October 28, 2026

Marie: Oops! Forgot about Jon Stewart yesterday, but here he is now, still seasonal:

Ana Ionova, et al., of the New York Times: “Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate defeated in Brazil’s elections, landed in Miami on Wednesday, according to a U.S. official, fleeing his country after Brazilian authorities asked him to surrender his passports as part of a money-laundering investigation. Mr. Bolsonaro arrived in the United States after apparently vanishing for a whirlwind 24 hours during which it was largely unclear where he was and how, or if, he would reach the United States. The State Department plans to issue visas allowing him and his family to enter the country, a senior department official said on Tuesday.... Just after 9:30 a.m., Mr. Bolsonaro could be seen leaving a plane at a private airport outside Miami along with his family, according to news media video footage. The group was ushered into an S.U.V. shortly after exiting the airport, hidden under umbrellas.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~Update. New Lede: “Flávio Bolsonaro, the candidate defeated in Brazil’s elections, landed in Miami on Wednesday, declaring himself the legitimate leader of the nation he fled after Brazilian authorities asked him to surrender his passports as part of a money-laundering investigation.” Emphasis added.

Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Stephanie Kaloi of Mediaite: “Former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley accused his old bosses at CBS News of ordering him to 'put a thumb on the scale' for President Donald Trump Wednesday, something he also said 'was anathema to all of us who had worked at 60 Minutes for so many years.'”

Kathianne Boniello of Mediaite: “Authorities in Minnesota charged two right wing influencers with unlawful voting and identity theft after the pair attempted to impersonate Muslim voters at a polling place — complete with burqas and phony accents. James O’Keefe, who is known for his undercover videos, and Cam Higby said they were trying to call attention to a Minnesota law which allows a person to vouch for others who may not yet be registered — up to eight people, who are then permitted to vote without showing ID. The pair showed up at polling places during the August primary and later posted video of their efforts. On Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced O’Keefe, 42, and Higby, 26, were being charged with felony unlawful voting and identity theft.... Moriarty alleged the pair used names of registered voters without those people’s knowledge....”

⭐Alaska Senate Race. New York Times Fingers Peltola. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in [the] candidacy [of Dan J. Sullivan, the candidate who shares a first and last name with the sitting Republican senator]. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did [former Rep. Mary] Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory. The endeavor, which was internally called the ballot composition project, involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs. It also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which directs the party’s campaign strategy in Senate races across the country....

“'Alaskan voters need to know,' said Elisa Rios, Ms. Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide, who was fired amid a staff shake-up in August, and agreed to a series of interviews with The Times since then.... Ms. Peltola was not directly involved in the project, Ms. Rios said, but she was 'definitely aware.' The operation had impact. On Tuesday, Ms. Peltola will be the only Democrat on the ballot, facing off against the two Mr. Sullivans and a long-shot candidate named Gerald Heikes who was also recruited into the race, according to The Times’s reporting. Polls give Ms. Peltola a strong chance of winning.” The link is a gift link. Read on. Rios tried to retract her remarks to the Times, but the Times said nothing doing inasmuch as her statements were consistent with the Times' other reporting.

     ~~~ Marie: This stunt could be what costs Democrats a majority in the Senate. I don't mind the stunt as much as I do being lied to about who engineered it.

Texas Gubernatorial Race. Kayla Guo of the Texas Tribune: "A remarkable amount of money flowed into the Texas governor’s race over the last month, marked by a furious fundraising push by Gov. Greg Abbott as he finds himself in an unusually competitive race against Democrat Gina Hinojosa. From Sept. 25 through Oct. 24, the span covered by new campaign finance reports due Monday, Abbott raised $26 million — the highest total he has posted in any reporting period this cycle.... Nearly one-fifth of Abbott’s latest haul came from one man: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has also bankrolled a nine-figure GOP spending binge in the U.S. Senate race. Abbott also spent heavily, dropping $35.8 million in the last month. Hinojosa picked up her fundraising, too, in the past four weeks, raising $17.5 million and spending $19.1 million. Both totals are her highest for a reporting period this cycle. The Austin lawmaker ran on a shoestring budget for much of the campaign, overshadowed by the intensely competitive U.S. Senate race between [Ken] Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, and the perception that Abbott was nearly unassailable. But Hinojosa has gained sudden momentum in the final months...."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Dolores Huerta, who with Cesar Chavez founded what became the United Farm Workers and led strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and ’70s that unionized many California table-grape growers, changing laws and the lives of thousands of migrant laborers, died on Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, Calif. She was 96.” The link is a gift link.

