Happy Friday the 13th, kittens. Jason Voorhees wishes he could do this much damage in one day. Democrats won the House and the Senate and immediately started a cage match over who gets the big chair. Trump’s sons are prospecting in Kazakhstan, using Daddy’s foreign policy as a shovel. And Iran just blew up a U.S. radar in Bahrain while the president muses about invading Cuba like it’s a bucket list item. Pour the coffee, and spike it if you need to. This is the Daily Shit Show.
American Shit Show Highlights
Power Struggles in Washington
Chris Van Hollen is coming for Chuck Schumer’s job, and honestly, somebody had to ask Chuck for the keys. Van Hollen says voters demanded new leadership, and Bernie already signed on. Schumer insists he has the votes, just like he’s insisted on everything since 2017. The caucus decides by secret ballot next month.
Eleven Democrats skipped the vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, and a Republican motion killed it 211 to 204. So where were they? Three were schmoozing at an Elect Democratic Women fundraiser whose RSVP list had 132 lobbyists on it, Lockheed Martin included. You cannot make this up.
House Republicans looked at their midterm wreckage and decided the answer was Jim Jordan for minority leader. Ohio State abuse survivors are furious, and they should be. Former wrestlers say Jordan failed to protect them from team doctor Richard Strauss while he coached there from 1986 to 1994. Jordan says he never knew. The GOP said good enough.
Bernie wants a federal billionaire tax after California voters narrowly rejected a state one, and the billionaires are already clutching their yachts. Meanwhile, a State Department under secretary accepted an $11,900 Mediterranean trip from a Stripe cofounder one month after she was sworn in. Must be nice to have friends.
Sunny Apocalypse has a message for Schumer and Jeffries: you didn’t win this. A fed up, anti establishment coalition did. Earn the job or move aside.
Corruption Watch
Newly released documents detail the Kazakh tungsten deal tied to Don Jr. and Eric, because apparently foreign policy is the family business now. Daddy’s administration brokered the project, and now two U.S. government lenders won’t touch its $1.6 billion in financing. The boys only hold an indirect stake of under 1 percent. Bless their hearts, they’ll survive.
Susie Wiles is out as chief of staff, and her hemp baggage followed her out the door. A former RFK Jr. adviser says she put her thumb on hemp policy to help her daughter’s husband, who just happens to run a hemp company. Wiles and the White House deny it. Of course they do.
Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, ordered Sen. Richard Blumenthal to preserve documents from his probe of the secret donors to Trump’s ballroom. Reitz threatened “significant legal consequences” if he doesn’t. Let that sink in. The prosecutor isn’t going after the people who bought access. He’s going after the senator asking who bought it.
Joyce Vance lays out the administration’s panic attack over the oversight coming its way. The White House counsel warned Congress about criminal prosecution, and Trump told the DOJ to investigate Democratic lawmakers for “extortion.” Nothing says innocent like threatening the people with subpoena power.
Big Law smells billable hours in the oversight boom. WilmerHale’s Alyssa DaCunha expects Democrats to dig into how cozy corporations got with the Trump administration. Somewhere, a CEO just canceled lunch.
Walmart paid its CEO $29.2 million while its median worker made $30,520. That’s 958 to 1, by the company’s own math. It also dropped $7.84 million lobbying Washington in 2025, because priorities.
War and Empire
Iran says it blew up a U.S. early warning radar in Bahrain, home of the Navy’s 5th Fleet. It also claims it shot down an American drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s response? Musing about a military operation against Cuba because he wants to “get Cuba done before I leave.” Like it’s a cruise excursion.
Arturo Dominguez says the psychological warfare against Cuba is ramping up. He points to the military buildup in the Caribbean and to new sanctions he says came without evidence. Gunboat diplomacy never really went out of style for these guys.
The U.S. gave Ecuador’s Navy a shiny new interceptor boat in the Galápagos. Ecuador’s financial intelligence unit also signed up for Palantir’s data analytics. Dominguez warns that the “counternarcotics” mission is drifting toward fishermen. Nothing threatens America like a guy with a net.
Hegseth signed a memo putting his top special operations civilian on equal footing with the military department secretaries. He also renamed the office the Office of Strategic Services, after the World War II spy agency. It comes with at least $45 million a year and 100 staff positions. The man cannot resist a World War II costume party.
Veterans, Health and Tech
ProPublica’s investigation into the East Orange VA hospital should make your blood boil. The VA has about 5,100 fewer mission critical staff since Trump came back. The hospital’s operating room shut down nine times in one year. An 80 year old Vietnam veteran waited about 12 hours for a transfer and later died. Support the troops, they said.
American Oversight wants RFK Jr. criminally investigated for telling senators his 2019 Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. Funny, because a letter he signed proposed assessing Samoa’s MMR vaccines. The measles outbreak that followed killed 83 people, most of them small children. This man runs HHS.
FactCheck.org caught Florida’s surgeon general spinning a vaccine study. The study compared Pfizer and Moderna recipients and never once compared them to unvaccinated people. So no, it does not prove Pfizer killed anyone. Florida, never change. Actually, please change.
A coalition of advocacy groups sued five AI giants on Thursday to freeze development of new models. Public Citizen and three other nonprofits named Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceX’s AI unit. They cite rogue agent cyberattacks and the companies’ own warnings about catastrophic risk. When the builders keep warning you, maybe listen.
Violence, Courage and Getting Started
A Logan Circle shooting left a building manager dead. Resident Matt Lambert, a former ER doctor, had been locked in a long legal fight with his condo association over leaks and black mold. He shot five people at the gym in his building and then killed himself. Another day, another American with a grudge and a gun.
Miles Taylor is urging more Trump whistleblowers to come forward and is pointing them to Whistleblower Aid and the Government Accountability Project. Only 22.5 percent of federal workers now feel safe reporting wrongdoing without retaliation. Gee, wonder why.
Your first move does not need a megaphone. Our sister site Resistance Directory shows how to pick one issue, one decision maker and one small task a week. Rage is great. Rage with a to do list is better.
That’s today’s dumpster fire, kittens. Democrats finally got the keys and immediately started fighting over the radio. The president’s kids are playing Monopoly with foreign policy. And the people who always pay the bill, the veterans, the survivors and the fishermen, are paying it again. Oversight lands in January, and you can already smell the flop sweat from Pennsylvania Avenue. Kitty’s claws are out and her eyes are open. See you tomorrow for more of the Daily Shit Show.
Featured Resisters and Resources
- Daybook helps people find paid work in the institutions, campaigns and organizations that shape public life. Its job board brings together opportunities in politics, public policy, government affairs, advocacy, nonprofits, national security and law, giving job seekers a focused alternative to sorting through unrelated vacancies on general employment sites.
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What We Are Watching Today
- 10:00 AM EST
U.S. House of Representatives - 10:00 AM EST
House Education Committee Field Hearing on Workplace Policies and Accountability Live - 11:00 AM EST
Democratic Lawmakers and Presidential Hopefuls at 2028 Strategy Conference, Day 2, Part 1 - 6:00 PM EST
Democratic Lawmakers and Presidential Hopefuls at 2028 Strategy Conference, Day 2, Part 2
Today’s Call to Action
1. Read Today’s Resistance Survival Guides
2. Sign these Petitions and Send These Pre Written Letters
- Sign the petition: Tell Congress to block U.S.-Israeli military integration in vote happening SOON!
- Stop Trump from deporting people to war-torn Iran
- Tell Congress: Don’t Let Trump’s Threats Stop Oversight
- Prevent Eligible Americans From Losing Medicaid
3. Attend an Event
- Nov. 16, noon ET | The Midterms: What Went Right and What Went Wrong | Free election law webinar from the American Bar Association. americanbar.org
- Nov. 17–19, 7 p.m. ET each night | We Voted, Now How Do We Fix Our Rigged Political System? | Democracy Revival Center’s three-part training on electoral reform. Action Network
- Nov. 18 | Noncooperation 101 | Hands Off Our Vote lists a virtual training on civil resistance and protecting voting rights. Hands Off Our Vote
4. Contact Your Lawmakers Directly
- Demand Epstein accountability: “Hi, I’m [name], a constituent in [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Representative/Senator name] to demand a full accounting of withheld Epstein records, protect survivor privacy, and pursue public hearings on documented investigative failures. What specific action will your office take this week?”
- Protect access to health care: “Hi, I’m [name], a constituent in [ZIP code]. I’m asking [Representative/Senator name] to protect Medicaid and affordable health coverage, oppose cuts that leave people uninsured, and reduce prescription costs. Please tell me what legislation your office supports.”
- Defend congressional oversight: “Hi, I’m [name], a constituent in [ZIP code]. I want [Representative/Senator name] to defend Congress’s oversight authority, demand compliance with lawful subpoenas, and investigate documented abuses of federal power. Please prioritize public hearings and meaningful protections for whistleblowers.”
5. Who Are We Boycotting This Week?
- Tesla: Skip new Tesla purchases and leases.
- Amazon: Skip Amazon orders and Prime renewals and shop independently.
- Meta: Stop buying Facebook and Instagram ads and cancel paid subscriptions.
- Trump branded businesses: Avoid Trump hotels, golf resorts and merchandise.
- Fox News: Cancel Fox Nation subscriptions and contact the network’s advertisers.
