Fury as Dem senator remains lone lawmaker to spill on Trump's 'insane' post-midterm Iran plan

By:Alexander Willis

Oct 31, 2026

RAW STORY



Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned this week that the Trump administration plans to resume its war on Iran after the midterms — an “insane” scheme he said he learned of in confidential briefings. By Saturday night, he was still the only lawmaker to speak out about those briefings, leaving one independent journalist furious.

“In one of these briefings, we did get the chance to have a fairly detailed conversation about what the war plan would be if we restarted military operations,” Murphy said, speaking at the Middle East Institute.

“You’ve heard a preview that it would be a short-duration plan. I will just say this: their plan is insane. It will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law. The plan that they have developed will lead, in my view, to a prolongment and escalation of this war that will be devastating for our security interest.”

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ranking member of the Department of Defense Subcommittee, Murphy is often briefed on matters related to U.S. military operations and foreign policy. As noted by Murphy, however, he was not the only member of Congress to have been briefed on the Trump administration’s post-midterm plans for Iran.

“How has literally no other member of Congress mentioned this briefing???” independent journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote in frustration Saturday evening, later calling the lack of interest in the briefings from other members of Congress “just pathetic.”

Murphy’s warning came after reports that the U.S. told Gulf nations to prepare for a short-lived, high-intensity campaign after the Nov. 3 election. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was weighing strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites and civilian infrastructure. Trump has said he won’t launch any attacks on Iran until after the election.

THE MAJORITY OF SNAP USERS ARE WHITE 

Jaws drop as Trump cabinet official drops shockingly 'racist' Halloween message

By:Alexander Willis

Oct 31, 2026
RAW STORY



Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins set off a firestorm Saturday with a Halloween message to Americans that critics almost immediately slammed as blatantly “racist.”


“This is the most racist s--- I’ve ever seen,” wrote Jamie Bonkiewicz, a Nebraska-based political activist whose home was visited by the Secret Service for comments about former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In a post on X, Rollins reminded her more than 212,000 followers that defrauding federal food assistance programs was a crime and illustrated the point with a mock Halloween costume labeled “SNAP FRAUDSTER.” The program, formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, pays low-income Americans an average of $6.30 per day.

“Some costumes come with a price tag. This one comes with a prison sentence,” Rollins wrote. “To anyone stealing from American taxpayers: The tricks are over. The treats are running out. Happy Halloween!”

The mock Halloween costume features a depiction of an African American man giving the middle finger while wearing copious amounts of jewelry. The man is seen holding a $1 bill set aflame and standing in front of piles of cash and a lighter. The mock costume notes the man’s “questionable fashion choices” and includes “stacks of taxpayers cash,” “fake grills,” an “EBT card” and a pair of “handcuffs.”

Rollins didn’t name him, but the costume appears to reference Mercedes Reshard New, an Atlanta social media personality known as “Shawty Dred.” New was arrested this month on federal charges accusing him of fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million in SNAP benefits to fund a lavish lifestyle.

“Just insane white supremacy, out in the open brazen racism, from Trump cabinet members,” wrote journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. “But hey, let’s return to our regularly scheduled programming on Hasan Piker and the left.”

Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) called Rollins’ post “despicable” and “disgusting,” and hinted that she would ask Rollins what motivated her to make the post during her upcoming testimony before the Agriculture Committee, which Brown sits on as the vice ranking member.

Prominent attorney George Conway quipped, “I had no idea Secretary of Racism was a cabinet position,” and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) sarcastically wrote, “Not in any way racist if you ignore the obvious racism.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) made his own version of Rollins’ post, only shifting the target from a Black SNAP recipient to President Donald Trump, whom Walkinshaw depicted in his own mock costume labeled “CONVICTED FRAUDSTER.”

“Some costumes come with a price tag. This one comes with a failed Presidency,” Walkinshaw wrote. “To the Trump Administration officials stealing from American taxpayers: The tricks are over. The treats are running out. Happy Halloween!”

WHAT'S UP DOC?!

Abdul El-Sayed stomps out intraparty feud with one statement days out from midterms

By: Julia Conley, 

Common Dreams

Oct 31, 2026

After issuing a brief statement in response to Rep. Haley Stevens’ demand that he apologize for the views he’s expressed—in line with a growing majority of Democrats—that are critical of US funding for Israel, Michigan’s Democratic US Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, headed into the final weekend before the midterm elections with the same focus he has maintained throughout his campaign.


