Not much from me tonight, but I do want to call out the political signs reading “Stop Fraud: Vote Republican” I saw today as I left Maine. They seemed especially audacious in light of today’s news from Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times that last summer the Department of Homeland Security paid more than $495 million for a 1,600-bed prison the state of Minnesota declined to purchase a year ago for the asking price of $75 million—or even “a fraction of that price.”

Elon Musk has contributed just shy of half-a-billion dollars to Republican-aligned political campaigns and Super PACs for the 2026 midterms.

There’s a drama playing out across American screens in 2026. But not the sort you might expect. There are villains and heroes, yes, high finance and political intrigue, too. There may even be a surprise ending — but we’ll have to wait until the Nov. 3 season finale to find out.

We are in the final week of GOTV, Get Out the Vote. There’s no need to say more; we all know what to do. So today we’ll focus on what comes next, which is less well known: PTV, or Protect the Vote. It covers the period between November 3, 2026, and January 3, 2027.

Over the nearly two years of President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration has taken more than 500 actions that harm public health or the environment.1 When faced with this onslaught of harm, it can be difficult to see the strategic agenda at play. However, NRDC’s new analysis reveals that the Trump administration is executing a sweeping and long-planned—but quiet—government-wide campaign to dismember major programs intended to prevent exposure to cancer-causing toxics and radiation.

Since the January 3, 2026, military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has imposed semi-colonial rule over Venezuela, forcing dramatic shifts in the country’s domestic and

According to Ukrainian presidential advisor Serhiy Beskrestnov, last night, without warning, Elon Musk’s SpaceX restricted the speed limits for the Starlink terminals Ukraine’s military uses, known as Starshield, debilitating Ukraine’s drones even as Russian forces launched strikes against Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure—the very infrastructure Trump said must be left alone.

Exhibit A

Friends,

He’s Exhibit A on why billionaire wealth should be taxed, why we have to get big money out of politics, why billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy up major media, and why our government shouldn’t give them huge military contracts.

I’m talking about Elon Musk, of course.

‘It was meant to make the president seem strong and appease the racist impulses of his base.’ Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

On Monday, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided the Washington DC area home of Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman and a progressive Democrat, in the latest instance of Donald Trump’s effort to weaponize the national security state to harass, punish and embarrass his political opponents.

From Drop Site, 10/9/26:

Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on Aug. 14, 2025, in New York City. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The case of a 7-year-old detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sparked indignation across New York City. The child, however, is not the first New York youth caught up in President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant dragnet. 

So now, after more than a decade of pretending that he is not associated with Russia and that he would honor the U.S. national security position of support for Ukraine and our European allies, Trump is openly backing Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

Asked today by a reporter about concerns that his dropping of sanctions against Russian oil yesterday would funnel money to Putin’s war on Ukraine, Trump blamed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky for prolonging the war:

Indiana Hoosiers offensive lineman Abedamola Ajani cools off during a game on September 5 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Matthew Mayich stepped onto the field of Sun Angel Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, at about 7 a.m. on August 20. It was the standout hockey player’s first official practice with his new team, and temperatures were already in the mid-80s.

October 7 marked three years since the Hamas attacks on Israel that left some 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage. It also marks three years since Israel launched its genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with material and moral support from the United States, with an official death toll surpassing 74,000—including more than 20,000 children.

On Monday, speaking at a rally in Nebraska, Trump

On Friday night, just before 11:00, Trump announced that his administration “will, immediately, begin sending ‘Checks’ of nearly $100 to over 20 MILLION wonderful Seniors to help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums, which we have already reduced by significant amounts. This money will come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, a pointless ‘Slush Fund’ that has only been used by Dumocrats in Congress to pay for the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for their Special Interest friends, and drive up Healthcare costs.”

A Washington Post headline today read: “U.S. withdraws forces in Iraq as balance of power shifts to Iran.”

Journalists Mustafa Salim and Alex Horton explained: After more than two decades, the deaths of more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,500 U.S. troops, the wounding of more than 30,000 U.S. military personnel, and the cost of more than $2.8 trillion, the last of the U.S. military forces in Iraq today pulled out of Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now arguing that Cuba represents a national security threat because it’s a "failed state," effectively using the humanitarian crisis brought about by the policies he masterminded in order to justify continuing those very policies.

This circular reasoning is just the latest absurdity — largely unquestioned by major media outlets — the Trump administration has presented as an argument for regime change in Cuba.

A view of the smoke stack of a coal-fired power plant in Springdale, Pennsylvania, in 2017. Experts warn that efforts to dismantle limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas will take a disproportionately heavy toll on Black communities. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

Black neighborhoods will feel the brunt of the Trump administration’s recent move to end federal limits on carbon pollution from America’s power plants, residents and environmental advocates said. 

Another AI has gone rogue and hacked someone. This time, the Australian government was the target. To our knowledge, this is the first incident where a government has been hacked by a rogue AI.

In a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that an internal OpenAI model went rogue and “infiltrated” Australia’s Medicare statistics portal.

ProPublica kicked off our day with reporting on Susan Collins and on corruption in Trump’s DOJ. This is the headline: “The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way.”

Last Friday, for the first time in American history, a brand new court in America deported to Afghanistan Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old lawful permanent resident living in Fort Worth. She was never charged with a crime, and wasn’t allowed to see the evidence against her (and neither were her lawyers). Attorney General Todd Blanche called the whole thing “a win for national security and the rule of law.”

The Trump regime has waged a campaign of terror against immigrants — and people it perceives as immigrants from certain countries — that is unjustified, inhumane, and immoral.

It is with grave concern that the Black Alliance for Peace Africa Team (BAP) and U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) view the latest maneuvers by the U.S. against Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, countries that form the anti-imperialist Alliance of Sahel States (AES).