• Category 4 Hurricane Milton charges toward Florida (Fox Weather)

Government & Politics

• Kamala wouldn’t change a thing: In one of the most damning — and telling — moments of the 2024 presidential campaign, change agent Kamala Harris, the candidate proclaiming “a new way forward,” confessed that she wouldn’t change a thing from the past 44 months. As Harris continued her tour yesterday of unserious “media” interviews, she was served up a softball by “The View’s” Sunny Hostin: “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” Her response showed a shocking inability to think on her feet. “Uh, there is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of—” she stumbled, “and I’ve been a part of, of, of most of the decisions that have had impact.” What we have here is a candidate who is unable to distance herself from one of the least popular presidents in American history and who has now shackled herself to the mast of the Bad Ship Biden. No wonder they’re trying to hide her from real journalists. She can’t even handle the cupcakes.

• “60 Minutes” airs two different answers from VP Harris to the same question (Fox News)

• CBS’s Tony Dokoupil offers “regrets” at teary staff meeting after grilling anti-Israel author (NY Post)

• Walz wants to abolish the Electoral College: “I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Tim Walz stated during a fundraiser in Sacramento, California, on Tuesday. The Left has increasingly embraced calls for eliminating the Electoral College, viewing it as a roadblock to electoral control. Walz’s sentiments against the Electoral College are nothing new for him or the Democrat Party. Unfortunately, this view has risen in popularity among voters, as a Pew Research Center survey from September found that 63% of voters favor changing how we elect our president (just 35% favor remaining with the Electoral College). Evidently, a majority of voters don’t understand our representative federal Republic. Notably, the last Republican to win the popular vote was George W. Bush in 2004. If Donald Trump wins a second time while again losing the popular vote, Democrat calls to eradicate our constitutional order will reach fever pitch.

• What price gouging? A few weeks back, Kamala Harris sought to redirect the blame for our nation’s devastating 20% inflation spike under the Biden-Harris regime. The culprits, she said, were the price-gouging grocers, and she proposed Soviet-style price controls as the solution. It’d be bad enough if this were solely about Harris’s affinity for communist economics. But in this case, it’s also about her penchant for making things up. She’s called for a federal ban on price gouging, and she’s proposed to give the Federal Trade Commission the power to enforce it against companies that are unduly profit-motivated. The problem is that there’s no evidence that any such price gouging is occurring. Indeed, the typical profit margin among grocers is around 2%.

• When you’ve lost Charlamagne Tha God… If Donald Trump wins the presidency on November 5, one reason will likely be his growing support from young black men, a traditional Democrat voting bloc that polls show increasingly support Trump. “One place where I think [Harris and Walz] mess up in regards to messaging — like you know, you’ll listen to a lot of reporters and they’ll be talking to Trump or JD Vance, and they’ll be talking … about things that are happening right here in America,” says black radio host Charlamagne Tha God. “It’s always America First. But then, you know, you go to Tim Walz and they’re asking him about geopolitical politics, and I think a lot of times that makes them sound, you know, very out of touch.” Out of touch is right. For black men, as for most everyone else, the kitchen table issues are key.

• Christopher Steele rehabs his image: The former British spy who produced the infamous and false Trump/Russia dossier has published a book aimed at salvaging his credibility. Promoting his book, Christopher Steele wrote in a Newsweek op-ed, “A lot of disinformation is true and factual, but it’s slanted, or it leaves things out, or emphasizes some things at the expense of others.” He blamed journalists for effectively being too stupid to know the difference: “My fear — and I don’t wish to sound condescending about it — is that your average journalist, even your average investigative journalist, really doesn’t have the depth of knowledge and skill to deal with these things properly.” Steele claimed there was more data tied to his dossier than the “raw document” that was published in the press. He gave it to the FBI, which he claims added needed context. So, what about the fact that his “raw document” was filled with false information? It’s no secret that Steele was and is opposed to Donald Trump and that he aimed to prevent him from becoming president, hence the fallacious dossier. After being exposed as a non-credible source, even The Washington Post asks, “Will anyone buy it?”

• Supreme Court signals openness to Biden’s “ghost gun” crackdown (BBC)

• EPA opts for more stringent rule on lead pipes (Roll Call)

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses RNC lawsuit over mail-in ballot curing (Just the News)

• Probe into whether Democrats use ActBlue platform to cheat at fundraising expands to 19 states (Just the News)

Security

• Afghan man in Oklahoma plotted Election Day ISIS terror attack: In yet another near-catastrophic failure of the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy, Fox News reports: “Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil, as well as taking a number of steps to prepare for the plot, authorities said. He entered the United States on Sept. 9, 2021, weeks after U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan, on a special immigrant visa and is currently on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings.” Tawhedi’s goal was to carry out a terrorist attack on Election Day, November 5, on behalf of ISIS, “in which he and an underage co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs.” It’s a chilling thought, as polling places are soft targets. And it’s an infuriating thought, given that the Biden-Harris administration had guaranteed us that all these Afghan refugees had been properly screened for jihadism in advance of punching their one-way tickets to our homeland.

• Hundreds of millions of U.S. research dollars are helping China’s military (Washington Free Beacon)

• Netanyahu says Israel has “taken out” slain Hezbollah leader’s successors (Reuters) | Decimated Hezbollah says it is ready for ceasefire talks with Israel (NY Post)

Social Media

• X is back up in Brazil: Brazil is no friend to free speech. Conversely, X CEO Elon Musk is a big promoter and defender of free speech, which got the social media company sideways with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the company shut down nationwide for failing to adhere to his speech censorship demands. Well, after a little over a month, X has capitulated to Moraes’s demands, which included the removal of several political individuals’ accounts from the platform, paying fines, and the naming of a legal representative in the country. X released the following statement: “X is proud to return to Brazil. Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.” Musk’s decision to capitulate seems more out of market reality, even if it comes at the cost of free speech.

• More than a dozen states sue TikTok, alleging it harms kids and is designed to addict them (NPR)

Culture

• Good news: Christian cake baker finally sees victory: Colorado cake baker Jack Phillips is a man who puts his Christian faith before anything else. He has continued to stand against those who seek to force him to capitulate to the evil demands of the Rainbow Mafia. For 12 years, he’s stood his ground against a corrupt state government that essentially persecuted him for his strongly held Christian beliefs. Even after a winning decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, Colorado continued its attacks against Phillips. The charge was that Phillips was violating the state’s dubious anti-discrimination law because he held to his Christian faith and refused to make cakes that specifically celebrated same-sex unions and “transgenderism.” Thankfully, on Tuesday, Phillips got another win as the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the latest lawsuit against him over procedural issues. Phillips deserves our thanks for standing not just on his Christian faith but also in defense of the First Amendment.

• Over 200 hospitals provide irreversible transgender procedures to children (Daily Signal) | Hospitals earned nearly $120 million in four years for sex-change treatments on minors (Breitbart)

• Deadspin loses bid to toss defamation suit over article accusing young Chiefs fan of racism (AP)

Misc.

• U.S. deficit hits $1.8 trillion as interest costs rise (WaPo)

• “Wife guy” Doug Emhoff hired part-time model as “trophy secretary,” was known in office as “misogynist” (Washington Free Beacon)

• Amid Eric Adams scandal, former city hall official arrested, charged with witness tampering and destroying evidence (ABC News)

• U.S. natural gas-fired electricity generation set new daily records in summer 2024 (EIA)

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