Trump: You Loser-Peons Can't Afford Mar-a-Lardo! David Gilmour of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump sparked a wave of ridicule online after joking, for the second time, that his promised $5,000 dividend would barely cover a hamburger at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort, just days after conservatives accused former President Barack Obama of elitism over a Cheesecake Factory joke. Trump made the remarks during a Tuesday rally in Corpus Christi, Texas.... The president told supporters they could spend the [$5,000] at his Florida club, before acknowledging that it might not stretch very far. 'The problem is that for $5,000 the most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert,' Trump said. 'I’m not even sure you could buy that!' 'No, don’t go there,' he added. 'It’s not a good place if you’re price conscious.'... Congress has not authorized Trump’s proposed $5,000 payments, and the administration has yet to explain how it would be distributed.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Lim Hui Jie of CNBC: “... Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that the Iran war will end 'whenever I want it to.'... Speaking at a rally in Lubbock, Texas, Trump said 'Somebody asked me before, “When will the war in Iran end?” I said, “Whenever I want it to end.” Trump said it 'would be very quick, but we have to have an end properly,' with a 'total statement' that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon.... The Iran conflict shows no sign of winding down, with Trump saying that he will soon decide whether to 'make a deal' with Iran or 'finish it off.'... An estimate by U.S. Central Command on Oct. 16, according to a report by The Hill, also revealed that the cost of the Iran war has ballooned to $47 billion, about $3 billion more than the previous numbers.... Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said on Oct. 12 that the war was costing American families an average of $2,000 so far, where $1,100 comes from higher energy costs, $540 from heightened interest rate costs and $360 due to increased military spending.” ~~~

     ~~~ A related New York Times story concentrates on the costs of the war; the link is a gift link. 

Closing Message: The Muslims Are Coming! The Muslims Are Coming! Josephine Walker of Axios: Donald "Trump has increasingly singled out Muslim politicians and communities in a bid to rally his base in the final push before election day.... T>rump's Monday appearance at a Michigan rally for GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers included several barbs at Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim faith. Trump suggested that El-Sayed posed a security threat, saying, 'He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate.' He also called El-Sayed a 'jihadist,' baselessly claimed the Senate candidate wants to impose sharia law in Michigan, and again accused him of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood." More on the out-and-out bigotry that runs through Michigan's Senate race below, re: RFKJ, Rogers & others. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To be fair, the flip side of Trump's closing message is, "So I've made life unaffordable for you? I don't give a damn. I'm getting rich!"

Marie: I know he can top it, but it's hard to think of many things a president* could do that are stupider than this: ~~~

~~~ Brad Plumer of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is set to loosen rules designed to force oil and gas companies to cut their emissions of methane, a gas considered a 'super pollutant' because it traps so much heat in the atmosphere.... [Donald] Trump is expected to announce the plan at a Tuesday campaign rally in Texas with Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, according to two administration officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The move would mark one of the most significant steps by the Trump administration to scale back federal policies designed to tackle climate change. Methane, the main component of natural gas, traps about 80 times more heat in the atmosphere in the short term than carbon dioxide does. It is responsible for nearly one-third of the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and experts have said that reducing methane leaks is one of the fastest ways to slow global warming.... Now the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to relax requirements to curb methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of 'marginal' [-- low production --] oil and gas wells that ... produce roughly half of the industry’s methane emissions....” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Zack Colman, et al., of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled back regulations on a major global warming pollutant — just days after a satellite discovered a large plume of methane pouring out of oil and gas wells near the Lubbock, Texas, campaign rally where Trump made his announcement. Governments and the private sector are deploying a wave of new technology to pinpoint methane leaks like never before. But that technological revolution is colliding with political decisions in the U.S. and Europe to weaken regulations that are designed to curb the powerful driver of climate change.” MB: I don't trust that new technology. I'm pretty sure the “large plume of methane gas” scientists attributed to wells near Lubbock was really coming out of the Fat Fart's ass. ~~~

~~~ Luckily, Exxon Has Our Backs. Thanks to RAS for the link. That narrator is actor Woody Harrelson. "No one loves you more than Exxon." ~~~

