Monday, November 9.

“Whatever we sayWe're always telling each other exactly what we want them to know...We are always telling each otherThe truthEven when We're lying”

— Merrit Malloy

President Donald Trump said Sunday he was only kidding about making UFC boss Dana White his next White House press secretary after announcing on social media he had offered his close friend the job.After his party's deep losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump shook up his administration on Friday by replacing his chief of staff and followed up on Saturday with a post that said he had offered the press secretary job to White. On Sunday, Trump said it was "just a little fun.""I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy," Trump said, speaking to reporters in Florida before departing for the White House. White is set to visit him at the White House on Monday. The historic wins by Democratic candidates, including in areas that Republicans had held for decades, led to the GOP losing control of both chambers of Congress.Trump on Friday named longtime aide Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Miller is the architect of the administration's hardline immigration policies. Trump does not currently have a press secretary after briefly giving the job to Katie Zacharia, who faltered behind the lectern and in interviews, and left the post after five days. Trump administration Nov 7 UFC head Dana White says he will meet with Trump Monday on White House press secretary offer Trump administration Oct 16 Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just 5 days on the job

1 dead, at least 12 injured after elderly driver plows into group of cyclists in North Carolina

1 killed in Eisenhower Expressway crash Sunday morning

President Donald Trump said Sunday he was only kidding about making UFC boss Dana White his next White House press secretary after announcing on social media he had offered his close friend the job.After his party's deep losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump shook up his administration on Friday by replacing his chief of staff and followed up on Saturday with a post that said he had offered the press secretary job to White. On Sunday, Trump said it was "just a little fun.""I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy," Trump said, speaking to reporters in Florida before departing for the White House. White is set to visit him at the White House on Monday. The historic wins by Democratic candidates, including in areas that Republicans had held for decades, led to the GOP losing control of both chambers of Congress.Trump on Friday named longtime aide Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Miller is the architect of the administration's hardline immigration policies. Trump does not currently have a press secretary after briefly giving the job to Katie Zacharia, who faltered behind the lectern and in interviews, and left the post after five days. Trump Administration Nov 7 UFC head Dana White says he will meet with Trump Monday on White House press secretary offer Trump Administration Oct 16 Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just 5 days on the job

Nvidia opens investigation after report CEO Jensen Huang was target of foreign intelligence

CEO reportedly ‌had close relationship ‌with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to ‌BeijingNvidia said ⁠on Sunday it "is initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort".The New York Times reported in October that Donald Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence that Huang ‌had a close relationship ‌with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to ‌Beijing. Continue reading...

