The American Prospect

One of Trump’s personal super PACs has swooped in to Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District in an effort to save Republican incumbent Tom Barrett from a strong challenge by progressive Democrat Will Lawrence. prospect.org?p=146814

Social Security is projected to run out of the funds that it needs to pay full benefits by 2032. It’s up to progressives to turn this threat around on the right and improve America’s most cherished (and socialistic) support system while they’re at it. prospect.org?p=146821

The crypto industry hopes to prevent Sherrod Brown from returning to the Senate, where he would be likely to play a significant role in overseeing digital asset regulation. prospect.org?p=146807

buff.lyLula’s Huge Win for the Left - The American ProspectHis come-from-behind victory in Brazil’s presidential election spoils the storyline of right-wing dictators on the march.

Not only does Lula’s victory spoil the storyline of a global right-wing resurgence, but even more remarkably, he did it as an incumbent. buff.ly/4ZDKKKy

buff.lyDid Elon Musk Commit Some Light Treason? - The American ProspectOr maybe not so light.

Treason is the only crime mentioned in the United States Constitution. It is described like this: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” buff.ly/2FPJRkF

buff.lyThe Question Before Los Angeles Isn’t Whether to Have a Socialist Mayor - The American ProspectChallenger Nithya Raman is no more and no less a socialist than incumbent Karen Bass.

Harold Meyerson's third-camp position: "I don’t think Nithya Raman is much of a socialist. She strikes me as being more of an opportunist." buff.ly/46EYzD2

buff.lyThe Residents Forced to Choose Amid Ohio’s Tech Boom - The American ProspectThey must decide whether to sell their land for data centers or other facilities, without the transparency to determine if they’re getting a good deal.

Underlying the data center boom that has spread across the United States is a very tangible new land market, full of winners and losers. As data centers have become a key political issue, questions of property tax breaks also tied to the land may be key for who wins and who loses. buff.ly/P4IGgJL

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Lula’s win spoiled what was supposed to be the capstone of a series of right-wing victories in smaller Latin American countries. prospect.org?p=146776

In the fastest-developing areas, like the branded “Silicon Heartland” of central Ohio, small landowners and homeowners are trying to figure out how to either profit and get out, or fight to stay in their homes. prospect.org?p=146581

I don’t think Nithya Raman is much of a socialist. She strikes me as being more of an opportunist. prospect.org?p=146733

Both top-shelf reporting and top officials in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, have said that Musk made this decision on his own. That would be treason. prospect.org?p=146689

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buff.lyCan Tom Perriello Win Back His Old Seat, 18 Years Later?The former Democratic representative for Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District is in a tight race for the seat he once held.

In a classroom-sized space at the Powhatan Public Library, a dozen or so of incumbent Rep. John McGuire’s constituents let out cheers and applause when his opponent, Tom Perriello, walked into the room. buff.ly/WXtJK99

buff.lyThe Quirkiest House Race in America Is in AlaskaIndependent candidate Bill Hill, a commercial fisherman and educator, embodies the state’s subsistence lifestyle. He wants to take that sensibility to Washington.

An October 20 Data for Progress poll showed toss-ups across every major race in Alaska, a state that Donald Trump won by 13 points in 2024. That includes the dead-heat race for Alaska’s at-large House seat, which covers the whole state. buff.ly/p9qYdBa

buff.lyWhat a Health Care Crisis Looks Like on the GroundIn South Los Angeles, ER patients are cared for in a gift shop, in tents, and even outdoors. And that’s before the crushing Medicaid cuts.

Safety-net hospitals across the country serve patients on Medicaid, and the cuts put into place by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will torch budgets. This is the silent issue animating much of the anti-Republican backlash in the midterms, and it compounds on itself. buff.ly/o2Vklpj

Rubin’s entirely unremarkable call to defend election integrity passes for some kind of courage in the business world. prospect.org?p=146665

buff.lyThe Trump Administration May Have Just Lied to Judge About an ICE flight to Equatorial Guinea - The American ProspectAn ICE agent told a judge a charter flight to Equatorial Guinea had been canceled. It just landed there.

