Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – November 08, 2026
by Tony Wikrent
Our Shiny Next War, The Democrats’ Shiny Next Win
Thomas Neuburger [God’s Spies].
... David Sirota outlines that problem quite well. His title: “Haley Stevens’ Betrayal Is A Warning: Corporate Dems Are MAGA’s Enablers”. The piece may be paywalled. Click here to read his remarks appended below. As he writes:
a positive anti-MAGA election would not be the end of anything. It would only be the beginning of a much longer battle....
I swear, Democrats could rule for a full generation if they just FDR-ed themselves.
New Oversight Roadmap for 120th Congress Outlines Key Accountability Priorities
Heather Souvaine Horn, Nov 05, 2026 [Public Citizen]
Public Citizen celebrated election results on Wednesday by publishing an "Oversight Agenda Roadmap" for the new Congress. "The American people are demanding much more than grandstanding and ritual condemnation of the most corrupt administration in American history," said Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman in the organization’s press release. The punchy first suggestion in the report: Hold hearings interviewing food bank leaders, health care providers, and more about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s "real-world impacts" while also investigating "how corporations used the financial gains from OBBBA, including decisions related to layoffs, wages, hiring, domestic investment, executive compensation, stock buybacks, and shareholder distributions" and determining "whether the economic promises used to justify OBBBA—including job creation, wage growth, and business investment—have materialized."
The Ground We Walked: A Moral Monday Night of Gratitude and Reflection
Bishop William Barber, II and Rev. Dr. Hanna R. Broome, Nov 7, 2026
We Made History.
Now We Finish the Work.Beginning in November 2025, we launched a mighty push to push back and move forward. It started in North Carolina. It moved to Raleigh. It carried us to Washington, D.C. And it grew into a national call: 1,000 Marches to the Polls.
And you answered., Leaders in communities across the nation committed to more than 700 marches. Clergy and moral leaders, people of many traditions and people of no faith, walked with their neighbors to the polls. God blessed our efforts.
But this work did not begin last November. It stands on 13 years of struggle. In 2013, the first Moral Monday began with 17 people. By 2014, more than 100,000 people filled the streets of Raleigh. Since then, moral fusion has taken root across this country, and especially in the South.
This was the work of the people. You showed this nation how to build diverse coalitions. How to mobilize poor and low-wage people as leaders, not as an afterthought. How to love forward together. How to turn the streets into a classroom. How to embrace a Third Reconstruction agenda that is bigger than poverty alone. How to take on religious extremism. How to practice moral defiance.
Monday, November 9, 2026 8:00 PM Eastern | 7:00 PM Central | 6:00 PM Mountain | 5:00 PM Pacific
RSVP for Monday Night
Push the National Wealth Tax Right Now - Oh, state wealth taxes don’t work? Time to do better
Hamilton Nolan, Nov 05, 2026 [How Things Work]
Ro Khanna: Democrats’ economic agenda should be America’s next New Deal
Ro Khanna [MS Now, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261105]
“The midterm outcomes present an opportunity for a new direction guided by an affirmative agenda. That reaffirmation begins with a common national purpose. To close the economic gulf, Democrats need to develop an ambitious economic project with the same ‘bold, persistent experimentation’ that guided Franklin D. Roosevelt through the New Deal. Business, workers, universities and government need to join together to foster economic development and revitalization. The economic patriotism I’m talking about is not a gauzy slogan. But it is America’s Next New Deal.” And: “Let’s start with public investment. We need to create a National Industrial Bank to invest in the industries defining the future…. Next, the mission for business leaders: If Trump can bully tech billionaires into investing in his ballroom, the next Democratic administration must make them invest in our classrooms. Private capital should be mobilized for public benefit, not personal enrichment…. Next, jobs: We need a Work for America program modeled on the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, which employed 8.5 million people…. On healthcare, we need Medicare for All, not excuses or half measures… Economic democracy also depends on public education. The Progressive Era made high school free, giving young people a fair shot at economic success. The same logic applies today, when high school is no longer enough. That means fully funded public schools, free public college and a nationwide system of trade schools and tech institutes…. Family care also is critical. Childcare and eldercare are the backbone of a decent society. They are also major sources of good jobs that cannot be outsourced or handed to robots…. This project of economic patriotism is ambitious. It must be. Undoing decades of damage will take hard work.”
Bernie Sanders: Increasing Social Security Payments by $2400 Next Year a Top Priority
Jon Queally, Nov 07, 2026 [CommonDreams]
Jon Queally, Nov 07, 2026 [CommonDreams]
“Donald, if you’re watching, we’ll put your name on it. You get to be the American president who finally guaranteed health care for every single American.”
Anti-Monopolists Soared in the Midterms. You Can Help With What’s Next
Lee Hepner, Nov 04, 2026 [BIG, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261105]
... Unlike earlier wave elections, like 1982, 2006, and 2018, this one seems ideological. That is, the new crop of Democrats have fundamentally different beliefs about the world than the incumbents. As Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa argued, the core question is no longer progressive cultural politics, it’s economic power. To pick another race, you could look at the Texas Attorney General candidate, Nathan Johnson, who won his election on an explicit consumer protection and antimonopoly platform....
2. How can I help?
If you are interested in governing in this new environment, please submit your resume to the resume bank that my organization, the American Economic Liberties Project, set up. There are going to be thousands of open slots for policymaking, communications, legal and investigative positions, across the country, and we are trying to find people who care about monopoly power to staff the newly elected political leaders and help them enact their agenda. So if you’re interested, please upload your details here....
4. Is this election an endorsement of a Democratic agenda? Well, not really, or it’s at least yet to be seen. Since 2000, 11 of 13 elections have been ‘change’ elections, meaning there’s a change in party control over the Presidency or at least one of the chambers of Congress. Voters are angry, and no one in power is doing much to assuage that anger, so frustrations are wielded against whatever party is in power. Democrats will soon have power, but they do not necessarily have the enduring trust of the public....
