Today in Politics, Bulletin 477. 10/9/26 Ron Filipkowski Oct 9 … Trump announced today that he and Vladimir Putin have reached a deal to tamper with the American election where the US will fund the genocidal Russian war machine by buying massive quantities of oil and diesel from the evil autocratic regime. He posted on Truth Social: “I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace, another 500,000 Tons during the month of November, and 1,000,000 Tons immediately thereafter. Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel. Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority. This is a very big and important announcement.” … Zelenskyy immediately issued a statement saying that Trump betrayed Ukraine: "At this very moment—while our team is speaking with the American team in Florida—the President of the United States is talking to the Kremlin leader, the leader behind this war and this aggression, and is reaching an agreement allowing Russia to export diesel. This means additional funds for the war, additional funds to fuel the suffering inflicted upon us. Undoubtedly, this only emboldens Putin and enables them to continue fighting. It is happening right now, just as we are discussing peace: America is allowing Russia to export diesel. This means millions, billions. Ultimately, it all goes towards the war against people, against Ukraine—against all of us. I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen. This is certainly dishonest; it is certainly not how partners should act. And, in my view, it is a weak decision—sadly, a weak decision made by strong partners." … And here we are, with Trump and Putin colluding to tamper with another American election. The US is now officially allied with Putin and Russia against Ukraine. We will fund Russia’s genocidal war machine in exchange for Putin helping Trump and the Republican Party in the midterms. One of the most shameful and disgusting days in the history of this Republic. … Congress should immediately reconvene and block this. But of course the cowards in the Republican Party will not do that while they have the majority. … Trump has chosen Fox commentator and former DHS spokesperson Kate Zaccharia as his new WH press secretary. She is currently working for an organization called Fix California, which was founded by failed Kennedy Center director Ric Grenell. As Trump likes to say, she’s MAGA central casting. … Cook Political Report: “18 More House Race Ratings Move Towards Democrats. In the final weeks of the election, Republicans have hoped that a massive ad campaign effort could dent Democratic candidates’ images and shore up Republicans struggling to free themselves of the anchor of Trump. With less than 4 weeks to go, that heavy spending has yet to move the needle. … That is a key factor prompting us to move ratings for 18 more House races, all in Democrats’ favor. 4 GOP incumbents who previously sat in the Toss Up column are shifting into Lean Democrat - 3 of these members won their races by less than two points in 2024 and should be the easiest seats for Democrats to pick up in a favorable environment. And 4 more races previously rated Lean Republican are shifting into the Toss Up column.” … Politico: “In late Sept, top Republicans across House GOP leadership, leading political operations and individual campaigns received a trove of internal polling. It sparked a new level of panic. The polling didn’t just reveal a harsh environment for the party in power on par with typical midterms, but rather some close-to-catastrophic scenarios in a slew of formerly safe red seats across the country. … Key seats in KY, NC, NV and other areas that Trump won by 10 points or more in 2024 were competitive. All 3 vulnerable GOP-held seats in IA looked doomed. And most ominously, a crop of Republican incumbents who haven’t had to run serious races in years were vulnerable, from OK to WI and beyond. … Now, less than 4 weeks before Election Day, the concerns are running so deep and the atmosphere is so uncertain that Republicans are beginning to brace for some of the worst-case scenarios. One senior House Republican involved in the conversations added: ‘I think the scary part is we don’t know where the bottom is.’” … There were 3 big debates last night involving senate candidates in the key races in Maine, Michigan, and Georgia. First some key moments in the Jon Ossoff-Mike Collins race in GA: Ossoff: “If you want to understand whether the Trump-Collins budget has helped you, just go fill up a tank of gas. Go to the grocery store. Try to buy food for you kids. Look at your electric bill. Look at your health insurance premiums. They’ve doubled for more than a million Georgians.” Ossoff: “You hired half the Third Reich to staff your office. If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club.” Ossoff: “They’ve unleashed federal agents to kill Americans on the streets of our cities with impunity. That’s Mike Collins’s immigration policy. And that’s what you’d expect from the bigot congressman who called for executed immigrants by throwing to their deaths out of helicopters.” Collins: “The tariffs are making things more fair. They are working. Ossoff: You just heard Mike Collins say the tariffs are working. Go buy groceries. Nobody in the state seriously believes these tariffs are working. It’s