Breaking: An ICE officer may have lied to a judge in a court filing claiming a scheduled flight to Equatorial Guinea had been canceled. Flight data shows the ICE-chartered aircraft landing on the island city of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Friday afternoon. buff.ly/7UXWaEZ

MLK-LA, the last nonprofit safety-net hospital in its area, sits in a medical desert. prospect.org?p=146601

For a growing number of Virginians, the sense of betrayal they feel is not limited to the Trump administration. It extends to the local level. prospect.org?p=146612

Bill Hill is one of many independents running across the country. A victory would represent a dramatic repudiation of Trump 2.0 in a previously safe Republican seat. prospect.org?p=146584

buff.lyThe Funny Math Behind Centrist ‘Electability’ Arguments“Wins above replacement” makes sense in baseball. In politics, not so much.

In the Trump era, centrist politicos and pundits have repeatedly relied on two things to contain the surging left flank: gobs of corporate money, and “electability,” the argument that moderates are better suited than progressives to unify an anti-MAGA coalition. buff.ly/YyKyqGu

buff.lyAs Lawmakers Scrutinize Pentagon Equity Deals, Pentagon Keeps Making ThemCongressional gridlock has been a boost to the private equity-style shop at the Defense Department that’s free to do their bidding with impunity.

An unexpected winner has emerged from the congressional stalemate over defense spending: an obscure investment office in the Pentagon known as the Economic Defense Unit. buff.ly/iOONNw7

buff.lyThe Sad Republicans Exploiting Family TragedyWhat Ken Paxton and Vivek Ramaswamy have in common.

A morbidly fascinating sub-theme of the ugly attack ad from Vivek Ramaswamy was how it contrasts with typical conservative rhetoric about one of the most Republican demographic groups in the country: divorced men. buff.ly/58oUUBA

buff.lySpace X Is a De Facto Government Agency. It Should Be Nationalized.Otherwise, Elon Musk sets U.S. foreign policy.

The root cause of Elon Musk’s ascent to de facto defense secretary is the federal government’s roughly 45-year practice of contracting out the work it had formerly done itself. buff.ly/IzfaSAa

Ramaswamy isn’t the only Republican candidate who has sided against a father in custody dispute. Ken Paxton did so as Texas attorney general—and in a case that ended up with the father shot dead. prospect.org?p=146546

The Trump administration’s campaign to compel hundreds of billions of dollars of new military appropriations out of Congress has been stalled in the Senate for months. prospect.org?p=146559

WAR, what is it good for? prospect.org?p=146542

buff.lyThe Military Might Have To Economize for Once - The American ProspectMaybe Northrop Grumman can get some elementary school teachers to teach them how to hold a bake sale.

Defense stocks tumbled this week, reportedly on fears that Democrats are going to win in the upcoming midterm elections, and Donald Trump is not going to get the $500 billion increase in military spending that he has asked for. Will no one think of poor old Raytheon? buff.ly/2TMRADU

buff.lyICE Profiteers Trying To Buy the Senate for Republicans - The American ProspectTheir targets include multiple GOP candidates in tight races and incumbents whose seats are in danger, including chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Mike Rogers…

Susan Collins has an incentive to argue in favor of ICE. She is among the several GOP incumbents in tight races drawing thousands of dollars in campaign donations from some of the biggest corporations profiting off Trump’s immigration terror campaign. buff.ly/q4pnZFk

buff.lyRoger Marshall Boosted Pesticide Products His Wife Is Invested In - The American ProspectThe Kansas senator introduced bills supporting biological pesticides, which would benefit companies owned by his private equity donor and friend Dan Tasset. Marshall’s wife also has a piece of the…

Four years ago, Marshall dropped his first bill aimed at helping the biostimulant and biological pesticide industry. buff.ly/23LwoCi

buff.lyA Major Roger Marshall Donor Is a Hospital Bandit - The American ProspectInside the Kansas senator’s multilayered relationship with one of the most audacious profiteers in rural health.

Roger Marshall is a friend to, business partner with, and investor in a health care empire that has led to disaster on multiple occasions. buff.ly/gJoYA0f

buff.lyIs Paris Burning? - The American ProspectThe violence, political stalemate, and support for the extremes are a more vivid case of what is occurring throughout the West.

