The Common Ills: 2025

Tuesday, November 04, 2025

Tuesday, November 4, 2025. The "P" in GOP apparently stands for pedophile, 41 days since an election and a mem ber of Congress is still not sworn in, Senator Elizabeth Warren has some questions regarding cronyism, and much more.

Donald Chump was Jeffrey Epstein's roll dog. And he has no sympathy for the victims of Epstein. But he does have sympathy for someone. Holly Bishop (INDEPENDENT) reports:

Donald Trump said that stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his titles is a “tragic situation”, adding that he feels “badly” for the royal family.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday (2 November), the US president was asked about King Charles’s dramatic decision to officially remove his brother’s Prince and Duke of York titles, amid pressure over Andrew’s ties with Jeffrey Epstein.

Virginia Giuffre took her own life this year because living with what Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell did to her was just too much. But Chump feels sorry for . . . Andrew. Chump is the one who put Virginia in Epstein's orbit. This past summer, he was whining that Epstein stole her from him.

But no sympathy for her, right? None at all.

Erin Mansfield (USA TODAY) reports:

Lisa Phillips felt sick to her stomach.

She stood on the east side of the U.S. Capitol on a clear fall day as one woman after another described how Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them.

They were groomed as teenagers and young women under the guise that they would just be providing massages to an older man. They said they were scared of saying anything for years.

Phillips looked down at her phone, then across the way at her friends, then back to her phone. She took deep breaths. She adjusted her shirt, moved her shoulders back, and stood up tall. Finally, she stepped to the podium.

“I stand here today for every woman who has been silenced, exploited and dismissed,” Phillips said. “We are not asking for pity. We are here demanding accountability, and I’m demanding justice.”

Phillips set aside the speech she'd prepared. Instead, she would take back power for herself, the women who spoke before her, and the women who would come after her. They had spent years finding their voices, and this was the first time so many had come together in person as a united force against the late financier and convicted sex offender.

“I would like to announce here today us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list,” she said. “We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know.”

Six years after Epstein's death, there are hundreds of these women. They call themselves Survivor Sisters, and they're the driving force behind the renewed public pressure to identify Epstein associates they say assaulted them or participated in his trafficking ring. Epstein's estate did not respond to requests for comment. Before he died in 2019, he pleaded not guilty to related charges.

President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s, has reneged on previous promises to release the Epstein files, and top officials in the Department of Justice have denied that certain records exist and said they are unable to obtain others. A bill to force the Department of Justice to release the documents is stalled in Congress. But the issue is unlikely to go away given the unabating public interest.

Adelita Grijalva. David Hogg and other whores created an online echo chamber to get behind Deja Foxx -- the way the same group of losers is pretending Graham Platner now. They got her media attention and, until polling came in, she was supposed to be the winner in the Democratic Party primary for the House seat. Just as Adelita won the primary, she also won the general election.

September 23, 2025. That's when she beat her Republican opponent "by a 2-1 margin." But she's still not a member of Congress. Why? Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson refuses to swear her in. Let that sink in.

Joe Reberkenny (WASHINGTON BLADE) explains:

Adelita Grijalva, the recently elected representative from Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District, has already begun making history—without having stepped foot into the Capitol. Grijalva is now officially the longest-delayed member of the House to be sworn in—41 days and counting.

She was elected in a special election on Sept. 23 by a two-to-one margin over her Republican opponent, following the death of her father, Raúl Grijalva, who had represented the district from 2003 until early 2025. The district includes a large portion of Arizona’s southern border with Mexico.

Despite being elected more than 40 days ago, Grijalva has not been given the opportunity to begin her work representing Arizona in the House of Representatives.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House and a representative from Louisiana, has offered several explanations for the delay in swearing in Grijalva—ranging from waiting until all votes were certified in the special election (despite not requiring Republicans who also won special elections to wait) to claiming the House needed to return from recess (despite precedent showing new members are typically sworn in the day after their election, regardless of whether the House is in session). Most recently, Johnson has said Grijalva will not be sworn in until the government reopens.

The Washington Blade sat down with Grijalva to discuss the historic delay in her swearing-in, the importance of protecting transgender rights, book bans, environmental issues, and much more.

While Speaker Johnson has given many explanations for the delay, Grijalva said one stands out above the rest—the Epstein files. She ran on a promise to sign a discharge petition to force a vote for the release of the complete Epstein files, a hypothesized document containing the names of high-profile clients to whom the American financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein trafficked young girls. Her signature on the petition would be the 218th, the minimum number required to force a vote.

“I’ve now broken all the records for speaker obstruction. Nobody else has ever had to wait this long just to represent their constituents… I never received one communication directly from his office,” Grijalva said of Speaker Johnson’s lack of reasoning for the delay. “It seems to me they’re doing everything they can to stop the release of the Epstein files, and I just don’t know what else it could be.”

