Bush killed inquiry: A U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor and the inquiry ended soon after. The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in Washington that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.
WH withholds 9/11 files: Members of the now-disbanded 9/11 commission are going public with complaints that the Bush Administration is stonewalling on the release of files that show whether the government is taking action on the commission’s recommendations for preventing new attacks on the United States. The GOP chair of the commission, Tom Kean, says he disappointed and surprised. Well, that’s one of us, Tom.
Financiers pledge liberal dollars: At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, which was founded last spring — the latest in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies continue to struggle with the loss of the House and the Senate in 1994 and the presidency in 2000.
Elon throttled Starlink because Ukranians were killing Russians,
But by throttling it, Elon enabled Russians to kill Ukranians.
So the world’s richest, weirdest guy,
Gets to decide who lives and who dies?
That’s too much power in the hands of a dude who wants to be a Martian.
“Stephen Miller is a stone-cold racist. His track record speaks for itself, and I’ve got zero interest in working with that kind of individual.”
— “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a ‘stone-cold racist’ and said he can’t work with him,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Take, for example, the French Revolution. Remember when Marie Antoinette said, ‘Let them eat cake’? Now, is that a problem of accountability and tyranny, a corrupt government? Or is it a problem of affordability and standard of living? It’s both! Authoritarianism and tyranny are extremely expensive for the people. And it’s the exact same thing when you go down the line with Donald Trump. So, are we going to go after the corruption? Yeah, you’re damn right. And are we going to go after affordability and making people’s lives easier? Yeah, you’re damn right. We’re going to do both of them.”
“Here’s the problem with the red meat: It becomes an addiction. Once you go there and you put that out there, then you’re forced to defend it. So what do they do? They double down. They triple down again.”
— Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by the Washington Post, on Republicans relying on anti-Muslim attacks in the Michigan U.S. Senate race.
<2>U.S. inflation was higher than expected last month as the rising prices that powered sweeping Democratic victories in last week’s midterm elections appear likely to pose ongoing challenges for the White House and the Federal Reserve, the Associated Press reported. The consumer price index rose 0.4% from September to October, the Labor Department said Tuesday, down from 0.6% the previous month. The government did not report a yearly inflation rate because last year’s government shutdown meant no data was released for October 2025. But excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.3%, the same as the preceding month. Both figures were a tenth of a point higher than forecast, and at an annual rate would be well above the Fed’s 2% target.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating held near the lowest level of his political career, depressed by national concerns over rising prices that tanked his Republican Party in last week’s midterm elections, according to ?a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday. Some 32% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance ?in the White House, unchanged from two prior Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted between late ?October and early November. It was one percentage point higher than his 31% rating ?in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in mid-October, the lowest of his career in politics, reported Reuters.
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats, reports Florida Phoenix. Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Women make up 35.5% of all state legislative candidates this cycle. Currently, women hold about one-third of state legislative seats across the country — a record level of representation but nowhere near parity.
“Prediction markets about the 2026 midterm elections have surpassed $1.4 billion in trading volume as Election Day fast approaches,” CNN reports. “This year has seen massive growth in the prediction industry, where people can bet on real-world events like sports, entertainment and the weather. While small-scale election markets have been around for a while, they gained traction before the 2024 presidential election and have seen huge numbers for the 2026 midterms.”
G. Elliot Morris: “Low-knowledge 2024 voters say they backed Trump by 8 points, according to our poll. Today they give him a net job approval of ?27, a 35-point shift. Compare that to Trump’s approval rating among voters who got both questions right: These voters backed Harris by 1 point and now give Trump a net ?24 approval, a 23-point shift. … Low-information voters have moved against Trump at a higher rate than high-information voters, by 12 points.”