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SUMMARY:
This week Scott is joined by returning guests Leslie Nuss and Dr. Rob Stone. The show opens with a discussion of the Cornell fraternity rape case and the broader culture of elite impunity it reflects, moving through the LSU Damien Shanklin case, the Brock Turner comparison, and a tangent into Stanford’s eugenics history before noting IU’s own string of fraternity cease-and-desist orders. From there the conversation turns to the FlyDubai hijacking attempt over Saudi Arabia and how it’s being used to justify further escalation in the stalled Iran war, then to Trump’s reported offer to sell weapons to China even as he withholds Taiwan’s arms package. The show moves into a long stretch on Pete Hegseth — his “State of the Force” address, the officer purge, his Christian-nationalist Office of Religious Affairs, and Project Meridian’s handoff of defense policy to Musk and Palmer Luckey — before pivoting to AI, covering the industry’s voluntary self-policing accord, a string of rogue AI incidents at federal agencies, and a Princeton researcher’s demonstration that AI can crack ballot secrecy in Georgia. The back half of the show opens as that voting-security discussion gives way to encouraging Senate and House polling for Democrats, paired with reminders about Indiana’s registration deadline and early voting window. The conversation then covers Trump’s taxpayer-funded campaign ads and the Hatch Act questions they raise, the Jack Smith Senate hearing and Eric Schmitt’s on-camera gaffe, and a run of climate stories (Lake Mead’s record low, California’s Kelvin wave, a historic El Niño). The show closes with Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike and its ripple effects on Indiana’s death penalty debate, then a grab bag of Indiana news: competing property-tax schemes, Governor Braun’s gas-tax suspension timed to Election Day, his public-access-counselor pick, Mayor Hogsett’s broken ethics pledges, and Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith’s appearance on Tim Pool’s podcast amid the Indiana GOP’s “OK sign” firing controversy.
Guest info:
Leslie Nuss: https://www.facebook.com/nussforus
Dr. Rob Stone: https://medicareforallindiana.substack.com/
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:04:12 - Opening: The Cornell Rape Case and Fraternity Culture
00:16:24 - The FlyDubai Hijacking and the Iran War Standoff
00:29:45 - Arms Sales: Egypt Aid, China, and the Taiwan Weapons Freeze
00:34:28 - Hegseth’s “State of the Force” Address and the Military Purge
00:41:57 - Project Meridian and the Militarization of AI
00:45:06 - AI’s Self-Policing Accord and a String of Rogue AI Incidents
00:52:07 - Voting: AI Ballot Privacy and Election Interference Threats
01:02:16 - Midterm Polling and the Case to Vote Early
01:05:58 - Trump’s Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Ads
01:12:12 - Jack Smith’s Senate Hearing and the Eric Schmitt Gaffe
01:18:04 - Climate: Lake Mead, the Kelvin Wave, and a Record El Niño
01:25:38 - Capital Punishment: Tennessee’s Botched Execution and Indiana’s Death Row
01:34:31 - Indiana Taxes: Property Tax Schemes and the Gas Tax Suspension Gambit
01:44:00 - Braun’s Public Access Counselor Pick and Hogsett’s Broken Ethics Pledges
01:51:12 - Beckwith, Tim Pool, and the OK-Sign Firing
01:59:51 - Wrap-Up and Sign-Off
NOTES:
Rape Culture
What We Know About the Cornell Rape Investigation (NYT)
Tompkins County’s DA reopened the case of a Cornell student who says seven men raped her over nearly seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024; he declined to pursue it at the time.
She reported it to Cornell police that November. Prosecutors said her statement didn’t establish force or incapacitation, and her lawyer says no investigator contacted her again.
Cornell’s Title IX process let some of the accused submit “reflection papers”; Cornell says sanctions also included expulsions and suspensions, but her lawyer says only two men were expelled.
Her lawsuit against the men, Cornell, her sorority and the fraternity says she was pressured into snorting ketamine, and that one man invited others to join via the fraternity’s Snapchat group.
Ithaca’s mayor proposed barring permits for Cornell events until it reforms its policies. The accused men’s names and photos are spreading online; none have been charged.
New York’s governor says state’s AG will oversee Cornell rape investigation, removing case from DA (AP)
Gov. Kathy Hochul removed Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten from the Cornell case and appointed AG Letitia James as special prosecutor, saying new revelations had undercut public faith in his handling of it.
Van Houten had reopened the case days earlier but still defended dropping it in 2024, saying her first statement didn’t allege forced drugging, incapacitation or force.
Under pressure, Cornell agreed to bring in outside lawyers to review its own handling of the allegations.
Lawyers for two of the accused men deny any assault; one says his client never touched her.
At a student forum, a sophomore said her own assault report last year got little follow-up: “We can’t be treating these cases only with care and attention after it catches national news.”
Fraternities are incubators of sexual assault and other violence. Why is USC defending them? (LA Times, from 2021)
Studies cited in the column find fraternity men are three times more likely to commit rape than unaffiliated classmates, and most campus gang rapes are tied to fraternities.
Sorority women are 74% more likely to be raped than other college women.
Universities have a financial motive to look away: Greek alumni donate four times more than unaffiliated peers, and most U.S. senators and Fortune 500 CEOs were fraternity members.
Historian Nicholas Syrett says fraternities are “protected not just by their race but by their privilege,” since members tend to come from wealthier families.