5. Was this election an endorsement of the fight against oligarchy? I think, yes. This was among the most expensive election cycles in American history, with $12 billion spent. Just 50 individuals were responsible for over $2.8 billion of that spending. In a country of about 343 million citizens, 0.00001458% — about 15 millionths of a percent — were responsible for over 23% of all election spending. And yet, the side with more money did not win.
One of the most notable political figures this cycle is the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who cleared every previous record by spending $445.5 million in a single election cycle. In 2020, Musk moved his residence from California to Texas amid a clash with state officials. Over the next five years, he moved Tesla, SpaceX, and X/Twitter with him. He also became highly political, endorsing Trump, running DOGE, and then spent $190 million to elect Texas Republicans in the 2026 midterms....
Anyone can point to any number of reasons why Democrats in redder areas prevailed the way they did in these midterms. But to listen to, say, the Texas Democrats themselves, it was not about alienating voters with partisan posturing on culture issues, but with the rhetoric of economic populism, and a unifying “love thy neighbor” reorientation of politics in the state. It was a plea for moral clarity against power....
7. Did Anti-Monopolists win elected office?
Yes. I’m not going to go over every candidate I tracked, but here are a few that you probably didn’t see:
- Josh Turek won his race for Senate in Iowa, flipping a red seat blue, while campaigning against vertical integration of healthcare, food price gouging, and private equity ownership of homes and farmland.
- Ron Sand will lead from the Governor’s desk in Iowa, two years after leading the effort as State Auditor to block the Koch Industries’ acquisition of a fertilizer plant in Lee County.
- Sam Forstag will be the first Democrat to win a Montana House seat in 30 years. He campaigned against meatpacker consolidation and private equity ownership of mobile home parks.
- Roy Cooper won his “Make Stuff Cost Less” campaign for Senate in North Carolina pledging to block anti-competitive grocery and food processing mergers and to ban surveillance pricing and price fixing.
- Antitrust attorney and former Colorado AG Phil Weiser handily won his bid to become the governor of the state.
- Melat Kiros won her Congressional seat in Colorado and campaigned specifically on the Warren-Hawley Break Up Big Medicine bill.
- In Georgia, Tanya Miller won her seat for Attorney General and pledged to “use the full antitrust authority of the office” to address food supply chain issues and ensure greater competition and lower prices.
- In Arizona, Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill won their statewide election to the state’s Corporation Commission, essentially the state’s public utilities commission. Both campaigned on making data centers pay their own share of utility utilization, and both criticized excessive utility profits.
- In Texas, Clayton Tucker declared victory in his bid for statewide Agriculture Commissioner. His campaign included “busting monopolies that dominate the agriculture industry, such as Tyson Foods and John Deere.”
- Aisha Wahab should win a full term Congressional seat in California, and has a record in the state legislature of supporting antitrust reform, and going after surveillance pricing and algorithmic price fixing.
- Will Lawrence won a Congressional seat in Michigan, campaigning against Wall Street landlords and AI data centers.
There are many more, but the point overall is that anti-monopoly showed up in a way that it really hasn’t in a long time. And a lot is owed to Bernie Sanders and his Fight Oligarchy tour....
9. Was there a clear victory among the different factions within the Democratic Party?
Well, not really. While there were plenty of anti-monopoly candidates, there were also many candidates like Wisconsin Governor-elect David Crowley, a favorite of Silicon Valley. While many House incumbent Democrats lost in primaries, not a single incumbent Democrat Senator, with perhaps one exception, faced a competitive primary challenge. As a result, despite the large majorities, there is significant disagreement among Democrats over a host of questions, such as banking rules, AI, tariffs, and corporate power in general....
10. Is there a Mandate? Governing Matters.
The mandate of this election, if those who are about to wield power will heed it, is to negotiate a change in course. Some 250 years ago, that negotiation produced our Constitution. Since, it has produced laws like the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Indeed, some of the most transformational laws in U.S. history — laws like the Glass-Steagall Act, the Securities Exchange Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Social Security Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act — were passed during a brief span of years following the Great Depression, as part of the New Deal. The next Congress, and the Congress after it, should aspire to similar transformative work.
But these laws, as well as the associated executive authority used to enforce them, came from legislatures who had in-depth knowledge of how our economy worked and the confidence to govern. Without offering criticism, I’ll note that many of the people who just took office are neophytes to their positions, and it would be unsurprising if they were skittish about offending the powerful without having done it before. Many won’t have the knowledge or experience to do so capably or competently. Others will....
Bring On The Church Committee, Not The Firing Squad
Dan Boguslaw, via Naked Capitalism 11-05-2026]
The Fight Over Dems’ Subpoena List
Veronica Riccobene, November 05, 2026 [The Lever]
An 181-page document listing executives and corporations Democrats could investigate is circulating among senior party members on Capitol Hill. According to the memo, Democrats should use their newfound power in Congress to probe not just the Trump administration, but also Big Tech leaders, nursing home operators, artificial intelligence developers, fossil fuel firms, and other corporate actors accused of bad-faith profiteering.
The document, obtained by The Washington Sun and written by the progressive Groundwork Collaborative think tank, reportedly calls for the “resignations of major CEOs, hauling people in, [and] material restitution.” Already, it seems that the ball is rolling: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Cesar (D-Texas) said yesterday that subpoenaing AI CEOs should be Democrats’ first priority in the new year.
Not everyone agrees. Some corporate Democrats are instead urging the party to narrow their scope: “There will be real legitimate instances to crack down on corporate abuses, but it needs to be focused,” Ben Ritz, vice president of the “centrist” Progressive Policy Institute, told the Sun.
