vdB 141

Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other ghostly apparitions, vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula. It lies at lower right in the starry field of view. Inside the Ghost Nebula are reddish telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation. With the eerie hue of interstellar dust reflecting bluish light from hot young stars of NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula stands out against the dark just left of center. In the broad telescopic frame, these fertile interstellar dust fields stretch almost six full moons across the sky.

Like to spoiled little turd he is...........

Trump fumed at coverage of rally cancellations before ordering the events back on

By Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins, Adam Cancryn, Alayna Treene

Flying on Thursday to South Carolina to headline his 25th midterm rally this month, President Donald Trump and his political team made a decision, according to one of his advisers: Instead of holding an in-person rally this weekend in Kansas — a red state where Republicans appear vulnerable — Trump would deliver his closing argument there over the telephone.

A few hours later, another weekend rally in Iowa was similarly scrapped. It was a dramatic and sudden shift in the president’s closing-stretch strategy, which had relied on boosting enthusiasm among his base through an exhausting blitz of conservative districts.

When Trump returned from South Carolina, he told reporters he didn’t “feel I have to go to Kansas” because GOP Sen. Roger Marshall was “doing really well.”

The decision relieved some political operatives on the ground, who were happy to hear Trump would be engaging in telerallies that tend to be more scripted.

“Thank God,” one top Republican official told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the White House. “He hasn’t moved the needle anywhere.”

Less than 24 hours later, the plans changed again. The rallies in Kansas and Iowa were back on, both now scheduled for Sunday. And the frenetic pace that White House officials had signaled was abruptly ending was now ramping back up.

Officials said the schedule had merely been rearranged to allow more time for Trump to dial into virtual events. But people familiar with the matter described different motivations to CNN.

After signing off on the changes, Trump had grown irked over the media coverage about his decision to cancel his final rallies, those people said. His irritation was apparent when he returned from South Carolina and lashed out at a reporter who questioned why he called off the events.

“You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect,” Trump said when asked how he was feeling and whether he was sick of campaigning. The reporter who asked, Trump seethed, looked “like hell.”

The president demanded the rallies be reinstated, the people familiar said, sending staff who had just worked to pull the events off the calendar scrambling to put them back on.

“Rallies are BACK ON!” read a statement confirming the change.

The episode only underscored how heavily Republicans’ midterm prospects have relied on Trump’s personal whims, from endorsements of his preferred candidates — some of whom are now struggling — to his signature rallies, which regularly veer away from the issues and talking points many candidates have tried to highlight.

Even some Republican candidates have scrambled to keep up.

“I think that I’m doing so well in the polls that he’s got, probably got better places to spend his time,” Marshall told reporters after news of the Kansas cancellation emerged Thursday.

Trump advisers insist the president remains a sought-after presence on the campaign trail, and his political team continues to field calls from GOP campaigns asking if he would visit their states in the sprint to Tuesday’s elections, one adviser told CNN.

That was what Trump officials argued was the original rationale for canceling his events this weekend: by skipping in-person events, Trump could maximize his time conducting telerallies for candidates across multiple states. Multiple sources familiar with the planning did not contradict that rationale.

By Thursday evening, Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., had announced the president would headline virtual events in 19 states intended to “energize voters, drive turnout, and help deliver victories.”

The switch to virtual events was not unwelcome in some Republican corners. In the 21-hour stretch of time that the in-person events were canceled, several GOP operatives in battleground states quietly expressed a sigh of relief that the Trump roadshow would no longer be coming to their states.

Many pointed out that Trump is less likely during telerallies to meander into the obscure topics that now consume major chunks of his rallies: the cognitive tests he claims to have aced, the White House ballroom, the bodies of various Republican men.

One Republican official said the Trump rallies were too time-consuming during a peak period when GOP activists would otherwise be door-knocking, canvassing and doing other get-out-the-vote activities.

Trump has pressed his aides at times to schedule more travel in the campaign’s closing weeks, people who have spoken with him said, invigorated by the adoring crowds he’s encountered in deep-red districts and encouraged by friends and advisers who have told him his presence is directly boosting Republican enthusiasm.

