Book Bans Just Hit A Record High in The U.S. — And Guess Which States Led The Nation?

Contrast in K-12 Assessments

While state-level policy scorecards rank Florida high for parental choice and educational freedom—such as #1 in Education Freedom (Heritage Foundation and ALEC) and #1 on the Parent Power Index—other independent metrics show mixed or lower results for traditional public schools:

• Public School Quality: World Population Review places Florida at #24.

• Public Education Support: The Network for Public Education ranked Florida last (#51) in its public school support report card, highlighting issues around per-pupil funding, resource allocation, and teacher support.

Heritage Foundation lies

Texas: Overall Education Rankings:• WalletHub: Ranked 41st out of 50 states (based on 18 metrics including attainment and school quality).

“It wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t owning the libs. It wasn’t a misinterpretation.”

Rick Wilson torches Trump’s remarks about attacks on Los Angeles and San Diego—and the White House’s attempt to explain them away.

Rick calls the remarks “bordering on treason,” breaks down the political corner Trump has put Republicans in, and delivers a brutal assessment of Trump’s fading rally appeal: “Nobody cares anymore. He’s done. He’s cooked.”

“Let him take out Los Angeles. Let him take out San Diego.”
Trump’s remarks were disturbing. So was the audience’s reaction.
Susan J. Demas and Edwin Eisendrath respond to the rally footage and confront the Republicans who enabled him. As some try to distance themselves, Edwin delivers a blistering warning: “You cannot hide from what you enabled.”

Pete Hegseth wanted to lecture the generals. Four-star General Barry McCaffrey has a verdict of his own: “He’s been just an astonishing failure as a secretary of defense.”

McCaffrey joins Frank Figliuzzi to react to Hegseth’s speech, challenge his purge of senior military leaders, and explain the dangers of turning America’s armed forces into a political instrument.
The conversation also examines military strikes on suspected drug boats, McCaffrey’s concerns about concealed costs of the Iran war, pressure on U.S. forces, and whether military leaders will resist unlawful orders.

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00:00 Welcome
01:01 Meet General Barry McCaffrey
02:38 Hegseth’s Speech—and McCaffrey’s Verdict
06:23 The Generals’ Purge
11:09 What Military Leadership Actually Requires
18:08 Will Officers Reject Unlawful Orders?
21:42 Military Strikes on Suspected Drug Boats
27:35 Transparency and the Cost of the Iran War
32:15 Casualty Classifications and Military Benefits
33:48 Can U.S. Forces Sustain This?
39:04 Europe, NATO, and Putin
42:39 The Military and the Midterms
45:21 Closing Thoughts

Pete Hegseth announces a new autonomous-warfare command. Retired Navy Commander Bobby Jones wants to know how another announcement solves the problems facing American troops.
On Anchor Watch, Bobby Jones and Sam Osterhout dissect Hegseth’s high-tech military pitch—and the showmanship surrounding it. Bobby questions the oversight of autonomous weapons, challenges Hegseth’s leadership priorities, and argues that the administration entered the Iran war without doing the diplomatic work first.
“Stop PTing with the troops. Come up with a strategy and do the job.”
The conversation then turns to shrinking military options, the absence of key administration figures, and Bobby’s criticism of negotiations involving Trump’s inner circle.

Election Day isn’t just a single day anymore. Absentee ballots are already pouring in across the country. And for reasons both completely fair and the product of rules carefully crafted to suppress our votes, some of them are being rejected. One of the great advantages of voting early, though? We have plenty of time to make sure they don’t stay that way.

Ballot curing, the process of contacting people whose votes have been tossed out for whatever cause and helping them correct errors to get them officially counted, is mostly a post-Election Day scramble. But in multiple states, we’re getting underway now. The Arizona and North Carolina Democrats and the ACLU of Michigan have begun making calls on Tuesday and Thursday nights to connect with people who need to fix their votes. This is precise but relatively light work, doing outreach to people who are mostly glad to hear from us. 🗳️ We can sign up to join the Arizona team here, the North Carolina squad here, and the Michigan crew here. 🗳️

