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News for the public, not the powerful.
Are Americans Walking Away From the Republican Party Just Before the Midterms?
Gallup just dropped a number that should have every Republican in Washington sweating. 50% of Americans now say they’re Democrats or lean Democratic. Only 39% say that about the GOP. That 11 point gap is the biggest Democratic lead since early 2009. At the end of 2024, Republicans were up by four. Gallup talked to 3,000 adults in all 50 states and DC, with a two point margin of error. And it’s not just Gallup. NBC’s polling average has Democrats up nine in the race for Congress, 52 to 43, their biggest lead yet. Forecaster Nate Silver says “every indicator is bad for Republicans,” except the outside money. So what’s Trump’s answer? He’s promising $5,000 to every adult if the GOP holds on, and he told an Ohio rally last week they’re going to win big. Republicans are also screaming socialism because seven congressional candidates are backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. They’re even pinning that label on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who doesn’t claim it. Here’s the thing. Polls don’t vote. People do. When one party’s left with bribes and billionaire cash, the only thing that beats it is you showing up.
Why Is the Post Office Arming Guards From a Firm Accused of Human Rights Abuses?
A Raw Story investigation found the Postal Service is putting armed private guards in mail facilities across America. The contractor is Prosegur, a Spanish security giant. Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act confirm the contract, but the government blacked out the price. The postal police union says nearly 1,000 armed guards now work at least 55 facilities, approved for nearly 40,000 hours a week. Union director Frank Albergo says placement follows headcount, not crime. Chicago has just 11 active postal police officers, yet one suburban plant is getting 12 armed guards. Postal police get at least 1,440 hours of training. Armed guards nationally average about 40. “They’re just basically giving people guns without any training,” Albergo said. A 2022 inspector general report found 30% of Prosegur’s contractors lacked proper security clearance. A Charlotte union president says a guard shoved a postal worker down and punched her in the face. Norway’s ethics council urged its giant wealth fund to dump Prosegur over alleged abuses of Indigenous people in Brazil. Postal officials insist this has nothing to do with the election. Prosegur didn’t respond. The Post Office lost $2.5 billion last quarter, yet it found millions to replace union cops with rent-a-guards. That’s privatization with a gun on its hip.
Is a Murky Gunfight on the Rio Grande Becoming Trump’s Excuse to Hit Mexico?
Mexico’s president wants proof. On Sunday, Trump’s ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, claimed US Coast Guardsmen were fired upon near the Rio Grande in Texas. Coast Guard officials told Stars and Stripes the first shots came from the Mexican side on September 26. President Claudia Sheinbaum answered Monday at her daily news conference. “We asked for all the evidence because we have no evidence,” she said. She’s still waiting. Meanwhile, the US has already sent some 500 troops to the border, according to Mexico News Daily. This doesn’t come out of nowhere. The Trump administration has threatened military strikes inside Mexico against the cartels, and Johnson’s been leaning on Sheinbaum’s government to go along. In June she told him publicly that ambassadors must respect a country’s internal politics. And in April, a car crash in Chihuahua reportedly killed two CIA agents Mexico says it never knew were operating there. We’ve seen this movie before. In 1964, a murky report of shots fired in the Gulf of Tonkin gave us the Vietnam War. When a government claims it was attacked, show us the evidence first. Troops second.
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FBI Whistleblower Breaks Silence, Says Trump Demanded a Probe of Peaceful Protesters
Her name is Jill Fields. She was a supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, and NBC News has her whistleblower complaint. Fields says Trump watched footage of anti-ICE protesters with megaphones. They were warning neighbors about immigration raids, explaining their rights, and telling them not to open the door without a warrant signed by a judge. The FBI had already looked at it and declined to investigate. Then, she says, the White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to go after them anyway. One official told her why. “The President wants this investigation.” She also says Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, ordered a probe of protest activity outside a federal building. Supervisors were told not to put orders in writing. Agents were pulled off active cartel cases to put on a show for the president. Fields refused to take part and resigned. Her complaint says the whole episode chilled the workforce and warned others that raising constitutional concerns could cost them. The Justice Department denies it all, saying it upholds the First Amendment and investigates conspiracies to impede federal officers. Telling your neighbors their rights isn’t a crime. A president aiming the FBI at people who do it is how police states get built.
Did Trump Just Offer Up Los Angeles and San Diego While His Crowd Cheered?
Monday night in Nebraska, the president of the United States stood before a cheering crowd and said this about two American cities. “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” More than five million Americans live there. And the crowd applauded. Trump was trying to explain away the higher prices you’re paying because of his war with Iran, calling them a small price to pay. California lawmakers were furious. By Tuesday morning the cleanup crew was out. The White House’s rapid response account called reporters buffoons over a Los Angeles Times headline and insisted Trump meant America’s fighting to stop Iran from ever being able to nuke those cities. Communications director Steven Cheung called it a media freakout and bragged that Iran’s been left with no navy, no air force and no money. CNN’s Daniel Dale agreed a viral paraphrase got Trump’s meaning wrong, but even he said you’d need to speak Trump rally language to follow it. Here’s what no spin can fix. A president talking about American cities getting wiped out shouldn’t need a translator. The White House didn’t apologize. It attacked instead. And that room didn’t go quiet. It cheered.
How Did a Disease America Wiped Out in 2000 Push New York Into an Emergency?
Governor Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency Monday over measles. New York has 108 cases as of October 3. Only seven are in New York City. 92 have hit since mid-July in rural communities across 18 counties where vaccination rates are low. Her order lets pharmacists, paramedics and midwives give the vaccine and lets nurses order tests. Next door, it’s far worse. Pennsylvania has passed 1,000 cases, with 198 people hospitalized and five dead. It added 106 cases in the past week alone. It’s the biggest outbreak any state has seen in more than 3 decades, in America’s worst measles year since 1991. Pennsylvania’s health department says 99% of the infected weren’t vaccinated. The chair of New York’s Senate health committee blames “a decrease in childhood vaccines driven by misinformation.” Governor Josh Shapiro puts it squarely on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spent years sowing doubt about vaccines and only now calls the measles shot safe. Two doses are 97% effective. This is what happens when cranks run public health. Children pay for it. If your family’s shots aren’t current, fix that this week.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, October 6, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