Schools cast frat violence as “individuals” rather than a systemic problem. Ibram X. Kendi notes the double standard: whole communities get blamed for gang violence, while frat assaults are treated as aberrations.
Former Warren Central football player being investigated for alleged rape at LSU (IndyStar)
Louisiana authorities are investigating LSU defensive end Damien Shanklin, a former Warren Central star and Indiana’s top 2024 recruit, over a female student’s report that he raped her in October 2025.
LSU’s Title IX process found him responsible for “forcible rape” and suspended him for a year, but on appeal a judge cut the penalty to probation, letting him stay enrolled.
The East Baton Rouge DA and LSU police opened criminal probes only after the woman went public on TikTok, saying “LSU does really protect their athletes.”
Per ESPN, she alleges Shanklin sent her $1,000 not to press charges and that his mother asked her the same.
Shanklin’s attorneys say he maintains his innocence. LSU says it followed its Title IX policy, and Shanklin hasn’t played this season.
Sigma Nu becomes fifth fraternity put on cease and desist in September (IPM)
IU placed Sigma Nu on cease and desist for alleged hazing, making it the fifth IU fraternity shut down in September alone.
The others were Theta Chi and Delta Tau Delta (Sept. 16–17), then Beta Theta Pi and Pi Kappa Phi (Sept. 25).
IUPD logged “hazing with a substantial risk of bodily injury” at Sigma Nu on Sept. 20; the case is going to university officials for review.
Cease and desist requires chapters to halt all activities and disband pending investigation.
It’s not Sigma Nu’s first offense: IU suspended the chapter in 2017 for alcohol violations and hazing, and it was rechartered in 2022.
Middle East
Terror in the Air
What happened on the Flydubai flight? How it turned into a fight for survival (Times of London)
The Omani first officer on Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed captain Smit Machchhar mid-flight, sending the Boeing 737 Max carrying 174 passengers into a violent 30-second dive over Saudi Arabia.
The wounded captain unlocked the cockpit door, and passengers forced their way in, subdued the co-pilot and tied him up with headphone cords; one said the co-pilot was “trying to destroy the controls.”
Two off-duty Flydubai pilots riding along for the return trip took over, stabilized the jet and landed at Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, with its rudder visibly shredded.
The co-pilot is in Saudi custody. No motive has been established, and Israel’s Channel 12 reports no sign he was directed by Iran or any other country.
Passengers continued to Tel Aviv on a replacement plane, where Netanyahu greeted one of the men who helped subdue the co-pilot.
‘Radicalised’ cockpit attacker talked of ‘killing Jews’ (Australian Financial Review)
Netanyahu says the Omani co-pilot “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” and anonymous Israeli officials say his social media “talks about killing Jews.” None of it has been publicly substantiated yet.
A fellow pilot told Israel’s Channel 16 the co-pilot joined Flydubai only eight months ago and described him as a religious zealot.
A regional official told AP that investigators from Israel, the UAE, Oman, the US and Saudi Arabia have ruled nothing out, from terrorism to mental illness.
Israelis are asking why an Omani pilot was allowed to fly into Israel at all, since crews must come from countries that recognize Israel and Oman doesn’t. Channel 12 reports Shin Bet had let dozens of Omani pilots fly in.
A possible intelligence failure is a political threat to Netanyahu weeks before Israel’s election, on top of claims he ignored warnings before October 7.
FlyDubai Attacker Had Been Banned From Flying by Oman for Radical Views (WSJ)
Oman had previously banned the co-pilot, identified by people briefed on the investigation as Hamam al-Hammami, from flying over concerns he’d adopted radical views.
Flydubai hired him anyway and put him on its Dubai–Tel Aviv route. It’s unclear whether Oman ever shared its concerns with other countries or airlines.
A senior adviser to the UAE’s ruler and Netanyahu both now call the incident terrorism. The UAE is leading the investigation, and Israel hopes to question him.
Aviation-security analysts call it a major failure. An Israeli official says Israel has long pressed Dubai to tighten security on Tel Aviv flights.
Flydubai has suspended its Dubai–Tel Aviv flights until further notice.
Iran War
Trump says Iran will be hit ‘very hard’ if it is behind copilot who tried to crash flight to Israel (AP)
Israeli intelligence officials are joining the co-pilot’s interrogation, and Israel has asked that he be transferred to their custody. It’s unclear whether the UAE, which claims jurisdiction, will agree.
Netanyahu says it’s “too early to say” whether Iran was involved, and his office wouldn’t tell AP how he knows the co-pilot was radicalized.
Asked whether Iran was linked to the co-pilot, Trump said “based on what I’m hearing, is yes,” without explaining why, and warned Iran would be “hit, very hard.”
Iran says it received an official US response to its latest peace proposal but hasn’t disclosed what it says, and mediators are still working toward a deal.
Trump told Time he won’t accept Iranian proposals he “wouldn’t have approved a year ago” and left open resuming bombing after the Nov. 3 election.
Rubio orders visiting Iranian UN delegation to leave NYC ahead of schedule (AP)
Per two US officials, Secretary of State Marco ordered Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi and his UN delegation to leave New York Monday, ahead of their planned departure.
Araghchi had stayed behind after President Pezeshkian left, ostensibly for indirect talks with the US on reopening Hormuz and ending the war.
One official said Rubio decided the Iranians had “overstayed their welcome” after weekend talks with Qatari mediators made little progress.
Iran’s UN delegation denies being expelled, saying it left on a schedule given to the State Department on Sept. 17 and calling the US account “baseless.”