been a disaster.” Ossoff: “The question was about the stewardship of tax dollars. And as we stand here today Collins is under federal investigation for the illegal misuse of tax dollars. For illegally funneling public money to his violent staffer’s girlfriend. Collins: That ethics complaint is bogus. Anybody can file one.” Q to Collins: “Many feel you have not adequately addressed the fact your son in law is a white supremacist social media influencer and several members of your staff have been linked to racism and antisemitism. What have you said to your daughter and son in law about his posts? Collins: That’s my family. I’ve condemned racism and I tell him that. But I’ve never heard him say a word about Hasan Piker. He doesn’t condemn him.” Ossoff: “Imagine running for Senate while neo-Nazi propaganda is disseminated to an audience of millions from your home. That’s Mike Collins.” Ossoff: “How can a sitting congressman vote to shut down a labor and delivery unit in his own district? Delivering mothers in Mike Collins’s district now have to drive an hour to get to a labor and delivery unit while they’re in labor while we already a maternal mortality crisis.” … The Maine debate between Susan Collins and Troy Jackson: Collins on the scandal that broke recently involving her: “Corporations can’t give money directly to candidates. They did not give to ‘Collins for Senator.’ Jackson: And that’s why Mr. Kao created a shell company to run his corporation, PACs, through to get to Sen. Collins’s PAC. Collins: And that’s why he’s in jail today.” Jackson on the ICE killing in Maine: “The gentleman’s name was Johan Sebastian Guerrero. He had a 3 year old daughter. The only mistake he made that morning was going to work. Because Sen. Collins is not willing to stand up to Trump, he was murdered in the streets of Biddeford for doing nothing wrong.” Q: “Senator Collins, who do you think should be the leader of your party in the Senate? Collins: John Thune. Q: Mr. Jackson? Jackson: I’m not even sure who else is running but I’ve already told Sen. Schumer that I’m not going to support him.” Q: “Should there be term limits in Congress. Mr. Jackson? Jackson: Absolutely I mean we have them in Maine. They work well. I definitely think Congress should have the same. Q: Sen. Collins? Collins: No, I don’t think there should be. I think that’s what you have elections for.” … This is what Collins said during her debate when she ran for senate in 1996: “I do support term limits, and I have pledged that if I’m elected, I will only serve two terms. 12 years is long enough.” … The Michigan senate debate between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers: El-Sayed: “When Mike Rogers was in Congress, he literally told somebody from the stand, ‘If you don’t know your privacy is being violated, is it really being violated?’ It’s like the peeping tom vote you’re going after.” El-Sayed: “I also want to take on Airbnb. I don’t know what Mike intends to do with his house in FL. But, you know, he said that he wants to rent it out. We can Airbnb this thing.” Rogers: “The doctor is not really a doctor. El-Sayed: I have a medical degree from Columbia University. If he has issues with my credentials, he can take it up with them. But it’s not about me, it’s about whether you can see your doctor.” El-Sayed: “He’s personally invested in a company that controls the real estate for the Saline data center. I should ask him: If he wants a moratorium, should the construction stop on his personal investment? Because I’d love it to. We need govt that is not bought off.” El-Sayed: “This is guy who has not been serious about providing people healthcare his entire career. What he has been serious about is making sure he can monetize his time in office. $14, two yachts, a McMansion in FL.” El-Sayed: “Weak, cowardly, won’t stand up until his poll numbers drop ... he has the audacity to do an ad looking at the drugs prices in Canada, expect he voted 4 times to keep you from buying the prescriptions drugs in Canada. It’s incoherent.” Q: “Is there anything Israel could do that would lose your support? Rogers: If they talked about using nuclear weapons.” … New Washington Post. Maine statewide races: US Senate 🟦Troy Jackson 50% 🟥Susan Collins 46% —— Maine Governor 🟦Hannah Pingree 49% 🟥Bobby Charles 36% ⬜️Rick Bennett 11% Reminder no Bulletin tomorrow because I’m off on Saturdays. We will be wrapping up fair season with probably the best one overall - the Fryeburg Fair in western ME on the NH border. Then we gear up for Halloween, which is a VERY big deal in our little historic neighborhood. We will be visited by many hundreds of kids from the area. I will be back with the next Bulletin on Sunday night recapping the weekend. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … The Norwegian Nobel Committee has once again denied Trump the Nobel Peace Prize that he has continued to demand in his second term. The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to South African anti-apartheid lawyer and Intl Criminal Court judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay. … The Nobel Committee recognized Pillay’s courage as a pioneering anti-apartheid lawyer in South Africa, as a judge in the South African Apartheid Tribunal, the Intl Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Intl Criminal Court. Pillay also led the recent UN Commission that determined that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. … Nobel statement: “Born into a family of Indian Tamil origin under apartheid in Durban, South Africa, Pillay became a lawyer and legal pioneer, confronting deep structural discrimination, segregation and exclusion. A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time.” … Pillay joked to the assembled crowd if they didn’t stop clapping she would share it with the American President. … Trump posted a statement from his lawyer David Schoen: “Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay. Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel. She conducted a phony ‘investigation’ claiming to find that Israel committed genocide and urging prosecution. Trump gave us the Abraham Accords, which the world said would be impossible and is now expanding them! He is making best efforts to end the Russia/Ukraine war, to stop Iran, the number one sponsor of international terrorism, and he is trying to rebuild Gaza despite the terrorists’ best efforts to control it. These are the kinds of things the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to recognize and reward!!!” … WSJ: “The US budget deficit climbed to nearly $2 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, deepening the federal govt’s persistent red-ink trend. The $1.993 trillion deficit was 12% above the 2025 level in nominal dollars. The US spent $7.4 trillion last year, up 6%, and it collected $5.4 trillion in revenue, up 3%. … The deficit also stayed high as a share of GDP, the metric that economists watch closely. Although the final fiscal 2026 GDP number hasn’t been released yet, budget experts expect the deficit to surpass 6% of GDP, compared with 5.8% in fiscal 2025. … CBO’s preliminary full-year deficit reading shows the country’s finances stuck in an unusual rut that alarms policymakers but hasn’t moved them to change course. 6-plus years into an economic expansion, the US is running annual deficits normally seen only during recessions and wars. … This year’s jump in bond yields makes the fiscal trajectory even more challenging, because it drives up annual interest costs on the $32 trillion publicly held debt.” … AP: “The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, the Pentagon said, a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after Pete Hegseth had described it as being ‘public.’ The Army announced this week that the execution would take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 after Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009. … Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice, said, ‘We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public.’ Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed and that more details would follow. … Hasan was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back by law enforcement, and he now uses a wheelchair.” Sen. Thom Tilis (R-NC): “Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting. Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.” Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA): “I absolutely support the sentence of death, but live-streaming executions is what jihadists do. America is better than that.” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA): “I think Pete Hegseth is frankly a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality all the while he’s running a department that is falling into chaos. The guy cannot run the military competently and is spending his time with this kind of obscene medieval spectacle.” Reason Editor Robby Soave: “I’m sorry but this is completely deranged. I sympathize with the thirst for vengeance, and Nidal Hasan certainly deserves to die for what he did, but a public execution is giving a terrorist exactly what he wants: publicity. They fantasize about being martyred like this, in front of a crowd (and a live TV audience???). It’s ISIS recruitment slop. One of the worst ideas in a long time.” Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-PA): “Us: we want housing, food, and gas that we can afford! Trump and Republicans: how about we livestream an execution?” … A 4th Ken Paxton tape has been leaked of him speaking to donors: “Cornyn is clearly not helping me. Cornyn clearly wants me to lose. He told a friend of mine, ‘Paxton’s gonna lose. We need to teach MAGA Republicans a lesson. It’s gonna be hard, but they need to know that their decisions have consequences.’ That’s what he’s trying to do. That’s John Cornyn.” … Punchbowl: “Texas PAC, the Senate Republican super PAC, is placing another $30 million in TV reservations on behalf of Ken Paxton. This will bring the Senate Republican leadership-backed PAC’s television spending in the Lone Star State to about $155 million. With streaming ads and mail, the group is closing in on $200 million of spending.” … NYT: “Since his first election to public office in 2002, Ken Paxton has grown his wealth through business investments and real estate purchases into a personal fortune with a reported value of up to $23 million. His assets now include multiple mutual funds, a cellphone tower and 15 properties across 6 states. … Paxton has rarely answered questions publicly about how he accumulated this wealth on a govt salary. His finances have been the subject of repeated investigations by local, state and federal authorities into alleged bribery, fraud and self-dealing. The issue has been a frequent line of attack from his political opponents, including James Talarico. … Under oath in 2014, Paxton told the federal lawyers that he had invested more than $400,000 in various companies. But between legislating and campaigning, he said he didn’t have time to track his investments. In fact, Paxton said, he could not locate stock certificates potentially worth $200,000. ‘I’m so busy,’ he said in the deposition, ‘I don’t always keep track of this kind of stuff.’ … The deposition also shed more light on how he defended himself against the securities fraud allegations, which he spent the next decade fighting. Paxton used phrases like ‘I don’t remember’ or ‘I don’t recall’ more than 200 times when addressing questions. He also tried to deflect to other men he invested with and to his wife, Angela.” … NYT: “Joseph diGenova, the man assigned by the WH to lead the investigation into those who investigated Trump, was walking out of Chuck’s Seafood near the beach in Fort Pierce, FL, when his cellphone buzzed. It was his boss, AG Todd Blanche. And he was spluttering mad. … “The AG, having soured on diGenova, was livid that he had lashed out at two prosecutors sent from Washington to help move the case along. Blanche ordered him to his office on Sept. 11 - or else. Assuming he would be fired, diGenova quit, dealing the latest blow to a troubled investigation central to the president’s vengeance agenda. … More trouble was to come. Soon after, a top diGenova deputy, Kurt Olsen, also quit. It turned out he had failed a polygraph test about his contacts with foreigners, which imperiled his security clearance. diGenova and others involved in the case found it difficult, and time-consuming, to meet the standards of evidence and jurisdiction needed to prove anything close to a conspiracy in a court of law. … Still, the pressure has not relented. The dozen prosecutors still pursuing the inquiry are fast-tracking narrower cases against some chief targets that could be brought quickly. Leadership of the effort has defaulted back to Washington, and is now being directly overseen by one of Blanche’s top deputies, Aakash Singh.” … Mediaite: “NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani fumed at ICE after agents shot a man in a car that also contained a 5-year-old on Thursday afternoon. ICE agents surrounded a vehicle in Marble Hill in northern Manhattan and fired multiple rounds into the vehicle. The man was shot in the neck and was taken to a hospital. He remained conscious and was in stable condition as of Thursday night.” … A visibly angry Mandami called a press conference: “This city wants ICE out. We want ICE out of our city. ICE out of our schools. ICE out of our hospitals, ICE out of our streets. ICE away from our kids. We want that because we want to keep the city safe. We do not need them to do so. All they do is terrorize the city.” “What happened today was an outrage. Today's shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known, which is that ICE operates with impunity, that they sow chaos and terror across our country, that they have killed far more of our neighbors than they could ever have claimed to save. This is an agency that must be abolished.” “There is no explanation for these tactics. There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a 5-year-old in it. There is no explanation. We are standing here so close to the site of where this actually took place. And look at how many people live right here. This is a residential neighborhood. We are right here by a subway.” “The pretext of ICE is, in their words, ‘to keep this country safe.’ How is it keeping everyone safe to have, as you just heard from the police commissioner, individuals wearing construction vests in masks with long guns. Residents have no idea if these are law enforcement agents or if they are simply attacking someone on the street. And when it comes to ICE, it begs the question, what’s the difference?” “I made clear to the president, to the secretary, our request that ICE agents leave the scene entirely, as well as the demand that ICE stop its enforcement actions in NYC. These actions are making the city less safe. They are making New Yorkers terrified. You are hearing from New Yorkers right now anguish, pain, anger at the fact that here in this city, the world’s city, that immigrants have to wake up every morning and not know if they can live the lives that they should be able to live and help to build this city.” … DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called a press conference to respond to Mamdani. The entire time he was flexing his fist on a rubber stress ball: “His words are dangerous and incite hostility.” “It’s shameful that we’re giving this particular case so much attention when this was a thug, an absolute worst of the worst.” Q: “A number of the agents are in plain clothes and the vehicles are unmarked. Do you believe it was clear to the subject that he was being stopped by ICE? Mullin: When you’re doing undercover investigation, you’re definitely not in a marked car and uniform.” … WIRED: “An ICE agent on the scene of a shooting in upper Manhattan has repeatedly