Republicans just created a major 2028 problem for themselves

Donald Trump acted and governed like the abusive alcoholic father, oblivious to the needs of the family; the 2026 shellacking was akin to a spouse and kids finally finding the strength to kick him to the side of the road, and better for it. The nation's biggest problem now is that the current GOP is the bar that never cut Trump off and likely can't if it wanted to, thus bearing responsibility for everything he wrecks going forward.That's a Republican problem that will extend two years into the future with few good solutions. Because Trump will not stop metaphorically drinking, he won't acknowledge he has a problem, and too many GOP primary Republican voters will agree.How does that add up?The historic 2026 election represents the ultimate tour de force against all things MAGA, at least with respect to general elections. When Texas goes entirely blue? MAGA is dead as a national political party. It will remain a powerful GOP minority in part because MAGA was always an identity, not a set of principles; thus, the core cannot give up on it lest they give up on themselves, admitting they might have been wrong all along. Won't happen, not with the core. The result is a Faustian bargain for all 2028 GOP candidates. They have to show enough loyalty to Trump to keep the hardcore primary vote (remember, Ken Paxton didn't appoint himself; Republican primary voters put him there), and yet the Trump stench, any whiff, would seem to be sufficient to preclude a win in November.Take a moment to enjoy the fact that any GOP candidate eyeing the presidential nomination must take this past election into account and must do so now, not eight months from now, having let the rough edges dull a bit. Candidates have been announcing earlier and earlier in the last generation of cycles. Tuesday's zeitgeist simply cannot be ignored, nor easily worked around.How about some quick candidate housework?Vance is skunked for good, certainly as a possible president. Absent a fast resignation, which almost surely won't be coming, he's still stuck to Trump, and we now know that such association spoils faster than milk on the counter.Rubio? Less so. But he, too, almost surely needs to resign to distance himself, and the moment Rubio starts rebuking all the policies that led to where we stand, even including Trump's ever-puffing presence, Rubio will likely be banished to the wilderness by an unforgiving, tempestuous president scorned. That's where you want to be headed into the general in 2028, but you won't be there to enjoy it: knee-capped in the parking lot by that 25% of the nation for whom MAGA- dead or alive- remains their essence.There are some intriguing possibilities, in the sense that they might win the primary and at least avoid some Trump stench in the general. Possibilities arise primarily from a noticeably decreased list of available governors, less involved in day-to-day Trump support.There is Ron DeSantis, newly unemployed, who has challenged Trump in a primary before- something few others can claim- but then supported Trump just enough to call himself a Trump supporter before the 2024 election. Laugh out loud, though: Ron DeSantis may wiggle himself into winning the primary, but he sure doesn't sound like the guy voters just demanded. He is not the anti-Trump. Not that any of them are, but we're just spitballing here.Perhaps the best-positioned former governor is Brian Kemp of Georgia, who famously stared Trump down in 2020 and never fully ingratiated himself with MAGA-proper, meaning, again, he might have at least a respectable chance in 2028 but, again, won't get there for a hilariously deserved proper reason. Trump never forgets, and MAGA-lite won't allow it. See how this plays out? It is the same for just about everyone.The irony is that it would not necessarily have to be this way, but for that one ongoing problem. Symbolically, Trump ain't about to sober up, change his tune, start acting and governing more in line with what voters clearly demanded — including an end to the corruption and an end to the abject juvenility voters faced every day coming from the White House. If we know anything about Trump, it is that he has one solution to every problem — brute force. In Trump's mind, if brute force isn't working, it's because he's not using enough. Thus, GOP candidates must come to grips with the fact that Tuesday's electoral shockquake owes itself to a nearly unforeseeable level of Trump resentment; and despite the stupifyingly obvious message, because Trump is so uniquely Trump, the result only assures us more Trump. He is not about to create more room for candidates to maneuver by backing off anything, even his march to economic war with Canada, march to real war with Iran, none of it. Candidates will be forced to take their medicine in search of Trump's blessing in the primaries only to overdose in the general.Like any proper historic election, the ramifications from Tuesday will ripple out for years, six years in at least seven Senate seats, but the biggest waves, those closest to the tempest, must be navigated without capsizing in the next six months. It is impossible to conceive of a more deserving group. It also gives Democrats a lot of landscape to explore approaching the general, perhaps a more committed progressive than might otherwise be realistic.Sure, a lot of people will still be doing CPR on the remains of MAGA, but as Tuesday proved, that body has been brain dead for a while. Not that they noticed; it was Trump, after all, punch-drunk, throwing haymakers that land only on GOP moderates.That's an encouraging and fairly sober assessment. Want a touch of champagne?Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former editor at Occupy Democrats, author, attorney, consultant, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at [email protected]

Pope Leo on 3-country tour, weeks after lung cancer surgery

Pope Leo is in Argentina after wrapping up his visit to Uruguay. The 71-year-old pope arrived in Buenos Aires, where he was greeted at the airport by President Javier Milei and a military band. Chris Livesay is traveling with the pontiff and has more.

Trump set to lurch further right, claiming US took 'giant step back' in elections

Trump poised to double down on immigration crackdown and refuse concessions to new Democratic majority in CongressDonald Trump set the stage for his administration to lurch further to the right this weekend, claiming the US had taken a "giant step back" by widely rejecting his party.The US president's hardline aide, Stephen Miller, will begin as White House chief of staff on Monday. He will also meet with Dana White, CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, after offering him the job of press secretary. Continue reading...

