"Voters heard Trump’s pitch and thought, What do all those pointy-headed experts know? They wanted tariffs and lower prices and the guy who fucked up the pandemic response and attempted a coup. And they got what they wanted." We got what they wanted, too.

The Experts Were Right: Trump’s an Economic Moron

Plus: The Triad Mailbag of your nightmares.

lnk.thebulwark.com

Year after year, election deniers trot out the same lies. Know what’s coming: bit.ly/4yImwSj

Anticipating Election Misinformation in the 2026 Midterms

Election misinformation often follows the same pattern every cycle. Here are some of the false and misleading claims that voters are likely to see.

brennancenter.org

NEW: Election denier Tina Peters reportedly discussed a scheme to wrestle control of the midterms from the states with the White House. But the dubious plan, which involves sweeping changes to voting machines and hand counts of ballots, rests on a little-used regulation that covers...WiFi routers.

Election deniers say an obscure rule on Wi-Fi routers means Trump can decide how votes are counted. Here’s why they’re wrong

"The Commerce secretary doesn't have more power than the president. The president has zero power over elections in the United States.”

democracydocket.com

On Feb 24, I gave a lecture at UW explaining what my team's decade-plus research on online rumors during crises reveals about the right wing "bullshit machine." Fittingly, a lightning strike impacted the original audio. Here's a fixed version w/ the full transcript: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjiG...

A Spotlight on Rumors

YouTube video by UW (University of Washington)

youtube.com

Over the next 60, those seeking to undermine our elections are going to ramp up the misinformation, using rumor, AI and misrepresentation to do so. The good news is we have a pretty good idea of what is coming and can prepare for it now. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Five False Election Rumors to Watch For

Voters should expect recurring false election narratives to resurface in the coming months — and familiarize themselves with the facts.

brennancenter.org

You can read the full report here: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Protecting Judges from Rising Threats

Federal judges and their families are facing extraordinary pressures. Improved security can ensure that they remain safe and that judicial independence remains uncompromised.

brennancenter.org

@brennancenter.org tested some of the most popular AI models to learn how they can be exploited to peddle false election narratives in this year's midterms. @larrynorden.bsky.social and David Evan Harris on how AI companies, lawmakers, and civil society can ensure free and fair elections this fall:

The Second AI Election: Testing the Safeguards Before November

Tests of six popular AI models show how easily their election safeguards can be bypassed, and what companies, lawmakers, and civil society should be before November.

justsecurity.org

And, of course, excluding non-citizens from the census would harm the whole country and break the law. The latest from @lmillerkaralunas.bsky.social: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Tom “T.M.” Wolf@tomtmwolf.bsky.social · 3w ago

Looks like Trump’s plan to rig the 2030 census and skew the congressional reapportionment might backfire: Two recent studies show Texas and Florida losing congressional seats if his plan to exclude millions of non-citizens (for the first time ever) goes into effect.

AI is transforming foreign operations against US elections. While the federal govt has stepped back from tracking and deterring such actions, the private sector still publishes what they see. Here's what they say 40 days out from Election Day. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

AI Is Changing Foreign Election Influence

Threat reports from tech firms and independent monitors offer a glimpse of how foreign adversaries are changing tactics.

brennancenter.org

The latest “rigged election” strategy from the Trump administration involves producing a series of strategically timed arrests of non-citizens for alleged voter fraud & promoting those events to feed the false narrative that non-citizen voter fraud is widespread. uwcip.substack.com/p/federal-fr...

Federal Fraud Charges Resonate With Debunked Non-Citizen Voting Narratives

A flurry of recent charges and press conferences amplifying alleged non-citizen voting make a small phenomena seem bigger

uwcip.substack.com

Corruption is a central issue of the midterms, with both Democrats and Republicans mentioning it in their ads--more than any issue other than the economy. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

We reviewed $1.6 billion of campaign ads. Here are the takeaways.

Everyone’s talking about the economy, but Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on what other issues will mobilize midterm voters.

washingtonpost.com

“On top of that, audits should also examine incentive structures inside AI companies in addition to the technology itself, the [CDT]guidelines say.” Read the full guidelines:

Getting Third-Party AI Assessment Right

Having third parties assess AI systems might seem like common sense, but crafting effective policies toward this goal can be devilishly tricky. A poorly-constructed ecosystem for third-party assessment could easily fail to consider the most consequential mechanisms of risk, neglect the AI harms that most impact people, or do more to protect AI companies than people.

cdt.org

Great piece from @toluseo.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com featuring the @brennancenter.org's study on AI and election disinformation, as well as the work of @cdt.org , Ready4Tuesday and ASU’s Mechanics of Democracy Lab, among others. There is much more work to do. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

The Many Ways AI Could Disrupt the Midterms

State and local election officials are trying to keep up.

theatlantic.com

There should be no question that AI poses new risks to our information environment and elections. /1 www.npr.org/2026/10/08/n...

OpenAI caught Russians and Iranians using ChatGPT for influence campaigns

The company says Russian operatives used its AI chatbot to update their bosses, shedding light on influence campaigns previously not attributed to Russia.

npr.org

Developer Josh Abbottoy, who aims to build a “far-right ‘aligned’ [Christian] community” in a tiny TN town has now proposed building a drone factory there. (Abbottoy is tied to New Founding—backed by Thiel ally Marc Andreessen—& to American Reformer where Thiel ally Chris Buskirk is a director.) 1/

Proposed drone manufacturing facility sparks intense backlash in tiny Tennessee town

For almost two years, some residents in Jackson County have been resisting what they view as a far-right takeover of their community.

newschannel5.com

New @economist.com leader from me on the perils of AI writing—and why readers, not writers, are the victims to worry most about. www.economist.com/leaders/2026...

