I’m traveling next week and there’s a big holiday starting tonight, so I’m going to try to cover a lot of ground quickly. (Will be painless, I swear.)

First, in what has become a Racket tradition, I’m planning to work on a mailbag issue on the road. So send your questions about anything — our rapidly deteriorating politics, free speech, Gaza, Haiti, the new book, whatever’s on your mind. I’ll pick the ones that get me thinking and respond in, most likely, the next newsletter:

Here’s the roundup: The federal government is shutting down, to which I say … good, I guess? Not like it’s being used for anything good these days anyway. OK, that’s a little flip, but the slightly more nuanced answer isn’t any nicer. Trump, keeping his overriding campaign promise, has turned what could be a powerful tool for help and public welfare into a weapon for punitive violence, graft, and harm.

The usual game in the Washington press corps is to haggle over which party’s fault this is, but I really don’t care about that part. Trump’s party controls all three branches and both houses of Congress. They could railroad through a spending bill on their own if they wanted to¹. But insofar as Senate Democrats have played a role in this, great. It’s about time they started growing a nub of a spine. They should, as some seemingly are, use this as an opportunity to sell the public on the reality: that Trump’s GOP is holding federal government hostage to take away people’s healthcare, basic rights, and destroy what’s left of the separation of powers. And to distract you from their myriad crimes and gross seizures of power, the ruling Republican Party is trying to trick us into blaming our problems on immigrants, trans people, and whatever racial/ideological minority du jour. Enough already.

Speaking of fascism, Secretary of Whatever Pete Hegseth wasted a ton of our money on a photo op that didn’t go great for him. Turns out four-star generals and admirals don’t appreciate being used as props in a washed-out O-4’s personal remake of Patton.

But even if Hegseth and Trump didn’t get the applause they craved, the event augurs nothing good. If you had put Trump’s harangue about using American cities — and their inhabitants — as a ”training ground” for the U.S. military — and calls on the general officers to prepare for war against an “invasion from within” into a dystopian film two decades ago, the critics would have called it “chilling” and “unrealistic.” But that’s where we are. He used language stripped straight out of the Global War on Terror (or Israel’s genocide in Gaza²), claiming this enemy is “more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms.” Except this time, the enemy is you, or anyone the administration considers inconvenient or a threat to their power.

Whoever wrote Trump’s speech also included an extremely weird reference to “11,488 murders” being supposedly committed by undocumented immigrants — a seemingly made-up statistic whose source no one can find, but that happens to include a well-known pro-Hitler meme. Given that Trump seems to be easily fooled by AI slop and old videos, it is not clear if he had any idea what he was saying. But someone knew what they were doing.

The message to the generals is clear: this is where the military is heading. Some will love it. Others may try to stay and change course from within. Others will leave, but if they do, as Trump warned, “of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.” Some difficult conversations going on right now at military bases, I assure you.

Troops are of course occupying D.C. and parts of LA and making inroads into Chicago, Portland, and I believe Memphis at last check. (Yup.) The white governor of Louisiana asked Trump to send the National Guard to majority-Black New Orleans; except that sending the Guard is a thing he can do himself, so this seems to just be some performative dictator-glazing. Trump has declared “antifa” a domestic terror threat. And yes, there is no such thing as a national organization called “Antifa,” nor is there any federal statute recognizing domestic terror. But as a former FBI Counterterrorism agent explained to Spencer Ackerman in this revealing and useful interview, there are plenty of things the government can do to make the lives of its enemies hell, even under existing statutory authorities.

Also Stephen Miller wants you to know that they are not fascists, and if you say they are fascists you will be outlawed.

In other news, the UN has approved yet another armed mission to Haiti, to replace the current one (which was a predictable failure). It comes days after a drone strike (yes, a drone strike) targeting a gang leader killed eight children at a birthday party in Cité Soleil. No word on whether it was one of Blackwater founder, Trump buddy and megadonor Eric Prince’s. (The Times’ Frances Robles noted that “Mr. Prince, the American military defense contractor, did not respond to requests for comment.”)

There’s been a win for free speech: a federal court in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by detaining and deporting non-citizens for their ideological speech, specifically their pro-Palestinian advocacy. District Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee, wrote: “This case — perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court — squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in [the] United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do.’ ‘No law’ means ‘no law.’ The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence.” It seems likely the administration will appeal.

Finally, there’s another Gaza ceasefire deal on the table, though no indication that either Israel or Hamas will accept it. (Also Israel has a habit of violating those before the ink is dry.) As for now, DropSite reports: “At least 51 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours, including a photojournalist. Israel issues a final warning for Palestinians in Gaza City to flee, saying everyone who remains will be considered a ‘terrorist,’ while closing the main coastal road and forcing those moving south through military checkpoints.”

Here’s what I wrote about it last Yom Kippur. Sadly, little has changed except the death toll:

If you’re fasting tonight, have an easy one. Regardless I’ll talk to you soon³. (And don’t forget to send your questions.)