Yet at other moments during the monthlong barnstorming, those people said, he’s bemoaned the breakneck nature of a tour that has taken him to a new town nearly every day — oftentimes to rally voters in college arenas or civic centers that appear downright miniature compared with the sold-out stadiums he played during his own campaigns. Trump has also griped privately, and increasingly in public, about how hard he’s having to work down the stretch for a campaign that’s not his own.

“I have to tell you a little secret,” Trump said during an October 23 rally in a Florida arena that sat fewer than 5,000 people. “Outside, there’s a crowd about two or three times this size, and I looked at my people with anger. I said, couldn’t you have gotten us a larger arena than this?”

Later, as Trump boasted about the economy, he joked that he was “wasting my time” with the speeches and should just go home and let his accomplishments speak for themselves — a bit that he repeated at subsequent rallies.

The president has visited nearly every state on the Senate battleground map aside from Maine — many more than once. The initial White House decision to cancel the weekend Midwest appearances caused tremendous buzz, but few complaints among party stalwarts.

“Everyone has seen the president who wants to see him,” the second GOP official said.

Trump will travel Friday to Daytona Beach, Florida, for a rally with Republican candidates for Senate and governor, and he is expected to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, where an annual Halloween party is planned.

Including Sunday’s events, Trump will have headlined 28 rallies since the start of October. Even he has acknowledged the schedule is a grind and that it has taken a toll on his voice.

“I don’t need to do this. But I have to because if (Democrats) win the midterms, all of a sudden you’re gonna see a slide and all of the crap that we talk about,” he told a crowd in Kentucky this month. “That’s why I’m here working my ass off for you.”

In a fiery hearing.........

Judge tears into senior DOJ official and orders investigation into Trump’s golf course plans

By John Fritze, Katelyn  Polantz

A federal judge opened a formal investigation Friday into whether Justice Department attorneys and others within the Trump administration misrepresented the president’s plans to renovate a golf course in Washington, DC, ratcheting up a dramatic showdown between the White House and the courts.

In a fiery hearing that lasted nearly three hours, US District Judge Ana C. Reyes pressed Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward on whether the administration had tried to evade the court’s review, including by offering a last-minute notice before felling hundreds of trees at East Potomac Golf Course and by insisting there was no formal plan to renovate the course despite President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence he was moving ahead.

“Let’s not play games anymore, Mr. Woodward,” Reyes, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, said as the third-highest ranking official at the Justice Department stood at the lectern, his hands locked together behind his back.

Highlighting the split priorities of the White House, Woodward appeared at the hearing despite the fact he’s also leading the DOJ’s efforts on the midterm elections, including its unprecedented lawsuit seeking to halt certification in the Alaska Senate race if the GOP incumbent doesn’t win.

At one point, Woodward attempted to explain that he had “endeavored to answer the court’s questions as honestly and effectively as I can” and launched into an argument about why he felt the judge’s questions weren’t relevant to the legal questions in the case.

“Are you done?” Reyes fired back. “Can you answer my question now?”

In a signal of how the hearing would unfold, Reyes took the bench and began reading from the professional conduct rules for lawyers practicing in Washington, eyeing Woodward directly as she stressed lines concerning making factual assertions in court. The not-subtle implication was that Woodward or other attorneys involved with the case could be sanctioned.

A brutal back-and-forth developed from there, with Reyes leaning into Woodward about how the Justice Department had handled the case. The inquiry, which will likely be handled by a special master appointed by the court, could lead to sanctions. Reyes stressed that she was not finding that DOJ lawyers had misrepresented anything, only that she intended to consider that possibility.

The remarkable exchange underscored that the case was less about the golf course itself, which Trump has said he intends to renovate into a “world class” facility, and more about how the administration has represented itself in court following a challenge from preservationists and golfers who want to keep the course as it is.

Woodward was caught between the judge’s blistering ire and the president, who has frequently taken to social media to claim that the golf course project would begin “immediately” and attack Reyes as a “crazed lunatic.”

Reyes had already blocked further tree removal at the course in a scathing 70-page opinion earlier this week, and she required the Interior Department to notify the court before making any other irreparable changes to the site. That decision is being appealed.

There was audible laughter in the courtroom and snickers as Woodward seemed to try to take back words he had just spoken.

At one point, he seemed to suggest that the sudden removal of more than 400 trees on October 10 was part of a broader plan to update the course — a position the administration had previously denied. At times, Reyes turned to the transcript to read back comments Woodward had made only seconds earlier.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Reyes said.