41 days to protect the late Jeffrey Epstein. 41 days. It's the GOP's Pedophile Protection Program. Mike Lillis (THE HILL) reports:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday went after President Trump and Republican leaders over the Jeffrey Epstein case, saying their refusal to press for the release of the government files on the convicted child sex offender is tantamount to protecting pedophiles.

Jeffries pointed specifically to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) decision not to seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D) as evidence of his charge. Grijalva won a special election in Arizona on Sept. 23 and is vowing to be the deciding signature on a discharge petition that would force the Justice Department to release the undisclosed Epstein documents — whenever she’s sworn in.

“The Trump administration and Mike Johnson are running a pedophile protection program,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “That’s what they’ve been doing, and that’s the reason why they refuse to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, for weeks now.”

The Speaker of the Closet is not doing his job. SLATE discusses it this morning in a podcast. NYT's Michelle Cottle observes:

So what’s the holdup? Tough to say, exactly. Johnson has not met with or even spoken to Grijalva about the situation. His office pointed me toward his existing statements, but these justifications for foot-dragging have been a little hard to follow, much less swallow.

The speaker has blamed the government shutdown, which officially began Oct. 1, although he sent the House home early on Sept. 19. He says he is simply following the precedent of swearing in members only when the chamber is in regular session. He has even taken to calling this “the Pelosi precedent,” referring to an episode in 2021 when Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker, waited nearly a month to swear in a Republican member who had won a special election that March.

Not to nitpick, but this argument would sound more convincing if not for the fact that, when two Republicans won special elections in Florida in April, Johnson leaped to seat them within 24 hours even though the House wasn’t in regular session. He used a “pro forma” session to get the job done.

Pressed on the discrepancy, Johnson has offered a convoluted explanation involving a preset swearing-in date, the Republicans’ families having traveled to Washington, the relative timing of the elections and so on. Simply trying to follow his logic leaves you needing a chiropractor.

Bolder still, Johnson has taken to publicly scolding Grijalva to stick to doing her job and stop wasting time … um … spotlighting his refusal to let her officially start that job.

It bears repeating that Johnson is jerking around not just Grijalva but the 813,000 people of Arizona’s 7th District, which runs along the state’s southern border. For instance, until Grijalva is a full-fledged member, her office cannot collect and track a lot of the sensitive information needed to do casework for constituents.

But perhaps the speaker thinks he doesn’t owe the people of Grijalva’s district anything since they overwhelmingly rejected his party’s House pick. Such is the essence of Trumpist leadership: If you don’t support my tribe, you deserve to be ignored, even punished. To have your government funding frozen. To have federal troops swarm your cities. To have your duly elected representative delayed from getting down to work for you. Then maybe next time you’ll know better.

For 41 days and counting, the Speaker of the Closet has worked to protect Donald Chump, not the American people. Adelita Grijalva was duly elected and should be sworn in immediately. Instead, Johnson shirks his dutires and shames his office. Syvante Myrick (THE HILL) observes:

Johnson’s unjustifiable refusal to swear Grijalva in, and his refusal to let the House come back into session to deal with the budget, food and health care crises his party has created, are deeply unprincipled.

Indeed, there’s good reason to suspect that Johnson has a very bad reason for his behavior. Grijalva would cast the deciding vote to force the Trump administration to disclose the files it has on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Watching Johnson stumble through humiliatingly bogus justifications for his action makes me wonder: When Johnson said that God raised him up to be Speaker of the House as an American Moses to lead our country through a Red Sea moment, did he imagine that his calling would be to take food out of the mouths of 40 million Americans and force millions of families to face devastating health insurance costs — all to protect a president potentially hiding embarrassing revelations in the Epstein files?

Johnson continues to defend and rescue Chump while betraying the American people who continue to walk away from Chump.

Ava and my "Media: Yes, there's a lot of garbage out there but that doesn't excuse 60 MINUTES" went up last night. We covered the chat -- don't call it an interview or mistake it for journalism -- Norah O'Donnell did with Donald Chump on 60 MINUTES. It's an embarrassment. Two 60 MINUTE friends tried to deny that and insisted it was more journalism than numerous TV documentaries. We're not a fan of the faux documentaries -- especially what airs on AMERICAN MASTERS which allows one lie after another to be broadcast. But we looked at a documentary -- APPLE TV's lousy five-part MR. SCORSESE -- and we looked at what 60 MINUTES aired as well as some of the footage that they just shoved over to YOUTUBE.

On the 60 MINUTES chat, a few e-mails are insisting that we didn't cover the issue of pardons!!!!!

No, we didn't. Yes, since the 60 MINUTES segment it has become a news topic. But why would we revisit that topic?