Democrats Are Reviewing a Plan to Investigate Corporate America
[Washington Sun, via Naked Capitalism 11-06-2026]
... Senior congressional Democrats have been studying a 181-page dossier that identifies hundreds of executives and companies for them to investigate after they take control of the House and Senate next year.The document, drafted by the think tank Groundwork Collaborative and reviewed by The Washington Sun, argues that the party should respond to the results of the election by aggressively probing large corporations, including the biggest tech giants, artificial intelligence labs, natural gas firms, private prisons and nursing home operators, among dozens of others....Some Democrats have suggested the party narrowly focus on President Donald Trump’s scandals, such as his renovations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and dismantling of the Kennedy Center. The Groundwork document — spearheaded by former staffers for Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) — argues for a more expansive approach that would broaden Democratic investigations well beyond the president and focus on a wide range of corporate behavior that the group blames for the cost-of-living crisis....
Mike Brock, Nov 04, 2026 [Notes from the Circus]
[TW: Excellent bills of particulars.]
War
When Stealth Meets the Bomb: Inside the US-Israel Nuclear Strike Scenario on Iran’s Deep Bunkers
[Black Mountain Analysis, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
Trump not violating any law
‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’
Joe DePaolo, May 4th, 2025 [Mediaite]
The corruption is still the story
[Tangle, via The Big Picture, November 03, 2026]
I spent five months tracking every Trump corruption story. Here’s what I found. Isaac Saul, after a marathon day with a 10,000-word document and more than a hundred individual stories, on why the corruption remains the through line.
A Damning Account Alleges Jared Kushner Conducted Diplomacy for Profit
[New York Times, via The Big Picture, November 02, 2026]
Fintan O’Toole reviews Matthew Cole’s new book, which connects $2 billion in slush funds from Gulf leaders to the president’s son-in-law. The new book by the reporter Matthew Cole connects $2 billion in slush funds from Gulf state leaders to Trump’s son-in-law in an effort to influence U.S. policy.
Federal Government Is Targeting Officials Who Are Trying to Hold ICE Accountable
[The Appeal, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
Here Are the U.S. Attorneys Who Are Carrying Out Trump’s Grievance Agenda
[New York Times, via The Big Picture, November 01, 2026]
Daniel N. Rosen, Minnesota; John A. Sarcone III, New York; Dan Bishop, North Carolina; Bill Essayli, Los Angeles; Jason A. Reding Quiñones, Miami [resigned a few days ago]; Jeanine Pirro, District of Columbia; W. Ellis Boyle, North Carolina; and Andrew S. Boutros, Chicago.
Dean Obeidallah, Nov 7, 2026
... David—who has personally known Trump for nearly four decades—began with the good news: “The Trump grip on America is finally broken.”
But with that good news, he delivered a warning based on his personal dealings Trump. He will never give up easily—and the choice of Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff tells us that. David explained, “I think that this is going to be potentially a very dangerous period for America, because Donald, whom I’ve known and covered for more than 38 years, is very feral when he’s trapped.”
There is no doubt Trump is the most dangerous lame duck President ever—as David and I discussed. Overall, David warns us to expect Donald to “create discord and chaos.” For starters, he expects Trump to pressure his DOJ to prosecute even more of his critics and political foes.
Then there is Trump—along with Pete Hegseth—purging of military officers who weren’t seen as absolutely loyal to Donald. David added, “We should hope that if Trump decides he wants to nuke Iran, for example, that our military officers refuse to do so, even if somebody puts a gun to their head.”
Even if Trump doesn’t threaten the world with destruction, David is very certain that Trump’s focus over the next two years will be his legacy. And to Donald, that means building monuments to himself—from the ballroom to the Arch and even new things we haven’t heard of yet....
This massive repudiation of Trump was not just a rejection of the cruelty and hate that defines MAGA. But also on some level the death of Reaganism—which is the idea of cutting taxes for the wealthy while gutting programs that help people. The lie of trickle down economics may finally be dead. But that is if Democrats—as David explained—pass legislation akin to the New Deal that help large swaths of Americans from raising the minimum wage to healthcare for all.
Strategic Political Economy
Did Bernie Sanders Set the Terms for the Midterm Elections?
Lee Hepner, BIG
... Kamala Harris, had dithered, unable to even defend Lina Khan after her billionaire donor ally Reid Hoffman demanded she fire Khan during the campaign. She lost, and it was humiliating. For a few months, Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE ransacked liberal pride, getting rid of USAID, proudly slashing government workers, and seizing control of scientific and academic research funding choices.
But then something interesting happened among Democrats. Bernie Sanders, considered a left-wing radical, launched what he called the “Fight Oligarchy” tour....
To govern, Democrats will have to ignore their economic advisors that ruined the Biden administration framework. And I’m not sure they can....
Rep. Greg Casar, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, responded by arguing that Democrats might win the election, but would still be seen as “the party of nervous lawyers who just tinker around the edges” until they actually voted to root out “rampant corruption” and deliver “higher paychecks and lower prices.” It was not enough to be anti-Trump, he argued. Democrats had to “crack down on corporate greed to bring down the cost of health care, housing, child care, groceries, and gas,” as well as doing oversight of the White House and big business. If Trump vetoed good bills, “we’ll run on them in 2028 and pass them in 2029.” ....
And Republican voters are increasingly defecting from the Trump administration with frustrations aimed at Wall Street, Big Tech, and financial regulations. According to an October 29 poll, 50% of Republicans think Wall Street has too much control over the economy, and 53% think Big Tech has too much control. Sixty percent of Republicans think the crypto industry has too much influence in Washington, and 75% think crypto donations will “buy dangerous policy.” Eightyone percent of Republicans are concerned about private equity takeovers. In a rebuke of Trump’s dissolution of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 80% of Republicans want more stringent consumer protections for new financial products, and 77% favor the CFPB after hearing a description of the agency and its mission.
