Attention to the Unseen

Gizmodo reports: The Department of Homeland Security launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster President Donald Trump’s spurious claims about a “terrorist organization” he accused his Democratic rivals of supporting. An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort…

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Ed Pilkington reports: “There is a man by the name of Donald,” the voice on the recording says. “God said, ‘You have been determined through your prayers to influence this nation … I will open that door that you prayed about, and when it comes time for the election you will be elected.” Three thousand people are packed into an overflowing auditorium, many with arms raised and eyes closed in prayer. The recording to which they are listening is from…

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Marisa Kabas writes: Polling for the upcoming midterm election has been teetering back and forth between which party will win the most seats, but the prevailing sentiment is that Democrats are in big trouble due to Republican-driven narratives on inflation, gas prices and crime. “Fearing a New Shellacking, Democrats Rush for Economic Message,” read a recent New York Times headline for an article that cites a Democratic pollster expressing worry that party support from the summer is “evaporating.” But while…

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Reuters reports: The U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday will do much more than shape the next two years of Joe Biden’s presidency. They will also help determine whether he will run in 2024 as well, political analysts and advisers believe. While a new president’s party historically suffers losses in Congress during the midterm election, Biden, 79, faces extra scrutiny. He and advisers have said as recently as Nov. 2 that he wants to run again, and that they’re already making…

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Greg Sargent writes: Something extraordinary just happened: In the space of just this week, a president and an ex-president warned that the opposition poses an existential threat to our political way of life. Joe Biden declared that “MAGA Republicans” have placed democracy “under threat.” Barack Obama warned that if GOP election deniers win in Arizona, “democracy may not survive.” Yet the ongoing MAGA threat to U.S. democracy, including from Donald Trump himself, isn’t harming Republican chances of winning the House…

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Ruth Margalit writes: When Merav Michaeli, the leader of Israel’s left-wing Labor Party, arrived at the ballot box near her home in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, she grinned from ear to ear. She poked toddlers in their strollers. Waved to photographers. But her sleepless eyes told a different story. Labor, Israel’s once dominant party—the party of Yitzhak Rabin—was inching toward extinction. So was Meretz, another dovish party to its left. So were three predominantly Arab parties. Israel’s peace camp…

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Yascha Mounk writes: As Sunday’s high-stakes runoff election for the presidency between Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right incumbent, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his left-wing challenger, approached, Brazilian political analysts kept returning to two big questions. The first was simply, “Who will win?” The second was more ominous: “Will the incumbent leave office if he loses?” The answer to the first question came late on Sunday night. Lula clearly, if narrowly, defeated Bolsonaro, with 51 to 49 percent of the…

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