Democrats' midterm rout means nothing if they can't answer one burning question

What's next?There are few things more stirring than the Kansas sky at dawn, and the election results on the morning of Nov. 4 rolled like thunder across the prairie. We are less than a week out from that historic election, in which a Democrat from the Sunflower State was elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1932, and many of us are still basking in the promise of a new political day.The short list of upheavals: Both houses of Congress were resoundingly wrenched from GOP control in a stunning rebuke to the administration of President Donald Trump. Kansas Republicans lost their supermajority in the Kansas House, effectively ending their single-party ability to override the governor's veto. Democrats won the majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years, and Kansan Cindy Holscher will likely join them, pending results of a close-race audit.Pundits will dissect the 2026 midterm for years to come, but I doubt their analyses will add much to what we already know: that the spectacular unpopularity of Trump and his corrupt and inhumane actions drove us to the polls with a renewed sense of purpose.The economy was killing us, as anybody who's pumped gas or bought groceries in the last six months knows, but affordability wasn't the only reason most of us voted for change. What we shared was a collective sense of moral outrage over a clumsy and ill-advised war with Iran, a deadly and sadistic immigration policy, a federal government so rife with corruption it resembles organized crime, and the incoherent blustering and brazen indecency of Trump himself. We longed for a return to decency, competence in government, and the progressive ideals that had shaped America since the end of World War II.Not all of us voted alike, I know.But when I use the collective, I'm speaking for the majority of voters, in Kansas and across the nation, who came together in the unlikeliest of circumstances. It is rare that I'm able to claim part in a majority, but the fact that I can now is a testament to why political analyst Charlie Cook called the midterm a "unicorn election" in rural America.Now that the unicorn has been verified as an uncommon but real part of the political taxonomy of the nation, it is time to survey the terrain. There are two years remaining in Trump's second term, the Supreme Court is largely sympathetic to him, and there are still two months to wait before the new Congress is sworn in.So, what's next?The danger is that this new era will be shaped by what it opposes instead of what it hopes to achieve.Coming together to fight a common threat to democracy is a noble thing. Without that kind of collective effort, no would-be authoritarian would ever be stopped. But now the election is over; it is not enough simply to resist Trump's vision of America.We must have our own vision.And that takes leadership.If somebody presses me to define leadership, I'm likely to say, "I know it when I see it," a joke that references Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's 1964 remark about pornography. I'm likely to make a joke of it because whenever anybody starts using the word "leadership," they're often talking about themselves, and that makes me nervous. None of the best leaders I know ever refer to themselves in that way, or wrote a book about leadership or gave inspirational seminars in how to be a leader.They just led.There is a thread connecting the best leaders in American history, a durable but winding political sinew that stretches back to the founding of the country. That sinew is the effort to advance, in equality and prosperity and the pursuit of happiness, the human condition. For all of us. I've talked about some of these leaders in my columns before, especially Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower. In retrospect, fighting slavery or battling fascism might seem like simple choices, but few choices are uncomplicated in the fever of current events.Consider Teddy Roosevelt, who came to Kansas in 1910 to talk about the "New Nationalism." In a speech at Osawatomie, the former president, a Republican, mentioned Lincoln often as he addressed a crowd filled with Union veterans of the Civil War. Roosevelt urged better wages for workers and the end of government protections for businesses."At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress," Roosevelt said.Roosevelt advocated an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage for women, insurance for the unemployed and the elderly, and a bracketed income tax. Roosevelt's Progressive Party lost, but the ideas stuck.In 2011, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, went to Osawatomie. At a speech at the high school there, he picked up the plea for the middle class that Roosevelt had made a century before."This is the defining issue of our time," Obama said. "This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Because what's at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement."Obama was speaking just a few years after the Great Recession, the longest and deepest economic slump in 70 years. Obama noted that for his "New Nationalism" speech, Roosevelt was called a socialist and even a communist. But the same things that Roosevelt railed against in 1910 were still problems in 2011.Inequality, he said, distorts democracy."It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions," Obama said, "and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder."Fifteen years after Obama gave that speech, the rich have stadium-sized PA systems while the rest of us whisper.Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, gave more in political contributions for the 2026 midterms than any other donor in American history, according to an analysis by The New York Times. That superlative in spending is for a non-candidate contributor in a single election cycle. Musk's disclosed political donations to state and federal political groups amounted to $474 million since Jan. 1, 2025. Those contributions went to Republican-aligned PACs, and half of them were spent in Texas, where Musk has a Tesla factory and launches his SpaceX rockets.Musk must have been particularly frustrated by last week's election, because Texas elected Democrats to the U.S. Senate and all statewide offices.But the fact that a single individual can pump half a billion dollars into an American election in an attempt to influence the outcome should be a source of national outrage. Such lavish giving was made possible by the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which ended longstanding restrictions on outside political contributions.That Musk's millions made little difference in the midterms seems a civic miracle, or at least a testament to the power of whispers when combined. Personally, I haven't been able to stand the sight of those wedge-shaped stainless steel Tesla trucks since he wielded the DOGE chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year.It was an absurd act, a bit of political theater about slashing bureaucracy, but it had something that other MAGA antics didn't. It was memorable. I suspect that in time the chainsaw burlesque will come to symbolize the clownishness and danger of the second Trump administration.While the midterms seem to have dealt the MAGA movement a crippling, if not fatal, blow, as Trump has become politically radioactive, they have also introduced uncertainty into the Democratic Party.With big wins should come big change.The old Democratic leadership — Chuck Schumer in the Senate, for example — might not suit a party renewed by a historic victory. If the symbol of MAGA is a chainsaw, then the symbol of the Democratic Party during the Trump era is a sternly worded letter.Schumer, who is 76, seems too timid for the task ahead.Articulating a new vision for America while holding Trump and his administration to account will require not just confidence, but boldness. That the Democratic Party failed so badly in 2024 by allowing Trump a second term is reason enough to take a hard look at the established leadership. Schumer ought to be asking his imaginary typical middle-class couple on Long Island, Joe and Eileen Bailey, about whether it's time for him to step aside. Since they're fictional, I can answer for them.The answer is yes.The question is not just who is bold enough to lead us out of the Trump era, but who has the courage and vision to help us escape a trajectory that has eroded American democracy and deepened inequality for decades."The historic nature of this election cannot be overstated," observed historian Heather Cox Richardson the day after. "It is a rejection of Trump, who insisted voters should imagine he was on the ballot. But more than that, it is a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s: the idea that some people are better than others and have the right to rule."Our current system of checks on presidential power was the result of reforms instituted by Congress in the 1970s after the abuses of Richard Nixon infuriated the nation. But a docile GOP-controlled Congress has failed to use the tools available in Trump's second term, even though Trump's offenses are legion.When the new Congress is sworn in, on Jan. 3, 2027, it will be up to them to use those tools, including the War Powers and Ethics in Government acts. It will also be necessary to create new laws to prevent the kind of chaos and corruption that has marked the Trump era. In addition, there will be a dizzying array of challenges facing lawmakers, topped by ending the war with Iran, bringing down prices for food and fuel and curbing ICE.In addition, and perhaps most crucially, these things must be accomplished in a competent and even-handed manner, with no hint of retribution but with a full commitment to accountability. This might mean impeachment, but in the service of justice and not revenge.Our new Congress must not only demonstrate good judgment and a fealty to law; it must not simply articulate an enthusiastic and humane vision of the future; and it must not merely be satisfied with the partisan divisions of the past. It must repair a government while healing a nation. It must act, not merely for the good of any one party, but for the benefit of all.As Roosevelt said in Osawatomie:"The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so long as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens."Leadership isn't about power, but about the wise use of power.So, what's next?Readers will recognize that I have borrowed this phrase from Aaron Sorkin's television series, "The West Wing," which ran for seven seasons, ending in 2006. In it, Martin Sheen plays fictional Democratic president Jed Bartlet, whose signature phrase, after one problem was solved, was "what's next?"The Sorkin series is fictional, but it is also aspirational. It articulates a vision of how government should work on behalf of average Americans. Much of it is about the use and abuses of power.The Democratic Party has an opportunity to begin the rebuilding of government on competence and compassion. What's next is what is now unexpectedly in reach. In addition to the obligation to repair democracy's foundation is the chance to work for those things that most Americans want and desperately need. That includes universal healthcare, protecting Social Security, and shoring up voting and other constitutional rights. It means providing meaningful protections to vulnerable populations among us, especially the poor and migrants and those who peacefully live or love differently. Finally, it is an opportunity to renew America's global commitment to freedom by defending our allies, honoring our promises and promoting democracy abroad.So, what's next?It's the promise of America.Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: [email protected].