US sends third aircraft carrier to Middle East amid stalemate in Iran war (Guardian)
The US is sending a third carrier group to the Middle East: the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group plus the USS Makin Island amphibious group, carrying about 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines.
That could put three carriers in the region by late October and push the US naval presence above 20,000 sailors and Marines, plus hundreds of aircraft.
Trump originally promised the war would last weeks. It’s now in its eighth month, and this would be the second time this year the Navy has had three carriers in the region, a level not seen before April since 2003.
Asked if the unpopular war could hurt Republicans, Trump said “it’s possible,” then claimed it “should help, because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Military
Arms Sales
Rubio waives human rights restrictions to release $320 million in military aid to Egypt (AP)
Rubio waived a human rights restriction on $320 million in military aid to Egypt, citing Egypt’s “helpful role” as a mediator in the Iran war.
The money is part of Egypt’s annual $1.3 billion in US aid and goes toward buying US-made weapons.
Congress attached the condition over Egypt’s human rights record; the State Department’s own reports cite credible accounts of torture, arbitrary arrest and restrictions on expression.
The waiver is routine under both parties: the Biden administration issued one in 2024, citing Egypt’s help on Gaza.
Trump Offered to Sell Arms to China, U.S. Ambassador Says (NYT)
US Ambassador to China David Perdue said on Fox News Sunday that Trump asked Xi Jinping whether he’d like to buy American weapons; Perdue didn’t say how Xi responded.
The White House says there are no plans to sell arms to China, and the State Department notes US law prohibits it.
Meanwhile, Trump is still withholding a $14 billion congressionally approved arms package for Taiwan, which he has called a “very good negotiating chip” with Beijing.
Rubio says the Taiwan sale is under review partly to protect US weapons stockpiles, a rationale that doesn’t square with offering arms to China.
Perdue also confirmed Trump and Xi discuss Taiwan arms sales “every time they get together,” despite a 1982 US assurance not to consult Beijing on them.
“State of the Force” Address
Leaning into culture war flashpoints, Hegseth says he has transformed U.S. military (NPR)
Speaking to hundreds of junior officers and enlisted leaders at Quantico, Hegseth declared the military’s culture transformed: “No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.”
He called media reporting on troop morale and depleted munitions in the Iran war “treason,” though the Pentagon hasn’t held a press briefing since May.
He blamed past generals and defense secretaries by name for weakening the military, breaking with the military’s tradition of staying out of politics, and said the address will be an annual event.
He claimed recruitment and retention are up, including among women and minorities, calling the force “color-blind” and merit-based.
Hegseth also ended civilian tenured faculty positions at the military academies this week, while attacking elite universities as anti-American.
Hegseth says 20% of senior military officers will be cut, unveils new AI command (ABC)
In his “State of the Force” address at Quantico, Hegseth confirmed a 20% cut to general and flag officers: 10% fired outright for clinging to “the Woke Department,” plus another 10% of slots eliminated.
“The media calls that a purge; I call that accountability,” Hegseth said. There are currently 841 active-duty generals and admirals.
He has already ousted Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. CQ Brown, Army chief Gen. Randy George and Adm. Lisa Franchetti without publicly explaining why.
Before resigning in September, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll repeatedly warned the White House the purge was thinning the Army’s pool of experienced senior leaders.
Hegseth vows to shrink the Pentagon — and then announces plans to grow it (Politico)
Hegseth opened by vowing a “war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy,” then announced a half-dozen initiatives likely to add to the Pentagon’s budget.
Among them: a new four-star drone command, a new 120-day commission on the future of war, and the first new US military base in 40 years, with governors invited to compete for it.
The new command can’t stand up until October 2027 and will have to be squeezed into the next defense budget request.
One defense official dismissed the proposals as outdated: “This was predicted 12 years ago.”
Former Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot said Republicans “facing voters in five weeks shouldn’t have to defend this tomfoolery.”
In latest religion push, Hegseth unveils Office of Religious Affairs (USA Today)
Hegseth created an Office of Religious Affairs giving military chaplains a “direct line” to him, and ordered each service to report all “unfunded and underfunded” religious needs, including support for faith-based homeschooling.
“Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual,” Hegseth said.
It follows earlier moves: removing rank insignia from chaplains’ uniforms in March and ousting the Army’s chief of chaplains in April without explanation.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, already suing over monthly Christian prayer services at the Pentagon, says the office elevates Christianity in military policy, in violation of the First Amendment.
Interfaith Alliance’s Rev. Paul Raushenbush accused Hegseth of using the military to advance “a violent crusader worldview.”
Hegseth puts the future of warfare in the hands of major Maga donors (Guardian)
Hegseth gave Elon Musk and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey a hand in Project Meridian, which will shape the future of warfare, though both own companies that profit from Pentagon contracts.
Musk’s SpaceX is a key player in Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project, which could cost up to $1.2 trillion.
Both are major GOP money men: Musk spent over $250 million electing Trump in 2024, and Luckey is called the “godfather of Republican fundraising on the west coast.”
Musk’s America PAC is active in the midterms, spending $6.4 million against Democrat James Talarico in Texas and $3.4 million against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Pentagon official Emil Michael, who will head Project Meridian, made millions off non-public Musk AI stock while overseeing the Pentagon’s AI efforts.
AI
Trump says top tech firms have signed accord to ‘self-police’ AI development (NPR)
Trump and the CEOs of top AI firms, including Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and Musk’s xAI, signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development.
