Michael Gauger

I’m honored to have been reappointed to the Development Committee of @shafrhistorians.bsky.social, on which I serve in memory of my teachers David Healy, Bradford Perkins, and Dimitri Lazo. I’m grateful to them — and to my fellow committee members for enriching the field today.

Oh no that's horrible I fee so bad for Vivek Ramaswamy-- HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!! www.axios.com/2026/10/28/g...

New surveys confirm just how much Democrats have expanded the Senate map in the 2026 midterm elections. www.cnn.com/2026/10/28/p...

I really, really, really need reporters to stop asking Republicans if they're going to do something that they absolutely cannot do. When the time comes to seat newly-elected members, Mike Johnson's term will be over and there will be no Speaker of the House. He can't stop them anymore than I could.

A federal judge found that an immigration court bond hearing was so egregiously stacked against an ICE detainee that he may simply order the release of ICE detainees, rather than bond hearings, from now on. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Textbook case of administrative burdens limiting the effects of expanding access to rights

Reminder: this is LITERALLY not how it works. A Speaker is only elected AFTER everyone is seated. Johnson won't be Speaker when seating happens. There literally will not be a Speaker.

Wisconsin doesn't run on unbalanced budgets, borrowed money, and never-ending debt, unlike like the federal government under Tiffany and Trump. It's time for Tiffany to stop blathering about tax cuts and tell the truth. www.jsonline.com/story/opinio...

The Purcell principle, but for overwrought and overwritten NYT reports (that slip in the fact that this is legal well into the story) in the month before the election.

Detailing a technique used by other campaigns over the years, including Republicans.

SCOOP: 20 senior women STEM faculty members at Cornell are calling for President Michael Kotlikoff to resign, saying his response to the Jane Doe case "lacked the clarity of judgment and decisive action that this moment required."

Trump's Texas rally was all childish name-calling, anti-trans hate, and dimwitted boasts about plundering Venezuela. They're not even pretending to talk to independents and moderates any longer. Their closing strategy is pure MAGA porn all the way down. New from me: newrepublic.com/article/2172...

This week's Heads Up News newsletter includes suggestions for Election Day and big plug for my own article at @newrepublic.com. www.headsupnews.org/p/no-kings-g...

Funny thing about unprecedented corruption & grift combined with high grocery and gas prices and a reckless war of choice: voters do not like it.

www.axios.com/2026/10/28/g...

Someone who is not running for office did a normal and legal thing: SCANDAL! ON THE FRONT PAGE ABOVE THE FOLD! Elected official accused of multiple violent crimes: HUSH! DO NOT NAME THE CRIMES!

Trump’s argument on blocking certification of the Alaska senate race is “the worst election law complaint I've ever seen.” Rick Hasen, @rickhasen.bsky.social – on @thenation.com podcast bit.ly/4BAEt7e

ICYMI: Republicans warned Vivek his "rapist protector mom" ad was a terrible idea. He did it anyway. Read more on how his depraved ad campaign came together, from @jsweetli.bsky.social @swin24.bsky.social at @zeteo.com zeteo.com/p/republican...

Seriously - I can't vote for Abdul El-Sayed, but if I lived in Michigan I absolutely would for the sole reason that he's an expert who can and would check the madness in HHS under RFK Jr, and he'd challenge the GOP physicians in Congress who seem to have forgotten their Hippocratic Oath

Dolores Huerta, who founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, changing laws and the lives of thousands of laborers, died on Wednesday at 96. A skilled organizer, she coordinated walkouts and negotiated pathbreaking contracts with agribusiness. nyti.ms/3Ul92Na

Last month, Kirk Herbstreit said he doesn't follow politics or pick sides. Which was nonsense. Just last week, Herbstreit quietly headlined a fundraising dinner for Alabama's second-biggest PAC. The very next day, the PAC sent $155,000 to Tommy Tuberville. www.foiaball.com/p/kirk-herbs...

Watch me gush about NBC White House correspondent Monica Alba's exchanges with Trump last week -- a brilliant example of what we would lose if Trump continues to ban journalists who don't please him. presswatchers.org/2026/10/why-...

So hard to pick a favorite part of this article. Pretending that sending unsolicited dick pics at 53 was a “youthful indiscretion” is good, but don’t sleep on the argument that his wife forgave him for subjecting other women to unwanted nude photos so everyone else should too

NEW: The DOGE operative who gutted USAID -- firing thousands of employees and canceling lifesaving programs -- never actually signed the paperwork that's legally required for him to be employed by the agency.

Literally nowhere on the front page of the New York Times that the President of the United States faces another rape accusation. We're just used to understanding that our president is a rapist and we need to move on. It's fucking nuts.

691 words about Cheesecake. 434 words about rape.

From the salt-of-the-earth WSJ editorial board

"there are questions about how big his classes were" in the subhead is a ...choice. I mean sure check all claims but it's funny that Paxton is corrupt as hell but we want to know if Talarico had 45 or 29 students in his 6th grade class www.nytimes.com/2026/10/28/u...

Oh my god

again, as someone living in pennsylvania, it's quite striking to see the wall street journal run with this nonsense. meanwhile musk-funded tv ads are wall to wall "transgender communist soros soros soros"

Winning is not enough. There is no incentive for DOJ to stop. Indeed, they may well get ‘atta boys for having angered federal court judges. Sanctions, contempt and ultimately impeachment are essential

🎯 Dean is right — the fact that every Dem gets grilled about things @hasandpiker said years ago but no Republican gets asked about the racism & antisemitism coming from their top donor Elon Musk all day every day gives the game away. @DanaBashCNN @jaketapper

It really is wild how many Republican nominees for major offices in states other than #Florida literally live IN Florida: #MISen Mike Rogers #ME02 Paul LePage #KSSen Roger Marshall #MNSen Michele Tafoya #ALGov Tommy Tuberville #FloridaMan #ElectionBluesky

this note from the NYT South Carolina poll write-up is I think the whole ballgame most white votes in South Carolina are more or less immovable, but if Andrews has a path it runs through Appalachian voters and the local GOP thinking Graham is a fraud

Brazilian judge orders investigation into JD Vance illegally financing Bolsonaro's campaign in Brasil www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/1...

Worse than we thought.

Raskin: "When historians look back on this miserable period of our history, they might say that the first problem was disregarding all those women who told us back in 2016 that they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Donald Trump."

Wisconsin - next Tuesday is Election Day! Don’t forget to go out there and VOTE!

This may be the most distressing article on the midterms you will read - on where voters get their information. One person said he watches mostly Youtube, "where he likes an Australian named Sir Swag, a creator who mostly summarizes news from mainstream sources." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band have shared the fourth and final installment of “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour: Philadelphia Freedom Cut” today, featuring official video of the full encore from that May 30 show.

these questions don't work. absent an experiment, best you can do is compare polls pre/post