PRIVATE WAR: Billionaire Elon Musk made the unilateral decision to choke off Ukraine’s access to a military version of the Starlink satellite service that guides drones both attacking and defending against Russia, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal says Musk made the decision on October 14^th without consulting the White House, according to some sources, while others told the paper that he did.

  Musk previously denied this in an internet post saying; “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

  Trump told reporters last Friday, “No, we didn’t do that at all. In fact, I don’t even think it was slowed down from what I understood.” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says the system known as Starshield is still limited and not giving his military the data speed it needs but the early warnings of missile attacks have resumed.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: It isn’t a revelation that President Trump and his circle of cronies are suspected of selling pardons.

 The NY Times reports on the case of Julio Herrera Velutini, a prominent Venezuelan man who had been charged with felony bribery in the US but had been allowed to plead down to a misdemeanor. The story involves Alinna Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer and briefly the US Attorney in New Jersey, who was given a position by Herrera’s business guaranteeing her $50 million over four years.

  The Times reports that Herrera considered even the misdemeanor to be a stain on his record and wanted it cleared. His 27-year-old daughter, Isabela Herrera, an American citizen, gave $3.5 million to a super PAC tied to Trump, but the pardon did not come through.

  The Herrera family then hired Habba for the aforementioned guarantee of $50 million. At the time, Habba was also a senior adviser to then Attorney General Pam Bondi. Weeks after Habba began her new job with the Herrera firm, President Trump granted Herrera a full and unconditional pardon.

  Habba said in a statement, “Any insinuation that my employment — all of which has been vetted and disclosed to the D.O.J. — had anything to do with securing a pardon is false.”

DANCING WITH THE STARS: The Washington Post obtained a list of the donors for President Trump’s White House ballroom that includes swells from Microsoft, Apple, Palantir and even the Winklevoss brothers … the “Winklevi” … who were squeezed out of Facebook.

  Companies that contributed the maximum of $25 million each include, Nvidia and Apple. The Adelson family, one of the biggest Republican donors, and Charles Ergen, co-founder of the Dish Network, each gave $25 million.

  Not on the list is President Trump himself who had said he would help pay for the project. “It’s being paid for a hundred percent by me and some friends of mine,” he had said when the East Wing was knocked down.

OH MOM: The ugly of politics just got uglier as the estranged mother of Amy Acton, Ohio’s Democratic candidate for governor, made a commercial endorsing Acton’s opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy.

  Acton and her mother became estranged because she accused her stepfather of  molesting her and has said that for a time she was homeless. They have not spoken since 1978.

  In the ad Donna Arthur, Dr. Acton’s elderly mother, calls her daughter a liar and says, “Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself.” The ad began circulating on social media Monday night and Ramaswamy is reported to be running it with a $4 million campaign. Democrats called it a new low in a campaign already described as one of the country’s ugliest.

  Dr. Acton claimed that she was sexually abused between the ages of 9 and 12. Her stepfather was indicted, fled the state before trial, and died before ever appearing before a jury.  

  “Our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns said in a statement. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”

MISDIAGNOSIS: Actress Christina Applegate, a star of the sitcom “Married With Children,” became a leading advocate for people afflicted with multiple sclerosis following her announcement in 2021 that she had the disease. 

  Applegate’s condition has worsened over the years with all the symptoms of MS … tingling and numbness in her limbs, lack of coordination, balance issues, and difficulty walking. But now she says that her doctors tell her she does not have multiple sclerosis after all, leaving it a mystery as to what ails her. She said, “This may come as good news…but I’m back at square one.”

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— President Trump announced that the federal government will reward whistleblowers who report fraud in government business and will  personally decide who gets paid. 

  Trump said whistleblowers will be eligible to receive 1 percent of the amount of fraud they report, even if it’s $100 billion. “I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” the president said during his Oval Office announcement. “In other words, I’ll determine whether or not the person is deserving and I’ll determine — and I will be very generous, believe me.” 

— President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “humanitarian” following the release of a 74-year-old American held for four years accused of being a Ukrainian mercenary. “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian,” Witkoff told Putin even while Russian attacks continue to Ukrainian kill civilians and dismantle the country’s power grid. “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.”

  Putin is wanted as a war criminal by the international criminal court.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump keeps bragging about the size of his campaign crowds, a sure sign that they are shrinking.

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