September 28, 2026 at 1:11 PM EDT
US Tax Dollars Now Used to Secure Deals for Trump Family Cronies

US Tax Dollars Now Used to Secure Deals for Trump Family Cronies This has gotten very little attention, as far as I can tell. But it sounds quite sleazy and another example of the US government becoming a de facto investment arm of the Trump Corporation/TrumpaNostra. Lukoil, the Russian oil company, put up for sale most of its foreign assets outside of Kazakstan about a year ago. This was in response to new US sanctions. Carlyle Group and a couple other bidders have wanted to purchase these assets but approvals have been stalled in regulatory approvals in Washington. Now a group lead by billionaire financier Todd Boehly is close to securing the deal. Partnering with him are, according to The Financial Times (paywall), a group of "Gulf power brokers with ties to the Trump family" and " the US government itself, in the form of the US International Development Finance Corporation.

September 28, 2026 at 11:13 AM EDT
Judge Finds Trump Admin in Contempt of Court Again for Wrongful Deportation

Judge Finds Trump Admin in Contempt of Court Again for Wrongful Deportation Three Different Court Orders Violated The Trump administration was found in contempt of court Friday for wrongfully deporting a young Salvadoran man last month for the second time -- after he had already been unlawfully deported in March, then returned to the U.S., before being removed again.

September 28, 2026 at 10:31 AM EDT
Losing Money But Making It Up in Volume? More News from the AI Front

Losing Money But Making It Up in Volume? More News from the AI Front Here's our text for the day on the LLM/AI "boom", which is now the center of the US economy and to a great degree the center of political power as well.

September 28, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT
How Republicans Used the Pandemic to Try to Upend Census Residency Rules

How Republicans Used the Pandemic to Try to Upend Census Residency Rules The census makes politics. Representatives are allocated to states based on the count of the population, and states redistrict their maps accordingly. Thus, it's perhaps not surprising that different partisan forces work behind the scenes to make census data in their own image.

September 27, 2026 at 6:08 PM EDT
An Important Note on Silicon Valley AI Models (LLMs)

An Important Note on Silicon Valley AI Models (LLMs) I want to flag your attention to this note written by computer scientist and AI researcher Yoshua Bengio. It was sent to me by TPM Reader LG. Bengio is one of the most cited and highly regarded AI domain experts in the world. I have no independent ability to judge his views. But I believe this characterization is objectively true. I note this simply to establish that Bengio isn't some random or obscure person. Right or wrong, he's a major voice in the field.

September 26, 2026 at 4:01 PM EDT
Another Factor: Bad Candidates

Another Factor: Bad Candidates Here's a secondary issue we're currently seeing in a number of races in Red States. Take the Kansas Senate race. Who knows if this is really in play? But the last two polls of this race actually show Democrat Adam Hamilton with a nominal lead (+1 or +2). But there's an issue here with Sen. Roger Marshall (R), the incumbent senator. And it goes beyond Marshall. In a lot of solidly Red States you've got a generation of politicians who've never seen a contested partisan election. If you get the GOP nomination you're the senator. Period. And in some states getting that nomination can have a significant machine dimensions to it.

September 26, 2026 at 10:56 AM EDT
Your Moment of Trump Zen

Your Moment of Trump Zen Yesterday, after a federal court forced the White House to readmit three news organizations to the White House, Donald Trump ordered the Secret Service to bar CNN from a flight today to a college football game in Knoxville. Right-minded people get infuriated and understandably so. But I would like to encourage you to see it in a somewhat different light.

September 26, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT
The Midterms Look Bad for Republicans. How Are GOP Candidates Coping?

The Midterms Look Bad for Republicans. How Are GOP Candidates Coping? [Essay] Breaking Down the Different Flavors of GOP Midterms Cope It's never a good sign when the Senate Majority Leader suggests the election prospects for his own party look grim. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) admitted in a recent interview that he believes even losing Senate control in the midterms to be a real possibility for the GOP, saying, "I worry about that, for sure."

September 25, 2026 at 7:00 PM EDT
SCOTUS Finally Puts an End to Missouri Republicans' Map Scheme With Slap on Wrist for Lower Judges

SCOTUS Finally Puts an End to Missouri Republicans' Map Scheme With Slap on Wrist for Lower Judges For the third time in just over two weeks, the Supreme Court declined to let Missouri Republicans jam through a maximal gerrymander, this time with an air of exasperation.

September 25, 2026 at 5:01 PM EDT
Federal Judge Blasts 'Inhumane and Unconstitutional' Conditions in NYC ICE Detention

Federal Judge Blasts 'Inhumane and Unconstitutional' Conditions in NYC ICE Detention A federal judge decried the "cruelty" detainees experienced inside Manhattan's infamous ICE detention center in a court ruling filed on Thursday.

September 25, 2026 at 3:44 PM EDT
The Broadview Six Case May Be About to Break Open

The Broadview Six Case May Be About to Break Open Here is a short update on the so-called Broadview Six case -- one of the high-profile prosecutorial abuse cases coming out of ICE/CBP Midway Blitz occupation of Chicago in the fall and winter of 2025-26. To catch everyone back up, this was a case involving four candidates or elected officials, one campaign staffer and one activist. It was tied to ongoing protests outside the ICE Broadview facility outside Chicago. Federal prosecutors took a situation that involved protestors briefly making contact with a vehicle unexpectedly trying to drive through a protest line and jacked it up to a felony case. As one of the lawyers on the case told me at the time, the facts supported at best a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, and even that would been a wild overreaction to what actually happened.

September 25, 2026 at 1:21 PM EDT
Supreme Court Lets Trump Use Beefed-Up Citizenship Verification System That Could Hurt Eligible Voters

Supreme Court Lets Trump Use Beefed-Up Citizenship Verification System That Could Hurt Eligible Voters The Supreme Court on Friday let the Trump administration use its newly-expanded system to verify people's citizenship status, which the dissenters argue both violates privacy laws and risks disenfranchising voters before the midterms.