A nearly unanimous Supreme Court has granted New Hampshire’s emergency request to block the use of student IDs for voting in the November midterm elections.
The case raised a recurring theme at the high court about the propriety of judges intervening on the eve of political contests, against the familiar backdrop of GOP-backed voting restrictions purporting to ensure election integrity.
On Thursday, the majority said that the district court judge who ruled against the state failed to justify deviating from the general principle that federal courts shouldn’t alter election rules on the eve of an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing she “would not disturb a clearly justifiable federal-court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a State’s electoral processes.”
The Biden-appointed justice said she wasn’t as sure as the majority that the judge’s action falls under that general noninterference rule, known as the “Purcell principle.” She said the judge was trying to address alleged misinformation rather than change state law.
“When a federal court determines that material misrepresentations are being made about a State’s election rules, an injunction to prohibit that conduct does not contribute to public confusion, it prevents that very problem,” Jackson wrote in her solo dissent.
While New Hampshire’s federal representatives are Democrats, Republicans run the state government. Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill into law this year that prohibits the use of student IDs for voting.
A New Hampshire-based nonprofit called Coalition for Open Democracy sued the state over the law, which the group said needlessly burdens young voters under the guise of trying to solve the “non-existent problem” of nonresident voter fraud.
In a ruling earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante refused to block the law, called HB 323. But the George W. Bush appointee said related guidance from New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, went too far. Laplante said Scanlan overstepped in barring election officials from considering student IDs even as evidence under a “safety-valve provision” that lets voters prove who they are if they don’t otherwise have a proper photograph.
“The State has offered no independent justification for that broader prohibition,” wrote Laplante, explaining that such justification is needed even for minimal burdens on voting rights. He blocked enforcement of Scanlan’s directive to the extent it “prohibits or discourages election officials from considering student IDs as evidence of voter identity,” and he ordered the secretary of state to issue revised guidance for the midterms.
Laplante declined to halt his ruling, as did an appellate panel over dissent from a Trump-appointed judge. State officials then turned to the justices in Washington, arguing that Laplante’s order risks late-breaking confusion. The Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief supporting the state.
Opposing the state’s emergency application, Open Democracy said granting the application would be the chaos-inducing move. The group noted that Scanlan had already quickly complied with the order to provide revised guidance, and that his website “has told voters since the October 2 Order that supervisors may consider a student ID along with other evidence.”
That guidance is now the status quo, Open Democracy observed. Therefore, it said, granting the state’s application would “reverse the rules for a second time in a month.”
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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* An intensifying outbreak: “The Ebola epidemic that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year has achieved a grim new milestone, turning up in a third region of the African continent, the widest footprint of any Ebola outbreak to date. This week, health officials identified a new case in Abuja, Nigeria, more than 2,000 miles west of the outbreak’s epicenter in Central Africa. The news came the same day as the announcement of a ninth case of Ebola in the East African country of Kenya.”
* The latest in a series of key departures at the department: “Calley Means, a top aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced Thursday that he is resigning. … The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Means was unhappy about the White House dragging its feet on some of Kennedy’s policy ideas and blamed other administration officials for allowing special interests to have too much influence. The Journal was the first to report Means’ departure.”
* A prosecution worth watching: “Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged on Thursday in connection with what federal authorities alleged was a role leading a criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.”
* This report probably won’t be the final word on the subject: “President Trump called Elon Musk on Wednesday and asked him to lift restrictions on a military-grade version of Starlink in Ukraine that the SpaceX chief had throttled, U.S. officials said. The system was working more normally Thursday, shortly after their conversation, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. Some Ukrainian officials said the system wasn’t restored to full functionality but was working at higher speeds than under the cap.”
* The White House’s war on the free press is ongoing: “The White House this week launched new broadsides against the news media, blocking a reporter from serving in the pool covering the president and sending a letter threatening Politico over its coverage of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.”
* Another case worth watching: “Top Democrats and allied organizations filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against President Donald Trump and his administration over their attempts to stymie the midterm elections, including by removing voters from state rolls.”
* The White House won’t like this honor one bit: “The International Criminal Court and its embattled staff have won the European Union’s top human rights honor, the Sakharov Prize, an official said Thursday. The award came just days after the Trump administration announced sweeping new sanctions on the court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel.”
* A Washington Post investigation identified “at least 11” instances in which “government officials have discovered unauthorized users have gained access to Flock databases and searched them without permission, sometimes to track the locations of romantic partners.” The more common the abuses, the more intense the public backlash becomes.
See you tomorrow.
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Last week, PPP leader Najmi Alam reportedly said that if Sindh gets new administrative units, the Karachi mayor should be handed DHA and the cantonments. After 18 years of PPP rule in Sindh, this is not a proposal. It is a dare.
Let me do what Mr Alam apparently didn’t: count what the mayor already runs.
