A federal court judge shut down Trump’s arch construction. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order, finding the eyesore would create irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and local governments and giving the back of the hand to his bogus national security argument. “[T]hese recent and unsupported attestations of security aspects of a structure that has been extensively discussed over the last year appear nowhere in the planning documents on which the project was reviewed and approved,” Chutkan found. “Indeed, they materialized, for the first time, when Defendants filed their opposition brief last week.” It does seem judges have had it with the lies and excuses about Trump’s monuments to himself.
Democrats must focus on healthcare. KFF tells us: “The economy was voters’ top issue in the 2026 midterms, and the cost of living — including the cost of health care — was a key driver of their decisions, as voters pointed to health care costs among their most pressing affordability concerns. Overall, about six in ten voters said they were ‘very concerned’ about the cost of health care, on par with concerns over affording gas and groceries. About two-thirds of voters in key battleground states who were ‘very concerned’ about health care costs said they voted for the Democratic Senate candidate, while about three in ten of this group said they voted for the Republican. This is a shift from 2024, when President Trump had a 10-point advantage.”
Democracy is more resilient than the fascists thought. Quinta Jurecic wrote that “the sheer normalcy of Election Day is nevertheless a victory for democracy in America—a hard-fought one, made possible by the remarkable efforts of election officials, civil-society organizations, and voters who rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to swing the vote for Republicans. The repudiation of Trump’s authoritarianism at the ballot box represents a long-overdue opportunity for democratic renewal. The fact that the American electoral system held up under extraordinary pressure is itself a major reason to be hopeful.”
Credit to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He blasted the threat to cut off search service if schools turned off AI. CNBC: “Google is playing defense on Tuesday after a political backlash to its new policy.” Riiight. But, “The company’s post didn’t explicitly respond to the claim that access to search requires use of AI.” Congress must regulate.
The Callais counterattack prevailed. “The lack of gains from redistricting reveals the extent to which Republicans underestimated the sheer frustration from voters of the party in power,” Politico reported. “And it raises questions about whether Trump and his political operation should have focused their efforts on resolving voters’ concerns instead of whipping votes in state legislatures last year, a handful of which rebuked them — and whether the efforts helped supercharge Democratic turnout in the impacted states as the issue became a national cause celebre for the left.”
More evidence of Callais backlash. Georgia data shows that “Black turnout, as a share of the electorate, surpassed 2024 levels. White turnout cratered, at below 2022 in both share and raw numbers.” They tried to disenfranchise millions, but they stirred a giant.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s warning should be heeded. “Donald Trump says he wants to work with Democrats,” she wrote. “We should force him to do that on the affordability and corruption issues that drove this election—or call his bluff. I’m ready to team up with any Republican who is listening to the American people. But if Congressional Republicans won’t join us to deliver relief for working families, Democrats will do it without them.” And force him to veto bills.
Polling of Jewish voters. Look at the data for yourself. It utterly demolishes the notion that Democrats have turned off Jewish voters, that AIPAC is effective, that unconditional support for Israeli is popular, and many other nostrums. Virtually everything Republicans and AIPAC are telling you about Jewish voters is garbage.
They have no one to blame but themselves. “Pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is set to enter the 120th Congress with fewer allies in Washington after a bruising election night for Republicans,” Politico reported. “More than 30 of the bipartisan group’s preferred candidates fell this week — marking defeat for AIPAC in over three-fourths of the competitive races that have been called so far where it backed an incumbent.” It overplayed its hand, misread the electorate, and bet on the losing MAGA movement and a psychotic president.
Having Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as House Judiciary Chairman is a major benefit of the midterms. Enjoy the crash class on the Constitution.
Too soon to tell, but there is hope. The midterms may signal “a generational setback for a Christian nationalist movement that just a few months prior was jubilantly celebrating its new influence over the White House and the nation,” Texas Monthly Magazine reported. “Christian nationalism may not have been explicitly on the ballot. But Anthea Butler, chair of the religious-studies department at the University of Pennsylvania, said it’s hard not to see Tuesday as, at least in part, a rebuke of its hard-line and exclusionary views.” It’s a start, at least.
