November 8, 2026

Marie: Now I get why Trump was so off-put by Alaska's Two Dan Sullivans running for Senate. His brain is unable to grasp that more than one person can be named "Dan," or maybe "Dana." ~~~

~~~ Ryan Harkness of SB Nation, republished by Yahoo! Sports: "On Saturday (Nov. 7th, 2026), [Donald] Trump took to social media to suggest [Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana] White take the [role as White House press secretary].... The whole thing came off as a joke to us — Trump also suggested White bring a number of UFC fighters with him as 'assistants' to help 'defend us against the Lunatic Left.'... Dana White is now playing along and saying he'll visit Trump on Monday to discuss the offer.... According to reporters close to the White House, Trump's post came after his former chief of staff Susie Wiles suggested another Dana White as press secretary: Dana W. White, a former chief spokesperson for the Pentagon. Trump subsequently yelled at Wiles, fired her, and replaced her with Stephen Miller. Then, rather than hiring Dana W. White, he posted about UFC's Dana White." MB: Harkness suggests Trump was just joking (on accounta his excellent sense of humor, I guess). I don't think so. Depending upon your sense of decorum, it gets worse. Today Trump -- remember, he's pretending to be POTUS*, a job so solemn that it precludes a fellow who holds the office from wearing a tan suit -- posted this on his failing social media site: ~~~

Totally normal and totally not an insane post by the President of the United States this morning https://t.co/9z20Lv7L0e

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) November 8, 2026

 Here is an extraordinary visual aid. Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: I keep watching it: 

Aaron Boxerman, et al., of the New York Times: “The clock started ticking on Sunday for Gadi Eisenkot, the leading rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, to form a new government. After days of consultations, Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, presided over a ceremony that officially gave Mr. Eisenkot the mandate to forge a coalition after an inconclusive national election last month. 'This is the time to reach out a hand, to do everything for the unity of our people,' Mr. Herzog said. Mr. Eisenkot vowed to form a government 'for all Israelis' and, in a nod to Israel’s fractured electoral landscape, said that it would take 'creative and unconventional political steps.' A soft-spoken former general, Mr. Eisenkot leads Yashar, a center-right party that campaigned on a promise of keeping Israel secure while pivoting away from policies that prompted international anger and led to Israel’s isolation on the world stage.” The link is a gift link.

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"Guernica," Daryl Cagle. Thanks to RAS for the link.

By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately! -- Donald Trump, in a social media post Saturday, defining Constitutionally-mandated Congressional oversight as a "criminal act" and "extortion"

Crazy AND stupid. -- Marie ~~~

~~~ Trump Wants Blanche to Jail Democrats. Jim Saksa of Democracy Docket: “... Donald Trump responded to Democratic promises of accountability Saturday, calling it 'extortion at the highest level,' and ordering Attorney General Todd Blanche to 'look into this criminal act, immediately!' 'The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people, including the Attorney General of the United States, and others, with Impeachment and many other forms of punishment, even though they admit they have no reason to do so, and there have been no impeachable acts committed, or even thought of, by the victims of this illegal process,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS, and Republicans should get smart, fast!'... Promising to investigate corruption and malfeasance is not extortion, not least because Democrats are not seeking to obtain money or other property from their targets in the Trump administration, a necessary element of the felony’s definition.” Politico has a story here.

Old Dog, Old Tricks. Brentin Mock of Democracy Docket: "... Donald Trump spent part of Saturday reposting online content that questions the results of this week’s midterms, in which the GOP suffered stunning losses. It comes after Trump pledged on election night to accept the results. And it makes clear, if any more evidence were needed, that Trump’s and MAGA’s election denialism remain alive and well heading into the president’s last two years in office. On TruthSocial, Trump re-posted several posts that used cherry-picked data to suggest the results must have been manipulated."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “... if there is a single diagnosis you might make of the Republican Party’s generational defeat at the ballot box, it is that from Trump down, the party got high, ruinously high, on its own supply. Trump and his allies looked at the 2024 election as an enabling act for all of their most radical aspirations. They saw the president’s popular vote victory and relative down-ballot success as a mandate that handed them the keys to American politics and culture. This was the 'vibe shift'; the idea that Trump had not won an office but had built a new MAGA majority, a realignment that would shape American politics for the duration.... The Republican Party ... made itself a partner to Trump’s tyranny in virtually every instance.” The link is a gift link.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Republicans called for ... [Donald] Trump to scale back the policies many blamed for their midterm blowout. Mr. Trump ruminated about deals with Democrats. Stephen Miller was unfazed.... Mr. Miller continued to push the officials to carry out an agenda that has in the past year included ramping up deportations, driving down border crossings and removing immigrants to faraway nations they were not from. In other words, the architect of some of the administration’s most divisive policies demonstrated that he would aggressively pursue more of the agenda that many voters rejected on Tuesday.... As Democrats vow to investigate the very policies that Mr. Miller helped devise, Mr. Miller, the ultimate Trump loyalist, is in a prime position to continue his longtime pursuit of limiting checks on executive power.” The link is a gift link.