Jasmine Fernández of the Independent: “Vice President JD Vance blamed high gas prices on 'tin-pot dictators' during an energy speech Monday, giving online critics an opening to turn the description on ... Donald Trump. At the midterms rally in Belgrade, Montana, Vance acknowledged voters’ concerns about rising fuel costs.... 'Now you will hear ... many say that gas prices are too high, that there’s still so much work to do on correcting the terrible Biden inflation, the highest inflation that we saw in 50 years in our country, and I understand that...,' Vance told the crowd.... 'Remember in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, and gas prices skyrocketed — they skyrocketed, by the way, far higher than they are today,' Vance said. 'They skyrocketed in 1979, they skyrocketed in 2001, they skyrocketed in 2007. They skyrocket every time some tin-pot dictator decides to throw a tantrum. And we’ve got to remember that.'... 'That’s the most truthful thing he’s said since he compared Trump to Hitler,' someone commented....”

Maggie Miller of Politico: “Hackers attempted to access some filing systems at the Federal Election Commission, prompting the independent campaign finance regulatory agency to shut them down on Tuesday to contain the attack....”

Biggest Threat to U.S. Elections: POTUS*. Richard Fausset, et al., of the New York Times: “State and local elections officials regularly plan for floods, fires and computer glitches. This year..., much of the preparations ... can be distilled into one overarching concern — that the Trump administration will somehow attempt to meddle with the voting process or the results. The tricky part, officials said, is predicting what shape that interference might take while also recognizing that it might not materialize at all. 'This is the first time ever that we have had to engage in scenario planning to safeguard against potential federal interference in elections,' said Shenna Bellows, the secretary of state in Maine. 'It seems like the federal government is now adversarial to the states.'... With one week until Election Day, officials around the country say that they are bracing for even more unwanted and potentially undemocratic federal intervention.... To prepare, secretaries of state and other state and local officials have met with lawyers and local law enforcement agencies, trained poll workers and held meetings to consider what could come next.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: Obviously, since January 6, 2021, we've known that anything is possible. But it is still stunning -- and you should be astounded -- that the biggest threat to our democracy -- the clear & present danger we face -- is the President* of the United States. I know Trump is a malevolent fraud who is ruining people's lives with his grifts and his graft, his help-the-rich agenda, his virulent racism and his war of whim, but I am still most chagrined by his willingness to steal the vote from the people. That is the most anti-American thing he does, IMO.

David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: “As the midterm elections approach, the Trump administration is again ramping up attempts to root out voting by noncitizens. The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security are devoting massive investigative resources to the effort, and they have announced indictments in more than 20 states across the country in recent weeks. Authorities have charged more than 180 people with illegally voting or registering to vote as noncitizens since the start of Trump’s second term, according to a Washington Post analysis of those cases. Roughly 70 percent of those people were charged in the last two months.... [The cases] appear to involve isolated incidents scattered throughout the country, many with defendants who told authorities they were simply confused about voting rules.... As next week’s midterm elections draw closer, the Justice Department and DHS have issued a near daily stream of announcements highlighting small tranches of new cases. Their social media feeds feature photos and videos of accused illegal voters being arrested by agents wearing tactical gear, as ominous music plays in the background.”  ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Look, I know Trump is stupid and believes conspiracy theories that suit his ends, but he cannot be so stupid as to think that noncitizens are involved in a huge conspiracy to vote for Democrats. This is all part of his diabolical scheme to waste government resources to harass (and deport!) decent people, who made have made innocent mistakes. IMO, it is hardly surprising that some of these people registered to vote because in many countries, voting is a requirement, and to skip a trip to the polls is an infraction. Thus, these people might have registered to vote purely to prove they were law-abiding members of the community.

Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday expressed skepticism [link fixed] about the Trump administration’s effort to force California to set aside some 20,000 mail ballots that the federal government claimed were sent to noncitizens. After listening to arguments for several hours in a packed Los Angeles courtroom, the judge, David O. Carter of U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, stopped short of issuing an immediate ruling and said he would deliver his decision on Wednesday. But he suggested that he was unconvinced by the Justice Department’s argument that urgent action was necessary to halt illegal voting ahead of next week’s election. California counties have until Dec. 3 to certify elections, he noted, giving the government enough time to examine ballots and determine if any were cast illegally. The judge also questioned the means by which the administration had gathered its list of potentially illegal voters, and observed that the government’s demands represented a 'monumental change' in the state’s election procedures.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ David Kurtz of TPM: “U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of Los Angeles ... concluded the hearing with a very direct and unmistakeable warning to the Trump DOJ: 'This court believe that it would be wise that any threats to state and county election employees cease immediately.' The warning comes after top DOJ officials have repeatedly threatened to prosecute election administrators if they process ballots cast by noncitizens. The threats continued earlier in the hearing, with Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, again insisting that knowingly processing ballots that the DOJ claims are from noncitizens would be a federal crime. The DOJ is promulgating ... [Donald] Trump’s Big Lie of rampant noncitizen voting by seeking a temporary restraining order that would force Los Angeles County to segregate and not yet count ballots from voters who appear on a Trump administration list that it alleges contains the names of some 20,000 noncitizen voters. It’s an unprecedented move to introduce a documented citizenship verification procedure into the election process while voting is underway.” ~~~

~~~ More Bad News for Billy. Sam Levin of the Guardian: “A US judge ruled on Tuesday that Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in southern California, was 'unlawfully serving' as the head of the US attorney’s office.... The order, however, will not immediately go into effect, and the Department of Justice (DoJ) has said it intends to appeal.... Essayli, a former Republican state lawmaker and ally of Donald Trump, became an interim US attorney in April 2025, but he was not formally nominated by the president, which allowed him to lead the office without going through the standard confirmation process. After Essayli’s 'interim' appointment ended last July, the Trump administration gave him an 'acting' title, then kept him on as a 'first assistant' after a judge ruled he was unlawfully serving as US attorney. But in August, a federal appellate court ruled against a Nevada justice department leader in a similar case, and the judge overseeing Essayli’s case [-- Michael Seabright --] cited that higher court’s ruling on Tuesday, issuing another order saying he was still acting unlawfully.... [Seabridght] said [Essayli] could no longer participate in or supervise two ongoing prosecutions where the attorneys had challenged his position.”

Billy Witz of the New York Times: “The State of Alaska has asked a federal court to dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to block certification of its Senate race if the Republican incumbent loses by a narrow margin. The motion Monday came in response to the Justice Department’s complaint last week arguing that confusion over a candidate on the ballot with a name similar to that of the incumbent Republican, Senator Dan S. Sullivan, could taint the election result. In its filing, the state detailed its moves to ensure that voters know the difference between Senator Sullivan and Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher and political novice who Republicans have argued was planted on the ballot by Democrats to siphon votes from the incumbent. The second Mr. Sullivan has said that he is not trying to trick voters but is simply running as a Republican dissatisfied with the incumbent.... The state’s motion said that any open-ended investigation into the identity of voters 'would gravely threaten the integrity of the electoral process.'” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Heather Cox Richardson centers her most recent "letter" around Trump's disinformation campaign, which Richardson writes is modeled after Putin's methods. She also cites evidence implicating Mark Zuckerberg; whose social media sites have a way of going down at times that "seem to disproportionately impact the political opponents of President Trump and his authoritarian political alliances.” according to Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia & Jamie Raskin. Read to the end; the evidence against Zuck is mounting.

⭐Ha! Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday rejected an effort by the Justice Department to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide ... [Donald] Trump targeted after she gave damning testimony to a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to people briefed on the matter. The rejection of the indictment — known in legal circles as a 'no true bill' — was the latest extraordinary setback in Mr. Trump’s wide-ranging campaign to go after his political opponents. The Justice Department has repeatedly failed to build criminal indictments against the president’s rivals. Some Justice Department prosecutors had been deeply skeptical that there was a case to be made against Ms. Hutchinson, concluding that it would be difficult to win a conviction against her. But in an unusual arrangement, the investigation was directed to the department’s civil rights division, which normally focuses on issues like police violence and election integrity. The civil rights division is led by Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump loyalist who has effectively reoriented the unit to align with Mr. Trump’s agenda....” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News story is here: “Trump has called Hutchinson a 'scam artist' who lied under oath, and he has suggested she be prosecuted.” Marie: This is a victory not only for Hutchinson, not only for justice, but also for the wisdom of the people of Washington, D.C., who have stood up to the bully brigade once again. We owe them our thanks.

