November 5, 2026

~~~ The gift link for the interactive NYT House Election Results is here.

Many people will tell you that being a caretaker for an elderly person is a difficult, challenging jobs. If the elderly person is easily agitated, it may be a good idea to make up special activities to keep him occupied. Here's the distraction one man's caretakers planned for him today: ~~~

This is so embarrassing.

~~~ AP, via US News: “... Donald Trump on Thursday signed a proclamation that he said will prevent future changes to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as he has redesigned them. 'We’re making it a national monument and it will not be allowed to be touched by anybody,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump’s proclamation signing comes two days after voters, dissatisfied with his economic policies, threw dozens of Republicans out of office, delivering control of Congress to Democrats. It’s also the third day this week in which the president, a real estate mogul, delivered remarks fixated on his pet projects in Washington, D.C., including an opulent ballroom and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm sure Trump's minders did not tell him that a real president can sign another proclamation reversing this nonsense.

Uh Oh. There Go Those 34 Felonies. Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “A New York appeals panel questioned on Thursday whether presidential immunity or federal law bars ... [Donald] Trump’s criminal conviction stemming from a hush money payment made during his 2016 campaign to cover up an alleged affair. Trump’s personal lawyers said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) legal theory of the case was preempted by campaign finance law and that his team wrongly showed jurors official acts from Trump’s time in the White House, including his online posts.... In addition to the posts, Trump says jurors shouldn’t have been able to consider his call records while in office, his 2018 government ethics form and testimony from his onetime campaign press secretary, Hope Hicks, about her time working in the White House. Bragg’s office says the trial was sound and none of that evidence was protected. But if the judges disagree, the guilty verdict should still stand because any issues were harmless, his office says. It left several of the judges on Thursday questioning where to draw the line.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wish I'd been on Bragg's team, because I could have explained to those dumb judges why none of Trump's actions or remarks in regard to the Stormy Daniels payments were part of his "official duties" and therefore subject to the Roberts Court's Trump-can-do-anything immunity ruling.

Joe Rennison of the New York Times: “Stocks had their worst day in nearly two years as investors’ concerns about weaknesses in the A.I. industry re-emerged after Democratic midterm victories raised the prospect of tighter regulation. The S&P 500 fell 4.3 percent on Thursday, marking the most severe drop for the index since April 2025, when ... [Donald] Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs.The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.5 percent, putting the index into correction, defined as a drop of 10 percent or more from its recent peak. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, a benchmark for the industry, tumbled over 12 percent. That index has fallen over 30 percent since the beginning of October and is almost 40 percent below its peak in June. The moves gathered pace through the day, engulfing all sectors of the S&P 500. The 10-year Treasury note, seen as a haven during periods of market stress, rallied, meaning its yield fell, dropping to 4.83 percent, its lowest since September. While gridlock in Washington has broadly been welcomed by investors, curtailing the likelihood of new rules and laws being imposed on businesses, concerns about an A.I. backlash are compounding fears of runaway spending and rising debt at tech firms. Democratic victories in states with large concentrations of planned data centers, like Ohio and Texas, heightened investors’ concerns that the facilities at the heart of the A.I. build out would face new hurdles.” The link is a gift link.

Richard Fausset & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump had started his second term intent on harnessing the power of the federal government to resurface false claims that widespread fraud had tainted his earlier defeat — and to use those claims to assert unprecedented control over the midterms this year. He failed. Voters so thoroughly rejected Republicans on Tuesday ... that it became impossible to blame the outcome on fraud. Since returning to the White House in 2025, the president has resurrected outlandish and disproven theories of machines tainted by Democrats to steal votes and rampant voting by noncitizens. He tried to redirect the Postal Service to restrict mail voting. He seized ballots from 2020 in Georgia. And his administration launched a massive investigation of state voter rolls, suing states to remove suspected noncitizens.... Democrats who opposed Trump’s federal intervention will soon control the top election office in every significant battleground state for 2028, including newly competitive Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa.” The link is a gift link.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “On the day before the midterm elections that would transform American government, the Supreme Court also did something extraordinary. In the space of about seven hours on Monday, it evaluated and rejected an emergency request from the Trump administration to let it meddle in how ballots were counted in California. The court did so without even asking the other side for a response, something I don’t recall ever happening in connection with an emergency application from the Justice Department. The court’s order, issued Monday evening, was just one sentence long, and no member of the court had anything to say in dissent....

“Trump must have insisted on running to the court, leaving [Solicitor General John] Sauer to figure out how to do that without inflicting permanent damage to his own credibility with the justices[, which he did by using 'distancing' language in his filing].... The court’s quick action — a 'mercy killing,' in legal scholar Rick Hasen’s phrase — ... suggested that the justices had run out of patience with a president to whom they had long granted the benefit of the doubt.” Liptak also speculates that the justices acted quickly to avoid leaving the impression “that something serious was afoot while the nation voted.” The link is a gift link.

California. Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom of California moved to spare the lives of all 548 prisoners on the state’s death row on Thursday in the largest mass commutation of death sentences in modern American history. Mr. Newsom said he made the decision because he finds capital punishment morally objectionable. He reduced every death sentence to life in prison without parole, a sweeping move that will require a review by the state’s highest court in some cases and could draw legal challenges. 'State-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us,' Mr. Newsom wrote in an open letter to California residents. 'I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency.'” The link is a gift link.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Harmeet Dhillon, the chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, resigned on Thursday after conflicts with department leaders, including disagreements over legal strategy in the midterm elections, two people familiar with the situation said. Ms. Dhillon, whose tenure was defined by a successful pressure campaign against universities and unsuccessful efforts to obtain voting data from states, had been telling friends for weeks that she planned to step down to return to her law firm, the people said. In less than two years on the job, Ms. Dhillon repurposed a unit created to address Jim Crow injustices into a battering ram against the left, setting aside its longtime mission of fighting discrimination against Black people to battle campus antisemitism and diversity initiatives.... [Donald] Trump and other White House officials recently expressed annoyance over a recent appearance Ms. Dhillon made on '60 Minutes.' In the interview, she downplayed the prevalence of voting by undocumented immigrants — a central driver of the department’s aggressive legal strategy in the weeks leading up to the election.” The link is a gift link.

Jodi Kantor & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “The Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation into who leaked the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the right to abortion, examining the inner workings of an institution that has long operated in secrecy and resisted oversight from the other branches of government. At issue is who provided the draft decision to Politico two months before it was formally released by the court, a seismic breach of confidentiality that led to intense partisan accusations about the motivations of the leaker. Despite an internal inquiry by the court, no leaker has ever been publicly identified. An F.B.I. official said last year that the Justice Department was exploring the issue. But prosecutors are now pursuing a criminal case, which has not previously been reported. The investigation has ramped up in recent weeks as prosecutors have sent grand jury subpoenas for testimony and sought information from people who worked at the court at the time of the leaks, according to people familiar with the inquiry.” The link is a gift link.

Oh, what the hell: ~~~

It isn't often that a journal dedicated to science will comment on a U.S. midterm election. But as RAS points out today, in what looks like a straight-up news story, Nature -- "a British weekly international scientific journal publishing peer-reviewed research across the natural sciences, including biology, physics, chemistry, the earth sciences, and related interdisciplinary fields" -- published such an article yesterday. (Firewalled, but you can read enough of it to catch their drift.)

Texas Senate Race. It was over before Election Day. Many thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

The primary to take on Cruz is gonna be brutal.

[image or embed]

— Dirk Lester 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 ✌🏾 (@dirk2112.bsky.social) November 5, 2026 at 2:01 AM

AND Susan Collins' Days of Concern(™) Soon Will Be Over. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “... Ms. Collins was brought down by a combination of factors, most of which were attributable to ... [Donald] Trump and the war with Iran. There were soaring fuel prices in a state reliant on home heating oil. The punishing tariffs the president imposed on neighboring Canada. An immigration crackdown that resulted in a fatal shooting by federal agents in one Maine community. And always the perception that she wasn’t doing enough to stand up to the president, even when she was one of the few Republicans to occasionally break with him. 'Everybody ignores the fact that I voted to convict him in the second impeachment trial,' Ms. Collins said. 'What bigger break could there be? It is never enough. I want results and they want angry rhetoric.' On top of dissatisfaction that she hadn’t distanced herself sufficiently from the president, some voters harbored resentment about her vote in 2018 to confirm Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, given his later role in overturning Roe v. Wade.” The link is a gift link.

Marie: Former Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) said on MS NOW last night that one thing that explains some of the GOP losses is that many GOP members of Congress have spent their entire Congressional careers in "safe" Republican seats and they had forgotten -- or never knew -- how to run a campaign, and they didn't really even try this time around. To me that means that in 2028, Republicans will try to recruit and sponsor some "hungrier" candidates who might really challenge Democratic members.

How Do You Say "Adios" in Spanish? David Maddox & Andrew Feinberg of the Independent: "Marco Rubio is on resignation watch from both sides of the Atlantic in the expectation he will quit to launch a bid to be the next US president.... Insiders say the US secretary of state and White House national security adviser is preparing for the race to be the Republican nominee in November 2028, with Vice President JD Vance currently his main rival. Even before the disastrous midterm results..., senior party sources in the US and senior figures in the UK government told The Independent that Mr Rubio could quit his senior role in ... Donald Trump’s administration." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.