Murtaza Wahab heads the KMC, which includes the fire brigade, chairs the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation, and sits on the governing bodies of KDA, MDA and LDA. Around him sit provincial bodies like the SBCA, also in PPP hands. Mr Alam knows this machinery from the inside, having served as vice-chairman of the water board himself. So, in the spirit of a fair audit: name one institution among them that has become better under this mayor. I’ll wait.
The fire department. On the night of 17 January, a fire began at Gul Plaza at 10:14 pm. The first engine left at 10:27 pm. It burned for roughly 24 hours. More than 70 people died, and about 1,200 shops were reduced to ash, in the city’s worst fire since Baldia in 2012. And what does a city of 20 million-plus have to fight such fires? 35 fire stations, by KMC’s own count. In September, fire gutted the mayor’s own office at KMC headquarters. An administration that could not protect its own chamber from a kitchen short circuit now wants Defence.
The gutters. I’ll be blunt: the mayor cannot even keep a lid on a manhole. At least 22 people died in Karachi’s open manholes and drains between January and November last year, eight of them children aged ten or younger. In 2023, the toll reportedly rose to 68. The mayor says the city has 245,000 manholes and that it installed 88,000 new covers last year, leaving roughly 157,000 still to go. A cover costs around Rs700 in the market. After a toddler died, KMC blamed the BRT project, which blamed the water corporation, which said the drain wasn’t its jurisdiction. Karachi’s children keep falling through the gap between your institutions.
University Road. The Red Line was launched in 2022 and was meant to be done by 2024. The deadline slid to 2025, then 2026, and now sits at June 2027, on a road that carries one to 1.5 million vehicles every day. The first contractor was removed, and the FWO took over to finish the job. In August, the senior minister promised the road would be fully motorable by 15 September. On 27 September, he apologised and promised to complete it in two months. Ask any student at Karachi University or NED how that feels. Five years is not a project. It is a sentence.
Lyari. This is the PPP’s own stronghold. In July, four-year-old Shavez drowned in the Lyari River and a young man, Gulab, died trying to save him. Opposition leaders say the major drains remain choked despite a municipal budget of Rs63 billion and billions earmarked for cleaning. Water shortage and uncollected garbage in Lyari are complaints older than some of the councillors who campaign there. If you cannot deliver in your own heartland after 18 years, why should Karachi trust you with its most expensive neighbourhoods?
Now compare. I am not romanticising DHA. Its drainage has its own sins. But walk its streets and then walk Lyari’s lanes. The difference in sweeping, lighting, and basic upkeep is visible to anyone with eyes. Whatever you think of the cantonment boards, they deliver something the mayor hasn’t: maintained roads and cleaned lanes. Even the mayor appears to know it. When he promised DHA a 10 million gallons-a-day water pipeline, he called the Cantonment Board Clifton “very forthcoming” and brought in the FWO to build it. The man who wants to absorb the cantonments is already borrowing their capacity.
Mr Alam has asked voters in PS-110, the Clifton–Defence side of Karachi South, for their votes twice. He knows exactly what a well-kept lane looks like, and exactly how far it is from Lyari’s. The distance between the two is not geography. It is 18 years of PPP governance.
Defenders will say the mayor lacks the powers to deliver. Critics do argue that the 2013 local government law left Karachi’s mayor weak and gave provincial bodies like the SBCA and the waste management board the real control. But whose law is that? And the PPP’s other line is that the Gul Plaza lease dates back to MQM-era mayors: the chief minister blamed the mayor who approved the lease in 1991. You cannot plead powerlessness for today’s failures and ask for more power in the same breath.
Small administrative units are a legitimate debate, and the more local the unit, the more accountable it should be. That is why failed institutions should go to someone who can run them, not the other way around. Fix the manholes. Finish University Road. Clean Lyari. Then ask for Defence. And, Mr Alam, a modest invitation: you and the mayor are welcome to walk Lyari’s lanes this monsoon, with the cameras on.
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I recently came across a SUPARCO note saying Karachi’s built-up area has grown by about 32 per cent since 2010 and now covers more than 1,400 square kilometres. By my rough arithmetic, that’s about 340 square kilometres of new city in fifteen years. I wasn’t shocked. You don’t need a satellite to notice that the farmland and empty plots on the city’s edges have been turning into housing and roads for years. It’s still odd to see it written down as a number.
We talk about heat here the way we talk about traffic, as something to grumble about and get through. But in June 2015, temperatures touched 45°C and well over a thousand people died in Karachi in about a week. Power cuts made it worse, knocking out the pumps that bring water to our homes. Concrete and asphalt soak up warmth all day and release it slowly at night, so the city never properly cools. Trees and open soil used to help, and there’s less of both now. Add the humidity, which makes sweating far less effective, and a day can turn dangerous long before anyone announces a heatwave.
M Toheed, an urban planner linked with IBA, says Karachi has lost around 40 per cent of its green cover in about fifteen years. I’d be careful with that figure, since it still needs checking against proper land-cover data. But I haven’t heard anyone claim the city has become greener.
Hard surfaces don’t just hold heat; they also shed water. In August 2020, a record 230.5 millimetres of rain fell in a single day, beating a record that had stood since 1967. By the Sindh chief minister’s count, 47 people died in the city. Our drains were overwhelmed, and SUPARCO warns that building over natural ground makes a repeat more likely. We called it a freak event and carried on pouring concrete.
What bothers me most is who pays for all this. Toheed estimates that 62 to 70 per cent of Karachi lives in informal settlements, often in homes with tin or steel roofs and eight or more people inside. Picture that room at three in the afternoon, then take away the electricity. He named North Karachi, Ajmer Nagri, Pahar Ganj and Lyari as places where long outages are routine, with 10 to 14 hours a day in some neighbourhoods and up to 18 on Baba Bhit Island. In those homes, a working fan is not a small thing.
And it isn’t over. Earlier this month, K-Electric began cutting power in previously exempt areas, including Clifton and DHA, blaming an LNG shortage. Even the neighbourhoods that usually escape are now learning what the rest of the city already knew.
Women, children and the elderly get it worst. A man can step outside and sit somewhere breezy. His wife, his mother or a small child usually can’t.
Heat costs money too, though we rarely add it up. A labourer who can’t finish a shift earns less. A child worn out by the heat falls behind in school. One hospital visit can wipe out the savings of an already stretched family. None of this makes one dramatic headline, which may be why it gets ignored.
Part of this is a failure of oversight. The Supreme Court has repeatedly criticised the Sindh Building Control Authority for illegal construction and said at one hearing that officials allegedly took bribes. The mayor once told the court he controls only about ten per cent of the city. When nobody owns the problem, everybody can point elsewhere.
The fixes aren’t mysterious, just hard. Someone in government should be responsible for heat; Toheed notes other cities have appointed heat officers, and we haven’t. The 2017 Heat Wave Management Plan reportedly expects the power company to keep supply going during heatwaves, and he alleges that it doesn’t. That claim deserves a proper answer. Solar could help too, but he estimates only about one in ten households has it, because so many families rent, can’t afford panels, or have no roof to put them on.
And we should stop treating trees and parks as leftover land. A neighbourhood with shade and open ground is simply easier to live in, and cheaper to run, than one that is all rooftops.
None of this will cool Karachi overnight. I’d just like the next satellite report to have better news.
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There are several threads to pull on when it comes to the federal charges unveiled Thursday against Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas. One of them is the Supreme Court’s narrowing of public corruption charges in recent years.
Although the Democrat and her co-defendants face several counts, including drug charges related to a marijuana business, one allegation that stands out, from a Supreme Court perspective, is the claim that Lucas conspired with others to commit “honest services fraud.”
That count alleges that she was part of a scheme “to defraud and deprive the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia of their intangible right to the honest services of” the state senator “through bribery.”
According to the indictment, one purpose of the alleged scheme was for Lucas “to use her official position as a state senator of the Commonwealth of Virginia to enrich herself by soliciting and/or accepting payments, gifts, and other things of value from others (including conspirators).” It alleged that she “sought opportunities to invest in and benefit from anticipated recreational marijuana licensing.”
Responding to the charges Thursday, Lucas wrote in a statement posted to social media that her case represented the authorities bringing “the full weight of the federal government” against “an 82-year-old great-grandmother.” She recounted that she “grew up under Jim Crow” and has “seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I’m not stopping now.”
She has not yet been arraigned or entered a plea. All criminal defendants are presumed innocent, and Lucas and her co-defendants will have a full opportunity to contest the charges, which the government bears the burden of proving at trial beyond a reasonable doubt. Most cases don’t go to trial.
But when it comes to the public corruption aspect of the case, the high court’s defense-friendly jurisprudence lurks in the background. A former federal prosecutor recently lamented that the court “has interpreted anti-corruption laws in ways so narrow as to effectively legalize flat-out corruption. These decisions put whole categories of politicians’ conduct beyond a prosecutor’s reach. It’s an absurd result. But we live in the Court’s world.”
While it’s too early to say how the Lucas case will turn out, the court’s narrow view of corruption laws would have almost certainly been part of any serious internal discussions at the Department of Justice about how to charge it. Similarly, it will likely be something defense lawyers closely scrutinize as the case takes shape and they prepare pretrial motions to dismiss.
That doesn’t mean the government can’t succeed in bringing public corruption-related charges. And sometimes the issues that arise on appeal don’t materialize until trial, so it’s impossible to know the full range of legal challenges at this point. But if the government obtains corruption-related convictions here, then it will stand out for doing so despite recent Supreme Court precedent.
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Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* In Ohio’s closely watched gubernatorial race, JD Vance publicly urged Republicans to stop criticizing GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s abhorrent attack ad, but a growing chorus of conservatives is ignoring the vice president’s appeal.
On Thursday morning, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio denounced the ad featuring the estranged mother of Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee, calling it “deeply, deeply troubling.” The governor added, “It’s wrong to run this ad. I would urge Ramaswamy’s campaign to take this down.”