Revisit? We covered it last week in "Media: They fail to note the pattern of ICE lies but make time to defend this year's John Fetterman:"

America, meet your new John Fetterman: Graham Platner.

He's one of many vying for the spot of Democratic Party nominee for a senate seat out of Maine.

One of many.

And he needs to drop out. He was whining Monday night that the Democratic Party was attacking him -- his own party.

Believe his party is the Communist Party -- isn't that what he declared online. Let's go to WIKIPEDIA:

In October 2025, various news outlets reported on Reddit posts by Platner from between 2013 and 2021 in which he called himself a "communist", declared that all cops are bastards, and agreed with a post calling rural white Americans "racist and stupid". In an interview with CNN, Platner said of those comments, "That was very much me f**king around the internet ... I don't think any of that is indicative of who I am today".^[39] In a 2013 Reddit discussion about anti-rape underwear, Platner commented that people worried about assault should "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to".^[40] He also referenced political violence in multiple posts; in 2018, he wrote: "Fight until you get tired of fighting with words and then fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be." Platner also wrote that "an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice" and urged readers to "Get Armed, Get Organized. The Other Side Sure As Hell Is."^[39]^[41] He has said that many of the comments do not represent his current political beliefs, and that they were the product of disillusionment after his military discharge and struggles with PTSD.^[42]^[43] Collins called Platner's internet history "terrible" and "offensive".^[44] Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said that while he did not approve of Platner's comments, he did not consider them "disqualifying".^[45] After the reporting on these comments, Platner's political director, former Democratic state representative Genevieve McDonald, resigned from his campaign.^[46]

Platner said in an interview with Pod Save America that he has a skull-and-bones tattoo resembling the Totenkopf, a symbol worn by the Nazi Schutzstaffel paramilitary organization. Platner said that he and some other Marines got the tattoo while on leave in Croatia in 2007, not knowing its symbolism,^[47] and that he learned that his tattoo resembled the Totenkopf only when reporters and political operatives from DC contacted him during his campaign. He said he had recently gotten it covered up.^[48]^[49] Maine Governor Janet Mills, one of Platner's opponents in the Democratic primary, described the tattoo as "abhorrent". She stated, "I obviously vehemently disagree with the things he's been quoted as saying and doing" but that it was "up to the people" to decide whether he should continue in the Senate race.^[50] However, Platner also called himself an anti-fascist "supersoldier" in an old Reddit comment.^[51]

Is there some homo-erotic desire on the part of DSA -- among others -- when it comes to male candidates who are pure trash? Like Fetterman, Platner doesn't look like he's managed more than two showers a month and DSA tends to mistake that for fortitude.

Tonight, Jen Pskai was all but licking him on air on the soon to be MS NOW.

Weirdo Branco Marcetic took to JACOBIN (the DSA bible) at the start of the week to insist there was a smear job being done on Platner.

Not a smear job, an expose.

He got a Nazi tattoo. Instead of calling that out, the DSA is acting as ridiculous as the fright-wing does when they rush to defend Confederate monuments. And CNN's already exposed his lie that he didn't know he'd tattooed himself with a Nazi symbol until recently was a lie -- he knew as far back as 2006 when CNN was able to unearth the social media posts he'd deleted as part of his effort to run for the senate. Part of that effort, by the way, was getting married (for the first time) last year at the age of forty.

He knew it was a Nazi tattoo and he knew it nearly 20 years ago. He's lied repeatedly and publicly. He's also a mercenary who worked for Blackwater which is somehow being ignored.

Why? Because he cites Bernie as a hero (as did Fetterman) and he cites Socialists as heroes (without noting their political affiliation) (as did Fetterman) so it's time for the same booming voices to try to shout reality down. There are many candidates running of that Democratic Party nomination. Why are Jen Psaki, POD SAVE AMERICA, JACOBIN and others doing advance work for his campaign while ignoring other nominees? And on other comments, he did not minimize rape accusations as some idiots in the media keep typing, he minimized rape. There's a big difference. One is really bad (mining accusations), the other is outright evil (minimizing rape itself). Christopher Wiggins (THE ADVOCATE) explained:

The controversy has rattled Maine’s Democratic primary. Platner, a Marine and Army veteran and political newcomer, admitted to posting homophobic slurs and crude antigay jokes on Reddit as recently as 2021. He apologized for misogynistic and racist comments on Reddit before that. And, he covered up a tattoo he’s worn for 18 years that resembles the Nazi Totenkopf symbol, which he said he got in his 20s during his time in the Marines.

This is the hill Jen Psaki and others want to die on?

And instead of letting it play out, they're trying to rig it, they're trying to railroad the American people.

While they try to lie to us to pimp their favored candidate, they ignore the war on immigrants and so much more.

For example?