Patrick Healy of the New York Times interviews Times reporters Tyler Pager & Erica Green on how their election night phone call went with Donald Trump. Kind of interesting if you're at least mildly interested in news-gathering & interview techniques. The link is a gift link.

The Pope Flies Commercial. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: “The Vatican, unlike the United States government, owns no dedicated planes and has no equivalent to Air Force One. Instead, the pope always flies commercial — in business class on charter flights operated by regular airlines. For more than six decades, ITA Airways — and its predecessor, Alitalia — has been the preferred airline for the first leg of the pope’s foreign journeys, and sometimes more.... Joerg Eberhart, ITA’s chief executive, said the role was not guaranteed. The airline regularly competes in Vatican tenders for the main papal flights, he said, and the airline loses money operating them. These are no ordinary flights. For starters, they are almost always perfectly on time, unlike over half of ITA’s other flights last year.” The link is a gift link.

Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo. Bob looks ridiculous -- like his idea of an evil monk maybe. The link is a gift link to a NYT story.

~~~~~~~~~~

This morning's New York Times online headline, though not a banner headline, is "Inside the G.O.P.'s Historic Collapse."

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times with an “account of the Republican Party’s collapse is based on interviews with more than 70 people — among them lawmakers, political strategists, party leaders, pollsters, White House officials and congressional aides — who were directly involved in the midterm elections.... The scale of the defeat was far from inevitable. Republicans had record fund-raising, the world’s richest man, a favorable Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance and a demoralized, unpopular opposition. In the Senate, they had a map that required Democrats to compete in states they hadn’t won in decades. And in the House, the Trump team demolished the tradition of redrawing congressional lines only once a decade in order to carve up new districts to help the G.O.P. bolster its narrow majority.

“What Republicans could not overcome was a president who lost the public’s trust on the economy and so much more. And what they had not counted on was an unpopular war in the Middle East — one that would close the Strait of Hormuz and push gas prices past $4 a gallon — that would rage all the way through the election.... Mr. Trump’s party is on track to lose the national popular congressional vote by about 13 points, according to estimates by The New York Times. It is shaping up to be the worst loss in a half-century, since the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.” The link is a gift link.

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: “This was an electoral tsunami: a complete collapse of the Republican coalition and the largest victory by either party in half a century.... There’s simply no modern precedent for either party to do so well in states that had leaned so heavily toward the other side.... And they didn’t just eke out victories — they won big, including by double digits in Texas.... While all of the close election results over the last few decades have given the impression that America’s political divides are intractable, there have been extraordinary changes just beneath the surface. Over the last decade..., [Donald] Trump destroyed the Republican Party as we once knew it. He replaced it with a younger, more diverse, less affluent, less politically engaged, working-class party — one that was less conservative, less likely to vote and more sensitive to economic concerns.

“In his second term, Mr. Trump dismantled his coalition, piece by piece. His tariffs and the high gas prices under his watch alienated the working-class voters who were drawn to him by his record of economic stewardship in his first term and his promise to lower costs. His decision to go to war with Iran alienated a generation of voters who grew up bemoaning the forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The corruption that became a campaign issue and his handling of the Epstein files repelled the anti-establishment voters who were suspicious of the Washington elite. The excesses of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies helped alienate the Hispanic voters who had surged to him in 2024 — and who had been singularly responsible for keeping Texas a red state, despite Democratic gains among the state’s metropolitan white voters.” The link is a gift link.

     ~~~ Marie: "His record of economic stewardship," my ass. Those "alienated working-class voters" were drawn to him mostly by his racist, xenophobic misogynistic bigotry. Yeah, some bought into the myth he was a good businessman, facts be damned. But most glommed onto his candidacy, as they said again and again, because "he tells it like it is." And by that, I'm telling you, they meant, he's a white, racist, xenophobic (misogynistic) prick just like us. WTF does Cohn think "America First" means?

Jack Healy of the New York Times: “A string of stunning upset victories in governors races across the country will put Democrats in charge of deep-red states where they have not held the top jobs in decades. Democrats flipped five governors’ seats, all in states that ... [Donald] Trump won in 2024, sometimes by double digits. The victories gave them a total of 29 governorships and control of a majority of American governorships for the first time in a generation. A race for the Republican-held governor’s seat in Alaska had still not been called by Wednesday morning. Their wins could expand the state-level resistance to Mr. Trump’s policies on tariffs and immigration, while also putting new Democratic-run states into play as potential swing states in the 2028 presidential election.... Their wins were a remarkable turnaround from eight years ago, when Democrats held just 16 of the country’s 50 governorships. They steadily gained ground to hold 24 governor’s seats going into the midterm elections. After Tuesday’s elections, about 75 percent of Americans will live in a state with a Democratic governor, according to the Democratic Governors Association.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Andrew Pantazi of Axios: "Democrats are on track to take control of a majority of legislative chambers, ending 16 years of Republican dominance over America's statehouses. If current leads hold, 75% of Americans will live in a state with a Democratic governor, and 53% will live in Democratic trifectas.... Statehouses are the front line of American federalism, and Tuesday's gains dramatically expand Democrats' power to increase minimum wages, protect abortion access, and set voting rules ahead of 2028 for most Americans. The party is set to flip 12 legislative chambers, dismantle five Republican state trifectas, shatter 11 GOP supermajorities and build 12 of its own, according to AP returns as of 6pm ET on Wednesday."