The French mess is best understood in three dimensions that are all connected—the social, the economic, and the political. buff.ly/yCtE20l

buff.lyA Rescue in Equatorial Guinea, or Another Immigrant Expulsion? - The American ProspectDocuments show an ICE flight is expected to land in the African country where immigrant Ahmed Soliman, who a federal judge ordered to be returned, is currently imprisoned.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter flight is heading to Equatorial Guinea Thursday, two weeks after a federal judge ordered the return of a man expelled there under the Trump administration’s third-country removal program. buff.ly/55SrNl1

buff.lyA Major Roger Marshall Donor Is a Hospital Bandit - The American ProspectInside the Kansas senator’s multilayered relationship with one of the most audacious profiteers in rural health.

The relationship between Sen. Roger Marshall and Dan Tasset is unusually intertwined for a politician and donor. Read The American Prospect's investigation here: buff.ly/gJoYA0f

prospect.orgRoger Marshall Boosted Pesticide Products His Wife Is Invested In - The American ProspectThe Kansas senator introduced bills supporting biological pesticides, which would benefit companies owned by his private equity donor and friend Dan Tasset. Marshall’s wife also has a piece of the act...

The American Prospect also found that Marshall’s wife, Laina Marshall, has been a 3 percent investor in NCM Bioscience Partners since at least 2015. Four years ago, Marshall dropped his first bill aimed at helping the biostimulant and biological pesticide industry. prospect.org/2026/10/21/r...

Major ICE contractors have donated over $130,000 to Susan Collins’ reelection campaign. And she's not the only one receiving money from companies profiting off of ICE's cruelties. prospect.org?p=146431

Will no one think of poor old Raytheon? prospect.org?p=146466

buff.lyWhy Putin Is Now Our Ally - The American ProspectThugocracies of the World Unite

We’ve grown so inured to Trump’s outrages that his alliance with Putin hasn’t stoked the level of horror it deserves. buff.ly/OXeemTB

buff.lyThe Possible Socialism of Andy Burnham - The American ProspectA nemesis is Britain’s overdependence on its dwindling role as a global capital market.

Imagine that the U.S. had a gifted progressive president, with a common touch and a large majority in Congress. That’s basically what Britain has today with its new prime minister, former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. buff.ly/bCcB1Xl

buff.lyA New Hope in Vermont - The American ProspectCan Amanda Janoo, a 39-year-old progressive economist, beat Vermont’s sitting Republican governor?

Amanda Janoo, improbably, might be the next governor of Vermont. buff.ly/C6f3NJH

buff.lyMichigan’s Mike Rogers Got Big Payout Before Controversial Cybersecurity Firm Went Bankrupt - The American ProspectFilings indicate that Rogers remains a substantial creditor in a cybersecurity firm backed by a controversial South African intelligence operative with alleged ties to a Russian oligarch.

“Obviously they had taken care of themselves first and totally ignored all other shareholders in the entity,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen. buff.ly/6ZfjKee

In the lead-up to a bankruptcy that wiped out ordinary investors, IronNet, a controversial cybersecurity tech startup, paid former GOP Congressman Mike Rogers nearly $725,000. prospect.org?p=146391

Amanda Janoo has mobilized a large and enthusiastic grassroots base and is running the most credible Democratic campaign for governor of Vermont in a decade. prospect.org?p=146383

Britain, with its heavy reliance on the financial sector, is especially prone to the premise that raising taxes on capital is the fiscal solution that dare not speak its name. prospect.org?p=146399

The Council on Foreign Relations provides a revealing window on how the American establishment governs. prospect.org?p=146376

buff.lyTrump Administration Could Nullify California Internet Protections - The American ProspectGov. Gavin Newsom has until November 1 to accept a $1.42 billion federal broadband deployment grant. If he does, state internet regulations cannot be enforced for 14 years.

Condition 50 is one of many ways the Trump administration is attempting to use federal dollars to control state policies. buff.ly/cmQ5ssR

Historically, presidents whose party gets shellacked in midterm elections identify and dispose of underlings who are at least in part responsible for those shellackings. prospect.org?p=146360

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) has thrown her hat in the ring for the chair position of the House Antitrust Subcommittee should Democrats regain control of Congress after the midterm elections. prospect.org?p=146356