Hey, commentators at websites, on YOUTUBE, on MSNBC, every where -- where the hell have you been?

Donald Chump has savaged Joe Biden over the use of an auto pen to sign documents. He's insisted that Joe didn't even know what he was signing. Well last week, Donald served himself up for that kind of criticism but where the hell were you?

David Badash noted Donald had just pardoned Changpeng Zhao:

Asked on Thursday why he chose to issue the pardon, and if it had anything to do with Zhao’s involvement with the Trump family’s crypto business, the President responded, “Who is that?”

“The founder of Binance,” the reporter replied.

“The recent one, yes,” Trump said. “I believe we’re talking about the same person, ’cause I do pardon a lot of people.”

“I don’t know -- he was recommended by a lot of people,” Trump continued. “A lot of people say that -- are you talking about the crypto person?”

Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) covered the story in terms of Republcians and Democrats who objected to the pardon.

But there was always an important point to make that no one seemed to grasp.

Last month, AP reported:

President Donald Trump has added a Presidential Walk of Fame to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of each of the previous commanders-in-chief — except for one.

Instead of a headshot of Joe Biden, the Republican incumbent instead hung a photo of an autopen signing the Democrat’s name — a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that the former president was addled by the end of his term in office and not really the one making decisions.

Chump doesn't know who he pardoned -- and not from earlier this year or even a month ago. He didn't know who he just pardoned. Seems he's guilty of everything he's accused Joe of. Also seems like his not knowing who he pardoned is even more important after Monday's assault by the Republican controlled House Oversight Committee which stated this week their 'finding' that Joe Biden's pardons are not legitimate because they were signed with an auto pen. That's their 'finding' and they can talk about it however they want; however, it is not a judicial finding and it has no weight at all on the pardons Joe issued which stand in spite of Chump and GOP spin.

Last week, William Priest (BARRON'S) observed, "Democracy, once thought to be self-sustaining, is on defense. Like every system before it, democracy has gone through cycles of strength and weakness—but its survival is no longer guaranteed. What is at stake is not simply a style of governance, but the wealth, freedom, and happiness of its citizens." We agree. In the 20th century, there was communism, democracy, socialism, totalitarianism, fascism, etc. When the USSR fell, some political observers declared it a victory for democracy. It wasn't. Democracy, like any political system, can fall. We have to fight for it -- right now, we're really having to fight for it -- and we can't take it for granted. But when we see the media refusing to cover something or refusing to cover it accurately or using their time (while wasting our time) to lie about the candidate they personally support, it becomes obvious that democracy does not mean as much to them as it does to us. If it did, they'd be better at their jobs.

--------------- end of excerpt ----------------------------

Yeah, last week, certain left outlets were too focused on Graham Nazi Platner to address Chump's pardon. He didn't say anything new on 60 MINUTES. But some of the whores for Graham decided to sneak in on the 60 MINUTES chat and act like this was a revelation.

Whores.

Bernie Sanders endorsed him. Bernie has given us a lot of White problems, hasn't he. An e-mail reminded me that one problem is of course Tulsi Gabbard. Bernie's the one who endorsed her and elevated her -- just like he did John Fetterman and like he's doing Platner right now.

I have no idea if 77 is too old to be a US senator or not. But I would guess 83 is. And some of Platner's biggest supporters from the Bernie crowd are attacking Janet Mills for being 77 and wanting to run for the Senate.. Where were they last year? Because Bernie was 83 last year and ran again for re-election when his aged and tired ass should have retired.

Let's note MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.

It is election day and there are a number of important races around the country. I'll be voting for redistricting here in California. I can weigh in there because it's an election I can vote in. I don't weigh in with endorsements if I can't vote in the election.

Strange, isn't it, that Alien Musk doesn't live in NYC but feels he can attack Zohran and endorse Andrew.

After awhile, you really have to wonder about people like this. At MOTHER JONES, Nina Martin notes:

Abortion may not technically be on the ballot in Tuesday’s off-year state elections, but in the post-Roe v. Wade era, abortion is always on the ballot. Since the US Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling that ended the federal right to abortion, statewide elections have become opportunities for reproductive rights supporters and opponents alike to expand or limit access to care by voting on the politicians who create the laws, the judges who enforce them, and, sometimes, on the laws themselves.

When voters have had the opportunity to weigh in directly on ballot measures enshrining abortion protections, those measures have mostly won, even in red states. When the vote is indirect—that is, for people rather than policies—the results are much more mixed. Just consider what happened in 2024, when states that approved abortion-rights measures also went for anti-abortion judges and Donald Trump. This week’s elections are the first time that large numbers of voters can express their feelings about the country’s radical change in direction under Trump 2.0. In five states, the results will also have major statewide and even national implications for access to reproductive care.