The comments came a day after Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who is running for state auditor, similarly said during a local radio interview, “I probably wouldn’t run an ad like that, but every candidate gets to make their own decision.”
For his part, President Donald Trump defended the ad and said it doesn’t have “anything to do with” Ramaswamy, despite the fact that the Republican candidate’s campaign created and aired the ad.
Trump on Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother:I don't know anything about it. It's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much. But I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek.
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2026-10-21T20:57:12.498374172Z
Hours after the president’s comments, the latest Fox News poll found Acton narrowly leading Ramaswamy, 50% to 48%, though the poll was conducted before the latest controversy.
* Speaking of Ohio, in the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, the aforementioned Fox News poll found former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown with a 5-point advantage over appointed Republican incumbent Sen. Jon Husted, 52% to 47%.
That said, Brown is facing a daunting new challenge: Politico reported that a super PAC funded by the cryptocurrency industry is dumping an additional $9 million into the effort to defeat him, raising the group’s total spending in the race to a staggering $55 million.
* Though Mississippi was assumed to be a safe red state, Trump’s political operation confirmed that the president will hold a rally Monday in the hopes of boosting Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who’s facing an unexpectedly tough challenge from local prosecutor Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee.
The news coincides with an Axios report that said Senate Republicans are so concerned about the Mississippi race that it’s “weighing a cash infusion” for the contest.
* In Minnesota’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan did not qualify to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa when she graduated from college, as she had previously claimed, but Phi Beta Kappa soon after provided evidence of her membership in the academic honor society, defusing the story.
* And it appears New York’s gubernatorial race is slipping away from Republicans: The latest Quinnipiac University poll found Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with a double-digit lead over GOP nominee Bruce Blakeman, 55% to 41%.
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In July several Democratic senators wrote to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano with a specific concern. The agency he leads, they wrote, has sent “unsolicited” messages to Social Security recipients, pushing misleading statements about Donald Trump.
“You are misusing official resources to heap praise on him,” the letter said, adding that the Social Security Administration appeared to be “bombarding Americans with blatantly partisan emails” touting the president.
If Bisignano saw the letter, he apparently didn’t care.
On Thursday morning, with less than two weeks remaining in the election cycle and with early voting underway across much of the country, the Social Security Administration sent out yet another political message, which began:
Last year, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cuts, which included a historic tax cut for America’s seniors. That law also created Trump Accounts, individual investment accounts for America’s children designed to grow with the U.S. economy and build long-term savings.
Today, nearly 70 million Trump Accounts are open for all American children. … Trump Accounts are one of the most significant investments in the next generation of Americans in our nation’s history, by giving every American child a stake in our country’s success and a strong financial foundation for the future.
The relatively brief email referenced the president’s surname 10 times.
It also misnamed the Republicans’ domestic policy megabill: At Trump’s insistence, the GOP package was named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republicans later decided that name wasn’t doing them any favors, so party officials were told to start referring to the package as the “Working Families Tax Cut Bill” or the “Working Families Tax Plan” as part of a clumsy rebranding, which the Social Security Administration has apparently embraced as part of its election-season messaging.
Making matters worse is the broader pattern. In early July the Social Security Administration sent out an unsolicited email celebrating Republican tax breaks — it referred to Trump, by name or title, six times in a five-paragraph email — which followed related political emails to Social Security beneficiaries in July 2025 and August 2025.
Americans need to be able to rely on ostensibly apolitical federal agencies for accurate information, free of partisan taint. When the public sees Trump rant online or during a media interview, most probably realize it’s best to approach his nonsense with skepticism.
But when people get unsolicited official statements from the Social Security Administration, they should be able to have some confidence that the agency isn’t trying to lobby them with political messaging.
And yet, here we are, watching the SSA join a list of politicized agencies, being used as partisan tools in the White House’s political toolbox, creating a dynamic in which many Americans are likely to approach the next message they receive from the government about Social Security with some skepticism.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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At a distance, it’s tempting to think Donald Trump would want his defamation case against the BBC to move forward as quickly as possible. The president, however, has apparently been reluctant to sit down for a deposition in his own lawsuit.
Over the summer, attorneys for both sides negotiated a schedule, which included plans for an Oct. 16 deposition. That didn’t happen: The Republican’s lawyers recently canceled the session and said he was unavailable “due to other matters of national importance.”
Left unsaid was that the “matters of national importance” were campaign rallies in red states as the president tried to rescue the careers of Republicans struggling in their campaigns due to his historic unpopularity.
Lawyers for the British broadcaster, dissatisfied with this state of affairs, went back to court to ask the judge to force Trump to set a firm date to submit to questioning in the case. This proved effective, as U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett on Thursday morning ordered the plaintiff to sit for a deposition by Dec. 11.
An Associated Press report noted that Lett went on to say that if Trump failed to comply with the new deadline, the court could penalize him, possibly by dismissing the lawsuit altogether.
