Dem
47
GOP
53
We haven't had one of these for something like 3 weeks. We simply have to catch up.
Who's the Communist?, