officials. “This goes against everything CISA represents.”

The request wasn’t acted on, ProPublica says.

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. Eastern time, the No Kings movement is holding an online call to talk about the final push for voter turnout and ways Americans can start to plan to be ready to protect the results of the election.

No Kings also is asking citizens to pledge to host or attend an event in their community if a national rapid response mobilization is called.

People can RSVP for the call or sign the pledge here.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern time, ProPublica will hold a virtual event on how the Trump administration has dismantled election guardrails and what it all means for the midterms.

People can RSVP here.

Here is the ACLU’s guide on how to exercise your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts, and access disability-related accommodations and language assistance at the polls. For help at the polls, immediately call the non-partisan Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

New AI philanthropists could be a windfall for global health

Indigenous voters in Brazil Amazon fear missing runoff after court denies transportation

AP explainer of worst rioting in France in years and the government’s response

WSJ: Musk ordered the Starlink slowdown that blindsided Ukraine

Ukraine’s Zelensky says early warning system for Russian missile attacks resumed after call with Rubio

FEMA administrator tells states to handle disasters on their own

Trump, Vance announce $25 million whistleblower program to encourage public to report alleged fraud in U.S. government

Trump pushing to evict the press from the White House

NYTimes: Billionaire Julio Herrera Velutini wanted a Trump pardon; his family gave Alina Habba a $50 million deal

ProPublica: The secret terms of Trump’s Venezuela oil deal

Politico: Trump last-minute gambit to save farm-state Republicans in midterms: $8 billion to farmers struggling with high diesel prices

Faiths United in Saving Democracy is helping train volunteers to be poll chaplains in 9 states on Election Day

Senate Democrats launch first ad in Mississippi as their midterm optimism spreads in South

Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy takes credit for attack ad featuring challenger Acton’s estranged mother

Midterm election marks end of era for D.C.’s ‘Warrior on the Hill’ Eleanor Holmes Norton

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan accuses court’s conservative majority of undermining democracy

Guardian opinion series of leading thinkers and writers on America’s political future, edition 2: Rebecca Solnit

Private equity is giving mom-and-pop food businesses a shot at big success, but many regular customers are speaking out against the deals

How America’s organ transplant system works and what to ask to improve your chances

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Among the someones: the Washington Sun.

Rachel Maddow began her show Monday night citing several articles from the Sun. I wrote a piece posted Monday that led with reporting by the Sun. When I was reading everything possible about the fabulous Washington Mystics, I routinely turned to the Sun.

If you don’t live around here, it’s possible you haven’t heard of the Sun. The site launched in 2024 as NOTUS — News of the United States — with a focus on national politics and policy. When the Post changed course, laid off a third of its staff, and left a void in the market, NOTUS seized the opportunity. It hired dozens of Post journalists who had jumped ship or been thrown overboard — names that alienated Post readers recognized.

According to Angela Fu at Poynter, “The cuts include the elimination of the sports and books desks in their current form, the restructuring (and reduction) of the metro desk and the closure of several foreign bureaus.”

Fu detailed the damage to the sports section:

In executing the cuts, the Post is taking an ax to its storied sports desk, which has served as a home for famous sportswriters like Shirley Povich, Michael Wilbon, Sally Jenkins, John Feinstein and Kevin Blackistone. [Executive Editor Matt] Murray told staff that some reporters on the desk will be retained on a new team and that the paper would continue covering sports via features.

Sports sections have long honed the ability to attract readers who had already seen the game, something apparently lost on the Post leadership.

Several news organizations have responded to the Post’s retreat, both to entice subscribers and to hire some of the Post’s talent.

The Sun built out its sports and local sections. It licensed Capital Weather, a service that had been a popular staple of the Post as the Capital Weather Gang before splitting off as an independent operation.

The Sun officially launched under its new name Sept. 9. While its newsroom is not huge — just over 100 journalists — it’s a big jump from the 45 with which it started the year.