While Trump has earned a reputation as a president who loves to file outlandish lawsuits against major news organizations, this gambit against the BBC was weird even for him.
Late last year, Trump sued the British broadcaster for $10 billion over a news program that focused on the Jan. 6 attack. Defending the litigation, Trump told reporters that the network “literally put words in my mouth,” adding, “I guess they used AI. … They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn’t say.”
That wasn’t quite right. For one thing, the BBC didn’t use artificial intelligence. For another, the network did air a program that edited Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, connecting two clips that were delivered roughly 50 minutes apart, but the news outlet didn’t manufacture words or phrases out of whole cloth.
Nevertheless, the editing sparked a controversy that led to an internal investigation, and the BBC ultimately fired some senior officials and issued a written apology.
Trump, however, apparently doesn’t want an apology. He wants $10 billion.
The president has filed a great many dubious lawsuits against independent news organizations, nearly all of which have ended in failure, and given what’s publicly known about his case against the BBC, there’s no reason to assume it will fare any better.
As for why Trump appears reluctant to be deposed, his lawyers haven’t offered any explanation, though it’s worth emphasizing that the president has a rather embarrassing track record when it comes to his performance in depositions in other, unrelated cases — a point one would expect his attorneys to be aware of.
Another point of contention in the BBC case is the network’s interest in speaking to former special counsel Jack Smith, whom Trump’s lawyers want to exclude. That matter has not yet been resolved. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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Those who spend enough time reading about current events on social media will inevitably come across the “writers’ room” joke. The basic idea is that our civic lives during Donald Trump’s presidency have become so ridiculous — and at times, almost literally unbelievable — that they more closely resemble a satirical television show than actual political events in the world’s preeminent global superpower.
The joke came to mind reading The Washington Post’s latest report on developments inside Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon.
According to the reporting, the hapless defense secretary decided earlier this year that he wanted to decorate his office with one of the floor globes said to have been used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II. That did not turn out well. From the article:
Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.
Pentagon officials denied The Washington Post’s request for a photo of the globe or to examine the artifact in person, but The Post separately obtained images of the damage.
In a written statement, the Army acknowledged that the globe had been damaged and said it occurred during an “attempted move” in February. (“Attempted” is apparently a key detail: After Hegseth’s staff damaged the priceless artifact, they abandoned the plan to relocate the 30-inch globe.)
If I’d seen this in an episode of “Veep,” I would’ve quietly chided the writers for concocting a ham-fisted metaphor about an unqualified defense secretary, in the midst of a failed war, literally breaking the world.
And yet, in this case, there is no writers’ room. This is just our reality.
The Post went on to note that there are experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History who know exactly how to ensure safe transport of treasures like these. But since the history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves. From the article:
It is unclear why Hegseth’s team did not wait for experienced help to move the artifact during the partial government shutdown, which ended the same day the globe was damaged. An “apparent lack of patience,” said one person familiar with the situation, appeared to be a factor.
The episode became instant fodder for gossip and jokes inside the Pentagon, with some decrying the apparent brashness and affinity for World War II nostalgia that they characterized as common themes throughout Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary.
That this leaked is itself evidence of Hegseth’s unpopularity inside the Pentagon he ostensibly runs.
What’s more, let’s note that this incident came on the heels of the Trump administration firing the director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home after he objected to a White House request. Team Trump wanted to give an Eisenhower sword to King Charles as a gift, and when the library’s director, Todd Arrington, said it would be illegal to give away U.S. property like this, his nearly three-decade career came to an abrupt end.
Team Trump also, incidentally, wants to paint the entire exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, turning the building white.
The moral of the story: Maybe these guys should stop messing with Eisenhower?
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Da ‘maranza’ a marziano il passo è breve: tanto ci sono estranei i ragazzi delle periferie urbane e delle cosiddette ‘seconde generazioni’ di nuovi italiani, quanto se arrivasse da Marte uno studioso culturalmente preparato e freddamente razionalista, che cosa direbbe di questo grande disordine sotto il cielo?
Esaminando la marea montante di commenti sulle violenze di strada a Milano e sulla stretta repressiva varata dal governo, il maranzanologo alieno sorriderebbe subito divertito per la compiacenza dei nuovi Bakunin nostrani che ripetono ai borghesi indignati il ritornello della canzone di Fabrizio De Andrè sul Maggio francese: ‘anche se voi vi credete assolti/ siete per sempre coinvolti’. Non è come la querelle tra rapper milionario e aspiranti tali, ma è pur sempre una questione di Fede(z) rivoluzionaria. Altrettanto facilmente un marziano individuerebbe il punto debole dei ragionamenti di chi plaude all’inasprimento del controllo sociale con i militari nelle strade, all’ampliamento dei poteri di polizia e a una legislazione che prevede pene giudiziarie più severe.