VICTORY FOR VOTERS A federal court just ruled that DOJ demands for sensitive voter data violate voter privacy and state authority. Your private voter info belongs to you—not a federal database. Read full press release 🗳️👇 https://bit.ly/4jNmMdY

Federal Court Sides with Common Cause and Voters, Ruling DOJ Data Demands Violate Voter Privacy, States’ Election Authority

This is a victory for voters and yet another loss for the Department of Justice. It’s time the Trump administration stop these desperate attempts to seize voters’ private data and take control of our ...

commoncause.org

New WH Press Secretary Katie Zacharia currently sits on the board of a Canadian mining company, NRED, that is actively undercutting America's domestic critical minerals industry. Kristi Noem also joined the board after being fired from her role as DHS secretary.

Imposing 18-year term limits for justices would improve the Supreme Court by ensuring no single person has generational power, by giving each president two appointments per four-year term, and by lowering the stakes of the confirmation process. bit.ly/47DWAuZ

3 Charts that Show the Need for Supreme Court Term Limits

Interactive data visualizations analyzing changes in Supreme Court tenure, unequal numbers of presidential appointments, and narrowing Senate confirmation votes make the case for reform.

brennancenter.org

In Colorado’s gubernatorial race, Republicans nominated a ministry leader who says he offers exorcisms over the phone. He also doesn’t want to talk about how many people he’s killed. No, seriously. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Victor Marx’s GOP primary win in Colorado creates a new challenge for his party

The new Republican nominee said he offers exorcisms over the phone and doesn’t want to talk about how many people he has killed.

ms.now

Great @cprnews.bsky.social piece examining where GOP Gov candidate Victor Marx is spending his huge fundraising haul. Makes a lot of sense if you subscribe to the idea that Marx is paying out friends/family and building an email list, rather than trying to win. www.cpr.org/2026/10/08/v...

Victor Marx’s spending is as unusual as the rest of his campaign

The Republican candidate for Colorado governor has focused his cash on raising more cash, while minimizing traditional spending.

cpr.org

We’re suing to block the unlawful transformation of public lands along the southern border into a “national defense area.” This would turn 100,000+ acres used for recreation, humanitarian work, and essential services into a zone for military officials to conduct immigration enforcement.

New Lawsuit Challenges Administration’s Unlawful Militarization of Public Lands Along Southern Border

Albuquerque, N.M. — New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Battalion Search and Rescue, and Southern Border Communities Coalition filed a lawsuit today challenging the administration’s unlawful…

democracyforward.org

Dean Blundell @deanblundell.bsky.social Maple MAGA: Alberta’s MAGA Premier, Danielle Smith, Just Copied Trump’s Voter Suppression Playbook deanblundell.substack.com/p/maple-maga... #IWJ ムサシ投票機の堺市選挙の集計の直前に、選挙管理委員会が4台の計数機の交換を行い、大阪維新の票が大量にカウントされ、立候補の不正疑惑追及者は告訴後に死去された。 www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8i4...

160709 【ダイジェスト版】大阪における「不正選挙」疑惑追及者Ａさんインタビューダイジェスト版（聞き手：IWJ記者）

YouTube video by Movie Iwj

youtube.com

Age verification laws that require users to possess a current passport, driver’s license, or similar to prove identity exclude critical populations. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

When No ID Means No Internet: Age Verification and the Right to

Age verification proposals are often presented as a simple tradeoff: sacrifice a little privacy to better safeguard children online. But that framing overlooks a more fundamental question. What

eff.org

Throughout the summer, rumors have been bubbling in North New Jersey that ICE has quietly been using a warehouse as a detention center. NPR investigated. n.pr/4hzvA5M

ICE has quietly used this warehouse as a detention facility all summer, neighbors say

Throughout the summer, rumors have been bubbling in North New Jersey that ICE has quietly been using a warehouse as a detention center. NPR investigated.

n.pr

Introducing the next step in tracking ICE's detention expansion Project Salt Box https://www.projectsaltbox.com/p/introducing-the-next-step-in-tracking

Introducing the next step in tracking ICE's detention expansion

Project Salt Box

projectsaltbox.com

“There are a few reasons why Washington would find Alberta ripe for the picking. Start with the fact that Alberta has always been the most American of provinces.” Andrew Nikiforuk writes. #ABPoli thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...

Why the US Licks Its Chops at a ‘Free’ Alberta | The Tyee

The aptly named DARC papers lay out Trumpists’ anti-Canada aims. Is Premier Smith a student?

thetyee.ca

Trump allegedly took highly classified docs to Mar-A-Lago in 2021. There's a report about it but a judge is keeping it hidden. We’ve fought for the report’s release for more than year. Now Trump is trying to delay our hearing until after the midterms. www.ms.now/deadline-whi...

Trump and his former co-defendants seek delay on Jack Smith report hearing

The president’s personal counsel cited Trump’s busy schedule ahead of the November midterms as reason to further postpone the matter.

ms.now

The latest update in the rogue A.I. saga: OpenAI agents that were supposed to be performing mundane data requests for things like health data, historic photos and wait times at theme parks resorted to hacking attempts when they couldn't access the data they wanted www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/t...

OpenAI’s A.I. Tried Breaching Four Other Targets, With No Prompting (Gift Article)

In each incident, the technology appeared to be conducting mundane data collection and resorted to hacking techniques to get it, researchers said.

nytimes.com

ICYMI: @archiehall.bsky.social discussed how @economist.com is covering democratic socialism, Trump, and the bond market. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

How The Economist Covers the DSA, Bonds, and Trump ft. Archie Hall

Podcast Episode · The Study Hall Podcast · October 5 · 48m

podcasts.apple.com