Lily Boyce, et al., of the New York Times: “Voters of every demographic group nationally — across race, age, gender and education — swung back toward the Democratic Party, reversing a broad shift in support toward Republicans in 2024. The reversal was most notable among young voters and voters of color, two groups whose change in support in the 2024 election were critical to Mr. Trump’s victory. White voters without a college degree — often seen as stalwarts of the Republican base — also made a sharp turn to the left. This analysis is based on preliminary data on U.S. House vote shifts from Times Voter Trends, which estimates the results of the 2026 election by age, race, education and gender for every state.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Heather Cox Richardson: “The election came off without anything more than the usual hitches, a tribute to the quiet work of dedicated lawyers and voting rights groups who have been fiercely contesting the administration’s efforts to rig the vote or to stir up opposition to accept the outcome. It was, as organizers had hoped, 'too big to rig.' After months of suggesting he would contest the outcome of the election if Democrats won, Trump told New York Times reporters ... that he would accept the results. The historic nature of this election cannot be overstated. It is a rejection of Trump, who insisted voters should imagine he was on the ballot. But more than that, it is a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s: the idea that some people are better than others and have the right to rule.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Funny JayDee didn't think of that when he was rummaging around for excuses for the shellacking, but then JayDee sincerely believes that some are more equal than others. ~~~

     ~~~ I was far too lazy to check into how far back Vance's ancestry goes on this particular continent. But Wikipedia says this much: "

Abner Vance (1760 or 1770 – July 16, 1819) was an American Revolutionary War veteran and murderer. He was also reportedly a preacher. He reportedly killed a man in 1817 and fled to Tug Fork... A few years later he was hanged for murder.... The murder and subsequent execution is considered a founding an event for the Vances' settlement in Tug Fork Valley. Many of his descendants would be involved in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. He is an ancestor of Vice President JD Vance."

The reason poverty exists in the wealthiest country on earth is not because we can’t feed the poor. It’s because we can’t satisfy the rich. But what we can do is tax trillionaires out of existence. -- James Talarico, on the campaign trail ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “... many of the triumphant Democratic underdogs ... promised to stand up to the domineering tech titans who’ve clustered around Donald Trump, arrogating to themselves the right to define America’s future. The election was an epic repudiation of the president, but it was also a democratic rebuke of Silicon Valley by voters who felt their ability to write their own destinies slipping away. After Trump, there was no bigger loser on Tuesday than Elon Musk, who spent over $400 million backing Republicans. He poured more than half of that sum into Texas, his home since 2020, when he left California out of anger at regulation and Covid restrictions. He later moved most of his business empire to Texas and even built his own town, Starbase, there. Musk almost single-handedly funded the Senate campaign of Texas’ widely despised attorney general, Ken Paxton. He tweeted obsessively about James Talarico, Paxton’s opponent, amplifying conspiracy theories that Talarico was in a mental hospital when he was really sick with the flu.” The link is a gift link.

Andrew Atterbury & Riya Misra of Politico: “Gov. Ron DeSantis eviscerated the state of Republican politics Wednesday after the party’s devastating midterm losses, blaming everything from the Epstein files to members of Congress trading stocks. The GOP governor maintained the Democratic wins in his state and beyond were more about voters rejecting Republicans in Washington than supporting liberal policies. And while the elections were 'close to an extinction-level event for Republicans,' DeSantis took a proud victory lap on how the GOP performed in his state, where they swept state Cabinet races and staved off defeats like those suffered in conservative strongholds like Iowa, Kansas and Texas. 'To call it a wave, I don’t think would be fully accurate,' DeSantis said during a press conference in Tallahassee. “It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States, blue states, red states, everything in between. And the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here in the free state of Florida.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate-level repudiation. -- Ted Cruz, on his podcast Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Riley Hoffman of the Independent: "Texas Senator Ted Cruz delivered a scathing assessment of his party’s sweeping defeats following major Democratic victories across the United States, describing the losses as a 'blue tsunami' after Republicans were ousted from nearly every major office across his home state. He pointed to elevated gas prices, a rise in home and automobile repossessions, alongside record numbers of weekly plasma donations, as clear indicators that citizens across the country were struggling financially. 'That is very real pain from real Americans, and too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care, Cruz added.... 'Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high,' Cruz said." MB: No word on whether Cruz was podcasting from Cancun or some other fancy, exotic locale.

After the Fall. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: “A $1.4 billion cryptocurrency windfall. Well-timed stock trades. A wedding after-party bankrolled by a Kremlin-connected businessman. For nearly two years, congressional Democrats were powerless to probe these potential scandals and conflicts looming over ... [Donald] Trump and his family businesses. But after pulling off a landslide midterm election victory that amounted to a sweeping rebuke of the president, they will soon seize control of Congress — and with it, the power to open investigations, hold hearings and issue subpoenas. Representative Robert Garcia, the California Democrat poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, summed up the threat succinctly in a statement late Tuesday: 'Lawyer up.'... 'The Trump crime family is the top of our investigative priorities,' he said.”

What was the POTUS* doing on the day after this "near-extinction-level" loss? Regrouping? Mending fences? Nah. ~~~