Bernie Sanders lost the fight in 2016. A decade later, he won the war
[Politico, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261106]
“Bernie Sanders’ fell short against Hillary Clinton but introduced a populist economic vision that, at the time, much of the Democratic establishment dismissed as politically impractical. Ten years later, Trump and MAGA were hit with a devastating midterm repudiation, as candidates across the country in blue and red states echoing versions of Sanders’ message broke through in places that once seemed beyond Democrats’ reach.” More: “Sanders, as cantankerous as ever, isn’t surprised. ‘If you’re asking me, am I shocked by that? That the argument about economic justice and taking on oligarchs and fighting for the working class is working in Texas, is working in Ohio, is working in Montana, is working in Florida, is working all over the country — no, I am not shocked,’ Sanders said in an interview Wednesday, fresh off over 20 rallies in October alone. ‘That is what I’ve always believed.’” And: “ ‘Bernie normalized the kind of campaigning that really is about making a direct appeal to working people,’ El Sayed told Politico. ‘Wherever I went in Michigan, there are people who remember Bernie 2016 and Bernie 2020 — we stand on the shoulders of giants.’”
Lee Hepner, Nov 01, 2026 [BIG]
Sanders Calls for ‘Fundamental and Immediate Reform’ to Democratic Party If It Wins Elections
Julia Conley, November 03, 2026 [CommonDreams]
... “Status quo politics and status quo policies are no longer good enough,” said Sanders. “With a return to power, [Democrats] can no longer continue to ignore the major economic and political crises facing the majority of our people... or that return to power will be short-lived.”
Instead of accepting the ironclad grip on US politics held by wealthy corporations, billionaires like tech mogul Elon Musk, and powerful interest groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which poured more than $100 million into the 2026 elections, Sanders called on Democrats to prioritize “ending Citizens United” and getting super political action committees, which can spend unlimited money on behalf of candidates thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling, “out of elections.”
“We must no longer allow billionaires to buy elections,” said Sanders, a day after it was reported that Musk had spent nearly $450 million to help elect GOP candidates tied to the deeply unpopular Trump, his illegal war on Iran, and the mass deportation policy that has torn apart families and angered people across the country....
‘Thank You Bernie’: Organizers Credit Progressive Leader for ‘Long Game’ That Paid Off
Julia Conley, Nov 04, 2026 [CommonDreams]
“He cultivated a whole generation of young leaders through the movement he spawned who are now winning seats everywhere.”
Van Hollen Says No Rubber Stamp for Schumer as Majority Leader Without Support for ‘Bold Agenda’
Jake Johnson, November 05, 2026 [CommonDreams]
A top progressive senator on Wednesday said Democrats should not commit to supporting Sen. Chuck Schumer to lead the caucus after the party’s historic midterm wins without demanding his support for a “bold agenda” that reflects the needs of the American public, which is facing a worsening cost-of-living crisis under President Donald Trump.
“Working people have been screwed for way too long, and we need to unrig an economy that’s been built to serve billionaires and big corporations,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who previously led Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, told Bloomberg in an interview. “It’s not a time for incrementalism. It’s a time to move forward a very bold kitchen table agenda.” ....
Global power shift
Here’s How Much More High-Speed Rail China Has Than Every Other Country
[Jalopnik, via Naked Capitalism 11-01-2026]
Major automakers urge US Congress to pass permanent ban on Chinese vehicles
[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 11-03-2026]
Oligarchy
[Cal Matters, via Naked Capitalism 11-05-2026]
Felonomics
U.S. Refineries Make Dramatic Shift Away From Gasoline
Julianne Geiger - Nov 05, 2026 [OilPrice]
Gasoline yields averaged below 45% during the first eight months of 2026, falling below the previous five-year low in every month, according to data published Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
That's a significant departure for a refining industry that typically produces 45 to 50 barrels of gasoline for every 100 barrels of crude processed....
Distillate fuel oil yields, which include diesel and heating oil, exceeded their five-year average in every month through August. Jet fuel production has undergone an even more pronounced shift.
In March, jet fuel's share of U.S. refinery output exceeded 12% for the first time on record. It remained at or above that level through August, the latest month for which EIA data is available.
The carnage of mainstream neoliberal economics
Debt black hole: Car loan payments hit record level
[FX Street, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261104]
“American auto loan payments just hit an all-time high of $787 per month. Pile that on record credit card debt and relentless price inflation, and it’s no wonder American consumers feel stressed!” And: “The average price of a new car has eclipsed $50,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. That’s up by about 30 percent in just six years. Meanwhile, the average APR on a new car loan hovers around 7 percent.”
Agribusiness and the Compensatory State
[Phenomenal World, via Naked Capitalism 11-06-2026]
Health care crisis
New York state reports first measles-linked child death in over 30 years amid outbreak
[Reuters, via Naked Capitalism 11-03-2026]
Flouting Consumer Law, Insurers Refuse to Pay Medical Bills for Emergency Care
[New York Times, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
Restoring balance to the economy
[Common Dreams, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
Heather Cox Richardson, November 5, 2026 [Letters from an American]
...On Tuesday, voters in Montana overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative to stop the flow of corporate money into political campaigns. The measure echoes a law passed in Hawaii in May but is the first to go directly to voters.
Rather than going after the political spending that the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens’ United v. Federal Elections Commission decision protected, the plan capitalizes on the fact that corporations are created by states. It simply says that the state can deny the power of corporations, trade associations, nonprofits, and other “artificial persons” to donate to political causes. Businesses chartered in other states can’t spend political money in the state.
Only 34.5% of Montana voters opposed the measure. More than 65% voted yes.