Se non credete agli ET fate una ricerca con l’IA: la repressione non funziona perché è evidentemente destinata a generare nuovo disagio, per non dire dei costi assolutamente sproporzionati ai risultati. Questo è il dato che si può evincere guardando al periodo storico degli ultimi 30-40 anni con la lente specialistica degli studi di settore che, soprattutto nel mondo anglosassone, sono stati fatti sul campo da sociologi e criminologi di varia estrazione: la repressione ad ampio spettro sociale non ha mai funzionato tout court, ma ha soltanto creato un’altra voragine di debito pubblico.
E a chi rispondesse citando casomai casi specifici italiani, per esempio la durezza nei confronti dei vertici delle organizzazioni mafiose e dei gruppi terroristici, bisogna pur ricordare che la mafia o le Br contavano su un certo quale consenso diffuso ma non hanno mai avuto origine e radicamento in quello che potremmo definire, in senso lato, un movimento del nuovo sottoproletariato urbano.
Il nostro maranzianologo alieno smonterebbe anche la fasulla premessa ideologica dei tifosi della repressione, quando sostengono che l’inclusione si sia rivelata una fandonia, senza portare a conforto di questa tesi nessun dato credibile: è evidente a chiunque che una vera e propria battaglia culturale per l’integrazione e per l’educazione dei giovani non è mai stata tentata seriamente da nessun governo e da nessun potere locale, ché anche la sinistra su questo ha colpe storiche enormi.
Su scala locale a Milano, per esempio, dieci piazze pedonalizzate e ridipinte nei quartieri più degradati valgono anche soltanto una delle speculazioni edilizie per ricchi che il Comune ha varato? Oltretutto la vicinanza causata dalle gentrificazioni non ha fatto che accentuare i contrasti e causare nuovi risentimenti: l’ex scalo ferroviario rivestito a lusso con la Fondazione Prada e i nuovi palazzi nel quartiere ribattezzato ’SouPra’ sono a due passi dal Sud-Est vero del Corvetto; la nuova area ‘hipster’ di Nolo confina con le zone contese tra le gang latine e i giovani delle famiglie musulmane, e via elencando.
Si trovano montagne di soldi per le armi, montagne per un Ponte, montagne per l’edilizia di lusso, montagne per le Fashion Week, montagne persino per coccolare i borghesi con i vizi culturali, ma a qualcuno è mai venuto in mente di finanziare un piano straordinario per la riqualificazione culturale delle periferie dove abitano i ‘maranza’? Quanto costa una bella opera nel Tempio della lirica, o una mostra d’ArtiStar, o la stagione del Teatro d’arte per tutti che mostra una certa amnesia storica? E quanto è stato investito sulle vere emergenze culturali ed educative nel territorio?
Persino Giorgia Meloni, nel presentare il suo ennesimo decreto legge da pugno di ferro, ha ammesso di ritenere necessaria la riqualificazione delle periferie, e ci sta poi persino che abbia in mente di preparare qualche intervento-passerella alla Caivano magari proprio nella Milano di Sala, sai che beffa!
Sia quel sia, alla fine il maranzanologo alieno consiglierebbe: siccome sul piano della follia delle diseguaglianze nel vostro mondo sembra che ci sia ben poco da fare, al momento, nonostante la marea di poveri, veri e potenziali (dato che i debiti degli Stati sono decollati a livelli stratosferici mentre pochi individui più ricchi diventano sempre più sfacciatamente tali!), cominciate a fare qualcosa di concreto almeno per riportare la cultura e l’educazione al centro di una nuova politica.
L'articolo Consigli da marziano sui ‘maranza’: la ricetta fasulla della repressione si smonta in poco proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
“Ci sono immagini che speravamo di non vedere mai nelle nostre comunità” è l’espressione di biasimo che in questi giorni più accomuna i politici di centro destra e di centro sinistra nel commentare i disordini sociali di Milano finiti sui media e sulle prime pagine dei giornali. I fotogrammi in discussione ritraggono sequenze di giovani incappucciati, bambini di dieci anni mascherati, giovani stranieri che si scatenano contro vetrine e forze dell’ordine e corrono in mezzo a lacrimogeni e fumo che sale dalle strade.
Sono immagini che turbano. Non solo perché ritraggono scene di violenza in strada che spaventano. Ma anche per il loro livello di selettività. Fino a un paio di giorni fa, gli scioperi che stanno sconvolgendo il meridione erano deliberatamente occultati. Pochissimi sanno che a Pisa ha sfilato un corteo di ambulanze delle pubbliche assistenze con le sirene accese per denunciare l’aumento dei costi del carburante che rischia di compromettere la continuità dei servizi del trasporto sanitario volontario, mentre in un trafiletto di un paio di agenzie di stampa l’opinione pubblica è stata informata che nelle isole Savlbard l’acqua di rubinetto non si può più bere a causa dello scioglimento del permafrost dovuto al riscaldamento globale che rilascia fortissime concentrazioni di metalli pesanti nell’acqua e sotto il quale giacciono 1700 miliardi di carbonio immagazzinato.