“While Congresswoman Stevens seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago,” said El-Sayed, “let’s all focus on the task at hand: That’s beating Mike Rogers, holding [President Donald] Trump accountable, and getting money out of politics, putting money in pockets, and passing Medicare for All.”

The statement followed Stevens’ latest attempt to suggest that El-Sayed’s candidacy has threatened Jewish communities, by tying him to an anti-Rogers ad by an outside group, Rebellion PAC, that addressed how the billions of dollars and political support the US provides to Israel each year costs Americans. The Trump administration has publicly said the US launched its illegal war on Iran after being pushed to do so by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a decision that has markedly worsened the affordability crisis for Americans.

El-Sayed’s campaign has said the digital ad does not “speak for” the progressive candidate, while others have pushed back on the claim by the vehemently pro-Israel Stevens and pro-Israel groups that the video is antisemitic, noting that it says nothing about Jewish people.


In his statement Friday evening, El-Sayed appeared to have little interest in engaging with Stevens further regarding persistent accusations by corporate Democrats who have claimed he hasn’t done enough to reach out to Jewish communities, whom his campaign has been speaking with extensively about fighting antisemitism and their views on Israel at “deep canvassing” events.

“Our campaign is and has always been focused on addressing the most critical challenges Michiganders are facing: skyrocketing gas prices, unaffordable groceries, and the inability to see a doctor,” said El-Sayed, noting that his message had allowed him to win the primary in August despite “a historic $70 million in outside spending by big corporations” and the pro-Israel lobby on behalf of Stevens.

Two sources told Politico that El-Sayed’s campaign was asking Stevens not to campaign with him in the final weekend, which the congresswoman had begrudgingly said she planned to do in her statement demanding an apology from the candidate.

But El-Sayed himself was applauded by progressives for “holding firm and ignoring the whines and threats of extremists,” as art director Lindsay Ballant said.



“For those folks demanding that El-Sayed condemn that ad, he isn’t playing your stupid game,” said another observer. “He understands that whatever he does, it won’t be enough. There will always be another demand. So take your cudgel somewhere else.”

Even if El-Sayed took time away from the statewide door-knocking tour he had planned for the weekend to address Stevens’ demand, podcaster and former Obama administration staffer Tommy Vietor asserted that “people would then say he didn’t condemn it firmly enough.”

“The guilt by association shit is endless,” said Vietor. “Meanwhile, Abdul is literally being called a jihadist by the president of the United States!”



Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) are set to join El-Sayed at the “Knock Out the Vote” canvassing event from Saturday through Monday.

‘Grotesque’ Trump deal arms foreign unit accused of torturing people to death: WSJ

By: Bennito L. Kelty

Oct 29, 2026

RAW STORY


President Donald Trump's administration quietly agreed to arm a foreign military unit with a gruesome human rights record, a new report revealed.


The Trump administration agreed to send about $35 million in military aid, including armored personnel carriers, to Cameroon's Rapid Intervention Battalion, known as the BIR, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. U.S. officials and congressional aides told The Journal that State Department officials negotiated the aid alongside a deal for the Central African nation to accept deportees from the U.S. who aren't Cameroonian.

The unit has a brutal past. A 2017 Amnesty International report accused the BIR of war crimes during its fight against the Boko Haram terrorist group, finding that members beat and drowned detainees and tortured some of them to death. Trump's first administration cut off some aid to the unit in 2019 and booted Cameroon from a U.S.-Africa trade pact over its forces' ongoing abuses, which Cameroon denied at the time.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, placed a hold on the aid package earlier this year, according to The Journal. That stalled the deal for months until April, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio's team told her the administration was overriding her and pushing ahead.

Shaheen this week tore into the arrangement as "grotesque" and said Rubio had let her down by signing off on it.

In a statement, Shaheen argued that the U.S. has no business handing sensitive military gear to governments with shaky human rights records, let alone as payment for taking in people.

Cameroon started accepting U.S. deportation flights in December and has taken in at least 36 people since, according to Refugees International, a humanitarian advocacy group. Some officials told The Journal the Trump administration intends to ramp up flights to African countries in the coming months. Around the time the aid was disclosed to Congress in January, the U.S. also steered $30 million to the United Nations refugee agency's operations in Cameroon, even as it slashed foreign aid elsewhere.

The State Department wouldn't discuss the details of any agreement but praised its partnership with Cameroon on security and counterterrorism, and said it follows the Leahy Law, which prohibits military aid to forces tied to human rights abuses. Cameroon's embassy in Washington did not respond to The Journal's request for comment.

