America Bounces Back / Austrian Regime Change By Russia / Bannon Loves Steve Miller (Does anyone else?) / Will Trump Lurch Further Right? / Europe Untethered after Trump’s Next Alliance
Let Us Now Celebrate the Resilience of America.
Charles: For most of the last ten years our public life has been polluted by the most loathsome man who has ever occupied.the White House. His first term was destructive; his second one, catastrophic. Every day has been exhausting.
No one has benefited from this presidency except for the tech bros and the oil executives who purchased him outright, and the defense contractors who have won billions from the Pentagon by putting his sons on their boards.
Of course the high price of gas was a big motivator to get people to vote, but this election also proved something else: the revulsion most citizens feel toward the most arrogantly corrupt President of all time. As David Remnick wrote, “what is so striking about Trump’s second term is that he entered office intent, it now seems, on flaunting his cynicism, his greed, and his scorn for the American people. It was as if he actually meant to squander his support as quickly as possible. How else to explain the heedlessness of his behavior in office?’
As the Supreme Court and a supine Republican Congress allowed every single guard rail against autocracy to melt away, for the first time in my life I worried whether fascism would could come to America in my lifetime.
The optimism I clung to came from my knowledge of what it was like to be a decent person living in Europe at the end of 1940. For the French and the Poles and the Czechs and millions of others it was almost impossible to be optimistic about the future at the end of that horrific year, after the Nazis had goose-stepped across most of Europe. And yet, it was the handful of optimists who found the courage to resist their new oppressors who were fully vindicated, just five years later.
One of those optimists was Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, who was 16 when she started to fight the Germans occupying Paris in 1940. She is the hero of my book, The Cost of Courage, and she gave me my mantra about how to behave in these circumstances:
“You must not accept, you must act.”
Charles and Christiane
Beyond the extraordinary gains that allowed Democrats to recapture Congress, there are dozens of other reasons to rejoice. Those five districts in Texas the Republicans redrew to guarantee themselves five new seats: four of them were won by Democrats. Every statewide office that was on the ballot in Texas was won by a Democrat. We have the first openly gay senator, the first Native American Governor, the first black woman governor, and a whole new generation of vibrant people who have the power to transform the political atmosphere in America. Overnight, we have dozens of new office holders who actually look like the face of America.
Besides the end of Trumpism, I hope this election marks the end of the backlash to Barack Obama’s blackness, which I believe made Donald Trump’s original election possible.
A couple of graphics demonstrate why there wasn’t a single political commentator who predicted the breadth and depth of the Democratic triumph. None of them anticipated just how many young people, Black people, Hispanics and independents were ready to make sure that the ugliness and the stupidity of this president would finally be limited by the will of the people. Together these virtuous Americans were able to overwhelm the stupidity of all the under educated white voters who brought us this catastrophe in the first place.
Interestingly, an all-Protestant outcome would have been just as red:
But the scale of the triumph would not have been possible without the nonstop support of Donald Trump. Instead of hiding inside the White House, he was out on the stump almost every day for a month, broadcasting every prejudice that drove the electorate to vote against him, from his love of data centers to his celebration of the profits of oil companies. Egged on by his fourth-rate cheerleaders, he became the Democrats’ biggest secret weapon, as SNL so accurately celebrated in its cold open on Saturday night.
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When Trump was first elected, my favorite French diplomat promised me that the president’s hideous ink would be soaked up by the boundless blotter of America. For ten years I’ve been waiting for his prediction to be vindicated. Last week it finally was, when we discovered where all that blotter had been hiding for so long.
It was lurking inside every ballot box.
How a Masterful Russian Influence Operation Toppled Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz
Sunday Telegraph
Scott: Sebastian Kurz was the darling of the Austrian right, and he was steadily steering his country into a course that was more Russia-friendly. But he was never quite pro-Kremlin enough for the spymasters in the Kremlin, who were keen on bolstering Austria’s Neo Nazi Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) as their preferred future partner. So ultimately a decision was taken to remove Kurz. We learn the details of how it went down from a Russian spymaster who oversaw the Kremlin’s Austrian operations.
A Russian spymaster claimed he had helped to bring down an Austrian chancellor, according to documents obtained by The Telegraph. Jan Marsalek, the fugitive former Wirecard executive, said he had been involved in an operation that had “successfully toppled” Sebastian Kurz, who stepped down amid allegations of corruption in 2021.
The messages, detailed in secret investigation files seen by The Telegraph, were sent to Orlin Roussev, his spy ringleader, who has since been jailed in Britain for espionage. If proven, Marsalek’s claims would be a clear indicator of the Russian state interfering directly in the political leadership of an EU nation.