CALIFORNIA

California’s Proposition 50, the blockbuster redistricting measure designed to stop Republicans from rigging next year’s midterm elections, will affect all kinds of democratic rights, including reproductive autonomy. Prop 50 would temporarily suspend California’s current congressional maps, which were drawn by an independent citizens commission, and allow the Democratic-controlled legislature to create new maps that would remain in place through 2030. Governor Gavin Newsom and his allies got the idea after Texas lawmakers, buckling to Trump’s demands, redrew their congressional map to elect more Republicans—potentially enough to keep the US House of Representatives under GOP control in 2026 and beyond. If approved by voters, Prop 50 could sufficiently alter the partisan makeup of California’s House delegation—currently 43 Democrats and nine Republicans—to effectively negate the Texas redistricting effort. Polls show that California voters are very much on board.

Republicans currently have a slim six-seat majority in the House; a wider margin could empower them to unleash all manner of new legislative horrors on the country, including, potentially, an extension of this year’s temporary defunding of Planned Parenthood and even a national ban on abortion after 15 or 20 weeks of pregnancy. A Democratic majority, on the other hand, would bring the GOP legislative machine in Congress grinding to a halt. With so much at stake, total spending by both sides is well north of $175 million. During a press call, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, described the GOP efforts to further gerrymander red states as “a naked attempt to steal congressional seats” and “an emergency for our democracy.” Prop 50, added John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is “a defensive shield for our democracy and for reproductive rights.”

Continue reading for other states.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

CALIFORNIA

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Monday, November 03, 2025

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The Snapshot

Monday, November 3, 2025. Chump continues his war on immigrants and wants to farm it out to mercenaries, a Portland, Oregon judge has already been lied to once by the Justice Dept so she really shouldn't believe them anymore, Nazi loving politicians in the US find it's hard to keep political staff, and much more.

Starting with Trump's war on immigrants, Julianne McShane (MOTHER JONES) reports:

In a wide-ranging Sunday night interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” President Donald Trump put his desire for unchecked power on full display.

He bragged to correspondent Norah O’Donnell that, thanks to the Insurrection Act of 1792, he can invade your city whenever he wants. He said immigration raids—including acts of police violence such as using tear gas in residential neighborhoods, throwing people to the ground, and breaking car windows—”haven’t gone far enough.” And he said the government shutdown will last until Democrats in Congress bend to his will—or until Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) agrees to eliminate the filibuster, which Thune, so far, has rejected.

Reality? THE NEW YORK TIMES notes, "A federal judge ruled late Sunday that the Trump administration cannot use federalized National Guard soldiers to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Ore., that has been the site of daily protests for almost five months, at least until she makes her final decision in the case." The paper's Anna Griffin elaborates:

A federal judge ruled late Sunday that the Trump administration cannot send in National Guard soldiers to Portland, Ore., for another five days, until she makes her final decision in the case. But she strongly suggested that she would keep them out permanently.

Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, issued a preliminary injunction, which essentially extends her earlier temporary restraining order blocking President Trump from using Guard troops to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city that has been the site of daily protests since early June.

Judge Immergut said she needed more time to fully consider the “voluminous” evidence and three days of testimony she heard in a trial last week after state and city officials sued to fight the federal government’s deployment plans in Oregon. She said would issue a final ruling on the case by 5 p.m. local time on Friday.

Let's hope everyone realizes that Chump's Justice Dept has been lying to judges including Judge Immergut. As Shant Karnikian and Brian Kabateck explained on MEIDASTOUCH's LEGAL AF yesterday, there's been a lot of lying on the part of the Justice Dept.

Let's also hope that the judge's attitude is the same as most judges. If you're caught lying to them once, you've besmirched your own character and nothing you say can be taken at face value.

Shawn HublerJazmine UlloaNick CorasanitiTracey TullyJesus Jiménez and Mimi Dwyer (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

For months, immigration crackdowns in Southern California have transformed life in Bell Gardens, the majority-Latino suburb where Alo Hurtado lives. Neighbors have been hauled off by masked federal agents. Families have curtailed trips to supermarkets and churches. Many people have stopped going out without their passports, including Mr. Hurtado’s mother, a naturalized citizen.

So when it came time to vote in California’s special election, Mr. Hurtado, 42, decided not to vote by mail, as many in the state do. Instead, he went to a polling place in a landmark park with his Mexican-born parents this week to vote early and in person.

Given all his community had gone through, he was worried about mail tampering — and he was angry.

“Especially here in California,” he said, “we need to speak up.”

Elections on Tuesday in California, New Jersey and other states are unfolding as the Trump administration’s immigration raids have spread fear in Latino communities across the country. That fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity has become an X factor in next week’s elections.