Una immagine che gira in questi giorni sui social media presenta una ‘scala dell’indignazione’ che fotografa con precisione l’importanza data dai media alle diverse notizie da comunicare all’opinione pubblica. In cima alla scala ci sono le vetrine rotte con maranza e ragazzini di dieci anni mascherati a contorno, per fare intenzionalmente risaltare, in contemporanea, la pericolosità e l’infantilismo che anima i nuovi movimenti. In seconda posizione sulla scala molto staccata dalla prima ci sono le notizie sul pericolo imminente di invasione della Russia. Seguono su un gradino sempre più marginale le notizie sull’omicidio di Garlasco e sullo sfruttamento degli animali negli allevamenti intensivi. Ormai derubricata in ultima posizione con la messa in disparte del dibattito sulla transizione green è la crisi climatica causata dalla mano criminale dell’uomo a cui giornali e televisioni da messi ormai invitano a farci l’abitudine investendo su condizionatori e assicurazioni contro di danni climatici.
La domanda più urgente da porsi in una società dove il controllo dell’informazione è ormai diventato un monopolio in mano a pochissimi gruppi economici e persone è come mai in prima pagina non è stata pubblicata la notizia che in tutte le città sono partiti cortei pacifici con migliaia di studenti a sostegno dei docenti che chiedono una retribuzione adeguata per il lavoro educativo svolto nel paese con gli stipendi per l’istruzione più bassi di Europa. Tra le notizie dei media è di mercoledì l’informazione che gli inquirenti hanno sequestrato documenti per ipotesi di corruzione sul ponte di Messina. Perché, oltre a intervistare Salvini per informare i cittadini sul nuovo decreto di fermo dei minorenni, non è stato chiesto al ministro di spiegare atti alla mano cosa sta accadendo nello Stretto: un’opera faraonica dal costo stimato di quasi 14 miliardi di euro che gli osservatori indipendenti sempre più dubitano sarà mai realizzata. E perché non si parla delle misure da adottare per affrontare la più grande contaminazione ambientale registrata dal dopoguerra in Italia: quella da PFAS l’’inquinante eterno’ di cui la metà della popolazione veneta presenta valori fuori media nel sangue?
Si può naturalmente seguire con interesse il dibattito in cui i vari politici Meloni, Renzi, Sala, Crosetto e chi più ne ha più ne metta, si prodigano nel rimarcare l’urgenza della repressione nei confronti dei balordi che hanno spaccato qualche vetrina in centro di Milano. L’immagine plastica che salta agli occhi in questi giorni però va detto con franchezza non sono i disordini milanesi, ma il fatto che in Italia è completamente saltato in aria il rapporto di interdipendenza tra informazione libera e democrazia. Ogni sistema che si possa dire democratico ha bisogno di uno spazio pubblico in cui discutere dei fatti, affinché i cittadini possano prendere posizione sia nell’esercizio del voto che nelle azioni da mettere in campo per partecipare alla vita civile del paese.
Nell’ultimo indice di Reporter senza Frontiere, la situazione in cui i cittadini vivono in una condizione informativa accettabile è passata dal 20% all’1% della popolazione mondiale del 2026, mentre l’Italia è scesa dalla 49° alla 56° posizione tra le nazioni con informazione sana.
Nell’esercitazione Nato Steadfast Noon 2026 iniziata il 13 ottobre in Italia sono stati impiegati aerei capaci di trasportare le nuove bombe nucleari a caduta libera nella versione B61-12 da 50 kilotoni (la bomba lanciata sulla popolazione inerme di Hiroshima aveva per dare una comparazione una potenza di 15 kilotoni). Diversi esperti di controllo degli armamenti sostengono che per precisione, capacità di penetrazione e flessibilità queste nuove bombe sono progettate non solo come deterrente, ma anche come strumento da primo attacco. Nessun approfondimento sul tema è recuperabile dall’informazione dei media dominanti. Quando i cittadini non sanno cosa accade, perché i media tacciono, o selezionano le informazioni per creare consenso e compiacere il potere e i grandi gruppi di interesse, la democrazia muore.
L'articolo La scala dell’indignazione vede in cima le vetrine rotte, poi Garlasco. Silenzio sulle armi nucleari proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Many of Donald Trump’s recent campaign rallies have been interrupted by protesters, but as MS NOW reported, the president’s Wednesday night rally in South Carolina, intended to rescue appointed Republican Sen. Darline Graham, featured an unusually high number of disruptions. From the article:
The effort was an uphill battle from the start, and it didn’t get easier. … Roughly five minutes into Trump’s speech, security escorted at least four protesters out of the event, with that number rising to at least 11 by the end of the 93-minute remarks. About 20 minutes into the speech, an attendee appeared to punch a protester on the floor directly right in front of Trump. As those involved were escorted out, Trump remarked on the altercation.