‘Defies belief’: Hegseth’s leak crackdown sparks accusations Pentagon broke law

By: Erik De La Garza

Oct 30, 2026
RAW STORY


The Pentagon may have violated federal privacy law while publicly accusing a fired Army general of leaking classified information, attorneys told CBS News.


The unusual disclosure followed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s removal of Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia. A Pentagon official told media outlets that Sylvia had failed three polygraph examinations during a leak investigation.

"It defies belief to see … [the] leaking of Privacy Act-protected information of an employee in order to accuse that same employee of themselves being accused of unauthorized leaks," national security attorney Brad Moss told CBS News.

Moss said the Privacy Act generally bars disclosure of such records without consent or other legal authorization.

"This is a Privacy Act violation," former Army attorney Cody Harnish told the network. "Secretary Hegseth cannot sign off on the Pentagon not following the statute."

Harnish also criticized the disclosure of an ongoing counterintelligence investigation and a Justice Department referral, along with a declaration of “severe misconduct” before the investigation had concluded.

Another military justice expert, Frank Rosenblatt, disagreed that disclosing the polygraph information violated the law, but blasted reliance on the tests.

"This unreliable junk information is being allowed to stand in for like actual evidence that he's done something," he said.

CBS could not independently verify the official’s leak allegations. Two other Pentagon sources confirmed the firing was connected to polygraphs but disputed that Sylvia leaked classified information.

The controversy follows earlier accusations by Hegseth against three Pentagon aides whom he dismissed last year while a leak investigation remained underway.

“Once a leaker, always a leaker,” Hegseth told Fox News at the time. “And if those people are exonerated, fantastic, but we don’t think, based on what we understand, it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation.”

Canadian rock star brutally mocks Trump with new song: 'Like a baby tossing the toys'

By:Robert Davis

Oct 29, 2026

RAW STORY


Canadian rock star Bryan Adams brutally mocked President Donald Trump in a new song he released just before the midterm elections, according to a new report.


The Guardian reported that Adams wrote a new song titled "Lake Ontario," which takes a shot at Trump for his efforts to "rename" one of Canada's most famous bodies of water. The move further escalated the feud between the two countries and resulted in the U.S. and Canada placing additional tariffs on goods coming from either side.

The lyrics make it clear that Trump's renaming efforts were an attempt to "deflect from the president’s other political problems, including the war in Iran and renewed scrutiny of the Jeffrey Epstein files," according to the report.

"But things weren’t going his way in Iran/ So like a baby tossing the toys from the pram/ But it feels like another distraction/ while the Epstein files were getting traction," the lyrics read in part.

Adams explained that the song came from a project he called a "love letter" to Canada.

“After finishing the first song, I moved on to that one, and then moved on to another one, and then started thinking maybe I should just carry on with my theme,” Adams told The Guardian.

 THE EPSTEIN CLASS

Police probe the royal retreat at the center of cryptic Epstein emails

By:Travis Gettys

Oct 30, 2026

RAW STORY


Scottish detectives are investigating time that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell spent at Balmoral, King Charles’ private estate in Scotland.


Police Scotland said it had received “information” and that inquiries into the disgraced royal’s time there with the late child sex offender were at a “very early stage," reported The Guardian.

The Daily Express has reported that the inquiries relate to claims that women were trafficked to the estate.

“We have received information and active inquiries are ongoing, but these are at a very early stage,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said. “All inquiries are evidence-led, with the needs of victim survivors at the heart of those inquiries.”

Photos previously released by the U.S. Department of Justice appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein on a shooting trip at Balmoral.

The estate also appears in a string of cryptic emails released last year as part of the Epstein files. In August 2001, someone using the name “the Invisible Man” sent four emails to Maxwell, who has since been convicted of sex trafficking. In one, the sender said their “valet” had recently died and that they had “left the RN,” shorthand for the Royal Navy. Mountbatten-Windsor left the Royal Navy the month before.

Another email from the same sender, dated Aug. 16, 2001, said they were at “Balmoral summer camp for the royal family” before asking Maxwell: “Have you found me some inappropriate friends?”


In March 2002, Maxwell wrote to the Invisible Man that she had passed along a message to an unnamed person, beginning: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no.” She added that “Andrew” would be “very happy” if the person did some “two legged sight seeing.”

The sender of the emails has not been confirmed.

Several other British police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police and Surrey Police, have live investigations linked to the Epstein files. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said there is no national investigation at present.


Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he shared sensitive information with Epstein while serving as a U.K. trade envoy. He denies wrongdoing, and that investigation continues.