~~~ Cheyanne Haslett of Politico: “In the midst of the GOP reckoning with massive losses in the midterms..., Donald Trump on Wednesday hastily called the press in to cover his first public remarks from the White House since the Democrats overwhelmingly wrestled control of both the House and Senate. But for 20 minutes, the president didn’t address the history-making renouncement of his administration that voters delivered Tuesday night. Instead, the president, standing in the construction site of the White House ballroom in front of a large beam, spoke to a crowd of construction workers about his many passion projects to 'beautify Washington' — first and foremost, the massive ballroom befit with 50-foot ceilings and the capacity to hold hundreds of guests.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump and his party had just suffered one of the most brutal defeats in modern political history, but when the president emerged before the cameras for the first time, what he wanted to talk to the public about was … home renovation. 'Envision marble floor,' he said. 'Oh, it’s going to be beautiful.' A surreal scene played out on Wednesday as the president led reporters through the White House ballroom to inspect its progress. He pointed out beams, talked about varieties of marble and generally shrugged off what had happened the night before as though it wasn’t the bloodiest political blood bath in this country since 1976 — as though he hadn’t just seen Texas turn blue. Inside his concrete chrysalis, everything was still beautiful. 'Did you guys see the helipad from up top, how beautiful that is?' he asked. 'The marble is really magnificent marble.... It’s a vein that people have been after for 50 years, and the owner of the quarry didn’t want to sell it, but he liked me.

“It was a mirror image of the event that [Interior Secretary Doug] Burgum and Mr. Trump held the day before the elections, at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where Mr. Trump stood inside a plexiglass box and rambled about rusty drainpipes and algae. Many Republicans were frustrated verging on apoplectic that Mr. Trump used his closing message to talk about his pet construction projects. Now the blue crush they feared had come to pass, and Mr. Trump and Mr. Burgum were back at it.”

~~~ Athena Dawson of the Daily Express/U.S., republished by AOL: "... Donald Trump appears to be hinting at using his veto power in response to the midterm election results that have been widely announced. The president posted a picture of a red hat with the word 'VETO' emblazoned in white across it to Truth Social Tuesday evening. In recent interviews, Trump has proclaimed himself as 'Mr. Veto' if the Democrats take control of Congress. Trump's post came moments after he posted that the GOP would have won 'IN A LANDSLIDE' if he were on the ballot." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "... an increasingly

deranged and debilitated Trump will remain in control of foreign policy, national security, and many of the federal government’s domestic operations for two more years. He will also, as he made a point of emphasizing on Truth Social as the returns came in, retain the ability to veto legislation. And Democrats, despite their huge margins in both houses of Congress, won’t have enough votes to override his vetoes.... [My advice?] Pass highly popular legislation that would clearly benefit ordinary Americans and not the oligarchs, knowing full well that Trump will veto the legislation. Emphatically, the Democrats should not try to make deals with Trump, a man who never agreed to a deal that he didn’t subsequently try to break. Democrats should craft an expansive menu of legislation to address the issues plaguing ordinary Americans. When Trump vetoes a bill, they should attempt to override that veto, forcing each and every Republican to either to uphold Trump’s obstruction — making it clear that they are as culpable as he is — or to develop a spine and supply the additional votes required for such overrides." Read on. MB: Krugman suggests measures Democrats should pass. I think you'll like 'em.

Lame Duck à l’Orange.* Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “In the hours after voters put a check on the expansive power he has flexed in his second term, giving Democrats control of both the House and the Senate, Mr. Trump seemed to be cycling through the stages of grief. He denied that a blue wave across the country had been his fault, or a direct result of his decision to go to war with Iran. (The vice president explicitly said otherwise.) He accepted the election results. And, as he absorbed the waning power he will have in his final two years in office, he bargained, saying he’d work with Democrats while clinging to his veto Sharpie. 'I’ll get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive,' Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday, standing in front of a steel beam that was being put into place as part of his cherished White House ballroom project. He noted that he had 'the power to veto,' before turning to a topic he seemed much more eager to discuss: his renovation projects.” The link is a gift link.

     ~~~ *Marie: While Rogers describes Trump as a lame duck, we owe "lame duck à l’orange" to Akhilleus. It's a great epithet, but is it too classy for Trump?

Arc de Trump News. Luke Broadwater & Emily Badger of the New York Times: “A federal panel led by ... [Donald] Trump’s allies is expected on Thursday to issue final approval for his planned 250-foot triumphal arch, allowing a blitz of construction that the Trump administration has said could begin almost immediately after the vote. But broader, perhaps existential, challenges to one of the president’s prized projects lie ahead. At the same time, a federal judge is considering whether to halt the project for circumventing congressional approval and a host of other laws. Democrats in Congress, fresh off a landslide victory in Tuesday’s midterm elections, are threatening to kill Mr. Trump’s arch when they take control of both chambers in January. 'The Great Gatsby party is over,' said Representative Jared Huffman, Democrat of California, who plans to testify before the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday. 'The arch is an illegal project. It’s a monstrosity. It’s a slap in the face to veterans and to the history and the aesthetics of this sacred place. It’s unthinkable that this would be allowed to proceed.'” The link is a gift link.

And Junior Piles On. Kevin Schofield of the Huffington Post (U.K.): “JD Vance has turned on Donald Trump by blaming the war in Iran for the Republican Party’s humiliation in the US midterm elections.... 'But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.' Re-posting Vance’s message, Donald Trump Jr said: 'Every word of this 100%.'... Asked about Vance’s comments, Trump said: 'I think it’s largely true because it drove the gasoline price up a little bit short term. But at the same time, if I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again. You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.'” ~~~

~~~ Zachary Basu, et al., of Axios: "Vice President Vance stepped out of ... [Donald] Trump's shadow Wednesday, seizing on the GOP's midterm catastrophe to begin the explosive task of claiming MAGA as his own.... Vance's presidential ambitions are entangled in the wreckage of a war he privately opposed but publicly defended. His path to 2028 demands a delicate political calculation.... Citing polling of disaffected Trump voters, [Vance] identified four demands: 1. 'End the war.' 2. 'Focus on cost of living/inflation.' 3. 'Put America First.' 4. 'Change our relationship to Israel.'... Vance is aligning with MAGA podcasters and activists] on topics where MAGA anger with Trump is raging." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One good reason for Vance to hit on the war rather than on, say, immigrants who are eating the cats and dogs, is that Drunk Pete sees a president in his magic mirror. So -- best to get rid of Drunk Pete. Oh, and Little Marco -- who has a well-used magic mirror -- is a warmonger, too. So JayDee's hitting on the war as the cause of the midterm losses is a two-fer. ~~~

~~~ And the Question Is ... Who Will Be the Scapegoat? Pete or Dan or Brad? Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: “Senior Pentagon officials were confronted Wednesday by how the unpopular Iran war spelled disaster for the Trump administration in the midterm elections, as ... questions arose about whether ... Donald Trump will hold someone accountable for the GOP’s shellacking. Democrats immediately set their sights on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with whom they have clashed repeatedly over the past two years. But those close to the Trump administration questioned whether the president instead might dismiss Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Adm. Brad Cooper, who has overseen the war.... People familiar with the military advice that all three men have provided the president over the course of the conflict said that, at different times, each was at fault for providing Trump overly rosy assessments about the war and not being clear enough about the risks and costs to the United States.” ~~~

~~~ Cecilia Nowell of the Guardian & Agencies: “Pete Hegseth is increasingly looking like he may take the fall for Republicans’ midterm losses, despite Donald Trump’s vocal support for his defense secretary, even calling him a champion of war.... On Wednesday, JD Vance publicly questioned whether the Iran war was worth it and said it cost Republicans control of Congress.... Hegseth has been a polarizing figure in American politics and has made enemies even with his own Republican party. Democrats have promised to investigate Hegseth and his handling of the Pentagon....”

Margo Sanger-Katz & Sarah Kliff of the New York Times: “The federal government plans to end contracts with two arbitration firms that settle medical billing disputes under the No Surprises Act, a consumer protection law that has come under scrutiny for high payouts for doctors. Congress passed the law in 2020 to protect patients from surprise bills when they saw a doctor who did not have a contract with their health plan, such as in emergencies. The law, which took effect in 2022, calls for health care providers and insurers to settle on a price and when they cannot, for arbitrators to review an offer from each side, and pick one.... Doctors have flooded the system with millions of cases and have prevailed overwhelmingly, winning more than 85 percent of them in 2025, according to the most recent federal data. Many have received awards dozens of times higher than usual insurer rates.... The law has been a financial boon for the arbitration firms as well.” The link is a gift link.

