Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
Stephen Miller’s childhood friend says he “created a monster” after radicalizing the new White House chief of staff as a teenager. House Republican Whip Tom Emmer called for the military to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from Congress. ICE deported a record number of people over the past year. And Democrat Cindy Holscher has won the Kansas governor’s race.
Before we get started, the billionaires are squeezing independent media and we need your help. Our stories are being suppressed on Facebook, where many of you first discovered us, after we called out Mark Zuckerberg for being a Trump lackey. Elon Musk, the GOP’s top donor, is also censoring AlterNet America’s stories on his social media platform. We’re clearly getting under their skin, but we can’t keep this work going without you.
By subscribing, you ensure these stories go directly to your inbox, where they can’t reach, and your voice becomes one more the billionaires can’t silence. You’re also keeping this publication free for the people who can’t afford a subscription. Become a paying member today.
Stephen Miller’s Childhood Friend Says He “Created a Monster”
Stephen Miller got booed offstage in high school and has been taking it out on the country ever since.
Stephen Miller was once a self-described liberal at Santa Monica High School before a classmate named Chris convinced him to abandon his politics, according to a Townhall column by conservative radio host Larry Elder. Chris, now a lawyer, told Elder that he “created a monster.”
Elder wrote that Miller was once a self-described liberal, like virtually everyone in Santa Monica, before Chris pushed him around. Miller’s parents told Elder they were also liberals before their son convinced them they were not, and Miller’s father credited Elder as his son’s “mentor.”
When Miller was a teenager, he phoned into Elder’s radio show to complain that his high school did not make students recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He appeared on Elder’s show 69 times, and ran for student body president on a conservative platform before being booed offstage during his campaign speech.
The change has reportedly shattered Miller’s family. His first cousin Alisa Kasmer wrote on Threads that the extended family on both sides cut ties with his parents and siblings years ago and said she is “hoping I get VIP family seating at the new Nuremberg trials.”
Republican Calls for Military to Remove Ilhan Omar from Congress
You would think a twelve-year member of Congress would have read the Constitution by now.
Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, the second-highest-ranking member of the House GOP, called for the U.S. military to remove Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from Congress during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. Johnson asked whether the military or Capitol Police should be responsible for the removal, to which Emmer responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!”
In the same interview, Emmer called Omar “completely anti-American” and asserted without proof that she had lied about her birthdate. He also made baseless claims about fraud and agreed with Johnson’s description of Somali Americans as a “scar” on Minnesota.
Emmer’s comments are a complete reversal of his previous positions. In 2015, he co-founded the Somali American Caucus with Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, now Minnesota’s attorney general. At a 2016 town hall, Emmer said Somalis are among the “fastest-assimilating populations” the country has.
The Trump administration has been targeting Omar for months, sending federal agents to raid her Washington, D.C. home in October as part of an investigation into immigration paperwork filled out by her late father when she was a child. Omar has described the probe as an attempt to weaponize federal law enforcement against political opponents.
ICE Deported a Record 483,000 People in the Past Year
The president would like to apologize to everyone he intends to keep deporting.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported about 51 percent more people in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 than the previous year, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security. The agency also reported a record of more than 491,000 immigration arrests, including nearly 475,000 arrests of people with no criminal history.
Since taking office in January 2025, ICE has deported about 726,000 people and arrested about 687,000. Even with the record numbers, the administration fell short of its own target of deporting 1 million people a year.
The numbers came days after Trump admitted on CBS News’ 60 Minutes that his hard line deportation campaign may have cost Republicans votes in last week’s midterm elections. Trump told the program his administration had been “too tough” in removing immigrants who otherwise stayed out of trouble and were working.
Despite Trump’s concession, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin indicated the administration has no plans to change course. Mullin said after the election: “Deportations will continue.”
Democrat Cindy Holscher Wins Kansas Governor’s Race
If Trump’s endorsements were a product, someone would have issued a recall by now.
Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher has narrowly defeated Republican state Senate President Ty Masterson, who was endorsed by Trump, to succeed two-term Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. Holscher’s win came despite a near 3-to-1 Republican edge in ad spending in the general election.
Holscher aggressively tied Masterson to Trump throughout her campaign, but also promised to work with the administration when it was in Kansas’ interest. She told local news station KMBC that Masterson would never stand up to bad policies “like tariffs that are hurting our farmers or the importing of beef that are hurting our ranchers.”
Holscher also made opposition to new data center construction a central issue in her campaign. She called for a statewide moratorium on data center construction, while Masterson defended a 2025 law he voted for that exempted sales taxes on data center investments. A pro-data center super PAC, Building the Future, jumped into the race last month to support Masterson.
Masterson’s loss is the latest in a string of defeats for Trump-endorsed candidates in last week’s elections. Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall also lost his re-election bid to Democrat Adam Hamilton, giving Democrats the state’s two most high-profile seats.
Support the Fight Against MAGA-Controlled Media
Last week happened because millions of people refused to be told what to think by billionaires trying to buy an election. Independent media played a role in that. We told you about the Epstein coverup, the deportation abuses, and the corruption that the mainstream media tried to bury.
If you’re already a paying subscriber, this is what you helped build. If you’re not, it costs about 22 cents a day, and today it feels like a bargain. Please subscribe or upgrade now.
Thank you again for reading and for supporting independent media. And if you haven’t yet, click the ❤️ and restack this post so we can reach more feeds.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Democrats Put 60 Companies and Agencies on Notice for Investigations. Congressional Democrats have sent document preservation letters to more than 60 companies, individuals and agencies who could be the subject of investigations into the Trump administration’s policies. The letters came from leading Democrats on the House Science Committee and the House Committee on Natural Resources, who will gain subpoena power in January after last week’s sweeping election wins. Targets include a rare earths deal that Democrats say looks like corruption, an Energy Department report intended to undermine climate science, and the attempted dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Gen X Will Outnumber Baby Boomers in Congress for the First Time This Century. For the first time this century, the Congress that convenes in January will have more members of Generation X than baby boomers, ending an era of dominance that has lasted since the late 1990s. The shift is led by the House, where Gen X already surpassed boomers in the current term, while the Senate still has a boomer plurality in both parties. The generational divide between the parties is also growing, with Democrats poised to have far more millennial members than Republicans in the next Congress. Connecticut’s delegation mirrors the overall trend, shifting from a split to mostly Gen X with Rep.-elect Luke Bronin’s win last week.
Colorado Forced to Refund $1.1 Million in Speeding Tickets Over Camera Error. The state of Colorado is refunding more than $1 million in speeding tickets after officials didn’t update the legal description of a construction zone as it moved down a three-mile stretch of Interstate 25 outside Pueblo. Some 27,000 tickets were impacted because the locations of the mobile speed cameras did not correspond to the paperwork on file, even if the drivers were actually speeding past posted speed limit signs. Those who have already paid will be refunded by mail, and those who have not paid can throw away their violation notices. State officials say the cameras will be back once the paperwork is corrected.
Appalachian Bear Rescue Returns Six Rehabilitated Cubs to the Wild. The nonprofit Appalachian Bear Rescue is back with some black bear cubs for the first time in roughly a year and a half of inactivity. On Nov. 3, the organization released six black bear cubs into the forests of East Tennessee. Veterinarians at the University of Tennessee examined the cubs before their release and gave them all excellent health marks. One cub, Hemlock, came in at just 7.75 pounds and was released at 59 pounds, while another cub, Poplar, was found unconscious near a roadway with signs of a concussion, and fully recovered. Each cub was fitted with a solar-powered GPS ear tag weighing about one ounce, and wildlife agencies will monitor their locations for up to three years.