Whether the Sun can succeed remains to be seen. The last two decades have witnessed many more business losses than wins in the journalism game. But a sustained focus on the community’s news needs — both local and national — would give the Sun an advantage over the Post, with an owner, Jeff Bezos, whose interest in the business seems to have waned as his interest in his government-dependent enterprises has risen.

The Post maintains a substantially larger newsroom, with reportedly 500 journalists after laying off more than 300 in February. It continues to produce some exceptional journalism. But the shift in editorial policy and the layoffs have done enormous damage to its reputation.

In the 1970s, Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and owner Katharine Graham displayed what is widely regarded as legendary courage in standing up to the Nixon administration at real risk to the paper during the release of the Pentagon Papers and coverage of the Watergate scandal. Movies got made about it. Perhaps Jeff Bezos, never saw them … or missed the point.

The Wrap: Washington Post Upheaval Redraws the DC Media Map (April 3)

Nieman Lab: With Washington Post Local diminished, other news sites step up their D.C. coverage (March 5)

The New York Times: Politics News Site NOTUS Rebrands as The Washington Sun (Sept. 8)

Mediaite: As the Washington Post Has Been Shrinking a Competitor Rises (Sept. 10)

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

UN World Food Program cuts assistance to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza, 200,000 in West Bank due to funding shortage

The key parties in Israel’s Oct. 27 election

Voters in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly back remaining in Canada

In video call, Ukraine’s Zelensky briefs bipartisan group of lawmakers amid backlash over Trump’s Russia deal

Politico Magazine: ‘Trump promoted suspiciously cheap gas stations. Here’s what he didn’t tell you.’

Voting groups won’t be able to stop North Carolina mail-in ballot changes from taking effect for midterm elections, federal judge rules

The predictions of California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment

Activist Mahmoud Khalil asks Supreme Court to let judges quickly reverse immigration detentions

Robert Reich on NYTimes false equivalency

Washington Sun: Sen. Bill Cassidy, Rep. Al Green and 16 other congressional candidates on coming up short in the primaries

Politico interview with GOP Sen. Thom Tillis on his new memoir ‘How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents’

Politico: Medicaid cuts are haunting Republicans in battleground states

Trump and first lady announce new task force on women’s health research

Democrats demanding stricter standards for companies running Medicaid systems

Study: Ending immunization of all newborns against hepatitis B would increase chronic infections as much as 83 percent

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Thus is the lifecycle of a failed idea: It is announced, analyzed, debated, then, after a period of silence, a few words on the occasion of its passing.

I’d like to offer a few of those parting words.

But first allow me to establish my bona fides.

If you’re going to talk about the drone and sniper plan (may it rest in peace), it helps to know rotaries — traffic circles, to the uninitiated — since the arch would sit astride the island in the middle of a rotary at the Virginia end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

I learned to drive as a teenager on Cape Cod, but I got my advanced degree in road aggression from years of driving in and around Boston, where it was at the time a high art and a way of life. I could teach an advanced course in rotaries.

Despite that hard-won experience, I’ve never seen snipers stationed at a rotary. Yes, Massachusetts has stricter gun laws than a lot of places, but still. And it’s never occurred to me to wonder about it. A friend and I were once discussing our approaches to rotaries (yes, I know: counter-clockwise — rotary jokes are the best); snipers never came up.

And while I’ve never piloted a plane or directed one from a control tower, I’ve got to believe that launching drones into the flight path of commercial jets landing at Reagan National Airport could produce a hypertension hot zone, and, maybe, a dangerous situation.

I’ve driven by the site in question — or should we now say “in the cross hairs”? — countless times, in light traffic and in rush hour, and not once did I think to myself, “This would be a great place for an arch … and snipers. With drones shooting up to greet airliners on final approach.”

But what do I know?

Donald Trump told us that the military, which already has an office down the street, very much wanted this. So the Pentagon must be disappointed in this latest development, although it appears to be hiding its grief well. Asked for comment, the Department of Defense referred the Washington Sun to the White House, which did not respond.