Eric Petry of the Brennan Center for Justice, which protects voting rights, told Mike Leonard and Jordan Fischer of Bloomberg Law: “The fact that this passed with near-supermajority support in a very red state shows how deeply upset the public is about the role of money in politics.”
Timothy Noah, Nov 06, 2026 [Backbencher]
Montana didn’t need a blue wave to fight Citizens United. It’s been fighting it practically since the day the high court handed the decision down in 2010. Montana’s own Supreme Court defied Citizens United in 2011 by upholding the state’s 1912 prohibition against corporate political spending. The United States Supreme Court struck that down in 2012. Later that year Montana voters passed I-166, which re-imposed the prohibition and called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. But then I-166 got struck down in Montana state court in 2013.
The new state initiative, I-194, is a workaround. If the Supreme Court is going to give corporations the right to participate in elections, then OK, fine, the state of Montana will withhold the right to incorporate from any corporation that does so. The Supreme Court gets to decide what a corporation may or may not do, but it doesn’t get to decide the rules for how to be a corporation in the first place. That’s the theory. I’m not a lawyer, so I have no idea whether this will fly, but I like how it dares the Supreme Court to mess with a function that the Constitution has left to state governments since 1789.
My latest New Republic piece scores I-194’s victory (which follows the legislative victory of a similar measure last May in Hawaii) as the second-biggest setback for oligarchs in the midterms, after of course the loss of a Republican majority in Congress. I review, as comprehensively as I can manage, oligarch spending, oligarch candidacies, and oligarch state initiatives. The midterms weren’t a total billionaire rout—it looks as though the oligarchs defeated a wealth tax in California (one that I never much cared for). But the mighty super PACs seldom lose, and this time they did lose, so let us rejoice. You can read my piece here.
How The Oligarchs Lost in the Midterms
Timothy Noah, Nov 06, 2026 [The New Republic]
Manufacturing Employees Perform Better—and Stay Longer— When They Own a Piece of the Company
Leith Sorenson, Nov. 5, 2026 [IndustryWeek]
... In production, I have worked alongside employees who wanted exactly what they had: a stable, rewarding career doing work they enjoyed. They did not want to move into leadership or change roles. They took pride in what they did, stayed for 20 or 25 years and retired comfortably.
At most companies, that kind of outcome would be rare. But here, it is a real possibility. On average, workers at private employee-owned companies have more than twice the retirement savings of their peers at other firms.
At companies like ours, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) gives employees shares of company stock that accumulate throughout their careers, creating a direct financial stake in the long-term success of the business. This is one reason why the median employee tenure at employee-owned companies is about 50% higher than at traditional businesses. When people feel respected and rewarded, they build careers instead of just finding jobs.
JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine's "Against Tech Oligarchy"
Cory Doctorow, November 07, 2026 [Pluralistic]
JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine are veterans of a string of hard-fought unionization drives at tech workplaces that started with some astounding successes but ran up against ferocious resistance in the second Trump term; their book about tech labor, Against Tech Oligarchy, is a superb analysis of the challenges and potential for tech labor organizing:
Disrupting mainstream politics
The Money Behind Hakeem Jeffries [ReadSludge]
[ReadSludge], via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261104]
“Federal Election Commission filings show that Anduril’s CEO and chief operating officer gave $144,300 to Jeffries’ fundraising committees, while a manager at Palantir contributed another $44,300. His donors also include the head of a cryptocurrency advocacy group and investment executives at Bain Capital, D.E. Shaw, and Renaissance Technologies. AIPAC’s political action committee routed more than $427,000 in donor contributions to his campaign and fundraising committees this cycle.”
Hakeem Jeffries Is Bankrolled by the Most Controversial Tech Companies in Existence
Joe Wilkins, Nov 4, 2026 [futurism.com]
... As collated by the investigative publication Sludge, Jeffries has a lengthy history of groveling to some of the most divisive tech and weapons corporations on the planet.
His donor list includes controversial figures like Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf and his COO Matthew Grimm, who together spent nearly $150,000 boosting Jeffries’ fundraising committees. Some might recognize Anduril as the AI weapons tech corporation co-founded by Palmer Luckey, a tech billionaire whose recent projects include a company working on genetically enhanced dogs for military purposes.
Another controversial donor includes Mehdi Allhassani, current head of government affairs at the AI surveillance company Palantir, from whom Jeffries received $44,300 this election cycle.
Jeffries also has the backing of cryptocurrency advocacy groups and investment executives at firms including Bain Capital, DE Shaw, and Renaissance Technologies, Sludge reports....
Luke Goldstein, Sep 16, 2026 [The Lever]
Petition Calling for House Speaker Other Than Hakeem Jeffries Hits 1 Million Signatures
Jon Queally, Nov 07, 2026 [CommonDreams]
As of this writing, the Change.org petition—titled “House Democrats: CHOOSE A NEW SPEAKER”—has 1,004,752 verified signatories, with the number rapidly rising.
Was It immature? Yes. Was It Juvenile? Yes. Was It Perverted? Probably.”
[Mother Jones, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261103].
“D.J. Byrnes, the man behind a lefty Ohio political news site called The Rooster, was first to report that Ohio Republicans had tracked down the estranged mother of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dr. Amy Acton and planned to feature the 82-year-old in an ad attacking her daughter.” More: “A week later, Byrnes was also first to post the unaired ad: the minute-long clip shows an unkempt Donna characterizing her daughter as an unfit candidate who lied about her abusive childhood.” More: “Within 24 hours of Byrnes posting the clip, Ramaswamy not only took direct credit for the project but also announced he planned to spend $4 million flooding the airwaves with it.” More: “The widely condemned (and factually refuted) ad has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had with voters as I criss-crossed Ohio over the past week. Registered Republicans and Democrats alike have called it ‘despicable,’ ‘deplorable,’ and ‘deeply, deeply troubling.’ This includes outgoing Republican Governor Mike DeWine.” And: “Byrnes’ scoops have upended not only Ramaswamy’s already tight race for governor, but also those of other Ohio Republicans on the ballot. With partisan control of both the House and Senate up for grabs, his reporting could have implications far beyond the Buckeye state.”