Francesca Regalado of the New York Times: “The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington said on Tuesday that it would not unseal a search warrant executed by federal agents at the home of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota this month. The office also asked a federal judge to deny requests for the warrant’s release. The requests to immediately unseal the search warrant and other related records were made by 15 news organizations, including The New York Times, and Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group, in the days after the search of Ms. Omar’s home in Washington on Oct. 12. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney, said in a court filing on Tuesday that the organizations’ requests were premature, partly because the Justice Department’s investigation is ongoing. The 47-page document was significantly redacted. Ms. Pirro said in the document that the requests had been made 'before a charging decision has been reached and publicly announced.'... On Tuesday, [Donald Trump] told reporters that Ms. Omar could face deportation and called her a 'sick and very dishonest person.'” The link is a gift link.

Casey He of Politico: “The FBI on Tuesday raided a Los Angeles area mansion connected to Stephen Cloobeck, a billionaire and former Democratic donor who was a close associate of former Rep. Eric Swalwell.... Cloobeck, a one-time California gubernatorial candidate, dropped his bid and donated more than $1 million to back Swalwell after he declared his candidacy. But he later said he had cut ties with the former lawmaker after sexual assault allegations against Swalwell emerged. Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped his gubernatorial bid but has denied the allegations. The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Swalwell that included an FBI search of his Washington home in August, the AP reported at the time.”

Tanish Bijur, et al., of NBC News: “A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a new charge against a pair of former FBI officials accused of lying to Congress, finding the Justice Department took novel — and improper — steps to announce the allegation. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said at a hearing that prosecutors created 'their own category of charging' with the new complaint they tried to bring against Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, who were initially charged last week with making false statements to Congress about their level of knowledge about an investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Government attorneys added an obstruction charge in a superseding criminal complaint that was filed overnight but not signed by any law enforcement officer or judge. Prosecutor John Borchert of the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., acknowledged in court Tuesday that 'this has never been done before' but suggested the complaint could be signed during the hearing. Faruqui denied the request and struck the new complaint, questioning why the Justice Department hadn’t followed what it has done in 'every other case in the history of this district.' He said that while he doesn’t doubt that the prosecution acted in good faith, he’s concerned that 'this system is being misused by people of higher levels.... Everything is a sideshow on top of a sideshow' in this case....”

I heard they were bad people. -- Donald Trump, describing former FBI officials Nikki Floris & Bradley Benavides, after their arrest last week ~~~

~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “In mid-July..., [Donald] Trump gave a prime-time speech in which he raised concerns about a disputed F.B.I. report that China had tried to interfere in the 2020 election in an effort to defeat him.... [He complained] that some of the bureau’s intelligence officials had purposefully sought to play down the report [and he called for their prosecutions]. One day [later]..., Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, sent a letter to the U.S. attorney’s office in Kansas City ordering that some of them immediately be investigated for obstruction and conspiracy, one of the agents assigned to the case testified on Tuesday. The agent, Bryan Witt, said that even though the inquiry was generally viewed inside his office as a 'witch hunt' and that he himself had concerns it was 'political,' it nonetheless moved forward.

“And last week, one of the intelligence officials whom Mr. Trump had complained about was charged along with a colleague with lying to Congress about the roles they had played in another one of the president’s longstanding obsessions: the investigations into Hunter Biden.... Mr. Witt’s explosive testimony, offered at a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, was the latest account of just how tight a grip the White House has on decision-making at the F.B.I. and just how willing Mr. Patel has been to take orders from the president to go after people he believes to be enemies.” The link is a gift link.

Justin Jounvenal of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to restrict a Biden-era policy that allows immigration judges to use their discretion to close thousands of deportation cases each year. Immigration advocates say the practice allows judges to ease loads on strained immigration courts and spare some migrants ... from going through removal proceedings if they have a good case for remaining in the United States. Critics call the procedure, known as 'administrative closure,' a form of backdoor amnesty. After the first Trump administration tried to bar judges from using administrative closure, the Biden administration codified the practice in 2024. It has been going on in some form for decades, with roughly 360,000 migrants granted administrative closure since 1990, according to government statistics. The cases are closed, but not dismissed, so they could now be reopened.... The [Court's] opinion was unsigned.” MB: Chicken. Weasel. (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: It's hard to know which is worse: the ignorance or the bigotry, or even which comes first, the ignorance or the bigotry. And please don't blame the innocent brainworm. He has always been a jerk. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

RFK: "There's five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. They don't win the Fields Prize. They don't win the Wolf Prize. They don't produce literature."

[image or embed]

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) October 26, 2026 at 8:55 PM

