Tarrant County's Republican commissioners voted 3-2 on Tuesday to close 92 polling places for the November midterms — 316 sites in 2022, 224 this year, in Texas's third-most-populous county. County Judge Tim O'Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez called it turnout math and budget discipline; Democrats Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. voted no and pointed at a county that is growing, not shrinking, with more than 1.3 million registered voters. Dozens of residents fought the cuts through a month of hearings and lost, CBS Texas reported. Narativ published the plan last night: the White House is running its election operation in three stages — suppress the vote, question the count, then build the case for suspending elections. Tarrant is the suppression stage, passing in public, 62 days before Election Day. Nobody has to steal a vote that never gets cast. Watch the lines on November 3 — and watch which of Texas's 253 other counties moves next.
Three weeks ago a Revolutionary Guard general told PBS that America has "thousands of economic interests" and "all of them can be easily destroyed." This week Iran started: missiles and drones on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Erbil, a Saudi tanker attacked, and Iranian hackers probing US water, telecom and energy systems, NBC News reports. Trump vowed Iran would be "hit again at a much harder and higher level" if it retaliated — it retaliated by morning. The Red Crescent wants the ICC on the wedding strike that killed at least four. Brent holds near $94.
Two House Democrats saved the Republican agenda Republicans had just killed. Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez crossed on a 210-208 rule vote after five Republicans defected — and Golden's lobster bill passed four hours later. Jeffries called it "a significant breach of trust" and sent both to the caucus rules committee. The shutdown clock is dead until the midterms, so bloc voting was the opposition's last weapon. Two members just handed it over.
Pete Hegseth struck seven more officers from the Army's two-star promotion list as the secretary who complained walked out. The New York Times counts more than 80 generals and admirals fired or blocked — one in ten of the military's top officers. At Quantico, Trump proposed American cities as training grounds — Hegseth is clearing the officers who could say no.
The bond crash deepened overnight: Japan pays the most since 1996 and every American mortgage rides a three-year high, with the war feeding it. Trump's biggest bet is crypto. The chaos pays him.
Trump ran stage one of his election operation in the open today — suppress the vote, then question it, then suspend it — and only the bond traders answered him. Things are bleak, things are tough — but we've been here before, and two months before the elections is when things get really, really tough. Stick to your guns. Know who you're voting for while you're voting for them. Vote early, get your ballots there personally, be vigilant about what happens — and remember you're not alone: everyone is being vigilant about what Donald Trump is doing to the elections. Don't let him get an inch. Tomorrow the courts answer back: Leon Black faces House Oversight over Epstein, Judge Indira Talwani hears the challenge to Trump's mail-voting order in Boston — and a filing today accused Todd Blanche of defying court orders on the Epstein redaction log, yet again.
Fivestack — 3 PM ET. Anne Mitchell sits in for Dean Blundell.
Trump rehearsed all of this on January 6 — last night's new analysis names the three stages, and Tarrant County opened stage one.