[Lambert Strether: "I’m really savoring the idea that — if things pan out — an actual literal blogger will not only have taken down an actual billionaire (Ramaswamy), but a protege of a multibillionaire (Ramaswamy’s backer, Thiel). More like this, please."]
Blue Wave Changed Who Governs. But Not Who Has Influence.
[HEALTH CARE un-covered, via Naked Capitalism 11-05-2026]
[Black Agenda Report, via Naked Capitalism 11-05-2026]
Information age dystopia / surveillance state
Google to schools: Keep our AI turned on, or lose access to Search
[Yahoo! Tech, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
Cory Doctorow, November 02, 2026 [Pluralistic]
After 25 years of fighting for human rights amid the wreckage of bad tech policy, I'm here to tell you that the road to hell is paved with badly thought-through tech policy.
The most galling thing about this wreckage is that it was both foreseeable and foreseen. Back when Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy was telling the world "Privacy is dead, get over it," digital rights advocates were saying, "Not only are digital tools pretty dang good at helping you protect your privacy, but a society-wide abolition of privacy sets us up for infinite harms long into the future":
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/31/losing-the-crypto-wars/#surveillance-monopolism
It wasn't just business leaders who hated privacy, it was also our political classes. Bill Clinton tried to put a backdoor into every microchip (no, really):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip
The NSA managed to enact a total prohibition on civilian access to working encryption, on the grounds that we're all safer if our spooks can spy on "bad guys" even if that means that every creep, petty crook, corporate or state-sponsored spy, and mafia can spy on us:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/09/bernstein-2/#win-some-lose-some
Even after that ban was overturned, governments encouraged the private sector to spy on us without limit, precaution or permission. Those private-sector troves of intimate, compromising data about every person alive constitute a warrantless, off-the-books surveillance system that cops, spies and government agencies can tap at will:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/13/petards-r-us/#nobus
To protect these surveillance capabilities, private firms and governments colluded to pass "anticircumvention" laws that make it illegal to reverse engineer our devices and apps to add privacy blockers to them, with the effect that every device we own and every app we use spies on us constantly:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars ....
It's going to take a long time to fix this, but we can do it. We can build more secure systems. We can make it much more of a legal ball-ache for companies to gather our data in the first place, and we can legalize and promote the creation of privacy blockers for browsers, phones, computers, cars, thermostats and smart speakers. We can enact corporate death-penalties for breaches to reflect the true societal cost of warehousing our data. We can ban Flock cameras and tear down the post-9/11 "fusion centers" that neatly package up our data for use by DOGE fascists and ICE thugs. We can ban our spy agencies from hoarding defects in widely used software, and instead require them to divulge these bugs so vendors can fix them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOBUS
And before we do any of that, we can just stop making it worse by ending the campaigns to require companies to spy on us and deliberately introduce security defects into their products.
Your phone knows you’re at the doctor, and data brokers are profiting from it
[Washington Post, via The Big Picture, November 01, 2026]
[Futurism, via Naked Capitalism 11-03-2026]
[Futurism, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261104]
“Michigan is set to deploy a major new software system to prisons across the state, meant to classify incarcerated people based on ‘how dangerous they are.’ That’s according to Detroit channel Fox2, which reports that the Michigan Department of Corrections is plowing ahead with an inmate categorization algorithm that will sort people into various housing levels. In Michigan, incarcerated people are separated into five housing levels according to their security classification. In the past, screenings were performed by a committee of staff appointed by the Warden at each facility. Now, it seems the state wants to outsource that decision — or at least have it be heavily informed by — a non-profit AI and software company called Recidiviz.” And: “For incarcerated people, housing designations are extremely consequential, determining which programming and resources they’ll be eligible for, and what kind of population they’ll be housed with for the duration of their sentence. As a ProPublica investigation into a similar risk-analysis software in Louisiana found, the kind of data being used to classify incarcerated people contained inherent racial and socioeconomic bias. As a result, Louisiana’s carceral system has become even more cruel and harmful to those earnestly working toward rehabilitation. In one case reported by ProPublica, a blind and wheelchair bound 70-year-old was determined to be a ‘moderate risk’ of reoffending despite having a clean disciplinary record — a classification which results in an automatic loss of eligibility for parole.”
Collapse of independent news media
‘RIP Salon’: After 31 Years, Independent News Outlet Goes Dark
[Common Dreams]
What’s missing from every story about Tuesday’s anti-Trump rout
Dan Froomkin, November 5, 2026 [presswatchers.org]
You might well think, based only on the news coverage of Tuesday’s elections, that opposition to Donald Trump and his agenda is a relatively recent thing, mostly a function of his decision to attack Iran eight months ago, which then led to increased fuel prices.
But no, it’s been around a bit longer than that.
Ever since the moment Trump won a second term in November 2024, very close to half of American voters have been angry and horrified....
He pardoned the insurrectionists. He surrounded himself with fawning courtiers. He started ransacking the government and destroying things that make this country great, like lifesaving foreign aid and science. The protests began.
Trump began to rule like a dictator, bullying his Congress into submission and ignoring the budget and laws they had passed. He unilaterally imposed crazy tariffs on foreign goods. He sent troops to LA. ICE occupied Chicago. The protests grew.
That spring, more than 200 progressive groups agreed on a name for a new anti-fascist grassroots movement. They called it No Kings. And on June 14, 2025, organizers estimated that more than five million people in over 2,000 cities and towns gathered under that banner, chanting “No Kings” and “This is what democracy looks like.” For the people who went, it was proof that they were not alone. There were many of them. A huge number, in fact....
