LSleffel

The Brennan Center is tracking the administration’s threats to elections and working to ensure that your vote is protected. Follow our experts to keep up with what you need to know about the midterms.

"'What on earth were they thinking?' The answer to that question lies in the Trumpian brain rot that has infected the entire GOP. It’s a disease that convinces its victims that not only is cruelty the key to political success, but that the heart of the American voter is just as dark and ugly."

In speeches, Obama hit Trump on gas prices and a war nobody asked for. Hours later, Trump bragged at a rally that the country is making a fortune on oil and he doesn’t give a damn what people pay at the pump. Interesting strategy. My write-up in the link in the comments.

After much speculation about whether he or Donald Trump made the final call, Musk is now simply owning it. trib.al/QoCKzeN

Not too early to start thinking about how grassroots pressure on a Dem House could help produce better results -->

NEW: "Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s," per new House Judiciary Dem report. Report has new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old and then promised the victim a visa & NYU admission, demanding she stay quiet.

What a rock star. She aged out of the foster system and went onto a job with the city and finding everyone else the furniture they need

How do humpback whale mothers balance their own energy needs with those of their growing calves? This #ConPhysinAction article explores research by Hollers et al on the behaviour and energy expenditure of nursing mothers and their calves 🐋 . Links in 🧵 ⬇️

Last week, we celebrated Eastern European heritage at Gracie Mansion, because the story of New York City cannot be told without the story of our Eastern European neighbors.

🖖 variety.com/2026/film/ne... 🚀🔭🦛

Wrote that Jews who are against dual loyalty charges should also be against them for El-Sayed in @forward.com forward.com/opinion/8583...

Good day for democracy: Brazilian President Luiz Lula just secured a historic 4th term win against his far-right opponent. Over 128 million Brazilians voted Sunday, vs. 125 million in the first round of elections. More in Jen's jolt: https://www.contrariannews.org/p/a-banner-day-for-democracy

The House Judiciary Committee Democrats have released a report containing testimony from 11 women regarding allegations of sexual assault, including a new rape allegation, against President Trump in relation to Jeffrey Epstein that the lawmakers say has been deliberately covered up by the DOJ.

Housing costs are reaching record highs, putting even more strain on families already struggling with rising prices. That’s why I helped write and pass the ROAD to Housing Act that will make housing more affordable for veterans, renters, first-time homebuyers, and families across Virginia.

El-Sayed on Trump's cognitive tests: "I went to medical school...In my neurology unit, I would have to give that MoCA exam...The only people that you give a MoCA test to are people who you worry may have cognitive deficits. By definition, if you're taking one of those tests, something's wrong."

An American avocet sleepin' on stilts. #Birds #Photography #BirdOfTheDay #OnOneLeg

Six citizens are suing Trump over his attempts to turn independent reporting into government propaganda. trib.al/3oSOrMO

The former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent labelled CBS News a “disaster” amid its new Trumpy leadership.

Donnie didn't like that one bit.

And we still have politicians not only allowing this, but even taking our tax dollars away from our communities’ needs and giving it to these billionaire companies in the form of tax cuts. If you’re in Fairbanks, AK come to our data center town hall this Thursday actionnetwork.org/events/nobod...

I would love to live in a world where "President faces new rape allegation" isn't treated like a dog bites man story in the major media.

A Triple Breach! Read the full story here: buff.ly/Q6DhMYe Video by Loriannah This is an encounter from 2025 #WhaleTales #humpback

Trump claims he has successfully blocked cocaine from entering the US with his maritime military campaign. The opposite is true, and it’s showing up in overdose mortality numbers. I analyzed newly available CDC data and found that cocaine involved deaths are up in more states than any other drug.

Year of Space Facts: Week 42/52 🔭🧪🛰 Most the Moon's recognizable features, like the dark "maria", are about 3-4 billions years old. The iconic Tycho crater, however, is a very young 108 million years old! Dinosaurs could have seen the bright flash of its creation. 📸 NASA/LRO

Now THIS is awesome public health (and, yes, it is everything that RFK Jr and his anti-vaccine MAHA movement are not)

Dressing up in Pink tonight🩷🤍✨😊

Although global measles incidence and mortality had declined in 1990−2019, its resurgence since 2020 reflects stalled vaccination progress worldwide, according to updates to the Global Burden of Disease Study presented in Nature Medicine. go.nature.com/4i6ynCk #medsky 🧪

NEW: The group behind Cornel West's 2024 ballot push was wholly funded through Elon Musk's dark money network, according to Sludge's review of tax documents. readsludge.com/2026/10/26/m...

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man.

Good news for melanoma patients! The first ever mRNA vaccine to target cancer is in our near future. ~15 yrs ago, patients w/advanced melanoma survived for a few months. A successful Phase 3 clinical trial showed that intismeran reduced the risk of recurrence by 42%. 🧪 archive.today/pp6mX

From Zelenskyy. Patriot interceptors that could save innocent lives are sitting in European countries for weeks, which they paid for, unable to be transferred to Ukraine because Hegseth refuses to sign off.

@marcelias.bsky.social : “Mr. Blanche... we have beaten you and your team in court like a drum. So I hope you don't do what you are threatening or insinuating you might do. But if you do, I will see you in those courtrooms. I will win. And then I will dance on your head for those victories.”

by god that’s @joshchafetz.bsky.social’s music they’re playing

BREAKING: Another immigrant has died in ICE custody, the 28th death in ICE detention in 2026.

#Hegseth🧪 Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's political fame dates to 2018, when Fox TV hailed him as a "Mega Norwegian" Times change. Trump now says: “𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙡𝙮, 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙨. 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙮, 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮. 𝙄 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣’𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙯𝙚; 𝙨𝙤 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙮,”

Republican campaigns and PACs have spent nearly $3 million at President Trump’s businesses since he returned to office, according to a Post analysis. Spending at Mar-a-Lago has more than tripled compared with the same period of his first term.

Harlow Scott’s essay is a 2026 winner of the Keeley Schenwar Memorial Prize, which uplifts the work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated writers who are sharing their stories firsthand — and calling us to action against brutal state repression.

"After the surgeon removed my tumor, my stomach looked like a horror movie connected by twelve inches of staples and yellowish pink flesh. He instructed me to keep my wound clean, but the correctional officers assigned to me refused to let me shower for 7 days. I was also denied food for 5 days."

Good news: Maurene Comey is back at SDNY after a judge ruled her firing unlawful Who trusts a case if the prosecutor’s job hangs on pleasing the president? Rules keep the answer simple, & today they protected more than one person -TN

"If there is one thing that Zach Lahn, the Republican nominee for governor of Iowa, definitely does not want to talk about, it’s his connection to the Koch family." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/us/politics/zach-lahn-iowa-governor-kansas-kochs.html

Donald Trump’s personal holdings in the oil and gas industry have ballooned in value. trib.al/CHsjeic

interesting

Administration has a real data manipulation problem: - DHS exaggerates immigrants who’ve left US - Patel's FBI pads crime stats - IRS hides tax cut data until after midterms - Census excludes immigrants www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Trump’s DOJ sued Utah for every voter’s private data, then told the official who said no she was under investigation. A judge Trump picked threw it out. That’s 27 straight losses. 106 letters to 4,500. Make Congress shut it down: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...