REBELLIOUS REPUBLICANS: More than a dozen Indiana Republican senators rebelled against their party and President Trump, voting against and defeating  a new congressional re-districting map designed to give their party more seats in Washington.

  Republicans hold 40 of 50 seats in the Indiana senate and couldn’t get the bill over the goal line. The vote was 31-19 on the bill that would have eliminated the only two Democratic congressional seats out of nine in the state.

  “I believe the bill on its face is unconstitutional,” said Republican State Senator Greg Walker. President Trump posted, “If Republicans will not do what is necessary to save our Country, they will eventually lose everything to the Democrats.”

  Trump named some of the dissenters on his social media feed, questioning their party loyalty, and pledging to back primary challengers against them.

THE REGIME:

— President Trump’s director of counter terrorism testified before Congress yesterday that he doesn’t know who the Biden administration allowed into the US among hundreds of thousands of immigrants but that his organization has identified “18,000 known and suspected terrorists that the Biden administration allowed to come into our country.” He doesn’t know, but claims he knows. Joseph Kent, head of the NCTC, did not say why immigration authorities are rounding up gardeners and nannies in a sweep of “the worst of the worst” while known terrorists are at large.

  It was a day of astounding testimony. Kent and other officials including Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security, repeatedly condemned President Biden and praised the “leadership” of Donald Trump.

  Asked repeatedly by Rep. Benny Thompson of Mississippi who approved asylum for the Afghan immigrant who shot and killed a member of the National Guard in Washington, Noem dodged, blaming the Biden administration for vetting the suspect. She refused to admit that it was the current Trump administration that gave the man asylum in the US. 

  Michael Glasheen, head of FBI national security, said Antifa is the #1 domestic security threat. “That is the most immediate violent threat we are facing on the domestic side,” he said. Asked directly by Rep. Thompson “Where is Antifa headquartered” and how many members it has, Glasheen stumbled and failed to give an informational answer. He couldn’t say where Antifa exists or how many members it has.

 Antifa, if it exists as an organization, has yet to carry out an act of terrorism. Antifa is generally considered … except by the Trump administration … to be a protest philosophy against fascism, not an organization. Glasheen could only say, “Investigations are active.”

— Kilmar Abrego Garcia, possibly the most well-known immigrant swept up by ICE, was ordered by a federal judge yesterday to be released from detention. The Salvadoran was a national story when he was wrongfully deported to a Salvadoran prison before being brought back.

  “Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” wrote judge Paula Xinis. “For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody.”  He was released last night.

— The United States on Thursday issued new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and members of President Nicolás Maduro’s family as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure to force Maduro out of power. President Trump threatened to seize more tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

— Trump signed an executive order to neutralize state laws that limit or regulate the artificial intelligence industry. The order grants authority to the attorney general to sue states and overturn laws that do not support the “United States’ global A.I. dominance,” putting dozens of A.I. safety and consumer protection laws in Trump’s crosshairs. Trump directed that if states keep their laws in place federal regulators may withhold funds for broadband and other projects.

 — The US trade deficit narrowed 10 percent from August to September, according to new figures, as President Trump’s tariffs put a thumb on the trade scale.

— “My Pillow” founder Mike Lindell, a close ally of President Trump and proponent of the lie that the 2020 election was rigged, announced himself a candidate for governor of Minnesota.   

THE WAR ROOM: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the latest iteration of a peace plan backed by the United States still calls for his country to withdraw from the eastern Donbas region, a concession that he says his country would not make.

  Zelensky said it’s simply unfair to cede to Russia territory it’s taken by force. He said that any decision to cede territory would have to be presented to voters in the form of elections or a referendum, which is possible only if the fighting stops. Then there’s the question of whether residents in occupied territory, what’s left of them, would be allowed a free vote under Russian occupation.  

THE SPIN RACK: As many as 100,000 people have been advised to evacuate as historic flooding hits western Washington State. Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency. — The journal Nature reports on a study that finds as long as 400,000 years ago Neanderthals used flint and pyrite to make fires by a watering hole in what is now England. The finding indicates that humans made this critical development much earlier than previously thought. —  Comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke, who danced across rooftops more than 60 years ago in the move Mary Poppins, turns 100 tomorrow. He says he goes to the gym three days a week and 100 is “not enough years.” 

BELOW THE FOLD: Time magazine features on its cover eight people who developed artificial intelligence as the “People of the Year.” Late night host Jimmy Kimmel said, “The people who replaced people are the people of the year this year.” 

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