It commits companies to internal controls, independent external audits and board-level oversight committees, steps many already take in some form. Trump called it “morally binding,” not legally binding.
The same day, Trump vowed he’d “never stifle” AI or support guardrails, and dismissed cooperating with China on AI: “We’re leading. Why would I want to do anything?”
Critics doubt self-policing works. One USC computer scientist pointed to recent AI hacking incidents: “As the models get better, the consequences... are only going to get greater.”
Trump said executives agreed to ease local data center opposition by funding schools or cutting energy costs, and warned that if opposition continues, “they’ll be forced to go overseas.”
FTC opens sweeping probe of Anthropic, OpenAI and other ‘super intelligence’ models (NY Post)
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson opened a probe of Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier AI labs under the FTC Act’s deceptive-practices rules, and plans subpoena-like demands for documents and executive testimony.
The official says the FTC wants executives to testify about the dangers “they allege their products may have,” framing the companies’ own safety warnings as a target.
Ferguson has accused two firms of coming to Washington to “whip everyone into a panic” and push regulations that build a “moat” against competitors.
METR, a nonprofit AI safety watchdog, is also expected to be a target.
The official insisted “nothing in our investigation should remotely get in the way” of US AI dominance, and claimed Democrats want “to surrender to our enemies.”
OpenAI’s Systems Meddled With U.S. Government Sites After Going Rogue (NYT)
OpenAI’s AI agents went rogue this summer and meddled with Education Department, Commerce Department and SEC websites. OpenAI only found out during its review of earlier breaches of Hugging Face and an Australian government health site.
The agents tried and failed to hack the Education Department’s civil rights office for data, and pulled Census Bureau data using login credentials they found online. OpenAI says none were breaches.
Researchers at Transluce found other rogue activity, not clearly tied to OpenAI, probing Navy and White House budget office sites. They say agents tried to access such sites “at least hundreds of thousands of times.”
Sam Altman admitted OpenAI has “not been as fast as we would have liked” in disclosing incidents.
Rep. Ted Lieu says the models “relentlessly” pursue tasks without understanding consequences and may need full retraining, not just guardrails.
What to know about America.gov, the Trump administration’s new AI-driven services website (CNN)
Trump launched America.gov, an AI-powered “front door” meant to guide Americans through federal services like Medicare enrollment, passports and disaster relief.
For now it can only answer questions, essentially a search engine. Promised features like completing a passport renewal for you won’t arrive until early 2027.
The site pulls from dozens of federal websites at once, and job seekers can already upload a resume directly to apply for federal jobs.
It’s also an attempt to show the benefits of AI to a public that remains deeply skeptical of the technology and the administration’s embrace of the industry.
Trump waved off safety concerns: “We do not surrender to fears about what technology will do to us.”
Voting
Georgia holds emergency meeting on AI exposing voters’ secret ballots (Guardian)
A Princeton researcher used a $20 AI subscription and public Georgia election records to match voters to their secret ballots, recovering the voting order for 1.52 million ballots, or 98.9% of in-person ballots in 114 counties.
In some counties, he wrote, “ballot secrecy is entirely lost.” The AI never refused or raised concerns.
The flaw is in Georgia’s Dominion tabulators, which give each ballot an ID that isn’t random enough. Every other state using the software has patched it or withholds the vulnerable data.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office says it spent three years begging the legislature for money to fix the system and got “a big fat goose egg.” It has now ordered the ID numbers redacted from public releases.
Georgia’s election board held an emergency meeting with early voting under two weeks away. A board member’s proposal to shuffle paper ballots by hand drew pushback, including from fellow Republicans.
Trump administration’s quiet move makes it harder for some US citizens abroad to vote, lawsuit says (AP)
The DNC sued the Trump administration, alleging the Pentagon used a declared “emergency” to quietly remove a box from the overseas voter registration postcard.
That box, on the form since 2013, is checked by US citizens who have never lived in the US, usually children of Americans abroad. 38 states let them vote.
An estimated 11,500 such voters cast ballots in 2016, and they tend to lean Democratic. Republicans have sued in multiple states to block their votes, winning so far only in North Carolina.
The change follows Hegseth urging troops to vote en masse, implying they could out-vote Democratic cities like Detroit.
“If this works in slicing off a piece of the electorate,” said the head of the U.S. Vote Foundation, “wait until the next emergency.”
The Postal Service is slowing delivery. Will your mail ballot be affected? (Democracy Docket)
USPS cost-cutting has eliminated evening mail pickups at post offices more than 50 miles from a processing center, pushing postmarks and delivery back at least a day. It now covers 42.5% of continental US ZIP codes.
Rural voters face the greatest risk, especially in the 15 states where a ballot’s postmark determines whether it counts after Election Day.
In this year’s primaries across six states, about 64% of rejected mail ballots were thrown out for arriving late, up from 17.8% in 2024 and 23.1% in 2022.
USPS now recommends mailing ballots at least a week before Election Day. Voters can also hand a ballot to a postal clerk and ask for a same-day postmark.
Per Reuters, USPS plans extended hours and “Ballot Postmark Only” lines at some locations this month.
Trump allies could use midterms ‘counting window’ to disrupt results, experts warn (Guardian)
Election experts warn the Trump administration could exploit the post-election “counting window,” when results in close states can take days or weeks, to amplify false fraud claims and challenge outcomes.
A former deputy homeland security adviser predicts officials could cite “foreign interference” to seize voting equipment or ballots, “whether they’re legally justified to do so or not.”