Climate and environmental crises
We rebuilt the Solution Map so you can actually use it
[Climate Drift, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261106]
“Most of you already know the Solution Map, the big overview of the climate space, 300+ solutions across 12 sectors, from power and transportation to carbon removal, nature, and finance. It has helped a lot of people get their bearings while they work out where they fit in the climate sector. It has also helped entrepreneurs and investors find their next opportunities.”
Antarctic meltwater engine sputters as key ocean layer reverses
[Oceanographic, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
[TW: may have to start filing these under Global power shift.]
Most voters believe climate change threatens the American Dream
[Grist, via Naked Capitalism 11-04-2026]
When humans disappear, biodiversity takes a surprising turn
[Nature, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261104]
“Unsurprisingly, [Uchida, an environmental scientist at Tokyo City University in Yokohama, and his colleagues] found that the diversity and abundance of most species declined at sites where the human population was growing. But they also found that biodiversity declined in places where the number of people was decreasing. This result — and others like it in different parts of the world — contradicts the common assumption that when people leave, nature always thrives.” More: “[T]he overarching themes of research seem to be that many species rely on the maintenance of a mosaic of habitat types and regular, modest disturbance through activities such as seasonal flooding, livestock grazing, burning, thinning and patchy clearing. Inhabited landscapes that experience such disruptions often host more species than a large expanse of undisturbed forest does. These are the Arcadian landscapes of the Romantic poets, of The Wind in the Willows (1908) and of My Neighbor Totoro: culturally beloved ecosystems that have supported a suite of species since at least the Iron Age. “Biodiversity has evolved in the last millennia with people and human activities,” Lloret says. Some species might even have evolved to fit better into human landscapes. However, Lloret cautions that there are no universal rules. Context is king. In some places, depopulation increases biodiversity.”
The great disaster divide: How the super-rich are profiting from global climate suffering
[Climate Change News, via Naked Capitalism 11-07-2026]
America’s Nuclear Revival Is Running Into a Fuel Supply Wall
Haley Zaremba - Nov 06, 2026 [oilprice.com]
Foreign suppliers provided 93% of the uranium delivered to U.S. reactors, so progress on domestic enrichment still leaves the front of the fuel chain exposed.
Only five plants worldwide convert uranium at scale. Per the National Interest, the West needs about 44,000 metric tons of feedstock a year and has roughly 34,000 tons of capacity.
Urenco USA’s New Mexico plant covers about a third of U.S. enrichment demand and says its expansion is ahead of schedule and on budget, but Russia still holds nearly half of global enrichment capacity.
Democrats' political malpractice
We Exposed Democrats’ Billionaire Backers. Now They’re Blocking Our Reporters.
David Sirota, November 06, 2026 [The Lever]
A billionaire-backed group is gathering top Democrats to shape the party's future — while blocking our reporters after we exposed its funding.
Earlier this year, The Lever published the definitive investigative series exposing a billionaire front group aiming to stealthily shape the Democratic Party’s agenda and its primary elections.
Now, our journalists are facing retribution for this reporting: The organization, Majority Democrats, is attempting to block our reporters from covering its upcoming meeting with top Democrats to sculpt the party’s policy agenda. The strong-arm tactics come even as the group has been offering access to corporate media outlets....
We need to fund this last minute trip and expand our reporting capacity for all of these kinds of meetings that are now happening between big donors and Democratic leaders. Your subscription is critical to our current operations. If can increase your support with a one-time donation today, click the button below:
Don't Squander the Republican Rout - The future of US politics is up for grabs
Eric Blanc, Nov 04, 2026 [Labor Politics]
... 3) Learn from Texas
Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in a state Trump won by nearly fourteen points in 2024. He ran on an essentially Bernie-lite economic platform, arguing that “Republicans and Democrats alike sold the false Gospel of trickle-down economics.” As he declared in his victory speech: “We just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system: in this state, in this country, power belongs to the people.”
Texas’s new Democratic governor, Gina Hinojosa, has been similarly explicit: “The one fight in this country is about economic power, and populism is about economic power.” And she’s right that centering bread-and-butter demands and broad fights against the economic elite is the precondition for our ability to defend and expand rights for the most marginalized....
8) This election was a repudiation of Trump, not a vindication of Schumer and Jeffries
The same Democratic leaders who failed to mount a serious fight against Trump’s authoritarian offensive are now trying to claim credit for his defeat. Their political timidity, ties to the billionaires, and low ambitions make them profoundly unsuited for the fights ahead. Democrats need new congressional leadership willing to confront Trump and champion transformative change. And the close races in supposedly unwinnable states should convince the party to stop writing off large parts of the country. Competing there consistently will require a bold program and much more organizing between elections....
12) The biggest danger is repeating the disastrous missed opportunity of 2006–2008
Like last night, anger at George W. Bush’s presidency propelled Democrats to congressional majorities in 2006, culminating in Obama’s historic landslide in 2008. Democrats had a huge mandate and large congressional majorities.
But Obama’s centrism and demobilization of his base squandered much of that opportunity. Millions who had hoped for fundamental change quickly grew disillusioned. Republicans won 63 House seats in 2010, and eight years after Obama’s first victory, Trump entered the White House.
The stakes today are even higher, and our crisis much deeper. Everything depends on breaking the destructive doom loop of Democratic victories, dashed hopes, and increasingly reactionary Republican comebacks. The good news is that the Democratic establishment is far more delegitimized than in 2008, and the Left is far stronger. History doesn’t have to repeat itself....
Brian Beutler, Nov 04, 2026 [Off Message]
Jake Triola, Nov 01, 2026 [Nation Magazine]
... a recent report from the Center for Working-Class Politics and the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative shows that the best-performing economic populist messaging can land with both loyal Democratic voters and much-needed swing voters—as long as progressives tell the right story....