~~~ Rachel Roubein & Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed that modern Arab Muslims don’t produce science and literature as they have in the past or win prestigious prizes — remarks that have stirred a political backlash. At a Monday event campaigning for former congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan, Kennedy spent a portion of his remarks lambasting the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928 that has various offshoots. He asserted that it launched a new ideology that destroyed Islam’s contributions to art and literature and science and engineering.... Kennedy sought to tie Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate, to the Muslim Brotherhood, which ... Donald Trump has also done.... The remarks quickly ricocheted online, as Democrats sought to highlight contributions to both fields and experts in Arab studies blasted the remarks as steeped in 'ignorance' and 'bigoted.'” The New York Times story is here; this is a gift link. More on Mike Rogers linked below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie BTW: Bobby Junior, maybe I should mention the educational background of Dr. el-Sayed, whom you seem to be saying is an ignorant affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Here it is, according to Art Intel: "University of Michigan:

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) with highest distinction, double-majoring in biology and political science (2007). He was also a Phi Beta Kappa member.... University of Oxford: Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in public health (2011), earned as a Rhodes Scholar. Columbia University: Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) (2014), earned as an NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program Fellow and Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. He also served as an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health." True, he hasn't won any Nobel Prizes. Yet.

Molly Raskin in Wired: "For at least two months [beginning in March 2025], USAID senior staff had no knowledge of how [DOGE operative] Jeremy Lewin, who appeared at [USAID] one day as a policymaker on an obscure detail from the General Services Administration, could have suddenly begun wielding the powers of the agency’s top official. Internal USAID emails ... reveal that during the three-week period of March 18 to April 4, during which Lewin began canceling lifesaving aid programs and personally signed off on the termination of thousands of USAID employees, he did not sign the paperwork typically required by law to begin work at the agency, despite repeated requests. In fact, his appointment was so mysterious that USAID security was unable to issue him an ID card because they had no records of his employment.... Experts, though, say that while Lewin [-- who now has a top job at the State Department --] performed the duties of a top USAID leader under the title Rubio handed to him — deputy administrator of policy and programming and chief operating officer — it isn’t clear that he had the legal authority to do so. Questions about how DOGE affiliates like Lewin stepped into top roles at many federal agencies, including USAID, remain key to dozens of active lawsuits targeting DOGE and the Trump administration over federal workforce reductions, firings, and agency dismantlings."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alaska Gubernatorial Race. Ebony Davis of MS NOW: "Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska endorsed Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for governor Tuesday, crossing party lines in the final week ahead of Election Day. The endorsement delivers to Kreiss-Tomkins a high-profile Republican endorsement in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Murkowski announced her support in an interview with Alaska News Source, citing widespread dissatisfaction with the direction of the state and praising Kreiss-Tomkins’ willingness to work across the aisle.... Four candidates are competing to replace Dunleavy.... Recent polling shows Kreiss-Tomkins, a former state lawmaker, leading the crowded field against Republicans Bernadette Wilson, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson and former state Attorney General Treg Taylor."

Michigan Senate Race. Saving Elmo. Steve Neavling of the Detroit Metro Times: “Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers ... wants [Michiganders] to help protect Elon Musk from congressional accountability. In a fundraising appeal sent Saturday, Rogers warned supporters that Democrats would use control of the Senate to subpoena Musk over his role in the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.... 'When you stand with my Senate campaign today, you are directly shielding Elon Musk,' Rogers wrote. He then asked for an 'immediate, urgent contribution right now to protect Elon and save America.'... Rogers described that fairly ordinary exercise of congressional oversight as a 'socialist retaliation plot' reminiscent of 'Soviet Russia and communist Cuba.'” Thanks to RAS for the link.

Tennessee House Race. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “The campaign to flip Tennessee’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House seat was rattled on Tuesday by the Republican nominee’s acknowledgment of a 'past indiscretion.' The acknowledgment came after The Nashville Scene, an alternative weekly newspaper, reported that the candidate, State Senator Brent Taylor, had sent 'an unsolicited nude picture' as recently as 2021. Mr. Taylor, who is married, was in his early 50s at the time, before he was elected to represent Memphis and part of Shelby County in the State Senate.... On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Taylor told Matt Murphy, a radio host for WWTN, that the contact was consensual and described it as 'a text communication with somebody that I shouldn’t have been communicating with.'... Mr. Taylor, a hard-line conservative with ... [Donald] Trump’s endorsement, is favored to flip Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, which once included the entirety of the majority Black city of Memphis and has long been held by a Democrat. The district was redrawn earlier this year to include more rural, white voters and to give Republicans an advantage after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” The link is a gift link.