Former intelligence official Beth Sanner says there’s no example of a country tampering with US vote counts: “It didn’t happen in 2020.”
Meanwhile, the administration has sharply cut election security staff and funding at CISA, and the threat briefings states once received regularly now happen rarely, if at all.
Experts’ advice: vote early. “The earlier they vote, the more secure they can feel that their vote is going to count,” said the Brennan Center’s Larry Norden.
Most Americans blame Trump for high prices as his economic approval hits new low, AP-NORC poll shows (AP)
Only 17% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, and his economic approval has hit a new low of 26%.
65% blame Trump’s policies for high prices rather than factors beyond his control. In October 2022, only 44% blamed Biden.
Even about 6 in 10 Republicans now disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, up from half in April. About half of Americans are highly worried about affording gas and food.
69% say the Iran war hasn’t been worth fighting, and 64% say Trump has “gone too far” on tariffs.
His overall approval sits around 3 in 10, with border security his only relative strength.
Media
Trump administration begins airing 2024 Trump campaign ad in latest taxpayer-funded messaging (AP)
Doubling down after last week’s backlash over the “Love Me” spot, the White House is now using taxpayer money to air a near-copy of a 2024 Trump campaign ad, labeled “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” Spending on it has already topped $319,000.
In the ad, Trump vows to “demolish the ‘deep state,’” “rout the fake news media,” and “liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The 2024 version ended with “Join President Trump’s Fight for America.”
Two more new spots feature Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech and clips touting his tax cuts, manufacturing and “law and order.”
The White House insists they’re “public service announcements,” not campaign ads, because Trump isn’t on the ballot and there’s “no call to action.”
Lawmakers in both parties have criticized the ads. Past administrations’ PSAs promoted specific policies like Medicare or COVID vaccines, not the president himself.
‘God Made Trump’ is just one of the president’s taxpayer-funded ads set to hit airwaves for midterm blitz (Independent)
CNN obtained 12 of 13 taxpayer-funded Trump ads, ranging from 15 seconds to three minutes, featuring fighter jets, the Iran strikes, the Maduro operation and the White House UFC event.
One, “God Made Trump,” declares: “I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle the deep state. So God made Trump.” It was shown at a Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month.
The White House reportedly allocated $20 million from the Department of Homeland Security for the campaign, with at least $2.5 million already spent on airtime and more ads coming.
Trump has reportedly taken a hands-on role, personally selecting some of the spots.
The White House calls the ads “educational and unapologetically patriotic.”
Republican senator criticizes White House for taxpayer-funded Trump ads (Guardian)
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told CBS’s Face the Nation that public officials, including Trump, shouldn’t spend public money “on private ads for themselves.”
Kennedy’s quote: “I think there ought to be a rule that you can’t – well, there probably is a rule – you can’t spend public money to promote yourself.”
He’d already slammed former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s $220 million self-promoting ad campaign as “masterclass dumb.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin argues anyone in government who worked on the ads may have violated the Hatch Act, the 1939 law barring federal employees from using their office or government resources for partisan campaign activity.
Jack Smith Testifies
Jack Smith defends Trump probes in Senate hearing filled with GOP insults (NBC)
Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee he won’t be silenced “by continued threats of prosecution,” and stood by charging Trump: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”
Chairman Chuck Grassley accused Smith of “rampant abuse of authority and political targeting.” Smith has called claims the Biden administration directed his work “laughable.”
Sen. John Kennedy opened by asking Smith, “What does the word arrogant mean?” and closed with, “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.”
Sen. Cory Booker called the hearing the GOP’s pre-election “closing argument,” an “eight-year attempt to lie to the American people.”
The hearing comes as Trump’s DOJ purges officials who worked on his cases and runs a “grand conspiracy” probe of law enforcement actions dating to 2016. Rep. Jim Jordan has also referred Smith for possible perjury over his House testimony.
Republicans wanted Jack Smith to give them a smoking gun. They got a gaffe instead. (Politico)
Republicans spent two years promising Jack Smith’s hearing would expose a Biden-era plot against Trump. Instead, the hearing produced insults and a gaffe, and did little to challenge the substance of Smith’s case.
Sen. Eric Schmitt displayed texts he said placed Smith at an Atlanta Hawks game in February 2024, as Fani Willis faced scrutiny, and warned him not to “perjure yourself.”
Smith had actually attended an Iowa Hawkeyes game in Maryland to see Caitlin Clark play. Schmitt called him a “dirtbag” anyway.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar fact-checked Schmitt in real time: “You don’t call someone a dirtbag when you haven’t done your own research.”
Even GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said Congress has “kind of” learned all it can, leaving it to DOJ to pursue perjury charges or disbarment.
MAGA Media Is Trying to Spin Senator’s Brutal Gaffe Into a Win (Rolling Stone via Yahoo!)
Right-wing influencers rushed to post the Schmitt exchange as a win before it fell apart. Benny Johnson claimed Schmitt “CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself” and that Smith was “stunned.”
@overton_news, with nearly 300,000 followers, called it a “deer-in-the-headlights moment” for Smith. He was stunned only because he had no idea what Schmitt was talking about.
Johnson deleted his post hours later after it drew a community note, and Sean Hannity also deleted his.
Schmitt doubled down on The Charlie Kirk Show, insisting he was right, and repeated afterward that Smith is “a total dirtbag.”
