Guardian article
Last week, during an Oval Office interview with Reuters, Donald Trump touted his accomplishments and suggested that they were so great that “we shouldn’t even have an election” in November. Not surprisingly, that comment made headlines.
But it is at best a distraction from the real threat: the United States will have elections this year, but they will not be free and fair.
Far more important than his musings about calling off the midterms was what the president told the New York Times in another Oval Office interview. As the Times noted, he said that “he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after his loss in the 2020 election.”
Talking about the capacity of the national guard to execute that plan, he explained: “I don’t know that they are sophisticated enough … I’m not sure that they’re sophisticated enough in the ways of crooked Democrats, and the way they cheat, to figure that out.”
As the Times observed, “Mr. Trump’s expression of regret … was ... a warning sign that he had not given up on the idea that voting machines were dangerous or that they could be seized in an effort to curb fraud.” We should take that warning seriously.
So far, the leaders of the Democratic party have not. They have focused on mobilizing to compete successfully in November, but have done little to ensure the election is not rigged through executive action, intimidation or interference with vote counting.
In a 16 January podcast interview, Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explained why this is a mistake. Because of Donald Trump’s desire and need for complete domination, he cannot tolerate and will not allow a Republican defeat at the polls.
As Kagan put it: “There’s no chance in the world that Donald Trump is going to allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that would be the end of his ability to wield total power. Unless they got up on the rooftop and said: ‘We are going to subvert the 2026 election,’ they could not be more obvious about what their intention is.”
The results of the off-year elections in 2025 sent a clear signal of what is in store for the president and his party if the midterms are free and fair. That’s why, as the Washington Post reported on 12 January, he “is using every tool he can find to try to influence the 2026 midterm elections and, if his party loses, sow doubt in their validity”.
The administration’s “wide-ranging efforts seek to expand on some of the strategies he and his advisers and allies used to try to reverse the 2020 results”. Moreover, Trump and his allies are much better prepared to rig the 2026 election or discredit the results than they were in 2020.
The playbook was laid out in Project 2025. Let’s recall a few of its proposals.
One was to transfer the responsibility for investigating and prosecuting election crimes to the Department of Justice’s criminal division. Liza Gordon-Rogers, a research associate at the Center for Science and Democracy, argues that his shift would “significantly jeopardize the United States’ multi-racial democracy by changing the focus from interference with voting rights to criminalizing the act of voting itself”.
Project 2025 also called for the federal government to withdraw from arrangements that in the past have helped election officials do their jobs. It recommended what Gordon-Rogers calls “substantive cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has provided essential cyber and physical security support to election offices across the country to make sure our elections are secure”.
Beyond that, if the Project 2025 recommendations are acted on, that would mean, as the Brennan Center for Justice notes, “the outright weaponization of federal power to retaliate against election officials for decisions that federal officials don’t like”.
Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer and frequent Trump target, gets it right when he says that the administration has taken the Project 2025 plan to heart. In addition, he observes, “the 2026 midterms will be easier for Trump to steal than the 2020 election. To start, there is no Electoral College to contend with and no need to pressure state legislatures.
“Trump and his team,” Elias adds, “are more experienced, more confident, and more ruthless. Sadly, our election systems are weaker than ever, having suffered never-ending attacks from election deniers since 2020.”
“The cards,” he continues, “are already falling into place.” Elias highlights the justice department’s ongoing efforts to gather vast amounts of “highly sensitive voting data” on voters across the US.
And he reminds us of Trump’s claim that “the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”
That sounds like something one of the autocrats Trump admires would say. Authoritarian leaders manipulate voter-registration lists, create a climate of fear to discourage certain voters from voting, and control vote tabulation.
From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves
Read more
In 2022, the New York Times detailed what one of them, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, did “to shape the contours” of a forthcoming election “more to his liking”. Among those things, he undertook, in effect, an enormous gerrymandering of Hungarian electoral districts.
Sound familiar?
Orbán also enacted new rules about the use of mail-in ballots, one of Trump’s favorite targets. And he “legalized the registration of voters outside of their home districts – a common practice, until now criminal, that is known as ‘voter tourism’”. This allows him to get his supporters to vote in places where their support will be most useful.
Don’t be surprised if you hear about something like this from Trump.
At the end of the day, the president may be attracted to the idea of rigging the 2026 election not just out of a fear that he will not be able to work his will but because, as scholars suggest, electoral manipulation is a signal to critical audiences (including “bureaucracy, potential defectors within the elite, or powerful stakeholders within civil society”) of his “strength“ and “invincibility”.
