Adam hamilton tests kansas’s republican senate grip

Elections (8)

• J.D. Vance answered a young voter's question about housing costs with a joke about Ohio politician John Husted, then touted a bipartisan bill restricting Wall Street home purchases that Trump had vetoed. The hosts said the exchange showed Vance ignoring the voter's concern and echoing Trump's campaign style.
• Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign used an ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother to attack Acton, then cut the ad from a minute to 30 seconds before removing it. The hosts said court records contradicted the mother’s claim that the family never lived in a tent and criticized the campaign for exploiting a visibly unwell woman and retraumatizing the family.
• Michigan Chronicle reporter Samuel Robinson said Abdul El-Sayed had momentum and expected overwhelming Black support in Detroit, while acknowledging some Republicans would vote for El-Sayed over his positions on Israel and Gaza. Robinson expected turnout to exceed the 2018 non-incumbent election and said early-vote returns could take until 2 or 3 a.m. to count.
• Robinson said Israel and Gaza are especially salient for Michigan Jewish and Muslim voters, but not the top issue for all voters. He described tension between some Black and Arab communities, warned that Arab American voters may be stereotyped through local disputes, and said Mike Rogers's campaign faced backlash over anti-Muslim rhetoric from some allies.
• Mai Vang and Angela Gonzalez-Torres challenged Democratic incumbents in California, with Vang saying AIPAC-aligned groups spent heavily against her over her Gaza ceasefire advocacy. Vang said Doris Matsui had loaned her campaign $7 million; Gonzalez-Torres said Jimmy Gomez had accepted substantial AIPAC support and used congressional funds for campaign mailers.
• Vang said Sacramento's district had shifted from a Democratic advantage of 22 points to 7 after Proposition 50, and described building a campaign with more than 1,000 volunteers. Gonzalez-Torres said DSA-LA helped organize canvassing and community campaigns; Vang cited a 700-person canvass organized with Sacramento DSA and UAW.
• California candidates said federal election probes and subpoenas were being used to cast doubt on voting, while a judge rejected an effort to block ballots from roughly 20,000 people alleged to be noncitizens. Vang said 22% of ballots had been returned in her district and urged eligible voters not to be intimidated.
• The hosts discussed two election tactics: a Texas Republican women's group sent students flyers urging gender transition to provoke trans panic, while Alaska's ballot-name controversy drew scrutiny over possible links to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Mary Peltola's campaign. Emily said deceptive tactics can deepen public distrust in elections regardless of party.

Iran (1)

• Senator Chris Murphy called the administration's Iran war plans “insane,” warning that attacks on civilian infrastructure and Gulf oil capacity could trigger escalation and prolong damage even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened. The hosts also noted reports of missile defenses at Mar-a-Lago and military preparations for mass-casualty scenarios.

Custody (1)

• Binance disclosed that an attacker may have compromised a DevOps engineer’s laptop, gained access to withdrawal systems, and redirected a hot-wallet transaction through Ethereum’s EIP-7702 mechanism. The hosts reported that roughly $6.3 billion was stolen across blockchains in under 20 minutes, about $3 billion was frozen, and North Korean hackers were suspected.

AI Infrastructure (1)

• The hosts described a widening cyber risk: an AI agent reportedly accessed classified government systems through a contractor, while freezer systems were hacked at military commissaries and French grocery stores. They said six bases experienced freezer failures as the Pentagon prepared bases to operate without outside supplies for 90 days.

Big Tech (1)

• Alphabet said AI Mode was generating less advertising revenue than traditional search, even as Google increased monetization pressure on advertisers through broader matching of search terms. Alphabet spent $51.4 billion on capital investment in the third quarter, roughly two-thirds on servers and network equipment, while DoorDash had received only about 200 orders through Meta’s Muse AI.

Markets (1)

• The hosts linked a broad tech-stock selloff to weak earnings and questioned whether AI investment had become a bubble. They cited U.S. third-quarter growth of 3.4%, with 12.7% growth in nonresidential fixed investment and nearly 0.9 percentage points of GDP growth from information-processing equipment, while the S&P 500 remained heavily concentrated in major technology firms.

Health (1)

• Vang said she would prioritize restoring Medicaid and food-assistance cuts, then pursue oversight of the administration; Gonzalez-Torres emphasized cash assistance, immigrant protections, and long-term cost-of-living relief. Both backed organizing for Medicare for All and getting corporate money out of politics, while Vang also named abolishing ICE as a voter demand.

Media (1)

• Ryan said John Kiriakou has blamed journalist Matthew Cole for helping expose him after Kiriakou disclosed CIA torture, though Ryan had no firsthand knowledge of that case. Ryan said Cole's handling of Reality Winner's document was a reporting mistake, but prosecutors had other evidence linking Winner to the leak; the episode reinforced the need to protect sources and limit document details.