Climate
California rushes to prepare for massive ‘Kelvin’ wave and predicted sea level rise (Guardian)
California is bracing for a “Kelvin wave,” a massive underwater surge of warm water driven by El Niño that could raise sea levels along the coast by up to a foot as it moves north toward Alaska.
That could double the 8 to 12 inches of sea level rise climate change has already caused over the last century. Erosion from the first few inches has already shut down the coastal Amtrak line in Southern California.
A brewing “super” El Niño, possibly the strongest on record, raises the risk the higher seas will coincide with winter storms and the year’s highest tides in November and December.
“Coastal flooding is at this point practically certain,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain, who compared the outlook to the 1997–98 winter, when 21 of California’s 58 counties were declared disaster areas.
Bay Area officials are distributing sandbags and clearing drains. Swain called the region especially vulnerable, with “a huge amount of people and infrastructure within 6ft of sea level.”
A famed Hawaii sea arch collapses, prompting NPS warnings of unstable cliffs (AP)
Hawaii’s 90-foot Holei Sea Arch in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park collapsed into the Pacific sometime between Sept. 23 and 27, possibly during Tropical Storm Nolo.
The roughly 550-year-old landmark was a popular tourist site. The Park Service called the collapse expected and the “latest transformation” of the rugged coastline.
Officials warn people are entering the closed, unstable area anyway, risking falls and drowning for themselves and first responders.
The Colorado River is shrinking. What happens next? (Guardian)
Lake Mead has hit its lowest level since it was filled nearly 90 years ago, at under 27% of capacity, and Lake Powell is also at a historic low. Their combined storage is the lowest since before Powell began filling in the 1960s.
The Colorado River, which supplies more than 40 million people in seven states, has lost 20% of its flow during a 26-year megadrought, worsened by last winter’s record-low Rocky Mountain snowpack and extreme heat.
Beginning in 2027, the federal government will require Arizona, Nevada and California to cut their use by about 1.25 million acre-feet a year. Arizona takes the biggest hit, with roughly half as much water flowing through its main canal next year.
Upper basin states face no mandatory cuts. Nevada is suing, Arizona is threatening to, and the dispute could reach the Supreme Court.
Cities are spending billions to adapt. Las Vegas built a $1.3 billion deeper intake, and Phoenix is building plants to recycle wastewater into drinking water.
Super El Niño: an explainer (Wildlife Trusts)
El Niño is a recurring warming of Pacific sea surface temperatures caused by weakening trade winds, which shifts rainfall and extreme weather patterns worldwide.
The current El Niño began in June, should last into early 2027, and is projected to be the strongest on record, hence the “Super” label.
El Niño is natural, but it now stacks on top of human-caused warming, so extreme weather shouldn’t be blamed on “an El Niño year” alone.
The UN World Food Programme forecasts nearly 50 million more people pushed into acute hunger, as crop failures and disrupted shipping drive up global food prices.
Warmer oceans starve marine food webs and bleach coral, and 2027 is predicted to overtake 2024 as the hottest year on record.
A ‘super El Niño’ is on the way. What that means for fall and winter weather in the central U.S. (Harvest Public Media)
NOAA forecasts this to be the strongest El Niño on record dating to 1950, typically bringing warmer, drier winters to the Midwest, with effects peaking November through January.
Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and neighboring states can expect winter temperatures 1 to 3 degrees above average, and less snowpack as snow melts faster.
A mild winter doesn’t rule out big storms. Unfrozen Great Lakes could fuel heavier lake-effect snow when conditions line up.
Farmers face risks: fruit trees and berries may bloom too early and get hit by spring frost, and southern insect pests could establish themselves sooner.
Scientists say climate change is likely intensifying El Niño. “If you heat up the bathtub and then you pour some more hot water in it, it’s going to get hotter,” said Rice University’s Sylvia Dee.
Germany Is Building a Digital Noah’s Ark for US Climate Data (Mother Jones)
Germany’s Climate Computing Center in Hamburg is adding storage to back up US climate simulations for the next UN climate assessment, guarding against tampering or deletion by the Trump administration.
Germany’s main science funding body set up a $35 million program to store copies of public US data, warning the data could be deleted or “manipulated to skew findings.”
The fears aren’t hypothetical: in 2025, Musk’s DOGE removed 300 datasets built over decades by a NASA research center. Scientists rescued them by scraping the servers before they went dark.
The administration has also slashed climate research funding, scrubbed references to human-caused warming from government websites, and tried to close Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory, which tracks atmospheric carbon dioxide; Congress blocked that cut.
The US quit the UN’s climate science panel in January. The American Geophysical Union has since nominated nearly 300 US scientists to keep contributing to its next assessment anyway.
Capital Punishment
Botched US execution prompts global calls to scrap death penalty (Le Monde)
Tennessee’s botched execution of Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections and was hospitalized in critical condition, drew international calls to abandon the death penalty.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged Tennessee not to try again, saying the case “lays bare multiple reasons why the death penalty should be abolished” and calling the prolonged suffering “abhorrent and cruel.”
Türk’s office also flagged unresolved “fair trial questions” in Pike’s case.
The Death Penalty Information Center called it “unlike any other botched execution in the modern era. There is no precedent.”
Christa Pike is in critical condition after Tennessee’s failed execution attempt, her lawyers say (AP)
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her boyfriend killed when Pike was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
The execution team spent an hour trying to place IV lines; her lawyer counted at least seven needles in her arm while Pike pleaded, “please try higher on my shoulder.”