Economic populism drove the Democratic wave - Now they have to follow through
Jordan Zakarin, Nov 05, 2026 [Progress Report]
[TW: A useful compilation of some of the progressive things Democrats said during their campaigns. "Now they have to follow through," as Zakarin wrote.]
Schumer, Jeffries ON THE ROPES After Mass Defections w/ David Sirota
Breaking Points, via Naked Capitalism 11-07-2026]
Resistance
[Rule of Law Project, via The Big Picture, November 01, 2026]
“I’ve spent my career working in countries where the rule of law has collapsed, but I never thought I’d see it erode here so quickly. Now, senior officials openly engage in corruption, while federal agents beat and kill innocent people with impunity. The rule of law is on life support, but it’s our collective responsibility to make sure it doesn’t die.”
How Texas Can Put Elon Musk in Prison
Chris Armitage, Nov 06, 2026 [The Existentialist Republic]
Under Texas law his Twitter posts can be charged as a first-degree felony, 5 to 99 years in prison, and the window to indict closes May 13, 2027. The state can also take back $1.66 billion....
When the current administration took office in January 2025, the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations counted at least 65 actual or potential federal actions pending against Elon Musk's companies, with $2.37 billion in potential liability. Federal agencies have since collected $1.5 million on the matters they closed. What happens to a federal case against a billionaire after the federal government drops it? That depends on where the conduct happened. A president can pardon only federal crimes, and federal appointees can drop only federal cases, so conduct inside a state stays within reach of that state's prosecutors and courts. We went through the federal record on Musk and his companies and matched each matter to the Texas law that reaches it and the Texas office that enforces that law....
We put the record, with the law that reaches each matter and the office that enforces it, into a case file for the people who won, and we're raising the money for a year-long battle behind it. In November 2026 the file goes to the incoming attorney general, the governor, the comptroller, every district attorney in Texas, every Democratic legislator and their staff, and the Texas Democratic Party and every county Democratic party, and then we email, call and mail every one of those offices, every week, for a year, until they open civil and criminal investigations into Elon Musk and his companies. Our volunteers and I will be speaking with the district attorneys, the state representatives, the new attorney general and the new governor ourselves, and we publish what each office does, here and in monthly updates. You can fund that year by clicking on this sentence, and you can sign up for the campaign by clicking on this sentence....
Thomas Neuburger, Nov 06, 2026 [God's Spies]
Conservative / Libertarian / (anti)Republican Drive to Civil War
A Very Subdued White House Has a Warning For Its Allies
By John Light | 11.06.26 [Talking Points Memo]
But the White House is not totally defanged. As allies began to break with Trump, debating in scathing public statements whether the election results were because the administration was either too MAGA or not MAGA enough, the White House Office of Public Liaison had an ominous message for the conservative interest groups with which it works: We are watching you.
“As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organizations,” a memo, sent to more than 3,000 conservative organizations, said, according to the Wall Street Journal. The White House insisted to the Journal that this kind of language was normal in these memos, but the Journal could not find another example of it.
A little after 7 p.m. ET last night, Miller began to find his voice again. He did not acknowledge the events of the preceding 48 hours. The topic that lured him back to X? California Gov. Gavin Newsom commuting the sentences of 548 people on death row. "Newsom gave clemency to these monsters," he posted, boosting a tweet calling for their execution.
Mike Rogers Campaign Spokesperson Is a Registered Agent for Israel, Documents Show
Jacqueline Sweet, Nov 01, 2026 [Drop Site News]
One quote that explains a lot about why the GOP lost
Dartagnan, November 4, 2026 [Daily Kos]
The GOP’s mantra going in to this election was that the polls couldn’t possibly be right. Now take a look at this quote from an unnamed GOP political strategist, looking at the polling, just before the election: ...
“It would be so historically unprecedented you’d have to presuppose we’re staring down the barrel of a generational national trauma that no one is aware of,” the strategist said.
A “generational national trauma that no one is aware of.” No one in their bubble, that is. Gas prices? Meh. Cost of living? Meh. Armed goons in the streets? Meh. AI potentially wiping out the jobs of the entire young population? Meh. A leader so out-of-touch and so mind-bogglingly corrupt that the only things he focused on were imaginary monuments to himself? Meh
JD Vance election post-mortem squarely blames Trump
... Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026....
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Civic republicanism
Workers can govern, but they need power first
[Jacobin, via thejackpot.blog/node/TodaysWaterCooler20261104]
“[H]aving more workers in office matters. Politicians who have had working-class jobs back more pro-worker economic legislation, cabinets with more working-class ministers build more generous welfare states, and citizens trust legislatures less when they include fewer workers.” More: “If working-class officeholders are so good for working people, why are there so few of them? [Carnes and Lupa’s] answer is pretty demoralizing. The problem, they argue, contrary to the dominant view of many on the Left, isn’t money, the weakness of unions, particular electoral rules, or an aversion to working-class candidates among voters. Instead, the reason lies deeper, embedded in the logic of electoral democracy itself: running for office is personally grueling, demanding time, money, and a willingness to put one’s job and income at risk that people in working-class jobs can rarely afford, and party gatekeepers rationally pass over those least likely to weather the storm of an electoral campaign. Together these two processes ensure that working-class candidates will always face major headwinds that limit their success.” And: “Ultimately, Carnes and Lupu turn to two structural fixes that, they argue, would remove the obstacles keeping workers out of legislatures: worker quotas and citizens’ assemblies. With a quota, the authors note, if a party must nominate a worker for a seat, ‘it doesn’t really matter whether workers have a harder time running.’ Likewise, citizens’ assemblies chosen by lot skip campaigns altogether and can ensure roughly equal participation across class.”
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