Democratic officials and Latino voting-rights activists worry that the ICE crackdown will dampen Latino turnout and that the presence of Justice Department election monitors at polling sites in California and New Jersey will intimidate voters. Voter data of the turnout so far in California, New Jersey and Virginia shows that Latino participation is roughly on pace with past elections.

And for some Latino voters, the Trump administration’s escalation of force appears to be not a deterrent to casting a ballot but a motivation.

In Virginia, where the Republican nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, is running against Abigail Spanberger, a Democratic former congresswoman, one Hispanic business owner said the most important issue in the election was the ICE raids.

“It is something we are feeling morning and night, and it stirs a lot of sadness,” said the business owner, Carlos Castro, a naturalized U.S. citizen from El Salvador and an independent voter who runs Todos Supermarket in Woodbridge, Va. He cast his ballot during the early-vote period.

And based on the groups we've spoken with, I think Carlos Castro speaks for a great many Latino voters

Over at Poynter, Nick Karmia and Maria Ramirez Uribe do what every journalist should:

During a press conference about a Midwestern immigration enforcement operation, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents have not detained U.S. citizens.

Chicago, the center of the effort dubbed Operation Midway Blitz, is the latest target in the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown. Agents have arrested more than 3,000 people during the operation. Noem said the effort covers the area “that the field office is covering,” and local news outlets reported that the Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office also includes Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky and Kansas.

“There’s no American citizens have been arrested or detained. We focus on those that are here illegally” Noem said during the Oct. 30 press conference in Gary, Indiana. “And anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true and false reporting.”

Noem didn’t say whether she was referring to Operation Midway Blitz specifically or the nationwide immigration crackdown more broadly, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to our questions about her statement.

By either measure, Noem’s wrong. News reports and lawsuits show that U.S. citizens have been detained during Operation Midway Blitz, and a ProPublica investigation documented 170 cases of U.S. citizens who have been arrested by immigration agents across the country since Trump started his second term.

The journalists then produce one example after another of American citizens being arrested by ICE before finding:

Noem said “No American citizens have been arrested or detained” during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns.

That’s wrong.

Lawsuits, news reports and DHS statements show that numerous U.S. citizens have been detained or arrested by immigration agents in and around Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz. A ProPublica investigation documented 170 cases of federal immigration officers detaining U.S. citizens nationwide under the Trump administration.

We rate Noem’s statement Pants on Fire!

Serial liars should not be presented by the press as truth tellers. After they have a pattern of lying to the press, this should be noted in every report on them.

Still on ICE, last week at IN THESE TIMES, Rebecca Burns reported:

Rodrick Johnson, 67, had just returned home from a trip to the hospital and was trying to get some rest. But in the early hours of September 30, bright lights suddenly flooded his apartment. A fleet of Black Hawk helicopters descended on his five-story building — a 130-unit apartment complex at 7500 South Shore Drive — shortly before armed, masked men stormed past the doors of the ground floor.

“The next thing I knew, they were kicking my door in,” Johnson says. He and dozens of his neighbors were marched outside at gunpoint during the multiagency raid carried out by some 300 federal agents in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Black and Latino residents were zip-tied, separated by race and detained inside cargo vans, as South Side Weekly reported in the raid’s aftermath. Agents arrested 37 people who were nationals of Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, and Nigeria, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement. U.S. citizens like Johnson were also held for hours, without explanation. Johnson was released, exhausted and traumatized, around 4 a.m. that morning, and returned to a ransacked apartment.

The shocking, military-style siege made national headlines. DHS edited footage taken from that night into a viral social media video touting its operations; meanwhile, a constitutional law professor, Paul Gowder, told the Chicago Tribune that the raid was possibly “one of the most unconstitutional things the federal government has ever done.” Nearly a month later, residents, neighbors and advocates are still searching for answers about why the building was targeted — and what it portends, as federal immigration agents expand their violent and increasingly indiscriminate crackdown in Chicago and other U.S. cities.

Locating those taken away that night has proved nearly impossible, since the raid happened under the cover of darkness, with no family members left behind to provide information on the missing — a chilling precedent, immigration advocates say.

“Why would you conduct this raid in the middle of the night, if not to disappear people?” asks Brandon Lee, a spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition on Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

The secrecy surrounding federal agencies’ actions stands in stark contrast to an eerie reality Johnson and the building’s other remaining tenants continue to grapple with: The agents involved appear to have received advance information about the building’s occupants that led them to target certain apartments that night, and leave others untouched.

Jason Houser has weighed in on the current actions of ICE. Who? "Jason Houser served as the chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from 2021 to 2023. He previously served as a counterterrorism official for Customs & Border Protection (CBP)." At MSNBC, Jason Houser notes:

The Trump administration is conducting a sweeping overhaul of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with more than a dozen senior officials in various cities being replaced by officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At the heart of this effort is Greg Bovino, commander-at-large of the Border Patrol, who is currently the public face of the Trump administration’s current interior enforcement surges. But what’s unfolding under Bovino isn’t law enforcement. It’s political stagecraft directed from Washington, not the field.