Big Tech (8)

• Avantika Chilkoti reports that Elon Musk has criticized charities on X, including Mackenzie Scott’s philanthropy, despite running a large private foundation; earlier industrialists funded projects such as Carnegie’s libraries and Rockefeller-backed agricultural research.
• Chilkoti found that the Musk Foundation held about $14.7 billion in assets, making it one of America’s largest private foundations; Musk contributed about $8 billion in Tesla stock in 2021 and 2022.
• Chilkoti says founders can donate appreciated shares to a private foundation, avoiding capital-gains tax on a sale while claiming a charitable deduction based on market value rather than their negligible original cost; accounting experts described the practice as common and legal.
• The Musk Foundation offers little public detail: its website is 33 words long, it has no grant application process, and Chilkoti found that roughly three people run it; she examined filings from July 2020 through the end of 2024.
• Nearly 10% of the Musk Foundation’s distributed money went to Fidelity Charitable, which manages donor-advised funds; Chilkoti says money placed in these funds has no real public reporting requirement, making the transfer hard to track as charitable spending.
• About 60% of Musk’s giving in the reviewed period went to a public charity called The Foundation, which Chilkoti linked to Musk through its operators and shared address; its education work is difficult to assess from public information.
• Chilkoti found grants ranging from sea-turtle conservation to spinal medicine, with some potentially serving Musk’s interests: the foundation gave to nonprofits near a SpaceX rocket-debris site and paid for a hospital group to support a SpaceX client’s fundraising.
• US rules require grant-making foundations to distribute 5% of investment assets annually; Chilkoti says the Musk Foundation missed that target in each of the past four years, using the one-year grace period and owing charities about $400 million at the end of 2024.

Health (3)

• Sam Wykley says the 10,000-step daily target traces to a Japanese advertising campaign before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, not a firm scientific threshold; the kanji for 10,000 resembles a walking person.
• A 2025 review found that 7,000 daily steps, compared with 2,000, correlated with 47% lower premature-death risk, 25% lower cardiovascular-disease risk and 14% lower diabetes risk; moving from 2,000 to 4,000 steps was linked to 36% lower mortality risk.
• Wykley says walking benefits taper after roughly 7,000 steps: reaching 10,000 adds only a 2% further mortality-risk reduction. A UK Biobank study of 65,000 people over eight years found faster cadence also helped, with about 100 steps per minute and 7,500 to 10,000 daily steps suggested as a target.

Elections (17)

• David Bessie calls himself an anti-MAGA, center-right Republican who retired to Maine three years ago; he says Trump’s presidencies have been disastrous and the Republican Party corrupt, self-dealing, and incompetent.
• David Bessie criticizes Democrats for Biden-era immigration policy, union influence, and relying on spending rather than problem-solving; he also thinks the party is moving further left instead of toward the center.
• David Bessie sees Susan Collins as thoughtful and willing to cross party lines, but worries her reelection could help MAGA Republicans; his ideal Senate would be tied 50-50, leaving Collins as a swing vote.
• Jess Bidgood says Chuck Schumer backed Janet Mills against Collins, but Maine Democrats gravitated to Graham Platner before his campaign collapsed after a rape accusation; Troy Jackson became the replacement despite limited statewide electoral experience.
• Jess Bidgood describes Collins’s pre-Trump brand as pragmatic governance, bipartisan work, and bringing federal money to Maine; Collins says funding helped a Bangor manufacturing plant that will create 75 jobs.
• Jess Bidgood says Collins has kept distance from Trump and often breaks with Republicans, but Democrats argue her dissent rarely blocks his priorities; they point to her Kavanaugh vote and her vote advancing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
• Jess Bidgood says Collins’s moderate reputation, constituent-focused spending, and occasional breaks with Trump keep her competitive despite strong national headwinds; Democrats have won Maine’s popular vote in at least the last three presidential elections.
• Jess Bidgood says John E. Sununu is campaigning in New Hampshire against the Iran war and Canada tariffs, while distancing himself from Trump; Sununu says he has never met the president.
• New Hampshire remains a difficult Senate state for Republicans: Democrats won recent races by wide margins, and a New York Times-Siena poll had Sununu trailing Chris Pappas by about five points after an earlier poll put Sununu ahead by a couple.
• Jess Bidgood says Collins and Sununu are testing a route to victory through independents, moderate Republicans, and Democrats willing to cross party lines, rather than relying only on MAGA turnout.
• Ashley Hinson shifted from promising to be Trump’s strongest Senate ally to running ads about bipartisan work, but Jess Bidgood says Hinson lacks Collins’s long record of independence.
• Florida Representative Maria Elvira Salazar publicly warned Trump that immigration enforcement had gone too far, arguing Hispanic voters felt betrayed; her district is 70 percent Hispanic.
• Jess Bidgood says Democrat James Talarico has led Ken Paxton in multiple Texas polls, despite Trump’s endorsement of Paxton; the result could test whether Trump’s backing can still carry a flawed candidate in a deep-red state.
• Jess Bidgood says Collins winning while Paxton loses could give Republicans permission to distance themselves from Trump, though Trump would retain fundraising power and influence over the party apparatus and RNC.
• Ohio Governor Mike DeWine condemned a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign ad that used his opponent’s mother to attack her, showing that some pre-Trump Republicans still challenge the party’s newer political style.
• Israel’s election count showed neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition led by Gadi Eisenkot had secured a parliamentary majority; Arab parties recorded their strongest showing ever and may be pivotal to forming a government.
• Israel’s election was widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, the first national vote since Hamas’s October 7 assault; turnout reached a record high.