But this isn’t really a story about the lifecycle of a failed idea — it’s about the coverage of that idea.

Trump announced on Sept. 20 the revision of his planned arch. His Truth Social post said the arch would “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.”

Headlines followed:

National Public Radio: Trump says his D.C. arch will serve as ‘military complex’ with snipers and drones

The following week, some doubt was cast on the plan.

The Washington Post: Officials cast doubt on Trump’s plan for drones, snipers at proposed arch

Then silence, then the news of the plan’s demise, or perhaps more accurately, its disappearance.

These stories are the routine, cradle-to-grave coverage of a failed proposal. Routine coverage does not provide a way to deviate from routine when someone proposes snipers and drones at a rotary. Routine coverage does not provide a way to say, uh, this is crazy, right? A reporter does not feel empowered to say to Donald Trump, you know this is crazy, right?

That conundrum has bedeviled journalists covering Donald Trump since the start of his political career. That conundrum — that normalizing — is what has had media critics wringing their hands for years. It’s the normalizing that signals to the public that, say, a plan to install snipers by Arlington National Cemetery is no different from a proposal to cut or hike cemetery spending.

This plan may be dead — or Donald Trump may revive it in reaction to stories of its demise. After all, failed plans are a Washington perennial; they can always grow back.

National Capital Planning Commission: New Monumental Arch

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Meta denies accusation of anti-Lula political bias in Brazil after electoral court’s ruling

How Alberta separatism went from fringe cause to Monday referendum vote

Trump endorses Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection

Russia President Putin proposes summit with Trump and Xi to discuss war in Ukraine

Trump decision to waive Russia sanctions outrages Congress, but any action to challenge it is unlikely until after U.S. election

Darlene Graham ‘gingerly’ criticizes Trump for exempting Russia from sanctions championed by her late brother

Migrants from Ukraine, Sudan to keep their Temporary Protected Status for now, allowing them to continue living in U.S.

Trump outlines speedy plan to close and overhaul D.C. golf course, injecting fresh urgency into federal lawsuit

D.C. residents decry Trump high-end golf plans, which appear to also eliminate favorite path for cyclists and historic mini golf course

Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico balks at Trump proposal to require English at Head Start centers

Trump staffers are hiring lawyers to prepare for potential investigations if Democrats win control of Congress in midterms

Efforts to educate members of Congress on AI include potentially reviving defunct Office of Technology Assessment

Photo gallery of Oct. 17 No Kings events across the nation

No Kings: What’s next, including trainings and plans for protecting the results of the elections

Meta suspends No Kings Instagram account for several hours during Saturday events

Heather Cox Richardson on No Kings events and Instagram suspension, Instagram restrictions during Brazil presidential election

Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale reflects as group celebrates its 60th anniversary

Consumer anger, confusion grow as retailers adopt algorithmic and personalized pricing

WPost: Before your loved ones lose their federal food, health care and energy assistance benefits, send them this text

NYTimes: ‘Be sure to read your mail this fall’ if you use Medicare Advantage, Part D drug plan, GLP-1 drugs

KFF: Four red flags and 1 truth amid peptide hype

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

— The UN Environment Program is calling China’s achievement in improving air quality in its capital the “Beijing Miracle,” the Global Times reports.

— Self-driving cars are “dramatically” safer than human drivers, not just marginally, says Fix the News, citing articles from IEEE Spectrum and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

— Fix the News has done a longer item on the energy transition in this edition so we can see “how some of the world’s leading energy analysts are thinking about the bigger picture.”