Under Bovino’s command, the Department of Homeland Security has assembled something new: a hybrid, unaccountable task force reporting directly to DHS headquarters and the White House and operating outside the traditional command structures that govern federal law enforcement. It isn’t ICE. It isn’t CBP. It’s a Frankenstein force, stitched together from multiple agencies but loyal to none. Its purpose is to create a community response designed for social media clicks, rather than to keep communities safe.

The recent wave of ICE senior official reassignments makes the motive behind this new structure unmistakable: It’s about control, not competence. Seasoned career leaders — the very people who built ICE’s investigative, detention and removal frameworks — are being pushed aside or relocated for refusing to chase arbitrary arrest quotas or participate in politically driven operations. These aren’t disciplinary moves; they’re purges designed to silence dissent and clear the field for Bovino’s task forces. In effect, the DHS has replaced law enforcement judgment with political obedience, rewarding those who follow orders from the top — and sidelining those who still believe in risk-based enforcement and the rule of law.

For decades, ICE and CBP had distinct yet complementary missions. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) targeted serious offenders in the interior; CBP’s Border Patrol protected the border. Each had apparent oversight, trained professionals and accountability lines that ran through their respective chains of command.

The new structure under Bovino upends that approach. Under his leadership, select personnel from both agencies have been integrated into what’s officially branded a “joint enforcement initiative.” Still, DHS officials describe it as politically controlled, rather than law enforcement-controlled. It doesn’t answer to ICE or CBP leadership — it reports directly to DHS political appointees.

And as bad as ICE and CBP have been, Chump now wants to make it worse, he wants to farm out ICE duties to mercenaries. Over the weekend, Sam Biddle (INTERCEPT) explained:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering hiring private bounty hunters to locate immigrants across the country, according to a procurement document reviewed by The Intercept. Under the plan, bounty hunters may receive “monetary bonuses” depending on how successfully they track down their targets — and how many immigrants they then report to ICE.

According to the document, which solicits information from interested contractors for a potentially forthcoming contract opportunity, companies hired by ICE will be given bundles of information on 10,000 immigrants at a time to locate, with further assignments provided in “increments of 10,000 up to 1,000,000.”

The solicitation says ICE is “exploring an incentive based pricing structure” to encourage quick results, with “monetary bonuses” paid out based on performance. For example, ICE says contractors might get paid a bonus for identifying a person’s correct address on the first try or finding 90 percent of its targets within a set timeframe. (ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The document closely resembles a plan reportedly circulated by a group of military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO and Trump ally Erik Prince.

Yeah, that would play so very well. Throwing more money around and this time to known crooks like Blackwater?

Blackwater Boi Graham Platner, the fashion doll. The entitled, White, rich boy posing now as man-of-the-people. A con job that David Sirota can -- and always does -- get behind. The boy from wealth wants to be Maine's Democratic Party nominee for US Senator. At THE GUARDIAN, Moira Donegan offers:

Earlier this month, after Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, entered the Democratic Senate race with the backing of party leaders, a series of increasingly unflattering revelations about Platner’s past behavior came to light. In a series of since-deleted Reddit posts, some from as recently as 2020, Platner made a series of incendiary comments. He claimed that Black people don’t tip (“I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how true the stereotype is,” he wrote. “Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15-20% tip, but usually it [sic] between 0-5%”) and suggested women who have been sexually assaulted were responsible for their own attacks, writing, according to the Washington Post: “If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f----d up around people you aren’t comfortable with.” A few days later, he went on Pod Save America, the successful liberal podcast hosted by former Obama staffers, seemingly in an effort to get ahead of another unflattering story: that he had a tattoo of a Totenkopf, widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, for nearly 20 years.

Platner’s account of the tattoo goes like this: when he was in his early 20s and enlisted in the marines, he was drunk on shore leave in Croatia, and he and his friends went to get a tattoo. Platner selected a Totenkopf, an angled skull and crossbones image used by the SS; he claims he did not know what it meant, and that he merely thought it looked cool. Platner says that he did not know the significance of his tattoo until recently, and has said he is “not a secret Nazi”.

But reporting from outlets such as Jewish Insider and CNN contradicts this, with a source to Jewish Insider claiming that Platner had referred to his tattoo by its German name – as “my Totenkopf” – years before. On Pod Save America, Platner broadcast a video of himself, shirtless and evidently inebriated at his brother’s wedding, with the tattoo on display. As a crowd of partygoers looked on, the half-naked Platner sang an off-key version of Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball. He got the tattoo covered up a few days later, appearing shirtless, again, on television to display an odd-looking Celtic knot with a hound motif where the Totenkopf had once been. One wonders how much familiarity with a Senate candidate’s nipples voters are expected to have.

