In a number of races in the midterm elections, an extraordinary thing is happening. Both Democrats and Republicans are backing candidates which are not from their own party. Republicans are endorsing Democrats. Democrats are endorsing Republicans or Independents who lean Republican. Each case, so far, is fairly individual. So this isn't yet a big trend or anything, but it is interesting nonetheless because it shows that in the right circumstances politicians still exist who are willing to put "country above party" -- in other words, supporting candidates they feel would be the best for America's future rather than blindly backing their own party's candidate.

There is a theme that runs through all these races, though. It might be called "protecting democracy," since in each of them there is at least one strong candidate who in one way or another has contributed to or since supported the undermining of our democratic system or our election systems. Or, to put it a different way, unquestioning followers of Donald Trump's Big Lie.

Some of these races have gotten more media attention than others. There are a lot of other stories vying for media attention in this midterm cycle, after all. But I thought it was worth taking a quick look at three of the most notable cases today.

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Next week, millions of students and former students are on track to have $10,000 to $20,000 of their student debt wiped off the books. Republicans are incensed and are desperately fighting to halt this debt forgiveness before it can happen. It is a perfect example of the ideological divide between the two parties -- one of whom is trying to help millions of people while the other fights against it tooth and nail.

This is a real success story for President Joe Biden, and it's going to happen right before the midterm elections, so hopefully it will motivate some young voters to get to the polls. Biden delayed announcing student loan forgiveness (which he had promised to do while campaigning) for over a year, but now the timing seems to be working rather well for him politically, we have to admit.

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I write this knowing this advice will come too late for many. We are currently in the midst of "debate season" where candidates for office face each other across a stage and trade political blows. Many such debates have already happened, which is what prompted me to write.

In these debates, Republicans have adopted a: "No I'm not, you are!" playground response on the issue of abortion. Republicans, obviously, are the ones trying to strip rights and freedoms away from women. This is, again pretty obviously, extreme. The only question Republicans really face about their abortion position is: "How much of an extremist are you?" Which Draconian laws do they support? Which exceptions would they allow to these Draconian laws?

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Republicans have always had a good chance of winning at least one house of Congress in the upcoming midterms. As things stand, it looks a lot more likely that they'll take control of the House, but they could also win the Senate. So what would they do if they did win control of either one or both houses? Probably not a whole lot, in terms of substantive legislative goals, since Joe Biden will still be sitting in the White House (with a veto pen at the ready). But Republicans aren't really campaigning on substantive legislative issues much anymore, because they have followed the lead of their base and are much more interested in style over substance. What we can definitely expect from a Republican Congress is spleen-venting, and lots of it.

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The left had the Mueller investigation. In response, in 2019 Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr launched a counter-investigation, led by Special Counsel John Durham, which was theoretically supposed to prove that the F.B.I. (and the entire "Deep State" working within the federal government to bring Trump down) had committed heinous crimes that were entirely political in nature. This was, according to Trump, all going to expose "the crime of the century." In August, Trump was still hopeful, sending out the message on social media: "The public is waiting 'with bated breath' for the Durham Report, which should reveal corruption at a level never seen before in our country." Here's a spoiler alert for Trump: It won't.

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OK, I can't resist, so let's start off with: "Hear ye, hear ye! President Joe Biden has successfully gotten rid of an outdated and unnecessary rule, which will save millions of people thousands of dollars each." How's that for some good news to start the week? From now on, anyone will be able to walk into a drug store and buy a hearing aid over the counter. No doctor's appointment or prescription will be required.

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Maybe he'll actually take the bait, who knows?

Maybe Donald Trump's planet-sized ego and rampant unbridled narcissism will convince him that there just is no possible downside to testifying in front of the January 6th House Select Committee. This isn't just idle speculation, as hours after yesterday's hearing New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman posted the following (which has since been similarly reported in multiple media outlets):

Since it became public that the House select committee planned to subpoena Trump for his testimony, the former president has been telling aides he favors doing so, so long as he gets to do so live, according to a person familiar with his discussions. However, it is unclear whether the committee would accept such a demand.

Sounds like a plan. Put him on live television. He'd love it. He'd get great ratings (which is truly all he cares about when appearing on television), since tens of millions would watch. All his MAGA followers would watch to cheer for Trump, and the rest of the country wouldn't be able to resist watching, just to see the fireworks. The nation's strategic popcorn reserves would run dangerously low, that's our guess.

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The House Select Committee investigating January 6th presented the ninth in their series of televised hearings today, although (as we were informed at the start by Chair Bennie Thompson) this was not technically a hearing, but rather a business meeting for the committee. The reason for this change became evident at the end, when the committee voted publicly and unanimously to subpoena the testimony of Donald John Trump.

That was certainly a blockbuster or a bombshell (take your pick of explosive metaphors), and it is to the committee's credit that they kept it under wraps until today.

Today's hearing was billed as the culmination of the committee's entire presentation to the public. As always, they have left the door open to hold future public hearings, but the expectation is that this will be the final one. At the very least, there are no more hearings scheduled before the midterm elections -- which will determine the future of the committee itself. If the Republicans manage to take back control of the House, then one of their first orders of business is going to be to disband the committee.

Knowing this, the committee is preparing a final report, which will likely be issued somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Their initial intent was to provide some sort of draft report before the election happened, but that is now not going to happen.

So today was it, really, barring any unforeseen evidence suddenly coming to light.

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The moral divide between the two major American political parties has become pretty stark. On the one hand, you have a party which stands for respect, inclusiveness, diversity, and multiculturalism; and on the other you have a party which no longer even feels the necessity to cloak its racist language in "dog whistles" anymore. Dog whistles are so passé, at least over on the Republican side of the aisle today. All manner of bigotry (including racism) is now not something for the GOP to condemn or punish or even be ashamed about, instead it is to be either enabled (by saying nothing) or actually celebrated in front of throngs of cheering crowds.

Of course, like most of the breakdown in civilized and upright behavior over on the right, this can mostly be laid at Donald Trump's feet. Not the racism or bigotry itself, mind you (which has certainly been around a lot longer than Trump has been on the political stage), but the embrace and naked admission of it all in public -- which might be called Trump's signature move.

Two incidents over the past week have put this on display in rather obvious fashion. A Los Angeles city politician was caught on tape saying some reprehensible and racist things. And a sitting U.S. senator bellowed some reprehensible and racist things at a political rally. One was a Democrat, one a Republican.

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That title is, of course, a play on words. Just like every other kid who grew up in the Space Age, I have always found space to be rather cool. Watching astronauts walk on the moon is one of my earliest memories, in fact. But if that's truly what I was imparting here -- just an enthusiasm for mankind's forays into the void -- it would have been exclamatory: "Space Rocks!" Instead, it has a more literal meaning, without any verb implied. Because space isn't exactly "full" of rocks wheeling around out there, but there are enough of them that one of them could threaten Earth at some future point. If the space rock was big enough, it could even cause an "extinction-level event," much like the impact which wiped out the dinosaurs. There's even a whole movie genre devoted to the problem: from the 1950s When Worlds Collide to the more-modern Deep Impact and Armageddon to the more recent (and much more cynical) Don't Look Up.

An impact from an asteroid or comet is rather unique in the realm of natural disasters, because unlike earthquakes or hurricanes or tornados, if the circumstances were right it might be possible to prevent the disaster. And today NASA announced that their first-ever attempt to test a system for doing so was (you'll excuse the pun) a smashing success.

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