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.
Trump warned a Kansas rally crowd that America would burn like France if Republicans lose the midterms. He’s bribing voters by promising up to $30,000 to anyone who reports government fraud. He attempted to block Jack Smith from testifying in his own $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC. And a green card holder died in a Texas ICE facility after his family says staff refused to give him his heart medication.
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He had to talk about France because he definitely did not want to talk about gas prices.
Trump told a rally crowd in Park City, Kansas on Tuesday that if Republicans lost the midterms, America would end up like France. He said millions of migrants “totally incompatible with the West” are destroying France, and that Democrats want the same here.
“When you see burning steeples and raging fires in France, just remember that is what the radical Dumocrats want to do to America,” he said.
High school students in France have been leading protests demanding more funding for schools, shorter working hours, and more teachers. The movement started in the poor suburbs of Paris and has spread across the country, affecting over 700 schools.
Trump was only in Kansas because his own economic policies have made the state’s Senate race competitive for the first time in decades. Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is in a dead heat in the polls against Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton, after Marshall drew criticism for suing hundreds of patients over unpaid medical bills.
The reward for reporting this White House alone would bankrupt the Treasury.
Trump has announced a scheme to pay Americans up to $30,000 for information about fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Treasury Department said whistleblowers could receive between 10 and 30 percent of the penalties collected from successful cases.
The program is administered by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which earlier this year launched an online portal to accept tips from the public and financial institutions. Rewards are only paid for enforcement actions that result in penalties over $1 million.
The False Claims Act of 1863 already allows Americans to file civil lawsuits on behalf of the government against suspected fraudsters and collect a share of any money recovered. Under that law, whistleblowers can get between 15 and 30 percent of the total amount the government collects.
Trump has promised a series of cash bribes in the final stretch before the midterms, including $500 checks to Americans he said were overcharged on their health insurance, $90 payments to 21 million seniors, and an $8 billion diesel fuel subsidy to farmers.
In Trump’s case, BBC stands for Badly Backfiring in Court.
Lawyers for Trump are seeking to bar former special counsel Jack Smith from testifying in the president’s $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Trump sued over a 2024 documentary of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and the BBC subpoenaed Smith in its defense.
Smith has said he is prepared to testify and the BBC’s lawyers wrote that Trump has no legal basis to block him. They said Trump shouldn’t be allowed to sue for defamation and then prevent the defendant from getting evidence to defend against it.
It is the largest defamation suit Trump has filed against a media company, and the only one in which the defendant has subpoenaed witnesses from his administration. His lawsuits against American media outlets have typically ended in settlement or quiet withdrawal.
Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, 56, was found dead in his bed Saturday morning at the Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo. He was a legal permanent resident who had been stuck in immigration detention since June.
Andrade-Covarrubias had a heart condition, diabetes, and high blood pressure. He was carrying his medication when he was detained, but his daughter, Estefani Andrade, told the Texas Tribune that the facility staff refused to administer it and ignored him when he told them he was having difficulty breathing.
ICE claimed Andrade-Covarrubias obtained his green card illegally and fraudulently because he failed to disclose an arrest for theft in 2004 when he applied for it. Estefani Andrade said her father did disclose his criminal record, and immigration officials approved his application anyway.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that border officers can deny green card holders reentry to the United States based on any criminal arrest history, even without clear evidence of a crime. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that the decision undermines the security that permanent residency provides.
Andrade-Covarrubias is the seventh person to die in ICE custody in Texas this year.
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** CNN Threatens New Legal Action After White House Blocks Its Reporters Again.** An attorney for CNN sent a letter Monday to the Justice Department threatening further litigation if the White House continues to prevent its reporters from covering the president’s trips aboard Air Force One. The White House has refused to allow CNN to be part of the travel pool on several recent occasions, without providing any written explanation, and the other four major TV networks have refused to fill in as a show of solidarity. It’s the latest in the administration’s war on press access, which began a month ago when Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. A federal judge already has said the ban likely violated the First Amendment.
** Greg Abbott Sued Over Emails Between Governor’s Office and Elon Musk.** Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for governor in Texas, filed a lawsuit Monday seeking unredacted emails between Greg Abbott’s office and Elon Musk’s companies. Abbott’s office had fought to keep the emails secret, arguing they contained information that was “intimate and embarrassing,” and not of legitimate public concern. Of the nearly 1,400 pages of records previously released to The Texas Newsroom, all but about 200 pages were redacted or completely blacked out. Hinojosa said at a news conference Monday that the people of Texas have a right to know what their governor is discussing with the state’s most powerful billionaire.
New York City Announces 10,000 New Seats in Universal 2-K Program. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that the city’s free 2-K child care program will have 10,000 new seats in fall 2027, expanding to 17 additional school districts and covering all five boroughs for the first time. The expansion follows the program’s launch earlier this year when more than 5,700 families applied for the first 2,000 seats. The program is backed by a $1.2 billion state investment and will save families an average of $26,000 a year. Mamdani said, “For far too many New York City families, the joy of welcoming a child comes with a terrifying set of questions: How will I afford child care? Will I need to give up my job? Will I be forced to leave the city I love? Today, for 10,000 more families, we have an answer.”
Denver Election Officials Prepare for 80 Percent Voter Turnout as Voting Centers Expand. Denver election officials are preparing for 80% voter turnout in the midterms, a figure the city typically only sees during presidential years. They’ve mailed out over 467,000 ballots to registered voters and are opening about 40 voting centers across the city in phases leading up to Election Day on November 3, expecting nearly half of all ballots in the final days before polls close. Young voters are also showing up in higher numbers than in previous midterm cycles, with students at MSU Denver saying they are seeing more of their peers engaged than ever before.