More problems emerging for Graham. Rachel Ohm (PORTLAND PRESS HERALD) reports:

U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner’s national finance director said Friday he is resigning from the campaign, citing differences in “professional standards.”

The announcement from Ronald Holmes is the latest shake-up for Platner’s campaign following a string of controversies. His Maine political director resigned earlier this month, citing inflammatory posts Platner had made on social media several years ago, and his campaign manager announced earlier this week he would be leaving, citing family reasons.

“I joined this campaign because I believed in building something different — a campaign of fresh energy, integrity, and reform-minded thinking in a political system that often resists exactly those things,” Holmes said in a post on LinkedIn. “Somewhere along the way, I began to feel that my professional standards as a campaign professional no longer fully aligned with those of the campaign.”

Jessica Piper (POLITICO) notes it is three losses, not two:

He [Holmes] follows campaign manager Kevin Brown, who stepped down after less than a week on the job citing family reasons, and political director Genevieve McDonald, who resigned in a fiery fashion earlier this month, saying she could not look past some of Platner’s previous Reddit posts, where he self-identified as a communist and downplayed sexual assault in the military.

Christopher Burns (BANGOR DAILY NEWS) reports:

In a bid to tamp down on the harmful revelations, Platner’s campaign has begun circulating non-disclosure agreements to staffers and hired the firm Spruce Street Consulting, which Politico reports has connections to Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Non-disclosure agreements, common in the corporate world, are becoming a fixture as well in politics, according to a 2021 article published in New York University’s Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. That article noted that non-disclosure agreements have been used in presidential campaigns and heavily during President Donald Trump’s first term in office in a bid to stem the flow of information to the press.

No political campaign should ever get away with using NDAs. Political campaigns are supposed to be public, that's the whole point. The only one ever savaged for an NDA in the US? Hillary Clinton. Chump got away with it. Bernie Sanders got away with it (his involved the racism of his work environment). Only Hillary caused ripples (supposedly an advisor was harassing women, they fired him and had the woman sign an NDA). All three were wrong. Platner's is not just wrong, it goes to the lack of character. He has lied to the public and hidden important information from them. He has insisted that he's changed from who he was. But he's enforcing NDAs. So how are voters supposed to know one way or the other?

They're supposed to trust professional con artists like David Sirota, Ryan Grim, Liza Featherstone, Branko, et al?

Let's wind down with this from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's office:

Providence, RI – Today, in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse announced a $1 million federal earmark for Sojourner House which has been used to provide new affordable housing in Rhode Island for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

“Every Rhode Islander deserves to have a healthy, safe, and affordable place to call home. Sojourner House does a tremendous job uplifting survivors of domestic violence and other forms of abuse and ensuring that they have the resources and guidance they need to rebuild and thrive. I’m proud to team up with Senator Whitehouse to support Sojourner House’s work and deliver this $1 million federal earmark that is already helping to provide homes for courageous survivors and their families,” said Senator Reed.

“Sojourner House does heroic work helping survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking when they need somewhere to turn,” said Senator Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and former Rhode Island Attorney General. “This federal funding allowed Sojourner House to provide survivors with a safe, affordable place to call home as they reclaim their lives.”

Sojourner House used the funding to acquire and renovate a multi-family property in Providence that survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking can rent on an affordable sliding scale. The building includes three three-bedroom units, all of which are already occupied by tenants.

“For survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, housing is more than a roof over one’s head—it’s safety, stability, and the chance to rebuild a life,” said Vanessa Volz, President and CEO of Sojourner House. “This investment brings us closer to our vision that every survivor in Rhode Island will have a safe, affordable place to call home. We are deeply grateful to Senators Reed and Whitehouse for recognizing that housing is a critical part of ending the cycle of violence.”

“As we close out October and Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we must reaffirm our commitment to supporting survivors of abuse,” said General Treasurer Diossa. “It’s crucial to recognize the signs of abuse, support survivors, and engage in conversations that promote understanding and healing.”

Last year, Sojourner House served 1,852 Rhode Islanders. After launching its Affordable Housing Development program in 2021, Sojourner House became one of the few domestic violence organizations in the country that is working to create more affordable housing units for survivors of abuse. To date, 42 agency-owned affordable apartment units have been created. Additionally, the nonprofit has provided 78 victims with permanent supportive housing – a seven percent increase over the previous year.

Press Contact

Meaghan McCabe, (202) 224-2921

Kat's "Kat's Korner: Jonas Brothers, Sarah McLachlan, Taylor Swift and Chrissie Hynde" went up Sunday and the following sites updated: