Show Notes
October 29, 2026 Flàvio Bolsonaro’s escape from Brazil to Miami was arranged in part by White House officials, Trump ordered the State Department to give Bolsonaro and his family temporary status, Trump asserts that Lula’s victory was rigged, Trump posted at length on social media about the East Potomac Golf Course and is paying less attention to government affairs than to his building projects, He did not seem to know that General Brett Sylvia had been fired by Pete Hegseth, or even who Gen Sylvia was, Trump has cancelled rallies planned for this weekend and is trying to convince Americans that the 2026 midterms are being rigged by the Democrats, US District Judge David O Carter has refused efforts to set aside ballots in California, noting that the administration is engaging in election interference, even as Markwayne Mullin has sent letters to secretaries of state in several states, alleging that their voter rolls include noncitizens, The Department of Justice has directed California’s top federal prosecutors to launch criminal investigations of local and state officials, The administration is also jumping on the report that a staffer for Mary Peltola, who is running for senate in Alaska, engaged in ballot stacking, seeking a candidate to add to the ballot in order to confuse voters. Ballot stacking is not illegal unless money changes hands, Trump has called for Peltola and the candidate to be removed from the ballot, In Alaska a number of polling places in rural areas failed to open as promised, Trump appears to have a plan to restart military actions in Iran after the election, Sen Chris Murphy has said that it will lead to a "an escalation of this war that will be devastating for our security interests." To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok
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October 28, 2026 Flàvio Bolsonaro, who lost the election to become president of Brazil, arrived in Miami with his family, in spite of his being barred from leaving Brazil, His defeat strikes a blow to Trump’s campaign to install right-wing leaders across Latin America, Trump apparently intends to shelter Bolsonaro in the US, Brazilian police have been ordered to investigate whether Rockbridge, a donor network co-founded by JD Vance, illegally helped finance Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, MAGA is showing signs of collapsing at home, The numbers of people watching Fox News are dropping, James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, is running ads showing Republicans who are voting for him rather than the Republican candidate, Ken Paxton, Republicans in South Carolina and Alaska are also endorsing Democratic candidates, Trump’s multiple rallies in states that previously were reliably Republican underscore the alarm among Republicans that there are multiple paths to Democratic control of the Senate, Right wing activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged with a felony for voting unlawfully. To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok
October 27, 2026 After a student-led democratic movement ousted Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić from power, Serbian TV apologized to viewers for failing to report what had been happening under his regime, In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro lost the race for the presidency to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in spite of what appears to have been Meta's intentional restriction of accounts supporting him, Lula’s supporters used social media to override Meta’s restrictions, Bolsonaro had the support of Trump and MAGA insiders, but when Trump suggested he would not intervene in the election, Bolsonaro effectively conceded, Brazilian authorities ordered Bolsonaro to remain in the country, but he went missing, only to turn up in the US where the State Department indicated it would offer him and his family visas, Issues of vote suppression in the US have led House members to demand that Meta explain why the main Instagram account of No Kings was suspended during the organization's October 17th get out the vote rally, Disinformation, driven by AI, is rampant on social media in advance of the midterms, Trump’s allegiance to Putin continues as the administration considers lifting sanctions on Russia's government investment fund, Democratic candidate for senate from Florida, Angie Nixon, has posted to Meta that her campaign’s Instagram page was taken down, with just seven days to the election. To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok
October 26, 2026 Trump posted his longest-ever social media post last night, Giant turnout for rallies by Obama illustrate the changing mood of the country, Images of the packed venues for Obama, compared to the dwindling crowds for Trump, circulated on social media, Trump’s determination to keep Republicans in control of Congress reflects concern that Democrats will impeach him and worry over what such hearings might reveal, The administration is trying to hide documents related to the Kennedy Center, A shareholder of a publicly traded US crypto company sued Trump and World Liberty Financial, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a report saying that a growing body of evidence demonstrates that Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women, Trump and his allies are trying to tip the scales in the election, by spending vast amounts of money, suing the state of Alaska, pressuring states to release voter files, trying to use the US Postal Service to screen ballots, and sending ICE agents to ask residents about their immigration status, The transparent attempts to steal the election could sow confusion and lay the groundwork for challenging a Democratic victory. To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok
October 25, 2026 In the last days of the 2026 midterm campaign, Democrats are picking up momentum, MAGA is pursuing what has worked in the past: a false narrative undergirded by cruelty, That narrative does not seem to be attracting voters, Republicans are avoiding any mention of tariffs, Trump is insisting that the economy is booming, and that rising oil prices are a good thing. He is attacking Muslim Democrats Abdul E-Sayed and Ilhan Omar, Attacks on El-Sayed are not going well, Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to run an attack ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother is backfiring, The choice to run the ad is revealing that Ramaswamy and the ad’s supporters (among them JD Vance and Trump) are willing to weaponize the rape of a child if it helps them win power, Trump’s erratic behavior isn’t helping Republicans and his repeated praise of Jon Husted’s physique makes for a strange message as midterm campaigns wind down, Meanwhile, in elections in Serbia and Brazil, nationalist strongmen were defeated. To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok
October 24, 2026 The election of 1920 gave the Republicans control of the White House and Congress, Republicans rejected the Progressive Era’s idea that government should regulate business and protect workers and consumers, and turned the government over to businessmen, At first industrial production took off and profits rose, As standards of living improved, consumers rushed to buy new products, and presidential candidate Herbert Hoover promised that the economic policies favoring business would banish poverty, Americans invested in the stock market and prices rose and rose, There was a rush to speculate and any warnings that the stock prices were a bubble were dismissed, On October 24, the tide turned as brokers began to sell off shares, and by the end of the day on October 29, an extraordinary number of shares had traded hands and the market had lost $14 billion. Manufacturing output fell and commodity prices tumbled, and by 1933 the number of unemployed across the country rose to 13 million - one out of every four American workers, Republicans blamed workers, and Hoover rejected calls for public works programs that would provide jobs, In 1932 Americans - looking for a new approach - elected New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised to use the federal government to provide jobs and a safety net to Americans, His New Deal protected workers’ rights, provided jobs, regulated business and banking and provided a basic social safety net. The new system enabled the US to defend democracy when WWII broke out. To read this letter, click here: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify You can also find Heather at: YouTube Bluesky Instagram Facebook Threads TikTok