Pike stayed awake after the first dose of pentobarbital, asking whether her arm was supposed to feel that way, then snored loudly through a second dose until the chamber microphone was cut more than 90 minutes in.
Her lawyers warned beforehand that a lifelong blood disorder made her veins hard to access, and say the drug may have gone into her arm instead of her bloodstream.
It’s Tennessee’s second failed execution this year. The state switched to single-drug pentobarbital in 2024 after admitting its earlier drugs hadn’t been properly tested.
Christa Pike unconscious and on ventilator in hospital after botched execution, attorneys say (ABC)
Pike remains unconscious and on a ventilator. Her lawyers say she’s being treated for the effects of the pentobarbital, and that both arms arrived at the hospital “swollen, burned, and blistered.”
Her attorneys filed an emergency motion to force the state to preserve all evidence. It says Pike was heard “crying, whimpering,” saying her arm “feels like it’s about to burst open.”
Months earlier, Pike had warned in court that her blood disorder, PTSD and small veins made “unnecessary and superadded pain” likely. Her lawyers, now seeking a commutation, called the attempt “cruel” and “torturous.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, running for governor, responded by calling on Tennessee to bring back the electric chair.
The execution only went forward after the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to lift an appeals court stay without explanation. Justice Sotomayor’s dissent warned of “the grave consequences of an erroneous decision.”
Tennessee governor orders third-party review, pauses all executions for the rest of the year (TN Lookout)
Gov. Bill Lee ordered a third-party review and paused all Tennessee executions for the rest of 2026, including Gary Wayne Sutton’s, scheduled for Dec. 3.
Lee said the public expects executions to be “not only legal and constitutional, but... effective.”
The earlier failure came in May, when a physician spent over an hour trying to place IV lines on Tony Von Carruthers. Witnesses called it bloody “torture,” and Lee gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
Pike’s then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was too young for the death penalty and got life in prison.
Lee says he doesn’t know Pike’s medical status, and her execution’s future is unclear. He’s term-limited and leaves office in January.
Indiana plans to proceed with execution after botched Tennessee attempt (ICC)
Indiana DOC plans to proceed with Jeffrey Weisheit’s Nov. 5 execution and says it’s “confident” in its procedures, despite using the same pentobarbital protocol that failed in Tennessee. Gov. Braun’s office wouldn’t say whether he’d pause executions or order a review.
DOC currently has no execution drugs and hasn’t acquired any for Weisheit. Indiana keeps its suppliers secret and has spent at least $1.275 million on pentobarbital since 2024.
Weisheit’s attorney calls the protocol’s secrecy “staggering,” leaving his team unable to examine the drugs or the qualifications of those administering them.
Witnesses to Benjamin Ritchie’s 2025 execution in Indiana reported his head and shoulders suddenly lifting after the drug was given. DOC disputes that account.
Weisheit was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend’s two young children in a 2010 Evansville fire. He’s seeking clemency, and Braun, who has the final say, denied it to the last two men executed.
‘Bullets are cheap’: Indiana lawmakers call for death penalty reforms following botched Tennessee execution (FOX59)
Pike’s failed execution has split Indiana Republicans, with some pushing firing squads and others calling for abolishing the death penalty.
Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) will reintroduce his firing squad bill, which narrowly failed in the House this year: “Bullets are cheap.” He cites $600,000 worth of pentobarbital the state let expire.
Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne) sent Gov. Braun a letter asking him to postpone all executions until lawmakers can study the issue: “That could happen right here in the state of Indiana.”
Morris also raised the risk of executing an innocent person, and questioned how a failed firing squad would be finished: “Who finishes that prisoner off?”
Indiana News
Key lawmakers suggest income taxes cover homestead property tax credit (ICC)
Senate Appropriations Chair Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka) pitched a plan to about 300 Hoosiers in Warsaw: counties raise local income taxes to give owner-occupied homes a 100% property tax credit, phased in over five years.
Mishler says fully eliminating property taxes isn’t realistic because $54 billion in local debt is backed by them. All but 14 counties could cover the credit now.
Homestead property taxes total nearly $4.1 billion, about 38% of statewide property taxes billed in 2025.
Mishler admitted he’d personally likely pay more in income tax than he’d save, and some attendees pushed back, asking why the state isn’t sending its surplus to counties instead.
Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Chris Garten (R-Charlestown) put the burden on locals: officials “should have to justify why you need more money out of my pocket.”
Governor’s Office
Braun renews gas tax suspension, broadens untaxed diesel use for farmers (ICC)
Gov. Braun extended Indiana’s gas tax suspension, worth about 61 cents a gallon, through Nov. 4, and let farmers and timber harvesters use untaxed off-road diesel on public roads for “any farm-related activities.”
Diesel hit a record $6.92 a gallon average in Indiana in September, and its 63-cent tax remains in place for everyone else.
The diesel order follows a letter from more than 50 legislators. Braun says it will cost $1 million to $3 million a month, paid for out of “$2 billion of extra reserves.”
House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta backed it but called it “small, temporary relief” that can’t offset a trade war that sent Indiana’s biggest soybean buyer to South America, or war-driven fertilizer costs.
One more 30-day renewal through Dec. 4 is the last allowed under the current emergency. Braun hinted he’d rather work with lawmakers on the tax structure next session than declare a new emergency.
Braun appoints new leader for troubled public access counselor’s office (ICC)
Gov. Braun named DNR deputy general counsel Brittney Long as Indiana’s new public access counselor, the official who advises on public records and open meetings laws. She starts Monday.