Reyes has previously expressed deep skepticism that the tree removal was separate from Trump’s stated desire to renovate the course, even though the new course would have a significant reduction in trees.

The judge also ordered the attorneys to retain any documents related to the case.

Flaying...

"Do whatever you have to do." Trump urges mail-in voting in deep-red Montana

By Andrew Kaczynski

President Donald Trump, who has spent years railing against mail-in voting — falsely claiming it undermines the integrity of elections and invites massive fraud — is now urging voters in deep-red Montana to mail in their votes.

“Early voting is underway,” Trump told participants in a MAGA Inc. get-out-the-vote telephone rally, in which voters received automated calls inviting them to stay on the line or press 1 to join a call from the president. “If you have your mail-in ballot, walk in and do whatever you have to do, or you can show up on November 3rd.”

The call, which CNN obtained from the robocall- and text-blocking application Nomorobo, featured Trump alongside Republican US Senate candidate Kurt Alme and congressional candidate Aaron Flint.

Trump carried Montana in 2024 with approximately 58% of the vote, defeating Kamala Harris by nearly 20 percentage points in a race that also saw longtime Sen. Jon Tester ousted.

Just in..........

Appeals court rejects DOJ lawsuit targeting thousands of California ballots

By Tierney Sneed

A federal appeals court has again rejected a Justice Department demand that election officials set aside ballots from 20,000 people the administration claims, using a controversial data matching program, could be noncitizens.

The vote count was 2-1.

California is one of several Democratic-led states that have been targeted with claims from the administration that election officials have not done enough to take non-citizens off the voter rolls, as Republicans prepare for an election that expected to cost them control of at least one chamber of Congress.

DOJ has also threatened criminal prosecutions of election administrators and recently sent grand jury subpoenas to officials in California.

Several courts now are scrutinizing the process the Department of Homeland Security went through to assemble lists of non-citizens they say are registered to vote in California and other states.

Local officials who have had a chance to begin analyzing the names say that the lists include people who are not registered to vote in their jurisdiction, have had their registrations suspended, or who have indicators in their records of being citizens.

California also argues it’s far too late in the election cycle, with ballots having gone out nearly a month ago to be upending its election procedures. Even if it wasn’t, California says there is no federal law or Constitutional authority giving the administration the right to ask for the court order it is seeking.

Emergency hearing

Judge to hold emergency hearing on Trump administration's alleged noncitizens voter lists

By Katelyn Polantz

A federal judge in Washington, DC, will hold an emergency hearing on Saturday about whether the courts should block the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security from attempting to flesh out lists of possible noncitizens on some states voter rolls.

The emergency hearing, set by Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday, comes as the Justice Department has lodged complaints with Washington state and California about how they are managing their voter rolls. In California, the DOJ is suing to try to set aside 20,000 ballots so those voters can be vetted for their citizenship, but a judge there has refused, saying it would disenfranchise voters.

The lawsuit in Washington, DC, before Chutkan builds on those arguments, saying the federal government’s compilation of lists this year of possible noncitizens on state voting rolls are unreliable, and creates an “illegal policy trying to dictate who gets to vote.”

“Defendants’ Voter Data Transmission Policy is a flagrant power grab that will, unless enjoined, upend the states’ authority to run elections and disenfranchise untold numbers of eligible voters across the country,” lawyers for the League of Women Voters and other groups wrote to the judge yesterday.

Chutkan is most known for being the presiding judge two years ago on the criminal indictment against President Donald Trump when he was accused of inciting the Capitol riot in 2021 as an attempt to overturn the presidential election results and stay in office. The case was dismissed by the Justice Department after Trump won the presidency again in 2024.

Supreme Court may be next stop

Supreme Court may be next stop in DOJ's lawsuit targeting ballots of 20,000 Californians

By Tierney Sneed

The 2-1 appeals court ruling against a Justice Department lawsuit targeting the counting of ballots for potentially thousands of voters in California sets up the possibility that President Donald Trump will now go to the US Supreme Court.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that the administration does not have the legal right to second-guess how the state was verifying voters’ citizenship status. The majority pointed to the Constitution’s Election Clause, which says states are in charge running elections while giving Congress the option to pass regulations.