been accused in federal court of unlawful arrests and using force during arrests in NYC and Minneapolis. … Footage from the scene shows a man in a high-visibility yellow construction vest brandishing a modified AR-15-style rifle with a pistol grip, sling, and holographic sights. That man, according to court documents, social media posts, and publicly available personal information reviewed by WIRED, is Brenden Cuni. … A review of federal court cases, social media, and other public records suggests that Cuni has repeatedly been at the center of illegal ICE street arrests in NY and beyond. Court filings accuse him of using a Taser on a handcuffed man, while activists have alleged he is one of the agents seen forcing a pregnant woman to the ground during a Minneapolis operation. … In recent months, federal judges have repeatedly found arrests involving Cuni unlawful. One judge called an arrest warrant he signed ‘fraudulent,’ while another said that video evidence contradicts his sworn account of an arrest; in a third case, the govt withdrew his sworn statements as inaccurate.” … NYT: “A former prosecutor forced off a high-profile murder case for peeking at the defense team’s strategy documents. A onetime gambling executive who promoted conspiracy theories about the Las Vegas massacre in 2017. A Florida activist who once served 20 days in jail for hacking a local elections system. … They are among the 130 lawyers who have recently joined DOJ’s short-staffed civil rights division as the Trump admin has struggled to fill the depleted ranks of a unit that was once a magnet for legal talent. Since early 2025, upward of 300 nonpolitical career employees, representing decades of experience, have left the division after its leader, Harmeet Dhillon, repurposed it to pursue Trump’s agenda. … As a consequence, the division has opened its doors to recruits, many of them conservatives, some with education and work histories that might have disqualified them from being hired in the past. Some have left a trail of hyperpartisan, conspiratorial and, in some instances, bizarre statements.” … MS NOW: “The Arlington County Board in VA filed a lawsuit against the Trump admin in an effort to block the construction of the President’s proposed triumphal arch in DC. Lawyers for the county also cite concerns around the project’s impact on the county and its residences, as well as on tourists. Arlington County is home to the Pentagon, as well as the historic Arlington National Cemetery. … From the lawsuit: “The Trump-Vance Administration has made it a priority to remake the physical landscape of the Nation’s Capital in President Trump’s image and based on his whims, destroying treasured public spaces in the process.” … NBC: “Some supporters of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement have begun to publicly turn against their leader, RFK Jr., and the Trump admin as a whole as they demand tougher crackdowns on food dyes and pesticides. … A scorecard released by MAHA activists, including former members of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign, claims the Trump admin broke more than 85% of its promises to MAHA on food, agriculture and environmental health. The makers of the scorecard include Dave Murphy, a former fundraiser for Kennedy’s campaign, and Charles Eisenstein, Kennedy’s former chief speechwriter.” … Former Kennedy campaign adviser Tiffany Cianci, a MAHA advocate who authored the scorecard: “We’re asking the Trump admin to deliver on even the most basic promises they’ve made to the MAHA movement, and we’ve seen over and over again not just a lack of interest in doing so, but a blatant slap in the face.” … Daily Beast: “Katie Miller is hosting lavish parties at her home in ‘MAGA utopia’ because she and her husband are ‘not welcome in public,’ friends have revealed. The MAGA podcaster and former DOGE adviser has been pulling out all the stops to entertain Trump’s inner circle. … Friends of Miller and her husband, WH deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, said she began hosting to avoid the hostility that greets high-profile Trump officials around town. But this hasn't made her a hit with all her guests, with one invitee admitting to the magazine they still ‘can't fucking stand her’ despite her hospitality. … One friend: “They need to do something to blow off steam because they’re not welcome in public. They can’t go to any venue without being assaulted.” … The Millers’ parties have so far attracted WH staffers, law enforcement officials, and Cabinet members. Guests have included the Rubios, the Hegseths, the Burgums, and Kash Patel with his fiancée, Alexis Wilkins. … Vanity Fair described parties featuring sake-squirting hibachi chefs, a mechanical bull, backyard pizza trucks, and bartenders serving cocktails. One of her children’s birthday parties included a petting zoo with donkeys and other animals. But not everyone sounded quite so enthusiastic about the hostess. One longtime Trump ally: “I’ll say I love her publicly, but the truth is I can’t fucking stand her. But if she asks you to go on the podcast, or come over for dinner, you say yes, because Stephen Miller is the second-most powerful person in the world.” Invite your friends and earn rewards If you enjoy Meidas+, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.