Whatever Trump’s motivations, Democrats are making a mistake by underestimating the likelihood that, for all the artful campaigning and the many unpopular things they can pin on Republicans, none of that will matter. They, and all the rest of us, must mobilize to avoid that result.
We have no time to waste.
Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty
Elon Musk's SpaceX has applied to launch one million satellites into Earth's orbit to power artificial intelligence (AI).
The Onion
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RFK Jr. Demonstrates How To Remove Tapeworm By Scooting Ass Across Carpet
I just came from a discussion of the Epstein files, the latest release. It's too disgusting to post here. It's our duty to know, but I won't be the one to tell those who don't know.
ICE Is Not the Only Problem. Border Patrol Has Acted With Impunity for Decades.
Sharon Astyk
Everyone knows that pedophilia and incest was literally enshrined foundationally into America through slavery, right? Like this is not a new thing.
Like I get that we compartmentalize, but we built an entire society around white owners raping Black people, impregnating them, and then raping their own kids and grandkids, half siblings and cousins. A HUGE PART OF ENTIRE SOCIETY WAS BUILT AROUND CHILD RAPE AND INCEST - and normalized and centralized.
And it wasn't like everyone didn't know. There was literally a pamphlet advising young white men in brothels to try and avoid having sex with their half siblings by looking at their appearance and asking certain questions. EVERYONE KNEW.
Just to be 100% clear, Thomas Jefferson raped his wife's half sister, Sally Hemings, starting when she was 14 when she accompanied him to Paris with his teenaged daughter. This was publically known and discussed before he became President. A political journalist figured it out by the appearance of Hemings children and Jefferson's own actions.
Hemings was 3/4 white, which means her mother and grandmother had also been raped by white owners. She bore 6 children to him, and it is possible she was also raped by Jefferson's brother or some of his nephews. (You see how that's worse, right?)
Jefferson was NOT the only one, I'm just using him as an example.
So, just in case you are wondering how America goes on, knowing that its leaders have committed horrific, indescribable sex crimes against innocent kids...just ask how we did it all the other times.
What would be new would be any accountability. I'll believe it when I see it.
Al Jazeera English
Eight more charities say they will not hand Israel details about their Palestinian staff, fearing for their safety.
I asked an ai about Mamdani as mayor, got this:
Zohran Mamdani’s first month as New York City mayor has been intense, and the picture is mixed depending on who you ask. He’s been highly active—especially during the major winter storm and the city’s fiscal crisis—but reactions range from praise for his energy and efficiency to criticism over budget messaging and tone during a deadly cold snap.
Overall Performance Snapshot
👍 Where he’s getting strong marks
• Snowstorm management: Multiple outlets note that Mamdani handled his first major winter storm effectively, coordinating agencies, communicating frequently, and keeping services functional.
• Hands‑on leadership: He’s been visible—shoveling snow, filming PSAs, meeting frontline workers, and giving clear public updates. Supporters praise his communication style as simple, direct, and engaging.
• Early policy action:• Launched major housing task forces (LIFT and SPEED) to accelerate development.
• Ordered hearings on “rental ripoffs” and pushed agencies to crack down on negligent landlords.
• Required homeless shelters to submit health‑and‑safety compliance plans.
These moves have been framed as fast, structural governance rather than symbolic gestures.
• Fiscal discipline efforts: He created “Chief Savings Officer” positions in every city agency to cut waste and improve efficiency.
👎 Where he’s facing criticism
• Budget deficit messaging: Mamdani has repeatedly blamed former Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a $12 billion deficit, which critics call oversimplified or unfair.
• Tone during crisis: He said being mayor “couldn’t be better” during a deadly deep freeze that killed 10 people, prompting backlash from officials who felt the comment was insensitive.
• Representation concerns: His early appointments lacked Black deputy mayors, raising questions about inclusivity.
🟦 Neutral / Mixed Observations
• PR‑heavy style: Reports describe him as extremely hands‑on with messaging—sometimes personally editing press statements. Some see this as effective; others see it as overly image‑focused.
• Federal relations: He has maintained a surprisingly cooperative relationship with President Trump, which has so far shielded NYC from harsher federal immigration enforcement.
Bottom Line
Mamdani is energetic, fast‑moving, and highly visible, with early wins in crisis management and policy rollout. But he’s also polarizing, especially around budget politics and public messaging during emergencies. His supporters see a decisive reformer; his critics see a mayor still learning the balance between rhetoric and responsibility.
If you want, I can break down his performance by category—budget, housing, public safety, storm response, or political strategy.