Alex Isenstadt of Axios: "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Walters is leaving the administration, the first major departure in an expected staff shakeup as incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller takes charge, Axios has learned. The exit of one of outgoing chief of staff Susie Wiles' allies signals a changing of the guard inside the West Wing, with Miller's team poised to move into more powerful roles. Walters was one of Wiles' closest political lieutenants, with a relationship stretching back more than a decade."

Not that funny, but the ending is primo: ~~~

Ah, the New York Times returns to that hypothetical 24-hour diner in rural Iowa to observe the white folks: ~~~

~~~ Bayliss Wagner of the New York Times: “All across the country, millions of white, working-class voters ... shifted toward Democrats in the midterms, part of a lurch to the left across demographic groups that propelled the party to its biggest rout in a generation. While a clear majority of white voters without a college degree favored Republican House candidates over Democrats (59 percent to 40 percent), the margin was 14 percentage points smaller than Mr. Trump’s was in the 2024 presidential election, according to Times Voter Trends data.... Many of them vehemently oppose Democrats’ stances on issues such as abortion, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and immigration, said Alan Abramowitz, an Emory University political scientist. But in this election, people were really focused more on what was happening to their standard of living,' he added.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What those white people don't get -- and never will, because reporters like Wagner don't tell them -- is that the very policies they disapprove -- abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration, among them -- are policies that improve their own bleak economic situations. The more women who can make their own reproductive decisions to better accommodate the realities of their lives, the more LGBTQ people who can live and work freely in society, and the more immigrants who can work toward a better life in the U.S., the better the overall economy will be. Freedom's just another word for a highly-functioning capitalist economy.

Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: “The SS United States — a huge ocean liner that once ferried celebrities — is slated to be sunk to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico next week, to become the world’s largest artificial reef. It will be an auspicious end for the 990-foot ship, which smashed the transatlantic speed record for an ocean liner on its 1952 maiden voyage but spent more recent decades bouncing from owner to owner, struggling to find a new purpose and avoid the scrap heap. The plan is to set it down 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin, Florida, on Nov. 12, according to officials in Okaloosa County.... It’s good for aquatic life and helps replace lost natural habit, he said, along with attracting divers. The county hopes to generate tourism and diving revenue from the ship turned reef. The SS United States carried more than a million passengers over its career, including Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney, according to records.”

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     ~~~ A gift link for the New York Times interactive House results page is here. 

Alaska Senate Race. Ford McCracken of the Hill: “Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign is suing the state of Alaska to obtain access to records for absentee ballots that were rejected by the Alaska Division of Elections, a new court filing shows. Peltola’s campaign said they previously requested records of the rejected ballots on multiple occasions but were denied access.... Peltola currently leads Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in the Alaska U.S. Senate race by just over 600 votes, but with approximately 30 percent of the vote still outstanding, according to The Hill’s partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). No winner has been projected in the race as of Saturday morning.”

Iowa. The Governor Wore Prada. Jacob Gallagher of the New York Times: “While attending Brown University..., Iowa’s Democratic governor-elect, Rob Sand..., a state auditor who was elected governor on Tuesday, balanced his studies with runway modeling in Europe. He walked in shows for design houses like Number Nine, a culty Japanese label, and made repeat appearances on the Prada catwalk.... After his stint as a model, Sand returned to Iowa and pursued a career as a prosecutor. In 2018, he was elected state auditor as a Democrat in deep-red Iowa and caught some national attention, including a New York Times profile in 2019.” The link is a gift link.

Texas Senate Race. Here's the transcript of James Talarico's victory speech, which akaWendy linked a couple of days ago.