Man arrested after shootings kill 1 and injure 3 others on Winston-Salem State University campus

Prince Harry spotted in low-key appearance at market town's Remembrance Sunday memorial service

The Duke of Sussex spent his first Remembrance Sunday back in the UK at a town service in Brackley while his family, the King and brother Prince William, attended the national service at the Cenotaph

On TV

Nothing airing worth remote control today. The screen can rest.

New Music

No new drops today. Go rediscover something in your old playlists.

In theaters

No new releases hitting theaters today. Your popcorn can wait.

Launching today

Nothing launching today. Every rocket is staying grounded and behaving.

Useless Fact

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

The loonie

CAD → USD

0.7086

▼ 0.0063

CAD → EUR

0.6356

▼ 0.0012

Today In History

2004 — Swedish Writer Stieg Larsson Dies Before Millennium Series

Swedish writer and activist Stieg Larssondied from a heart attack in Stockholm, a year before The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first installment in his internationally acclaimed Millennium series, was published

1996 — Holyfield Defeats Tyson to Regain Heavyweight Title

Evander Holyfield scored a technical knockout of Mike Tyson to win the heavyweight boxing championship for a third time. How much do you know about boxing? Scott Harrison/

1989 — Opening of the Berlin Wall

Long a symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961 and eventually extending 28 miles (45 km) to divide the western and eastern sectors of Berlin, was opened by the East German government on this day in 1989

1985 — Garry Kasparov becomes youngest male world chess champion

Garry Kasparov, who was 22 years old, defeated Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest male world chess champion

1984 — Release of Horror Classic A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street was released in American theatres, introducing moviegoers to the villain Freddy Krueger; considered a horror classic, it spun off a number of sequels

1953 — Cambodia's Independence from France in 1953

Cambodia became independent from France

1943 — 1943 Creation of UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created by a 44-nation agreement

1938 — Kristallnacht: Nazi Attacks on Jews in Germany and Austria

Beginning on November 9-10, 1938, a period of Nazi-orchestrated violence and destruction against Jewish people, property, and institutions erupted across Germany and Austria. This event, known as Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass", resulted in the burning of synagogues, the looting of Jewish businesses, and the deaths of at least 91 Jewish people.

1923 — The Beer Hall Putsch - Hitler's Failed Nazi Uprising

The Beer Hall Putsch led by Adolf Hitler ended after 16 Nazis were killed on a march toward the Marienplatz in the centre of Munich, Germany. Hitler's failed attempt to overthrow the Weimar government.

1923 — Alice Coachman Becomes First Black Woman to Win Olympic Gold

Alice Coachman, the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal, was born

1922 — Einstein Awarded 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922

Albert Einstein was named the winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect; the Nobel committee had delayed awarding the 1921 physics prize until 1922

1922 — Dorothy Dandridge Nominated for Best Actress Oscar

American singer and film actress Dorothy Dandridge was born in 1922. She was the first Black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

1888 — The End of Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel Murders

Jack the Ripper's infamous killing spree in the Whitechapel district of London's East Endcame to an end

1877 — Birth of Indian Poet and Philosopher Muhammad Iqbal

Indian poet and philosopher Sir Muḥammad Iqbāl—who was known for his influential efforts to direct his fellow Muslimstoward the establishment of a separate Muslim state, an aspiration that was eventually realized in the country of Pakistan—was born in Sialkot, India (now in Pakistan)

1799 — Napoleon's Rise to Power in 1799 Coup

The Coup of 18–19 Brumaire began in Paris, marking Napoleon's rise to power and the end of the French Revolution

This is today, boiled down to the essentials. The full stash lives at logicalchaos.ca. Go get lost in it.