THE HUNGER GAMES: In the hours ticking down to the cutoff of federal food aid Friday night, President Trump threw a lavish “Great Gatsby” themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago ballroom with scantily clad dancing girls, women in 1920s dresses, and men in tuxedos and top hats.

  While this was going on Trump claimed helplessness in finding a way to pay for the food benefits known as SNAP depended upon by 42 million Americans. “Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available,” he posted on his Truth Social feed.

  The SNAP reserves have about $5 billion, less than the roughly $8 billion needed to pay  benefits every month. The Agriculture Department says that even if they pay, benefits would be about half the usual.

  Judge John McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island said the government “must make” a partial payment by Wednesday, but he also encouraged federal officials to explore the use of a second source of money that might allow it to pay SNAP benefits more quickly and in full. He pointed specifically to a pot of funds at the Agriculture Department largely composed of tariff revenue, which the government had used earlier in the shutdown to preserve another federal nutrition program.

WAR POWERS: US forces blew up a 16^th suspected drug boat over the weekend, killing another three men while claiming  that the operation is not covered by the War Powers Act under which Congress must grant permission for hostilities after 60 days. At least 64 people have been killed.

  A Justice Department lawyer told members of Congress that the drug boat strikes do not meet the definition of hostilities under the law because the drone strikes do not put service members in danger. The Trump administration is very good at finding holes in the law. The Washington Post reports that the administration will not seek an extension of the 60-day deadline, which has expired. 

 THE REGIME:

— A NY Times editorial says the US under Trump has not yet become an autocracy but the President has done 12 things autocrats do:

1. Stifling free speech
2. Prosecuting political opponents
3. Bypassing the legislature
4. Using military for domestic control
5. Defying the courts
6. Declaring national emergencies on false pretenses
7. Vilifying marginal groups
8. Controlling information and news media
9. Taking over universities
10. Creating a cult of personality
11. Using power for personal profit
12. Manipulating the law to stay in power.

— President Trump is campaigning to get rid of the filibuster and 60-vote rule to expand his grip on power. He posted on his Truth Social that if the Senate rules are changed, “We will immediately END the Extortionist Shutdown, get ALL of our agenda passed, and make life so good for Americans that these DERANGED DEMOCRAT politicians will never again have the chance to DESTROY AMERICA!”

— Trump is increasing pressure on the Justice Department to find fraud in the 2020 election that he lost, The Washington Post reports. Five years later he is still looking for proof of his claim believed by millions that the election was rigged against him.

  “I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much ‘gusto’ as befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “If not, it will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms.”

— The Washington Post reports that nine months into Trump’s term,  sales for orchestra, theater, and dance performances at the Kennedy Center taken over by the President are the worst they’ve been since the pandemic. The Post says that between September 3 and October 19, the Kennedy Center had 143,000 available seats and 50,000 of them went unsold. 

— Energy Secretary Chris Wright says that the nuclear bomb testing ordered by President Trump would not involve actual explosions. 

HOME PLATE: The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series with an 11^th inning home run putting them ahead 4-3, their first lead all night. It’s their second series win in a row.

  America’s game is far from being just American anymore. The championship Dodgers have players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, South Korea, and three major stars from Japan. 

NUYAWK NEWS:  With election day coming tomorrow, some of the latest polls have democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani leading former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 16 and 25 percent. Cuomo lost his party’s nomination to Mamdani and ran as an independent.

  An enormous number of voters have turned out early, leading Cuomo to say, “”I think the polls have no idea what they’re talking about because they have never seen this kind of turnout before.”

  This race is not just a fight for the office of New York mayor but a test case for new, younger, and more imaginative leadership in the Democratic Party. Mamdani was born in Uganda and naturalized as a US citizen in 2018. He has never run anything larger than his staff as a member of the New York State Assembly.

THE SPIN RACK: Two British men were arrested Saturday night after a stabbing spree in which 10 people were wounded on a train bound from Doncaster, northern England, to London. Investigators said it did not appear to have been a terrorist attack. — Authorities are looking for two suspects who set off an explosion inside Harvard Medical School just before 3 am Saturday. —  Five German mountaineers were killed over the weekend when they were hit by an avalanche. Among the dead were a man and his 17-year-old daughter. 

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump last night on “60 Minutes” said that at age 79 he’s better looking than the 34-year-old New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

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