Alex Henderson, AlterNet

After more than a month, the partial shutdown of the United States' federal government drags on. President Donald Trump is calling for Senate Republicans to "get rid of the filibuster" in order to get a spending bill passed and end the shutdown, but many conservatives are uncomfortable with that idea.

Frustrated Americans were hoping that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) had found enough votes to get a bill passed in the Senate. But Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio, in a November 5 post on X, formerly Twitter, reported, "Thune on the filibuster post-Trump breakfast: 'I know where the votes are. The answer is, there aren't the votes.'"

Reporting from CBS News' Caitlin Huey-Burns is consistent with Desiderio's....

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump — a case that challenges President Donald Trump's right to unilaterally impose steep new tariffs using the Emergency Powers Act of 1977.

The plaintiff in the case argues that Trump, without Congress's input, is imposing a policy that is harmful to his business. Trump, however, argues that his tariffs are vital to the country's economic well-being.

Trump, Axios' Courtenay Brown reported Tuesday that the tariffs are a "life or death" matter for the United States....

On Wednesday, November 5 — the day after the United States' 2025 off-year elections — the U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, a case involving President Donald Trump's ability to unilaterally impose tariffs via executive order under the Emergency Powers Act of 1977.

Many Democrats are hoping that the High Court will rule against Trump in the case, but opposition is coming from the right as well — including a group called the Liberty Justice Institute.

According to Washington Post reporter Kat Zakrzewski, the Institute is generously funding the anti-tariffs argument from the right....

On Halloween Night 2025, President Donald Trump held a Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-Lago, complete with 1920s dresses, headbands, dancers and Prohibition-era nostalgia.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel "The Great Gatsby," published 100 years ago in 1925, captured the hedonism of The Jazz Age and, in 1974, was adapted into a movie starring Robert Redford as Long Island millionaire Jay Gatsby and Mia Farrow as his ex-lover Daisy Buchanan. But while Fitzgerald's novel and the Redford film took a critical look at the excesses of the 1920s, Trump's Halloween bash is being attacked as "tone-deaf" for celebrating them at a time when millions of Americans are losing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Liberal economist Paul Krugman, in a November 4 column for his Substack page, strongly disagrees with Trump's Gatsby party being called "tone-deaf" — as he believes that the president and his MAGA allies flaunt their indifference to the suffering of others....

Although House Democrats did a lot to save Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was trying to oust him from that position in 2024, he isn't shy about demonizing the party. Johnson is claiming that Democratic lawmakers fighting to fund Obamacare subsidies are trying to give health insurance to undocumented immigrants — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked.

The speaker also described No Kings Day protesters as a "hate America" combination of communists and Hamas supporters though, in reality, the protesters included everything from middle-of-the-road Democrats to liberals and progressives to right-wing Never Trump conservatives.

But in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark Monday, journalist Will Saletan stresses that when it comes to being mean-spirited, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) is much worse than Johnson....