She replaces Jennifer Ruby, a Braun appointee who resigned. Ruby’s tenure drew complaints of slow or no responses, and news organizations threatened to sue over delays in July.
Braun then diverted two staffers from his own office to clear the backlog, and another agency is lending a lawyer starting Tuesday.
Braun’s announcement didn’t mention Ruby, and promised Long would bring “added transparency and accountability.”
The office has just three employees and a $339,000 annual budget. Nearly a third of its salary spending goes to a governor’s office lawyer who didn’t do public access work until August.
Public Service
Hogsett rode ‘Mr. Clean’ image into office. Did he deliver on ethics promises? (Mirror Indy)
Earlier installments found Hogsett let former chief of staff Thomas Cook cut incentive deals with a city official he was secretly dating, steered at least $6.5 million in no-bid contracts to allies, and had a campaign fundraiser hand-deliver donors’ contract wish lists to the city’s public works chief.
Midway through his third term, Mayor Joe Hogsett has fulfilled few of the eight ethics promises he campaigned on in 2015, and he declined to be interviewed about them.
He pledged to renounce “all perks of office,” but he and his son have attended about a dozen events in the city’s stadium suites since January 2025, including the WWE Royal Rumble.
He promised to restore a two-term limit, then ran for a third term, and hasn’t ruled out a fourth in 2027.
He vowed no-bid contracts would “never be the default,” yet the city couldn’t point to a single competitively bid contract among 90 legal services deals. Former chief of staff Dan Parker went to work for top city contractor American Structurepoint without a waiver.
Neither the promised top-to-bottom audit of city spending nor a real “Disclose Indy” transparency portal appears to exist. Common Cause Indiana, which once dubbed him “Mr. Clean,” says his commitment was “a lot of talk but very little follow through.”
Secretary of state candidate Ballard calls for ban on political actions by officeholder (ICC)
Former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, running for secretary of state on the Lincoln Party ticket, wants a law barring Indiana’s top elections official from endorsing, fundraising for or donating to candidates, calling current practice “an obvious conflict of interest.”
He’d also replace the partisan Recount Commission with five retired judges, citing its 2-1 vote in August, led by current Secretary of State Diego Morales, to toss ballots in the Deery primary. The state Supreme Court overturned that decision.
GOP nominee Max Engling’s campaign called Ballard a flip-flopper for running under a party label after first announcing as an independent.
Democrat Beau Bayh says the officeholder shouldn’t lose the right to participate in politics personally, touting his own pledge of no state contracts for campaign donors.
Libertarian Lauri Shillings mocked Ballard’s pledge as easy to make with “no party, no structure and no candidates,” while building a party whose “entire purpose is selecting them.”
Beckwith
HIJACK! Terror Attack Thwarted, Pilot ATTACKED Over Saudi Arabia w/ Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith (TimCast IRL on Spotify)
Media Landscape: The declining viewership and demographic collapse of legacy media networks like Fox News compared to independent and alternative platforms.
Politics & Culture: The rise of American populism, cultural shifts, and what it means to operate as a Christian conservative within government office.
Local & Regional Issues: Discussions touching on Indiana politics, social media trends, and general commentary on regional culture (including sports and the Chicago Bears).
Background: How right-wing podcaster from Chicago landed at center of federal probe into Russian meddling (Chicago Sun-Times)
Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, host of “The Culture War” with more than 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, was apparently paid $100,000 per episode through a covert Russian propaganda operation, per a 2024 federal indictment.
Prosecutors said Russian state media outlet RT funneled nearly $10 million to Tenet Media, the Tennessee company that licensed Pool’s show, to spread content carrying hidden Kremlin messaging.
Pool, identified as “Commentator 2,” was told the money came from an international banker who turned out to be a fictional persona invented by the Russians.
Pool wasn’t charged and says he was “deceived” and a victim, insisting he kept full editorial control and calling Putin “a scumbag.”
A Hand Sign, A Photo, And A Call for a Chairman to Resign (IndyPolitics)
Former state House candidate Paul Tinkle says the Indiana GOP fired him from a field job Sept. 29 for making the “OK” hand sign in a group photo, after Hamilton County GOP Chair Mario Massillamany flagged it. His post has drawn about 455,000 views.
Massillamany calls Tinkle’s account “100% inaccurate.” He says he removed the photo after calls about the gesture but “never requested, suggested, or advocated for his termination,” and that the state party made the call.
The OK sign started as a 2017 4chan hoax meant to bait the media, but real white supremacists adopted it, including the Christchurch mosque shooter. The ADL lists it as a hate symbol only in context.
Within a day, a 104,000-follower account called “Department of Deportations” demanded Massillamany resign, posting “No more Indians in GOP positions,” while others called for his deportation.
Massillamany, born in Sri Lanka and a US citizen for more than 40 years, called the attacks on his ancestry “racist and unacceptable.”
Beckwith Supports 👌Sign (Facebook)
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s campaign account posted a star-spangled graphic Tinkle flashing the OK sign under the words “IT’S OKAY TO SIGN” and “THIS HAND SIGN MEANS OKAY.”
The caption is just a hashtag followed by roughly 90 OK-hand emojis.
The post came amid the uproar over the Indiana GOP firing the former state house candidate for the gesture, putting the state’s second-highest official publicly on Tinkle’s side of the dispute.
Beckwith said nothing about the racist attacks on Hamilton County GOP Chair Mario Massillamany that followed the firing.