“Because Congress has not exercised the specific power granted to it under the Elections Clause to override California’s established laws for challenging ballots or removing ineligible voters, the State Legislature’s statutory scheme remains the only method to do so,” the majority opinion, issued by Judge Mark J. Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel P. Sanchez, a Joe Biden appointee, said.

The majority’s ruling also pointed to a Supreme Court legal doctrine regarding federal court rulings that would create chaos in elections when voting is near or already underway.

In the case, DOJ is demanding that California officials not count any ballot that comes in from individuals on a list of 20,000 people until the individual’s citizenship status is confirmed.

“Major concerns remain that granting the United States’s requested relief might result in immense hardship to Defendants and harm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy,” the majority wrote.

Judge Patrick J. Bumatay dissented. He wrote that the Justice Department’s request was “a modest remedy—stopping California from mixing the ballots of citizens and suspected noncitizens.”

“California decided long ago that aliens can’t vote in its elections,” he wrote. “Today, the federal government merely seeks to safeguard that decision. We should have let them try.”

Pushing suspected Russian disinformation

X suspends 15 accounts pushing suspected Russian disinformation about the midterms

By Marshall Cohen

The social media platform X has suspended more than a dozen accounts promoting suspected Russian disinformation about the midterms, though some influential accounts are still active, a disinformation watchdog says.

Russian interference in the 2026 midterms has been limited so far, experts say. But they’ve noticed a recent spike from suspected Russian-connected accounts on social media, pushing false claims about multiple Democratic candidates running for Senate.

Disinformation experts said the suspensions on X, formerly Twitter, occurred Thursday and included some accounts with over 100,000 followers. But many of the most influential accounts peddling the disinformation were still online as of Friday.

“X has shown that they have a beat on this, to some degree,” said Bret Schafer, senior director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which flagged the suspensions. “A lot of the covert Russian posts that we’ve seen go up have been taken down quickly. But other parts of the infrastructure have been left up.”

The online activity is similar to past disinformation efforts during the 2024 election cycle that US intelligence agencies believe were linked to Russian government operatives.

CNN has reached out to X seeking comment about the takedowns.

$36 million for eleventh-hour push

Bloomberg gives Democrats another $36 million for eleventh-hour push

By David Wright

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, has now given at least $116 million to support Democrats in the midterms, after an eleventh-hour surge of more campaign cash.

Bloomberg gave a $36 million to Democrats this week, amid growing optimism within the party about its prospects in next Tuesday’s election. That’s on top of $80 million he had already given, which his team detailed last week.

New contributions went to House Majority PAC, the principal Democratic super PAC focused on House races, which received $16 million. Bloomberg also put $12 million more into his own group, Everytown For Gun Safety, which, alongside HMP, has been a major player in several battleground districts, including in Iowa, Michigan and Florida.

In addition, the liberal billionaire sent $2.5 million to Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia; $750,000 to Gina Hinojosa, the party’s Texas gubernatorial nominee; $2.5 million to James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate nominee; and $2.5 million to Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate nominee in Kansas.

Bloomberg’s cash infusion helps Democrats least partially offset the avalanche of outside spending funded by GOP megadonor Elon Musk, who has accounted for more than $446 million in political giving this cycle, becoming one of the largest donors in US political history.

DC golf course dispute

DOJ lawyer behind Alaska ballots case faces inquiry in DC golf course dispute

By John Fritze

A top Justice Department official who is a leading force behind an effort to halt certification in Alaska’s Senate race if the GOP doesn’t win endured a brutal hearing Friday in which a federal judge opened an investigation into whether he misrepresented the president’s plans to renovate a golf course.

In a fiery hearing that lasted nearly three hours in Washington, DC, US District Judge Ana C. Reyes pressed Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward on whether the administration had tried to evade the court’s review, including by offering only a last-minute notice to the court before felling hundreds of trees at East Potomac Golf Course earlier this month.

“Let’s not play games anymore, Mr. Woodward,” Reyes, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, told the third-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department.

Now Woodward will have to pivot back to the Alaska case, where the Justice Department has filed a placeholder civil case to challenge the results of an election in which Democrats allegedly recruited a candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent, Daniel Sullivan, to siphon away votes. The department has also accelerated a criminal probe into that effort.

A federal judge in the civil case ordered DOJ to file new paperwork in that case later Friday.