Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, 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 told a crowd in Tennessee that he could say the stupidest things and they would still clap for him, and they did. He suggested renaming the Atlantic and Pacific oceans after America or himself. The Justice Department is investigating television networks for refusing to provide pool coverage of the White House after the administration banned CNN. And in a sentence that will get stranger with every word, a Minnesota Senate candidate who went viral for confronting a Girl Scout over a permit was just sentenced for throwing a live tarantula at her tenant.
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Finally, something both sides can agree on.
On Saturday, Donald Trump stood before thousands of his most loyal supporters and insulted them directly to their faces. They responded with cheers and chants of his name, exactly as he had predicted.
“I could say the stupidest things, and you’d clap,” Trump said to applause.
Trump then tried to walk his comment back, insisting that what he says is not stupid but common sense. He cited immigration and low taxes, before losing his train of thought and blurting out “seven, eight, 10, five, four” with no explanation.
Trump was at the F&M Bank Arena to campaign for Senator Bill Hagerty and gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn, who are both polling ahead in their races. He openly questioned why he was even there, telling the crowd he had won the state three times “by some ridiculous number.”
Trump closed the rally by urging supporters to vote like he is on the ballot, a request he has made at each midterm campaign stop this year. Candidates haven’t been as eager, with Republicans in competitive districts increasingly refusing to appear with him or even to mention him in their advertising amid his record low approval rating.
Since taking office, Trump has renamed a gulf and a lake, and now he’s setting his sights on an ocean. The president first floated the idea back in August after signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, and on Saturday he took the idea one step further by saying he’s considering a “Trump Ocean.”
He told the rally crowd in Tennessee that he wants to change the Atlantic or Pacific to “Trump Ocean” or “Ocean of the Americas.” He added that he thought he should have an ocean named after him before he leaves office.
Trump said he would keep the Hudson River because explorer Henry Hudson “did a good job of setting up that sucker a long time ago.” He also said he’d leave the Mississippi River alone because he loves Mississippi, since he won the state by so much.
Since taking office, the president has used executive authority to rename geographic features twice. Both moves triggered diplomatic disputes with the countries that share the water, and neither new name has been recognized outside the United States.
Last month Trump also suggested changing New Mexico to “New America.” The decision would be up to New Mexicans, he said, but added that “a lot of people are liking it a lot.”
The only thing the White House hates more than bad press is no press.
The Justice Department is investigating the major television networks that suspended their pooled White House coverage last month. The probe follows the networks’ decision to stop covering the president after the Trump administration banned CNN from its designated pool duties.
The investigation marks the first time the Justice Department has targeted news organizations for declining to cover the president. The administration has also banned outlets for unfavorable coverage, leaving networks with no legal way to do their jobs.
The pool suspension began Sept. 21 when the White House removed CNN from a planned pool assignment to cover Trump’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News all refused to send a replacement crew, and Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton told members there would be no coverage of events designated for pool access.
The networks eventually resumed pool coverage on a conditional basis after a week of negotiations but the arrangement remains unresolved. CNN has not returned to the rotation, and a First Amendment lawsuit against the administration is still pending.
She also played loud Christian music to harass the woman downstairs, which is technically not a crime but probably should be.
Marisa Simonetti, an independent candidate for the Minnesota Senate, has been sentenced to 90 days in the Hennepin County workhouse after a jury found her guilty of gross-misdemeanor harassment and misdemeanor domestic assault and disorderly conduct in a dispute with a tenant.
The case involved an incident in which Simonetti threw a live tarantula down the staircase to her tenant’s living space in Edina. Simonetti also banged pots overhead, cut the Wi-Fi and intercepted her tenant’s grocery deliveries until police got involved.
Simonetti had already made national headlines after posting a TikTok of herself confronting a Girl Scout and the girl’s mother for selling cookies without a permit outside a shop in Edina. She called the sale a “DEI Weekend” and demanded permits from them, while the mother covered her daughter’s face and told Simonetti the girl was a minor.
The local Republican Party withdrew its endorsement of Simonetti after her arrest. She remains on the November 3 ballot as an independent, running for the seat currently held by Senator Tina Smith.
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** Trump Says He Will Be Blamed If Republicans Lose the Midterms.** Trump told a group of House Republicans that the party must win the midterms or Democrats will impeach him for a third time. He also told the Associated Press he knows he will be blamed if Republicans lose the House, but said his campaigning and endorsements have helped candidates and not harmed them. Polls indicate Americans’ dislike for Trump’s leadership and the economy is pulling down Republican candidates across the board, and a Fox News analyst wrote that Democrats “may have Trump to thank” if they reclaim both chambers. Several prominent Republican lawmakers have already said they would rather step down than run with him in November.
** Soldiers Are Already Looking for a Way Out of Hegseth’s Livestreamed Firing Squad.** At least six soldiers at Fort Hood have requested religious exemptions from the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at the base. Soldiers have told the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s founder, Michael Weinstein, that they believe participating would violate the biblical commandment against murder, with one saying he did not want his children to watch him pull a trigger. Weinstein said he expects 120 to 180 service members to make similar requests in the next few weeks as the Dec. 3 execution date approaches. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be streamed live for the public to watch — a decision that has drawn bipartisan criticism.
Republican Congressman Moves to Block Trump’s Russian Oil Deal. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said Saturday he plans to introduce bipartisan legislation to block Trump from purchasing Russian oil. The legislation comes a day after the White House reached an agreement with Moscow for 300,000 tons of diesel, a move the administration said was needed to address fuel shortages driven by the war in Iran. Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said the legislation would be called the “Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act” and that he plans to force a floor vote via a discharge petition. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has already signed on as an original co-sponsor, writing that Congress must take a stand.
** World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing Is on Track to Open This Winter.** After more than four years of construction and weather delays, the largest wildlife bridge on Earth is set to open on December 2 over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, California. The $114 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will connect the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills over a highway that more than 300,000 vehicles travel every day, restoring migration corridors that the freeway severed decades ago. The project began on Earth Day in 2022, but record winter storms delayed the timeline by more than a year. The results are already evident, even before the bridge is officially opened, with eight species of birds seen on the structure. A similar crossing in Utah has cut down on wildlife-vehicle collisions by 77 percent.