The Kremlin has long sought to sow division and destabilise governments across Europe, according to the assessment of a number of security agencies. Marsalek is one of the world’s most wanted men and has been on the run since June 2020 when his company, the German tech giant Wirecard, collapsed with a £1.6bn hole in its books. He has repeatedly been spotted in Moscow since fleeing to avoid investigations into the Wirecard collapse. Since his disappearance, it has emerged that he has been working for the Kremlin for more than a decade, and British police have said he is involved in espionage on an “industrial” scale.
He is wanted for fraud and is being investigated for spying in a number of European countries, including his native Austria.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Magnitsky sanctions and a former Conservative party leader, said The Telegraph’s investigation highlighted how “brazen” Russia was becoming.
He added: “They don’t even care if people believe they are doing it. They think we are very weak on it all, that we can’t retaliate – so they just have free rein.”
Stephen Miller, reactionary ideologue and white supremacist, promoted head of Trump administration
Le Monde
Stephen Miller, at the White House, Washington, Nov 6, 2026. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Scott: So why is it that leading publications in Europe like Le Monde and Süddeutsche Zeitung have no compunction about referring to Miller as a “racist” or “white supremacist” (which he obviously is), where as US corporate media quakes in its boots as using such terms? Because “journalists” on this side of the pond fear retribution if they report things as they actually are.
A majority of Americans punished Donald Trump during the midterms for his strategic choices and authoritarian exercise of power. In response, the American president chose to double down and promote his most extreme and most loyal adviser on Friday, November 6: Stephen Miller. The White House’s reactionary ideologue will replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff.
“Stephen has been with me from the beginning,” Trump told the press. “He gets it; very good politically. He’ll do a great job. Great manager.” However, the president did not give any real explanation. “Sometimes you change,” he simply said. The change in question is a headlong rush, a retreat into the inner circle of loyalists without qualms, ready to do anything for their leader. It shows just how much Trump sees the final two years of his term as the fortification of a bunker against the attacks of a Democratic-controlled Congress and the continuation of a unilateral presidency, without consultation.
At least one person was pleased with the appointment: Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s special adviser during his first term and has been an indefatigable promoter of national populism. Speaking to Le Monde, he said that Trump’s decision was a “fuck you to the Republican establishment and to democratic socialists.” He described Miller as an uncompromising MAGA ideologue.
Miller has been by Trump’s side since 2015. Beyond the loyalty he feels for Trump, the adviser also sees the billionaire as the historic vehicle for a counter-revolution, for fundamentally transforming American institutions and redefining national identity. At 41, he has finally reached the position he dreamed of, after serving as the architect of the administration’s most controversial policies, which voters overwhelmingly rejected on November 3.
Trump set to lurch further right, claiming US took ‘giant step back’ in elections
The Guardian
America took a giant step back in History with the results of the last Election,’ Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning. Photo: Eric Lee/Reuters
Scott: Trump’s predictable response to the midterm elections: (1) deny or attempt to undermine the election results; (2) move further to the right, and double down on all strategies which the voters consider most objectionable; (3) charge full steam ahead on a foreign policy gambit designed to realign America with his friend in the Kremlin.
Donald Trump set the stage for his administration to lurch further to the right this weekend, claiming the US had taken a “giant step back” by widely rejecting his party.
The US president’s hardline aide, Stephen Miller, will begin as White House chief of staff on Monday. He will also meet with Dana White, CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, after offering him the job of press secretary.
“America took a giant step back in History with the results of the last Election,” Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, citing the sharp sell-off in global markets, fueled a rout of US tech stocks. “But have no fear, we will be back, BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”
Despite Republicans losing control of both chambers of US Congress in Tuesday’s decisive US midterm elections, and voters across the country expressing frustration with key pillars of Trump’s controversial agenda, from the Iran war to sweeping tariffs, the administration appears set to press ahead.
Miller’s promotion has stoked expectations that Trump is poised to double down on an aggressive immigration crackdown, stoke cultural war battles, and refuse concessions to the new Democratic majority in Congress. The move “signals the administration is going to have a fighting-from-a-bunker approach the last two years”, Dan Eberhart, a Trump donor and energy executive, told Reuters.
Trump abruptly announced on Saturday that he had offered White, whom he described as “a violent Fighter and Warrior”, the role of White House press secretary, which has been largely vacant since Karoline Leavitt departed the administration this summer. Leavitt initial replacement, Katie Zacharia, lasted five days in the job.
“Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other,” said Trump. “Dana, please take the job!”
