A phenomenal moment in the Senate. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta. Smith denies it. Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury. Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland. WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED
1. How has MAGA Inc. raised an unprecedented amount of money? Let’s review:
Saudi Arabia is in big trouble, with their oil industry under attack from multiple directions. The Saudis spent years bribing Trump and Kushner. At first, it seemed like a good investment. But the Iran war screwed them, now they really need help, and the US can't/won't. Me, in @foreignpolicy.com:
Saudi Arabia Bribed the Wrong People
Riyadh’s bet on Trumpism has failed.
foreignpolicy.com
Remember when legal eminences scolded everyone saying “Constitutional crisis” to settle down because it’s not a Constitutional crisis without the government blatantly violating court orders, then the White House blatantly violated more and more court orders, and those prominent lawyers said nothing?
Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social · 6d agoBREAKING MS-NOW reporter still denied access to White House, defying court order.
This seems like a pretty big deal: donors made illegal contributions to Susan Collins and then were awarded lucrative contracts after her office intervened with the Navy. An FBI investigation was dropped under Trump. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
Susan Collins is corrupt, the FBI probably had her, but Trump made the investigation go away? Collins’ actions show she’s been on board with the corrupt, anti-democracy ideological project since at least 2017—while pretending to be “concerned” about it—but a personal angle too fills in some blanks.
ProPublica@propublica.org · last wk.Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
ICE is erasing immigrants with final deportation orders from a searchable online database, leaving families and attorneys in the dark as they try to find out where someone has been taken. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Immigrants with final deportation orders disappear from ICE detainee locator
The change will make it harder for many families and attorneys to determine where an immigrant is being held after being taken into ICE custody.
washingtonpost.com
It really is striking how many authoritarian states have ended up in this exact same place, where the leader seizes control of scientific inquiry. Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, Aryan Physics in the Third Reich, Great Leap Forward (also related to Lysenko) in China.
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · last wk.Lysenkoism lives. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...
Trump’s Iran War Is a Rolling Disaster With No End in Sight The conflict is expanding, cutting off more oil supply routes—and the president has no idea what to do except lie In @theunpopulist.net:
Trump’s Iran War Is a Rolling Disaster With No End in Sight
The conflict is expanding, cutting off more oil supply routes—and the president has no idea what to do except lie
theunpopulist.net
The Trump administration's lawless killing spree at sea continues with a lethal strike on four more supposed "narco-terrorists" in the Caribbean. Very real killing in a make-believe war. Outside of war the general term for premeditated killing is murder.
As of today, both the House and Senate have passed this idiotic bill. It now heads to the president's desk.
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 2mo agoI don’t know how you could look at Donald Trump’s record to date and think it’s a good idea to give him more power to levy tariffs. But that’s exactly what the Senate is poised to do, on a bipartisan basis, in a bill coming up for a vote today www.thebulwark.com/p/senate-vot...
Imagine a job where, faced with a difficult decision, you could just stop going to work www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
House to leave early, punting Hegseth impeachment vote until after November elections
House Republican leaders cancelled votes planned for Thursday. Members won’t return to Washington until Nov. 9.
nbcnews.com
NEW: DHS's Inspector General releases a scathing report about the Everglades detention camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The OIG finds that the now-closed camp, violated multiple ICE standards. The OIG also confirms detainees were punished with placement in a metal cage in the Florida heat.🧵
internal audit released by DHS’s inspector general found a significant dip in Homeland Security Investigations’ enforcement efforts against fentanyl trafficking from FY 2024 to FY 2025, because resources were diverted toward immigration instead. (via @eggerdc.bsky.social)
AI Is a Test of Our Maturity. *Gulp*
Recursively self-improving machines vs. recursively self-deluding people.
thebulwark.com
this is the bill that would give Trump authority to tariff basically any country he wants. it passed the senate with bipartisan support. ostensibly a Russia sanctions bill, but the sanctions provisions have no teeth and the new tariff authorities are enormous. www.thebulwark.com/p/senate-vot...
Senate Voting to Give Trump a Tariff Nuke
A bill supposedly aimed at Russia is really an unprecedented new tariff power grab—yet prominent Democrats are backing it.
thebulwark.com
Mona Burns@monaburns.bsky.social · 2w agoHouse Rules Cmte will markup the Senate- passed Russia Sanctions Act at 4pm today House votes expected later this week rules.house.gov/bill/119/hr-...
Credit to PBS News. This is by far one of the most accurate descriptions of what trump did. None of the sanewashing we saw with so much of the news coverage.
