• Schumer Shutdown to stop food stamps: When the federal government entered a shutdown on October 1, funding for this month’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was secured. November will be a different story with an estimated 42 million SNAP beneficiaries being forced to go without due to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution. A notice on the USDA’s official website reads: “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program. … Bottom line, the well has run dry.” The government has now been shut down for 27 days. Democrats will have one last chance to fund food stamps before November, with a scheduled Senate vote on Wednesday. Meanwhile, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley this morning stated, “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship. Put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”

• Donation covers military pay? With the Senate Democrats maintaining their government shutdown in a desperate bid to get Republicans to concede to their ObamaCare subsidy demands, federal workers, including active U.S. military personnel, are facing the prospect of missed pay. However, in a bid to ensure that military personnel are paid, President Donald Trump noted that a wealthy private donor has given the U.S. government $130 million to help cover military salaries. As Trump explained it, “A friend of mine … called us the other day and said, ‘I’d like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democratic shutdown … with the military … if there’s a shortfall, I’ll contribute.’ And today he sent us a check for $130 million. … That’s what I call a patriot.”

• Jeffries endorses socialist Mamdani: With the likelihood of socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani winning the New York City mayoral race nearing inevitability territory, Democrat lawmakers have been slowly and somewhat begrudgingly lining up to endorse him. The latest Democrat is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who offered a tepid endorsement while insisting that he has “areas of principled disagreement” with Mamdani. “Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries stated. “In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.” Current Democrat leaders like Jeffries have put their proverbial fingers to the wind and concluded that their political futures depend on getting on board the radical socialist bandwagon.

• Trump sanctions Colombian president: As relations between the two countries head south, President Trump has sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his wife, one of his sons, former campaign chief Armando Benedetti, and his interior minister for alleged drug trafficking. They were added to a “specially designated nationals list,” which blocks them from doing business in the U.S. and with American companies. The Treasury Department made the announcement on Friday, stating, “Since President Gustavo Petro came to power, cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest rate in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans.” Petro denies the allegations, claiming he has been combating drug trafficking for decades. These sanctions come after Trump last month decertified Colombia as a partner in the drug war, relegating it to the same category as Afghanistan and Venezuela. To put the cherry on top, Petro had his U.S. visa canceled.

• Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group moves toward Venezuela: The U.S. continues to ramp up pressure against Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. Warships, warplanes, and other materiel have been stationed in the vicinity of Venezuela most of this year, but now one of the largest and most powerful formations in the U.S. Navy, the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, will leave the Mediterranean to take station near Puerto Rico. Since August, the U.S. State Department has offered a prize of $50 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro, and recently, the CIA was authorized to operate within Venezuelan territory. With narco-terrorist speedboats being struck in the Caribbean with regularity, the pressure on Venezuela is nearing full-blown military operations.

• Federal judge smacks down another Biden-era rule: U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled in favor of 15 states that sued the Department of Health and Human Services over a Biden-era rule change to Title IX protections. Joe Biden’s HHS infamously expanded Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination to include “gender identity.” That move forced healthcare providers to perform gender-bending procedures. Guirola noted that when Congress enacted Title IX back in 1972, it based sex on biology: “Therefore, the Court finds that HHS exceeded its authority by implementing regulations redefining sex discrimination and prohibiting gender-identity discrimination.” While the rule change was put forward in May 2024, and the Trump administration noted it would not enforce it, Guirola reasoned that the “threat of enforcement and legal action is real” and the suit would “provide much-needed clarity.”

• Milei wins big: Argentinian President Javier Milei’s political party had a significant election victory in the country’s midterm elections on Sunday. Milei’s Freedom Advances party (LLA) pulled in nearly 41% of the vote, expanding the party’s number of seats in Argentina’s Congress. The result gives Milei insurance that his vetoes cannot be overridden by congressional political opponents, allowing him to continue his cost- and regulation-cutting agenda. President Trump, who endorsed Milei earlier this month when his administration engaged in a $20 billion currency swap investment with Argentina, welcomed the election outcomes in a post on Truth Social, stating, “Congratulations to President Javier Milei on his Landslide Victory in Argentina. He is doing a wonderful job! Our confidence in him was justified by the People of Argentina.”

• Chicago mayor loses it, says “illegal alien” is a “sci-fi term”: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson must have really thought he did something. On Saturday, Johnson posted a clip on Instagram of him pretending not to understand the term “illegal alien.” “We don’t have illegal aliens. I don’t know if that’s from some sort of sci-fi message for which you’ve had,” Johnson muddily remarked to a reporter. When the reporter correctly noted that “illegal alien” is a legal term, not from science fiction, Johnson deflected: “The legal term for my people were slaves.” Race bait aside, Johnson probably didn’t think that argument through, unless he’s suggesting picking cotton was a voluntary trade before the Civil War. The Democrats’ refusal to engage with the facts has carried them far, but the reporter’s point — that Chicago citizens feel like they come second to illegals — will cause a reckoning sooner rather than later.

• Trump admin uncovers over $1 billion in taxpayer money going to illegals: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Director Dr. Mehmet Oz noted last week that after reviewing only half a dozen states, $1 billion in taxpayer money used to fund healthcare for illegal aliens had already been identified. The small portion of the Medicare system reviewed so far indicates that much more than $1 billion of fraudulent services is likely to be found in the end. Democrats argue that such fraud does not occur since it’s illegal. The issue has taken on significance due to the ongoing government shutdown, with Democrats insisting on massive additional funding for ObamaCare subsidies. Republicans refuse to negotiate while the government is shut down and say they will not pass any funding for illegal healthcare. Dr. Oz and CMS are proving that the funding Democrats demand would absolutely go to illegals.

Headlines

• Trump slaps 10% extra tariff on Canada over Reagan trade ad (CNBC)

• Letitia James pleads not guilty in mortgage fraud case (WSJ) | James’s fugitive grandniece now faces criminal charges (NY Post)

• New report exposes billions in funding for the “Homeless Industrial Complex” (Daily Signal)

• Rubio deports suspected Muslim Brotherhood leader (Breitbart)

• Islamic State rises again in Syria, filling a void left by U.S. (WSJ)

• French officials arrest multiple suspects in Louvre crown jewel heist (Fox News)

• Humor: Republicans donate $50 million to Kamala 2028 campaign (Babylon Bee)

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