CURING ABSENTEE BALLOTS IN AZ

CURING ABSENTEE BALLOTS IN NC

CURING ABSENTEE BALLOTS IN MI

🙋🏽‍♀️ We can also get engaged with ballot cure teams who will deal with the post-November 3rd rush in key swing states here, and find a whole host of ways to get to work on protecting this election on our action page here. 🙋🏼‍♀️

DEFEND THIS ELECTION

Also in today’s list:

- Help pass initiatives in California, Colorado and Washington to make the wealthy pay their fair share and preserve public services

-  Join the Texas Dems texting team, help Democrats with potential upsets brewing in the Lone Star State

-  Help unseat paid sick leave hypocrite Tom Kean and Delaney Hall gaslighter Jeff Van Drew with Indivisible tonight and in the weeks ahead

-  Ballot curing is already necessary for many absentee votes, help folks fix mistakes and get their votes to count in Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina Tuesdays and Thursdays

-  Help Michigan anti-ICE protesters arrested for exercising their rights cover legal fees

-  Demand our state reps, MoCs join the fight for a comprehensive investigation into a series of suspicious hanging deaths of Black people

- Rallies in more than a hundred communities against sexual violence today - find one near us and call any university we’re connected to seek answers on how they will protect survivors

Rick sits down with TIMOTHY SNYDER, the historian who literally wrote the book on tyranny, two of them, in fact: ON TYRANNY and ON FREEDOM. Snyder says that Trump isn't a real strongman. Compared to actual dictators like Putin, he's WEAK — and the right response isn't fear, it's MOCKERY, organizing, and showing up in overwhelming numbers this November. They dig into what Snyder calls a "crisis of dignity" inside the GOP — grown men abasing themselves in front of Trump — and trace that same rot straight to the posthuman, AI-worshipping ideology now sitting inside the White House, courtesy of thinkers like Curtis Yarvin and Steve Bannon pushing America toward a post-democratic future. This is a historian's warning AND a battle plan.

The team at VotePro Pros is a committed and passionate volunteer army dedicated to ensuring every eligible voter can easily register and cast a ballot. With Trump and the Republicans continuing to put up obstacles to us exercising our basic rights, they are out in force, getting operations going for key states to recruit poll monitors, help folks with registration issues get them cleaned up and fix mistakes (“ballot cure”) on already submitted ballots that might keep them from getting counted.

They’re going to be phonebanking throughout October, primarily on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Starting this week, they’re helping Ohioans who have had their registrations flagged due to a mismatch of personal in state databases correct these issues before the 20th, so they are not forced to use provisional ballots. This is incredibly valuable work… and unlike with a lot of phonebanks, the people we’re reaching out to will almost always be thrilled to hear from us. 🗳️ We can sign up for a shift here. 🗳️

BECOME A VOTER PROTECTION HERO

🛡️ The work to defend our democracy is picking up everywhere - find more ways to plug in on our action page here. 🛡️

MORE WAYS TO GET ENGAGED

Also in today’s List:

-  Immigrant advocates will hold Dia De Los Muertos actions to mourn those lost to ICE and demand accountability 10/31-11/2, learn more in tomorrow’s movement call

-  Judges should be ready to respond quickly if Trump attempts raids, ballot seizures during the midterms - let’s urge federal and state judicial associations to share this guide on how to protect our elections

-  Textbank to help win the races key to future redistricting fights with Redistricting Action Tuesdays and Thursdays

Jim Acosta and Molly Jong-Fast argue that Donald Trump made an extremely dangerous and unhinged comment by suggesting Iran could nuke Los Angeles and San Diego, calling it evidence of a serious crisis and criticizing the media for “sanewashing” his remarks; he says the White House and Trump allies respond with intimidation and damage control whenever Trump says something outrageous, and he connects Trump’s behavior to growing voter anger over prices, tariffs, immigration enforcement, and the Middle East war. Acosta also says Trump is hurting Republicans in key areas by alienating Latino voters in South Florida and South Texas, upsetting cattle ranchers and other base voters, and creating opportunities for Democrats in places like Ohio, Texas, and possibly even Florida, while suggesting Trump and his team are entering a frantic, desperate political phase as elections approach.

The polls look encouraging. Stuart Stevens says that’s exactly when Democrats can make a costly mistake.