PBS News@pbsnews.org · 3w agoAfter President Donald Trump told attendees at the Republican midterm convention Thursday night that "we want honesty in our elections," he led them in a pledge to "cheat like hell" and "go out and vote" in the midterm elections. https://to.pbs.org/4yTjfzl
Just did a quick look around and I don't see very many headlines about the President of the US making people pledge allegiance to him personally while telling everyone to commit election fraud and "cheat like hell" to support his party. Seems like it should be a story?
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w agoTrump: "Please right your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can't even breath. That I will go out with my family, my friends, I'll do it any way - I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm going to try to cheat like hell..."
@thebulwark.com did a supercut of all the prior times Trump said he was going to give Americans a $5000 check or whatever. It is glorious
It’s been driving me crazy for a while that this is not a bigger story so I tried to do something about it. I think it’s pretty jaw dropping. youtu.be/bFpHYSoi2CI?...
‘Ghastly untrue’: Hayes torches GOP senator’s 9/11 conspiracy theories
YouTube video by MS NOW
youtu.be
It's worse than this. Because in the early morning of October 7, Israeli intelligence picked up signs that Hamas was doing something - but concluded that it was likely just a drill. Had Netanyahu passed along the specific warning from MBZ that Sinwar was planning something big and imminent ...
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 3w agoI’ve seen multiple people reference “bin Laden determined to strike in US” and the Oct. 7 intel error was much worse. The US is huge. The warning was vague, not actionable. He’d like to somewhere at some time. Israel is small, Hamas is a top intel target, the warnings were direct and actionable.
A powerful message by three distinguished former Coast Guard officers with several decades of experience. On the one year anniversary of U.S. boat strikes. America’s War on Drug Smugglers at Sea Is Unlawful—and It Is Failing Must Read www.justsecurity.org/155570/ameri...
America's War on Drug Smugglers at Sea Is Unlawful—and It Is Failing
U.S. strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels mark an unlawful expansion of military force into a law enforcement mission.
justsecurity.org
Call me crazy, but this doesn’t sound like winning. “Moving supply hubs that were once hundreds of miles away to thousands of miles away will prove to be a major limitation to future maritime operations.”
Navy not returning to damaged Bahrain base ‘anytime soon,’ top officer says
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told sailors at a town hall meeting that the service would not be returning to NSA Bahrain "anytime soon."
navytimes.com
It's so weird how "As Speaker of the House, I have no idea what's going on... Like, in general," is an effective way to deflect scandal rather than being a massive scandal in itself.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4w agoBREAKING -- Mike Johnson says he's unaware of major news developments
Remember in 2025 when legal eminences publicly scolded people who used the term “constitutional crisis,” because the Trump White House hadn’t explicitly defied court orders, and then the Trump White House explicitly defied various court orders, and those same prominent legal voices said nothing?
Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail
A report detailed “grave concerns” that a new system being rushed into use by the U.S. Postal Service could imperil millions of mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections.
nytimes.com
Trump claims the US is getting 30 ships a day through the Strait of Hormuz, which is probably a lie, as no ship tracker shows that. But even so: the US military is spending resources every day to get to 1/4 of prewar shipping traffic? That’s Trump’s brag?!? Highlights how badly his war has failed.
Trump says Hormuz is in good shape with ~30 ships transiting nightly
Trump described the Strait of Hormuz as in "extremely good shape" with a lot of oil flowing. Approximately 30 ships are transiting the strait nightly with Navy assistance. Trump said any Iran strikes ...
scanx.trade
We are a broken nation. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians were living and working legally, paying taxes, and contributing. Haiti remains wholly unsafe. But Trump hates Haitians, and the White House wanted videos of Black people in chains, so they stripped them of status and turned on the cameras.
"the money, which was supposed to be used to provide health insurance for poor children, was instead hastily passed through multiple organizations before eventually landing in the bank accounts of two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida." www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/g...
Grand jury finds DeSantis administration "misappropriated" $10 million in taxpayer money to Hope Florida
A Florida grand jury found the DeSantis administration misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer money for political purposes.
cbsnews.com
Good for Carney and Canada, standing up for themselves. The US trade war demand is essentially “let us bully you into subservience.” Appeasement doesn’t work. What a stupid, self-harming effort by the US. Took one of the most productive, mutually beneficial alliances in history and threw it away.
It is wild that Mattis once testified that if the State Department wasn't properly resourced then the Department of Defense would need more ammo and now we have neither.
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · last mo.Trump officials now admit his team failed to grasp Iran's rulers and were too confident in surrender, per Politico. But as @atabatabai.bsky.social notes on the pod, he gutted civil service/diplomatic corps, making this sort of failure more likely! She's so good here: newrepublic.com/article/2144...
