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October 2018

Tracy Mitrano is the Democrat challenger to Republican congressman Tom Reed in my home district, NY-23. The District is mostly rural and conservative, stretching over a huge territory in upstate New York's Southern Tier. The District was created after 2010 redistricting, and is R+6 even though it includes ultra-liberal Ithaca and Tompkins County. The redistricting boundaries, which were drawn by the courts, have left Ithaca liberals feeling isolated and angry in congressional races dominated by the voters with whom liberal Ithacans have little in common.

On Monday, I blogged that reporters discovered Bangladeshis mixed in the migrant caravan moving towards the US border. Now Judicial Watch and Sara Carter have reported that people "from all over the world" are in the caravan as the MSM has slammed President Donald Trump for making claims that criminals and people from the Middle East have joined the caravan. There's also a second caravan forming in Guatemala.

After Andy Lassner, a producer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, tweeted the other day that he's "way more afraid of another Melania getting in to this country than" he is of the thousands of migrants in the caravan marching towards the U.S. border. First Lady Melania Trump's office tweeted him an invite to her gathering of children at the White House to talk about kindness and screen the movie Wonder. You can guess how this man child responded.

The US Secret Service intercepted packages sent to the homes of the Clintons in New York and President Barack Obama in Washington that contain "possible explosive devices." The Clintons and Obama didn't receive the packages "because of screening procedures." CNN then reported the NYPD has responded to a suspicious package outside at Time Warner Center in New York, the home of the network. Law enforcement also intercepted a package meant for the White House at Joint Base Bolling in DC, but now reports say "that there was no suspicious package addressed to the White House."

A leading Chinese bank, which acted as the main conduit for payments to Iran, is halting financial transactions with the Islamic Republic, Reuters news agency reports. The state-owned Bank of Kunlun's decision was made "under pressure" of impending U.S. sanctions due to take effect early November, news reports disclose. The halting of transactions spells trouble for Iran's commercial ties to China, the country's biggest oil consumer. The Bank of Kunlun is controlled by China's state-owned energy group CNPC, a company running multi-billion dollar gas exploration projects in Iran.

Not everyone in the entertainment industry is a progressive, but anyone who is even slightly conservative must remain silent for employment purposes. As a result, we only hear from the loudest leftists and they are convinced they're saving the country. Katherine Schaffstall of the Hollywood Reporter frames this story in a way that makes it sound like these celebrities are performing a public service.

Elections bring out the best and brightest our country has to offer, like this guy. In Montrose (Houston's artsy and therefore more liberal pocket), a mustachioed man was filmed pulling up and destroying Ted Cruz yard signs. When confronted, he yelled, "I hate Ted Cruz!" and retreated to a coffee shop.

On Monday night, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to shield Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from being deposed in a lawsuit over the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. But the Court declined to block the deposition of acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore, as the administration had also asked. It's tough to say whether the White House should view this compromise — presumably brokered by Chief Justice John Roberts—as a win, loss or draw. Time will tell what impact it has on the census litigation.