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily quick commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Ukraine strikes Russia refinery after Moscow breaks Trump energy ceasefire

Reuters: The order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside the White House, sources say

Ukraine develops aerial drone to evacuate wounded soldiers

After bipartisan backlash, Trump says Pentagon won’t livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter

Politico: FAA seeking ownership stake in air traffic AI company

Federal authorities are investigating letters with ‘suspicious substances’ sent to congressional, election offices

WPost: Secret documents reveal donors behind $330 million for Trump ballroom

Close Trump friend and ally Paolo Zampolli leaves his special envoy post

FBI agents and analysts who were fired for their roles investigating Trump’s retention of classified files sue to get jobs back

Heather Cox Richardson on corrupt and incompetent people in Trump’s orbit

ProPublica: Trump says the border is secure, but Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott keeps declaring an emergency

ProPublica: Over the past year, DOJ has sued 30 states and D.C. demanding their unredacted voter rolls; most cases have been thrown out

Seven DOJ subpoenas engulf Nevada election chief Cisco Aguilar in key midterm battle

ProPublica: Frustrated by losses in courts, Missouri Republicans want to change the way top judges are selected

At least 8 states are suing OpenAI, saying its chatbot is harming children and deceiving adults

NYTimes: ‘The calculations needed to train AI are nearly impossible to visualize — but we tried anyway’

Online ads are being weaponized to deliver ‘zero-click’ spyware, researchers say

Bad news in the bond market may be good news for investors

Medicare open enrollment runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7; some changes will come in 2027

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune

I’m happy to see the events listed on Saturday’s No Kings map for the suburb next to the one where I grew up in California, for the town in Florida my mother-in-law lived in at the end of her life, the numerous events available near my house in Washington, D.C.

And I’m particularly happy to see there’s a No Kings event being held in the Rust Belt town where I was born, New Castle, Pa. — and it’s even, for the second time in a row, on the street where I lived before my parents and I moved to California when I was seven years old.

Last night, I came across an article from the Dec. 26, 2024, Washington Post about New Castle, titled “After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits.”

New Castle once was known as the “tin plate capital of the world” (tin plate, used in stoves, lanterns, candlesticks, coffee pots, cooking pans, eating utensils, cans for preserving food, and toys, was made by rolling steel plates and dipping them in molten tin).

It was a wealthy town, where the Warner Brothers started their movie business and Amelia Earhart inspired my relatives to learn to fly when she spoke at their high school.

But industry changed and New Castle now has half the population it had in 1950.

The 2024 Post article says, “More than 1 in 4 residents live in poverty, and the median income in this former steel and railroad hub ranks as one of the lowest in Pennsylvania.”

I’ve always admired many of the old mansions in New Castle and, as some of you know, use them as my index of New Castle’s distress.

This well-preserved 11 bedroom, six bath, 9,500 square foot mansion recently sold for $668,000.

The quotes of Trump voters in the Post article make me sad.

“I think he knows it’s the poor people that got him elected, so I think Trump is going to do more to help us,” one woman says.

“We are old and tired and just want to be taken care of, and Trump has too much common sense, so I don’t think he is going to do anything to hurt us,” says another woman.

Voting rights, commentary on briefing.center

“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist

Here are regularly updated voting rights resources for the November midterm elections, on John Dineen’s briefing.center website. And here is John’s daily quick commentary on his briefing.center home page.

Also in the news

Ukraine drones forced to slow down by sudden restrictions on use of Starlink

Ukraine, Europe depend on U.S. for both low-orbit satellite communications and space-based infrared sensing that feeds early-warning systems

As Ukraine raises alarm over U.S. support, Europeans pledge their own support

Heather Cox Richardson on ‘the profound betrayal of U.S. ally Ukraine,’ more

Analyst of warfare Phillips Obrien on ‘the Spacelink/Spaceshield sabotage of Ukraine’

Why Trump diesel deal with Putin probably won’t reduce prices any time soon

Democrats ask for pause on AI air traffic control tool until questions answered

Justice Department demands California review voting rolls in 2 days, threatens legal action

Georgia voters break early-voting record for first day of a midterm election

Supreme Court again backs Republicans in clash over political ad rates

House Democrats’ first-100-days agenda if they take majority control in next month’s elections

Watchdog group sues Trump administration over Jared Kushner’s government work, conflict-of-interest issues

Social Security recipients to receive 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase for 2027

First new sunscreen type in 25 years has arrived on U.S. store shelves

You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader John Thune