“Wow, thank you, that was great, man,” Trump said. “I love — I watched that. Man. You know I watched that, I saw that. That was incredible. Wow.”
The president added, in apparent admiration, “Who was the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch?” After identifying the pugilist who hit a protester, Trump said, “You know, you reminded me of Evander ‘The Real Deal’ Holyfield,” referring to a retired professional boxer.
The Republican went on to celebrate the fact that the protester “got whacked.”
Trump effusively praises his supporters for punching a protester:Who's the guy that threw that punch? You reminded me of Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield. That guy stood up and he just got whacked. Man! Evander, he wants your autograph! Don't fight him, Evander, don't fight him!
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) 2026-10-21T23:53:16.857158105Z
If this sounded a bit familiar, it’s not your imagination. In June 2017, after then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders argued that the president had never “promoted or encouraged violence,” The Washington Post published an analysis that characterized the claim as “laughable,” adding, “Even if you don’t believe Trump has technically incited violence (which he has been sued for), he clearly nodded toward violence at his campaign rallies. Sometimes it was veiled; other times it was unmistakable. Sometimes he was talking about self-defense, but it was clear he was advocating for a ‘form of violence.’”
In February 2016, for example, Trump offered some advice to supporters in Iowa. “[I]f you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of him, would you? Seriously, OK, just knock the hell,” he said. “I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees; I promise, I promise.”
A month later, in response to a protester at a rally, the then-candidate said, “Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court, don’t worry about it.”
Around the same time, after one protester was punched by one of the future president’s supporters, Trump declared, “Maybe he deserved to get roughed up.”
To be sure, many Americans are probably familiar with Trump downplaying Jan. 6 violence, but this is qualitatively different: A decade ago, the Republican offered tacit support for his followers assaulting protesters, and Wednesday night in South Carolina, he did it again, reinforcing concerns that he sees political violence as a legitimate response to detractors.
The post As Trump celebrates violence against protesters, it’s like 2016 all over again appeared first on MS NOW.
By any fair measure, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has long been at roughly the center of the Democratic Party’s mainstream. Few observers could credibly accuse her of being a conservative Democrat along the lines of former Sen. Joe Manchin or of being a progressive firebrand trying push the party to the left.
I mention this because Clinton took a policy position this week that’s likely to raise some eyebrows.
Expanding the Court is the moderate position
— Thor Benson (@thorbenson.bsky.social) 2026-10-21T17:47:34.491Z
In the latest episode of “High Stakes,” a limited series from podcast host Kara Swisher and Clinton, the discussion turned to possible Supreme Court reforms, and the former presidential candidate raised some practical concerns about term limits on Supreme Court justices — before expressing support for an alternative solution to the status quo.
“I think, instead, we should seriously look at expanding the court while the Democrats are in power,” Clinton said. “You know, it used to be that you’d have one justice for each circuit. We now have 13 circuits, we should have 13 justices. So I would be in, you know, favor of looking at that and see if we could make it work.”
The former secretary no longer holds public office, so it’s not as if she would be in a position to vote on such a proposal, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: When Hillary Clinton expresses public support for Supreme Court expansion, it’s evidence that a reform idea has reached the political mainstream.
She’s not alone. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina is also widely recognized as a prominent voice representing the Democratic establishment — the 17-term incumbent has spent much of his career as a member of the party leadership in the House — and in late August he also publicly endorsed expanding the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13.
“I think we are in a position now that calls for some significant actions taken by the Congress and we ought to expand,” Clyburn said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that “13 is a pretty good number. A baker’s dozen, it would be a good number to have on the court.”
Clyburn’s comments came just a few weeks after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention and voiced support for “dramatic” Supreme Court reforms.
“The Supreme Court, the conservative right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, has become basically a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party,” the New York Democrat said, adding that the justices seem to believe “the status quo is acceptable. It’s not.”
Jeffries didn’t elaborate on which specific reforms he had in mind, though the Democrat, positioned to be the next House speaker if his party reclaims the majority, said there are “a variety of different options that are on the table” and he’s not prepared to “foreclose any single one of them.”
If it seems like leading Democratic voices are embracing similar stances with increasing frequency and enthusiasm, it’s not your imagination. Just two weeks before Jeffries made his comments, former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the National Urban League’s annual conference and said, “We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices, like we have 13 district courts.”
A month earlier, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro voiced support for “radical reform” of the Supreme Court, which came on the heels of Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia agreeing that “all options have to be on the table” when it comes to changing the high court.
In the coming months, there is likely to be plenty of debate among advocates about the kind of changes to pursue and the political viability of the competing ideas. It’s also a safe bet that many reformers will disagree about the details. But the bottom line remains the same: In Democratic politics, the conversation has shifted rapidly to how, not whether, to reform the Supreme Court.
As many in the party start eyeing the 2028 presidential race, don’t be surprised if this issue becomes a litmus test for many Democratic voters.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Hillary Clinton joins growing chorus in support of Supreme Court expansion appeared first on MS NOW.
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