One Could Become the Loyal Opposition. Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said before the election that he expected to seek another term as Senate Republican leader regardless of whether his party retained or lost control of the chamber. A spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that Thune is running for minority leader.” ~~~

Or One Could Run for the Hills. Meredith Hill & Mia McCarthy of Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson will step aside as the top House Republican leader after Tuesday’s GOP defeat, concluding an unlikely and meteoric rise to power three years ago. Johnson of Louisiana announced his plans on a private call with staff Wednesday morning, according to two people on the call. His decision comes after Republicans lost at least 21 seats in the midterm elections, returning Democrats to power after four years. He told his staff he had spoken to ... Donald Trump before announcing his decision, the people on the call said. He did not explicitly address whether [or not he would] resign his seat, one of them said.” MB: I just could not find a tiny enough violin.

Paul Waldman in Public Notice: “'The American people don’t want us to get even, they want us to get things done on their behalf,' [Hakeem] Jeffries [said on MS NOW]. 'We ran on affordability, we won on affordability, and now it’s our job to govern on affordability.'... The truth is that there is very little Democrats can do in the next two years to ... bring down the price of groceries, healthcare, housing, or much else.... The most effective ways to do any of those things will run right into ... [Donald] Trump’s veto.... But this is what they most need to learn from the 2026 midterms: They have nothing to fear but fear itself.... They should start from the presumption that they deserve to be in power and have the public behind them.... T

here is a great deal they can do — investigating his corruption (which was one of the most important issues in this election), stymying his nominees, exposing his failures, using the budget process to make at least some progress on policy, and perhaps even impeaching him.”

Raquel Uribe of NBC News: “Billionaire Leon Black filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, which has spearheaded a Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Black has been the target of subpoenas from the Republican-led committee, which unanimously voted in September to hold him in contempt over his refusal to comply with those subpoenas. Black, a former Wall Street private equity investor who had a business relationship with Epstein, sued Garcia in the Southern District of New York, alleging he 'has knowingly and willfully lied about Leon Black and defamed him.' The suit cites comments from Garcia that Black was 'at the center' and 'directly involved' with Epstein’s crimes.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Casey He of Politico: “Winners have been called in several remaining [House] races as the historic blue wave continues to help Democrats make gains across the country. He lists the newly-declared winners.

⭐Alaska. The 3:55 pm ET Wednesday count was Mary Peltola (D) 102,701; Dan Sullivan 1 (R) 102,075, and Gerald Heikes (R) 4,821. ~~~

     ~~~ Kaia Hubbard of CBS News: "The Senate race in Alaska remains unresolved Wednesday, as a contest that has garnered widespread attention over the two candidates named Dan Sullivan faces a lengthy ballot-counting process. Incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola are facing off in the race, which also has two other candidates on the ballot: an independent candidate and retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan, and another Republican, Gerald Heikes.... The count in Alaska could stretch on. Alaska has a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank as many or as few candidates as they'd like in order of preference. If no candidate secures support from more than 50% of voters as their top choice, the count goes to a second round." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Update. The count in Alaska, as of 7:00 am ET Thursday is Peltola 102,962; Sullivan 1 102,325.

Maine. Beth Reinhard of the New York Times: “Troy Jackson was nobody’s first choice to run for the U.S. Senate from Maine. Only weeks before stumbling into one of most consequential races in the country, he had come in third in the Democratic primary for governor. He looked like a political washout. But today he is a giant slayer, having toppled a five-term Republican incumbent, Senator Susan Collins, in Tuesday’s election. How Mr. Jackson, a former logger and state lawmaker from a struggling northern outpost, got from there to here — in just 101 days, no less — is an extraordinary story of the man meeting the moment.... A fortuitous mix of personal narrative, message and timing powered him to a victory no one could have imagined just months ago.... Perhaps even more important, Ms. Collins, despite her efforts to assert her independence, could not escape the shadow of an exceedingly unpopular president — especially in a state hit hard by his tariffs and war with Iran, inflating costs for Mainers dependent on heating oil and trade with their Canadian neighbors.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Mississippi. Say, maybe you are wondering what-all is going on in Mississippi. Well, for some reason the AP hasn't predicted a winner. That might be because at the moment (3:45 pm ET), the vote count is Scott Colom (D) 462,857, Cindy Hyde-Pick-a-Protein-Smith (R) 462,792. ~~~