After Trump also threatened Democrats planning to conduct oversight of his administration and family, announcing he had ordered the US Department of Justice to “look into” them, attorney general Todd Blanche told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that “there could be” investigations. Republicans have faced “dangerous” threats, Blanche claimed, without specifying what crimes he believed had been committed. “You have to draw the line.”
Democrats have made clear that Miller and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally, are likely to be targets of congressional investigations once the party retakes control of Congress in January.
Europe Alarmed by US Security Plan
Financial Times
Kirill Dmitriev with Melania Trump at the White House on Thursday. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Scott: As Americans were focused on the election returns, Kirill Dmitriev and a bevy of Russian war criminals were scurrying about the White House on the pretext of humanitarian relief for Ukranians under the auspices of first lady Melania Trump, whose modeling career was launched in Moscow. But not really. In fact there were focused on the new European security plan which Jared Kushner is rolling out. It was drafted in the Kremlin, with no input from America’s European allies—rather just the opposite. It aims to ringfence them and minimize their importance in geopolitical terms.
The new plan will inch Russia further towards its goal of occupation and absorption of Ukraine, while cutting Europe off from its ally. It will then carve Europe up into zones of influence between the US and the Russians. But we’ll know more in the near future.
European capitals have voiced alarm at the Trump administration’s claim to be working on a new “framework” for European security with Russia as part of a future peace deal in Ukraine.
Donald Trump met Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Russian official and one of President Vladimir Putin’s envoys to the talks, at the White House on Thursday evening. “There’s going to be an agreement; it’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump told reporters afterwards. “It’s going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe.”
Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, wrote on X later on Thursday that Washington was seeking to “develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides”, including “an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability”.
European capitals oppose using Ukraine peace talks to negotiate a new security architecture for the continent, fearing Moscow would seek to reassert its sphere of influence and erode the sovereignty of its Nato neighbours. They also worry that the Trump administration could strike a deal with Russia at the expense of European security.
“It’s up to the European Union to decide on matters that affect its security,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said on Friday.
One European official described Kushner’s message as a “complete surprise”. “There will be no simultaneous negotiations on European security until the war [against Ukraine] is over. Besides, we know what the Russians mean by that and it will not happen.”
“There has been absolutely no talk about the future of Nato and everyone is unanimous that any changes to Nato or reduction of its presence are out of the question,” they added.
Major Fireball Meteor
Explanation: The sky glows with soft pinkish colors of fading twilight in this serendipitous mountaintop vista. Taken in subfreezing temperatures, the thoughtfully composed photoshows snowy, rugged peaks seen from a mountain pass on 2017 November 14. Below lies the village of La Villa, Alta Badia in Italy‘s Dolomite Alps. Above the nestled village lights, the constellation Ursa Major hangs over the northern horizon. But most stunning is the intense fireball meteor. It was captured during the camera’s exposure by chance as it flashed east to west across the northern horizon, under Ursa Major’s familiar Big Dipperasterism. Sightings of this major fireball meteor were widely reported in European skies, making it one of the most reported fireball events ever for planet Earth’s American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization. The meteor’s measured track over Germany is consistent with its origin near the active radiant of November’s Northern Taurid Meteor Shower, a shower associated with dust from Encke’s comet.
Photo: Ollie Taylor
Your Online Moment of Zen
Don’t Your Worry About A Thing
Written and Performed by Stevie Wonder.
First released on Innervisions in 1973.
Released as a single March 1974.
4 minutes and 44 seconds of pure joy.
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I’m buying Jeff Tiedrich’s take on the Dana White ”appointment.” (See below.) You guys?
“A friend whom I will credit when he gives me permission offers the following conjecture about the insane public attempt to hire UFC dude Dana White as WH Press Secretary:
“I think the real story is that someone suggested a woman named Dana White (who has publicist credentials via Fox and Heritage) and Trump misunderstood.”
Her bio is below, also via my friend. I think he may be right.
That’s got to be it, right?
It turns out there are two Dana Whites. One of them is a trained media professional who has already held a press position within the federal government.
The other arranges human cockfights for money.
You just know that someone in the White House said to Donny, ‘hey, why don’t we hire Dana White as PressSec’ — and the stupid fuck’s rotting brain got confused and dredged up the wrong one.
It happened because Dana White the UFC honcho is a crony of Donny’s. He helped arrange that godawful cage match on the White House lawn.
That’s why, when someone said ‘hey, let’s hire Dana White,’ Donny got it wrong.
And now, we’re all expected to pretend that Dear Leader meant to do that.”
Sounds right to me!