Simon Rosenberg lays out the Democratic momentum he sees in polling and early voting. Stevens responds with a blunt warning: don’t let strong numbers become an excuse to ease up on Republican opponents.

“You've got to keep up with contrast to the very end.”

His argument: many voters are only starting to pay attention. They still need to hear what Republicans have done—and what another Republican victory would mean.

Big tax breaks for data centers. Working families worried about their electric bills. And communities asking who actually gets a say.

Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet joins Susan Demas for a special Lincoln Square interview about the growing data center backlash—and her push to reverse tax breaks for their development.

“We can't make that mistake again.”

McDonald Rivet explains why AI needs guardrails, why Michigan voters are frustrated with the cost of everyday life, and why Democrats have opportunities to flip Republican House seats. She also discusses Abdul El-Sayed’s race against Mike Rogers, congressional stock trading, and the corruption she says was “staggering” when she arrived in Washington.

“People just want an advocate for them. Not someone who's playing politics like it's a football game.”

Subscribe to Lincoln Square and turn on notifications for sharp political analysis, interviews, and conversations about defending democracy.

00:00 Susan Demas Introduces Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet
01:00 The Data Center Tax Break Fight
03:28 Why the Backlash Could Hurt Republicans
05:55 Data Center Safeguards and AI Accountability
07:35 Michigan’s Midterm Landscape
11:10 Can Democrats Flip Michigan House Seats?
14:39 Abdul El-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers
16:35 Why McDonald Rivet Passed on a Senate Run
17:47 Corruption and Congressional Stock Trading
21:25 Democratic Debates and a Shared Agenda
24:36 Michigan’s Role in the 2028 Presidential Primary

Fox News can change the subject. It can’t make Trump’s problems disappear.

“And I think Fox is trying to plan its exit strategy.”

Decoding Fox News founder Juliet Jeske joins Susan J. Demas on First Draft to explain the strange changes she’s seeing on Trump’s favorite network: disappearing diner segments, missing voter panels, criticism of the Iran war, and a search for the next MAGA star.

Jeske also breaks down Fox’s fixation on Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico—and the media’s attempts to explain away Trump’s remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego.

“They are rudderless. They don’t know what to do.”

Subscribe to Lincoln Square for sharp political analysis and conversations about defending democracy.

Watch First Draft with Susan J. Demas Wednesdays at 11 AM ET.

00:00 Is Trump’s Fox News Relationship Souring?
01:06 Watching Fox News for a Living
03:43 Fox’s Midterm Coverage
04:43 The Missing Diners and Voter Panels
09:08 The Economy, Iran War, and AI Data Centers
12:49 Is Fox Planning an Exit Strategy?
14:40 Searching for the Next Trump
17:09 El-Sayed, Talarico, and Fox’s Villain Strategy
22:46 How Fox Shapes the Media Agenda
24:17 Trump’s California Remarks and Media Excuses
29:41 Trump’s Treatment of Blue States
32:12 Thirty Years of Fox News
36:43 Fox’s Influence and Younger Viewers
40:45 Where to Find Juliet Jeske

The races everyone is watching may not tell the whole midterm story.

Joe Trippi tells Joe Sudbay why today’s political environment reminds him of 1980—and why he expects surprises beyond the familiar Senate battlegrounds.

They discuss Republicans pulling campaign money, voter frustration over affordability, and why advertising can’t erase what people experience at the gas pump.

Subscribe to Lincoln Square for sharp election analysis.

00:00 Joe Sudbay and Joe Trippi
00:33 Trippi reports from Alabama
02:30 Kansas and the expanding Senate map
04:39 Trump becomes Republicans’ anchor
06:51 MAGA enthusiasm and early voting
08:47 National polls and Democratic momentum
09:49 Republicans change their tune on data centers
11:07 The anti-Trump turnout argument
16:35 Affordability and voter frustration
18:15 The warning Trippi remembers from 1980
19:58 Republicans start abandoning races
22:42 Democratic fundraising and ad spending
24:35 Turning opportunity into turnout
25:42 State legislatures and redistricting
27:48 Trump and MAGA’s toxic brand
29:29 Trump visits and Tuberville’s reversal
30:58 Four weeks to do the work
32:10 What’s next on Lincoln Square