What A Day: Anchorage Against the Machine · Storyflo

What A Day: Anchorage Against the Machine · Storyflo

**Donald Trump is already trying to claim that the midterms will be rigged against Republicans. **Americans aren’t buying it.

If you can’t beat ‘em, cheat ‘em! President Donald Trump is doing everything he can to give Republicans a fighting chance at snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the upcoming midterms — despite polls suggesting the country’s in the mood for a big blue shift. Some of his schemes look comically ill-conceived and doomed to failure. Others are downright chilling.

Today, he’s throwing a Hail Mary deep into the Land of the Midnight Sun. Remember the

two Dan Sullivansrunning for Senate in Alaska? One of them is a sitting GOP senator, while the other has faced accusations of being a spoiler candidate (which he vehemently denies). Both will appear on the general election ballot against Democrat Mary Peltola, who has been leading in the polls.

Trump’s team is already preparing to launch a legal battle against a Peltola victory. The Department of Justice

filed a lawsuitthat would block the certification of the election if Peltola wins, arguing that “voter confusion” could cause Trump’s preferred candidate to lose. It’s not the first time Trump’s team has resorted to desperate measures in this race: They previously launched an investigation into the “spoiler” Sullivan.

Funny enough, Trump’s team actually

shouldbe worried about that other Dan Sullivan. Two recentpolls showedthat Peltola could narrowly beat the senator — seemingly thanks to the “spoiler.”

State election officials are trying to make it clear who’s who. The so-called “spoiler” Sullivan won’t be listed on the ballot with a party affiliation, despite running as a Republican. The senator will be listed as the incumbent Republican. Also, Alaska’s ranked-choice system allows voters to rank both men if they’re confused.

The stakes are high. A single state could be the difference between holding the Senate and losing it — which, for Republicans, could mean the power to cement their grip on the Supreme Court for years to come. Trump’s team also

plans to remove tariffson some goods to help Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, as well as other Republican candidates.

If lawsuits don’t work,** Trump presumably whispers to himself, **rubbing his tiny hands like Mr. Burns, perhaps voter intimidation will!

Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been

knocking on doorsacross the country in recent weeks to check immigration statuses, and asking residents if they’ve voted previously or are registered to vote. This comes as Trump’s team sounds the alarm about (basically nonexistent) voter fraud.

California has been Trump’s main target. Agents

arrested28 green card holders in the state earlier this week, accusing them of illegally registering to vote. The administration is alsotrying to blockCalifornia from counting as many as 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters who it claims are “likely noncitizens.”

“I do think he’s using us as a testing ground,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) told

What A Day. “This administration seems hell bent on suppressing the vote and intimidating people from voting … People don’t try to take something from you that doesn’t have any power.”

Despite Trump’s scheming, most Americans believe the midterm election results will be accurate,

according to a new poll. Kamlager-Dove is also working to convince people that the election process is secure, recently leading a delegation of lawmakers on a tour of the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center this week and promoting the center’s livestream thatrecords the ballot workers.

“I predict that there will be long lines at the polls” on election day, Kamlager-Dove said. “I predict that there will be some shenanigans at some of the polls. I predict that votes will be counted. I predict that the Republicans will lose. I predict that [Trump] will then blame everybody except himself.”

**The root cause of Trump’s desperation is obvious, Kamlager-Dove said. **“This guy’s approval ratings are in the gold toilet,” she said. “He’s afraid.”

** The price of oil hit $116 per barrel today,** the highest it’s been since April. That bad news came with even more bad news: Iran

** Melania Trump apparently secured a limited ceasefire **between Russia and Ukraine in Oleshky, a Russia-controlled town in Ukraine, according to the White House. “It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” Melania said in a statement. Stay humble, Melania.

** On that note, you know how Trump thinks he can** strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine? Well… dictator Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem in the dealmaking mood. “I think that it is not their territory but the historical territory of Russia,” Putin told a Kremlin journalist. “The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are in fact one people.” Doesn’t sound like a guy who will leave Ukraine alone!

** Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered **what he described as the most intense military operation in the occupied West Bank in decades, after Hamas militants killed two Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu’s threat further inflames tensions in the territory, where settlers

** Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and James Blair donated** all the money they made from their controversial foreign consulting gig to Trump’s presidential library, according to the

** Three federal agents near a secure U.S. facility recently spotted **a “matte black triangle” moving silently through the night, as fast as a fighter jet, according to new reports released by the FBI and Pentagon. This is part of the Trump administration’s push to make more information about supposed UFOs publicly available.

** Another newly declassified report in those files** pertains to the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. “Witnesses have reported unidentified balls of light at close range, daytime sightings of ‘dog-like’ creatures running on two legs, unnatural animalistic howling/screaming, ‘little people,’ prehistoric-like birds and a maggot which measured about 8 feet long and 2- to 3-feet in diameter,” the report reads. There are even sketches of the creatures in the report on page 27 and 28!

** Boards at the Navy and Marine Corps have voted** to allow transgender troops to remain in the military in nine of 12 cases, bucking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orders. That’s a small number of cases, and the same pattern hasn’t followed at the Army and Air Force. But in a profession where following orders is paramount, the defiance is stunning.

** An experimental vaccine from Merck and Moderna is being** touted as a potential breakthrough in the fight against cancer. Patients with melanoma who received the vaccine were 42 percent less likely to see their cancer come back within two years, according to the drug makers. This is your reminder that vaccines are one of humanity’s most amazing inventions.

** The Dallas Cowboys officially recognized** the cheerleaders team’s union today. Can I get a yee-haw?

** A new, wholesome social media trend has arrived** just in time for spooky season: Content creators are visiting cemeteries and meticulously cleaning old gravestones, then doing research into the deceased. Videos of the cleaning and history lesson often go viral. “It’s like journalism, but for dead people,” one Vermont creator joked. (I guess I do journalism, but for living people? Never thought of it that way.)

** A New York couple have poured almost all their time** and savings into running a raccoon rehabilitation center since 2018. They’ve taken care of some 800 raccoons so far, and even have the critters engraved on their wedding rings. “There’s an intelligence behind their eyes that, once you connect to that intelligence, it’s not like any other animal,” said one of the center’s owners. “It takes your breath away.”

** Here’s a way to unwind this weekend: **Turn off the cable news, and switch on a

** A golden retriever named Thurgood was recently caught** on video frolicking through a river in Tennessee to greet kayakers. I don’t know why the news thinks he’s a dog. Thurgood is clearly a dolphin.

Meet Georgia, a 7-year-old chocolate lab!

“She’s easily the laziest lab you’ve ever met, except when there is snow on the ground… and then she can’t stop playing. She loves listening to Crooked Media podcasts with me!”

— Brian