You’re not allowed to have midterms fatigue just yet
I get it: You’ve been hearing about the midterm elections for months, and at this point you already can’t wait for the political hangover Wednesday morning.
Let’s just get through the four remaining days.
First, you need to know the stakes: This election will decide if millions of people will gain health insurance through Medicaid. That’s because four states will vote directly on expanding the program and a half-dozen close gubernatorial races are between candidates who are either for or against expansion.
Three more stories you should know about today:
The Democrat in one of the biggest Senate races barely mentions Trump, while the Republican is betting her whole campaign on him.
Russia is meddling in the midterms. The White House just isn’t talking about it.
Imagine if Oprah knocked on your door and asked you to vote.
You should also know that voter suppression is already an issue in this election: High-profile cases of alleged suppression have emerged in at least three different states.
By the way, we’re keeping a close eye on conspiracy theories and hoaxes about the elections. Look out, and don’t fall for them.
Trump suggested troops will shoot migrants who throw rocks at the border
As the Central American migrant caravan moves through Mexico, President Donald Trump has suggested US troops could open fire on any migrants who throw rocks at authorities because “there’s not much difference” between a stone and a gun.
The context for his comment: Earlier this week, Mexican authorities were at the Guatemalan border to stop the caravan. A brawl broke out, with some throwing rocks and bottles at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. One migrant died and dozens of others were injured.
Trump has used the incident to portray the caravan as a massive, violent mob filled with “very tough fighters” trying to “invade” the US. Yesterday, he said he told the military that if a migrant throws a rock, “consider it a rifle.”
Many members of the caravan are women and children fleeing unrest in Honduras and Guatemala to seek asylum in the US.
SNAPSHOTS
Newark is warning its residents about lead in its drinking water. The New Jersey city announced it found the heavy metal toxin in the municipal drinking water, and has advised residents to take steps to reduce their exposure to it. The city is distributing filters to residents and offering free lead tests.
Current and former Chicago police officers are spewing racist hate in a Facebook group. The group was created to defend the police from criticism over the shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. But it has gone way beyond boosterism — many comments are racist and hateful and encourage police abuse.
Buying a home in the US got prohibitively expensive this year. After years of growth, the US housing market is slowing. According to the National Association of Realtors, home sales in September were down 4.1% from a year ago. It’s an indicator that prices are starting to bump up against a new economic reality. Simply put: Fewer people can buy a home now.
Musicians held a Mac Miller tribute concert and it was emotional. The rapper, who died from a drug overdose in September, was scheduled to perform at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Instead, Miller’s friends and fellow musicians, including Chance the Rapper, John Mayer, and Vince Staples, turned the event into a tribute called “Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life.”
Here are the stories women are telling during the walkout at Google headquarters
Thousands walked out of Google’s offices over the company’s handling of sexual misconduct accusations. The largest walkouts were in New York, San Francisco, and the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, but offices as far away as Singapore, Japan, Germany, and Switzerland participated too.
The walkout was staged in response to a story that broke last week about the $90 million exit package given to a senior Google executive alleged to have had a coerced sexual relationship with an employee.
As they walked out, employees told stories of harassment and a corporate culture that does not respect women. We collected the stories and experiences that women shared.
This quote, from an unidentified speaker, was particularly striking to me: “I work on an Android app geared toward getting kids interested in STEM and I feel like I’m leading young boys and girls to the slaughter. Why would you want to go into tech if it’s like this?”
Shut the world out and dive into these excellent longreads
I’m Obsessed With These Ugly Mansions On Zillow. Honestly, reading this piece from Katie Notopoulos relieved a week’s worth of stress. And these mansions really are hideous. Here’s a taste from the essay: “Laughing at someone who has terrible taste, even if they happen to have vast buying power, is a kind of class catharsis. Yes, these people are very rich and I am not, but look at the dumb things these rubes spent their millions on.”
Bohemian Rhapsody Sells A Sanitized Vision Of Freddie Mercury. I was excited for this movie from the minute I saw the first trailer, but I was worried about a reductive portrayal of the iconic singer. Turns out those worries were well-founded. From Pier Dominguez’s analysis of the film: “The movie doesn’t deny his sexuality, but it also doesn’t explore the nuances of Mercury’s life or art as a queer man.”
Transgender Teens Could Destroy The Bathroom Predator Myth Once And For All. The Christian right has made “men in the women’s bathroom” a wedge issue to block and reverse comprehensive LGBT civil rights policies. From Dominic Holden’s close look at the efforts to overcome the hysteria: “If progressives can crack this code, neutralizing the bathroom message, then it will be the template to pass LGBT protections around the US.”