     ~~~ Lauren Harvey & Verlicia Gavin of WLBT (Jackson): “Democratic challenger Scott Colom declared confidence Wednesday morning in Mississippi’s uncalled U.S. Senate race, telling supporters he believes outstanding ballots will carry him to victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Because federal general elections in Mississippi do not trigger a runoff, the candidate who finishes with a plurality will claim the seat. 'Where we are, where the ballots are, we’re gonna win, Colom said as he addressed supporters at a 10 a.m. news conference. 'This is our election. We’ve won it. The people have done it. They’ve decided to go in a new direction. I’m confident of that.' The outcome now hinges on uncounted ballots. According to reporting from Mississippi Today, the Colom campaign estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 affidavit [i.e., provisional] ballots remain outstanding statewide.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The count is Mississippi changed last night in Colom's favor. It is now Colom 464,926; Let's-Feed-'Em-Beans 463,788. There it remains this morning. ~~~

     ~~~ Gregory Schneider & Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: “The race for Mississippi’s Senate seat remains dramatically close: Scott Colom (D) pulled further ahead of incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) in a state that hasn’t elected a Black senator since Reconstruction. Colom was leading incumbent Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes as of late Wednesday, extending his small lead after election night. The gap could be hard for Hyde-Smith to overcome — the state has until Nov. 10 to count what are expected to be several thousand provisional and late-arriving mail ballots. But Mississippi does not have automatic recounts or allow one of the candidates to request a recount; instead they are only done by court order.... Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called Colom on Wednesday and dispatched legal and staff support to Mississippi, Colom’s campaign said Wednesday evening. In a news conference Wednesday, Colom said he has 'an army of lawyers' and is prepared to litigate the outcome. More votes will be counted in the coming days as election officials process provisional ballots and late-arriving mail ballots.” An NBC News story on what may be a long, contested post-election count is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Natalie Hausmann of Democracy Docket: “Thousands of Mississippians ... — whose votes may decide a critical U.S. Senate race, in which Democrat Scott Colom holds a slim lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) — are still waiting to have their ballots counted. That’s because of the Republican secretary of state’s contract with Experian, a global credit reporting agency whose data has been described as riddled with errors, that threw thousands of voters into 'inactive' status in the months leading up to the general election. In highly populated DeSoto County, over 15,000 people were removed as active voters in the time between the primary and general election, according to an analysis from Mississippi Today with data from the state. Other counties with high rates of inactive voters include Jackson with 14,063 and Harrison ... with 28,921.... [Many voters who had valid ID with them on Tuesday were able to validate their votes. But] voters without photo identification must verify their identity within five days for their affidavit ballot to count.... Now..., election canvassing boards will review all affidavit votes to check them against existing voter files for those deemed 'inactive.'” ~~~

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: “After decades of Republican rule, [James Talarico's] well-funded, disciplined and scandal-free U.S. Senate campaign helped convince voters that winning was possible this time. He soon had help. Gina Hinojosa, a little-known state lawmaker who had appeared destined for defeat when she challenged Gov. Greg Abbott, emphasized the issue of data centers.... She promised a halt. Behind them both was the deepest bench of Democratic candidates assembled in decades in Texas.... The party built quiet momentum with voters fed up with rising prices and unmoved by Republican warnings that voting for Democrats would signal the end of Texas as they knew it. With Democrats poised to occupy nearly every statewide office — a tectonic shift — top campaign advisers, newly elected leaders, party operatives and strategists described in interviews how Mr. Talarico’s campaign had galvanized voters and fueled improbable triumphs. They also credited a yearslong organizing effort and the party’s success at fielding candidates for nearly every race — all 150 state House districts, every statewide office, every state board of education position and every major judicial race. The Republican Party in Texas did not do the same, leaving some Democrats with uncontested seats.” The link is a gift link.

~~~ A Trump Dirty Trick That Didn't Work. Will Hammann & Gabby Birenbaum of the Texas Tribune: "In 2025, Texas Republicans, pushed by ... Donald Trump, redrew the state’s congressional map before the midterms, converting five Democratic-held districts into ones Trump would have carried by at least 10 percentage points. The move backfired: GOP candidates lost four of five seats their new congressional map was designed to flip and lost two of their own. That means Texas Republicans will head to Washington in January with 24 U.S. House seats, one less than they had at the start of the current Congress. When the state Legislature in Austin pursued the controversial mid-decade gerrymander, Republicans had hoped for a 30-8 split in the delegation but will end up instead at 24-14." The story outlines the results for U.S. House candidates. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: In yesterday's Comments, RAS looks to the heartbreaking cost in human lives of Trump's immigration "policies." Take a look at the new gubernatorial map below [gift link] for some "heartening" news: Every U.S. state along the U.S./Mexico border is now governed by a Democrat. That border wall of blue should help. At least a bit: ~~~