Texas Senate Race. David Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: “For the second time in just over a week, Ken Paxton and James Talarico were on opposite sides of the same city at dueling rallies Tuesday evening in the western Texas city of Lubbock.... Thousands of people packed into each event. But at Mr. Paxton’s, attendance was stoked by the headliner..., [Donald] Trump. Mr. Paxton did not deliver a traditional speech, only speaking when the president called him to the stage toward the end of his address, which lasted more than 90 minutes.... Mr. Paxton['s] remarks ... mostly focused on how great it was to spend the day with the president....” The link is a gift link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Brazil/U.S. Tiago Rogero & Tom Phillips of the Guardian: “The far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and is on his way to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A report by the news website Metrópoles, citing people close to the politician’s family, said he was en route to the US. 'The plane is in flight,' Metrópoles reported, without making clear where it had departed from. Bolsonaro allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and planned to request political asylum. 'The Donald Trump administration has been informed,' the website added. Allies also confirmed to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper that he was on his way to the US, and said the escape plan had been 'organized and enabled by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan'.

“... CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro had fled to the US with his wife and two daughters in the early hours of this morning. Lawmakers from Lula’s Worker’s party (PT) asked the supreme court to order Bolsonaro’s arrest and requested that his name be put on Interpol’s Red Notice list. Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday and missed a Tuesday-morning deadline to hand his passport to the federal police.” MB: Gee, isn't Markwayne going to throw Bolsonaro & his family in a Salvadoran prison? (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Ana Ionova, et al., of the New York Times: “The State Department plans to issue visas to Mr. Bolsonaro and his family to allow them entry into the United States, a senior State Department official said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters. The U.S. government’s assistance to Mr. Bolsonaro could escalate tensions between the Trump administration and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has accused President Trump of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.” The link is a gift link. MB: Well, gosh, so much for my expectation that Markwayne would meet the Bolsonaro clan on the tarmac with handcuffs & leg irons. Whatever is the difference is between the Bolsonaros & the usual refugees? (Also linked yesterday.)

Terrence McCoy, et al., of the Washington Post: “A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Tuesday ordered a police investigation into alleged ties between a donor network co-founded by Vice President JD Vance and the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro in the run-up to Sunday’s election. Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino directed the Brazilian federal police to investigate the 'nature' of the contacts between the Rockbridge Network, which was founded in 2019, and any Brazilian companies or political operatives to aid or finance Bolsonaro’s run. It’s a crime in Brazil for a political candidate to accept funding or other campaign assistance from a foreign source.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Great! Here's the plan: come January, impeach & convict Trump, deposit JayDee in a Brazilian jail (preferably somewhere in the Amazon jungle) & swear in the new speaker of the House -- Jeffries or whoever -- as the new, real president.

Israel. The New York Times continues to liveblog the results of Israeli elections Tuesday. The link is a gift link. From the pinned item at 5:45 am ET: “Israelis were bracing on Wednesday for what could be weeks of political gridlock after exit polls showed no clear winner in a national election that many have described as a make-or-break moment for the country. Turnout in Tuesday’s election, widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, was the highest in at least a quarter-century. It was the first election since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks ignited three years of war. Exit polls — which have a spotty record in Israel — suggested that Mr. Netanyahu’s alliance was neck and neck with a bloc of opposition parties led by Gadi Eisenkot, leaving neither side positioned to form a government. That uncertainty did not stop the leading candidates from making triumphant late-night speeches to their supporters.” MB: It does not speak well of human nature that after all Israelis have been through, fully half of them still thing the right wing way is the right way. ~~~

~~~ Barak Ravid of Axios: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition is running nearly even with Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc in Tuesday's historic election — but both are short of a 61-seat majority, according to Israeli exit polls.... Political stalemate is the most likely outcome of the election, with Netanyahu weakened but neither side having a clear path to forming a coalition government. Arab parties are poised to win 18 to 19 seats in what would be an unprecedented electoral achievement.... The exit polls show Netanyahu's bloc with 51-52 seats and Eisenkot's bloc with 49-51 seats.... A close outcome could leave the country in a state of limbo, with Netanyahu likely staying on as a caretaker prime minister at the helm of the executive branch and the opposition led by Eisenkot controlling the Knesset."Here's Politico's report.