Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
Armed DHS agents are knocking on doors across the country to question residents about their voter registration. Elon Musk is threatening to personally target Democrats who investigate his businesses. A federal judge ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in his lawsuit against the BBC. And a Virginia state senator who has been critical of the president was indicted on supposed marijuana racketeering charges less than two weeks before the midterms.
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The agents who normally chase drug cartels are now chasing retirees in bathrobes.
Armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been going door-to-door in multiple states asking residents about their immigration status and if they have registered to vote, a CBS News investigation has found. The operation kicked into gear in September and is aimed at residents mainly in battleground states.
The Justice Department said Monday that California agents arrested more than 20 people, all green-card holders, on allegations they registered or voted illegally. In one case, a 72-year-old Belizean man was dragged from his home in his pajamas by dozens of federal agents.
Pictures and videos posted on social media show agents with guns and documents marked “Target List” approaching private homes. A photo from Kansas City shows four agents at the door of a woman on her porch holding the hand of a child.
As part of the “surge,” hundreds of agents were pulled off existing cases and directed to pursue alleged noncitizen voters. DHS has said as many as 250,000 noncitizens may be registered illegally, but only 156 people have been charged with voting fraud since the beginning of the Trump administration out of 227 million registered voters.
If elected officials are “puppets,” Elon Musk has spent $276 million on a puppet show.
Musk has vowed to take revenge on Democratic lawmakers who use the power of congressional oversight to investigate him and his businesses. He wrote today on X, the social media platform he owns, that he will “live by the sword, die by the sword.”
“Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets,” Musk wrote.
The threat came after Politico reported that Democrats plan to use the House Oversight Committee to investigate Musk if they retake control of Congress in November. The probes would center on his sizable political donations to Republicans and his former role overseeing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk has donated more than $276 million to Republican candidates, committees and his own America PAC since July, according to campaign finance filings, making him the biggest known donor of the 2026 midterms. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidates, received the largest donation of $158 million, with another $20 million going to the Congressional Leadership Fund.
While Musk was running DOGE, his team accessed sensitive databases at the Social Security Administration, the Treasury Department, and the IRS while his own companies held at least $38 billion in federal contracts. Democrats filed a formal conflict of interest complaint after DOGE tried to divert an FAA contract from Verizon to Musk’s own Starlink.
Apparently $10 billion is still not enough money to get Trump to answer a question under oath.
A federal judge has ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11 or face sanctions. The order came after the BBC’s attorney told the court that Trump had canceled a previously agreed-upon deposition date to campaign in Georgia.
Trump filed the lawsuit in December, accusing the broadcaster of defamation and deceptive trade practices related to a documentary called Trump: A Second Chance. The BBC apologized for errors in editing the film and its two top executives resigned, but the broadcaster denied defaming Trump.
The network also subpoenaed former special counsel Jack Smith to testify in the case, but Trump’s lawyers are trying to block his appearance. The judge ordered the Justice Department to say by November 2 if Smith had received the necessary permission to testify.
The judge also ruled that the BBC can access Mar-a-Lago membership records from January 6, 2020 through January 6, 2026 to determine damages. Trump’s attorneys objected to a video recording of the deposition, but the judge allowed it with the caveat that the footage could not be released to the public.
If you need five years and a federal grand jury to catch an 82-year-old grandmother selling weed, the grandmother is not the problem.
Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, an 82-year-old Democrat and vocal Trump critic, has been charged with allegedly leading a marijuana racketeering conspiracy worth an estimated $4.5 million. The indictment was unsealed by the Department of Justice less than two weeks before the midterm election.
The indictment alleges that Lucas used her position as chair of the state Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee to protect the enterprise, which it claims operated for five years through two stores. Six other defendants are charged, including two of Lucas’ daughters and her grandson.
Lucas has frequently criticized Trump, and helped lead the effort to redraw Virginia’s congressional map to benefit Democrats in November. In May, FBI agents raided her Portsmouth office and the two stores linked to the alleged scheme, which she said was retaliation for opposing the president.
Gov. Spanberger said the timing “undermines the U.S. Department of Justice’s previously longstanding policy of not taking legal actions close to an election” and “further erodes the trust the American people deserve to have in the Department of Justice.”
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DOJ Fraud Whistleblower Program Immediately Backfires. The Justice Department on Tuesday announced a new Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program that will pay between $10,000 and $30,000 for tips that lead to criminal charges against people who cheat government programs. The program’s online portal was quickly inundated with critical reports from users charging Trump himself with fraud, citing his $2.2 billion in reported earnings last year and his receipt of a $400 million jet from Qatar. When a reporter pointed out that the current False Claims Act already provides whistleblowers 10 to 25 percent of recovered funds, Trump told him to “be careful” and asked if he was “a sick person.”
Democrats Sue Trump Administration for Overriding State Authority on Elections. Democratic leaders, including Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to stop the Trump administration from removing legally registered voters or threatening state election officials with prosecution before the November 3 midterm election. The suit cites recent Justice Department lawsuits in California where the department sued to prevent state officials from counting mail-in ballots cast by people identified by the federal government as potential noncitizens. DHS first said it had found nearly 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls alone, but ultimately couldn’t produce evidence of one.
** New Law Requires Dating Apps to Warn Users About Romance Scams.** Because if there’s one thing Americans are good at, it’s reading the warning label and taking the appropriate precautions. Trump signed the bipartisan Romance Scam Prevention Act on Tuesday requiring online dating platforms to notify users when someone they’ve been communicating with is banned from the service for fraud. Dating platforms will have to send a fraud alert within 24 hours of banning a fraudulent account, with warnings that the person may have been using a false identity and advice not to send money. Romance scams hit record losses in 2025, with the FTC reporting more than 70,000 cases and $1.47 billion lost in the U.S. alone.
NYC Council to Pass Bill Giving Nonprofits First Chance to Buy Distressed Buildings. The New York City Council’s housing committee is expected to vote on the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would give nonprofit groups the right to buy rundown apartment buildings before they go on the open market. The measure would initially apply to about 2,100 buildings across the city that have serious safety or financial problems, requiring owners to notify the city when they plan to sell and giving nonprofits a window to compete. The bill has 33 sponsors in the Council and the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has promoted the legislation as a way to protect affordable housing.
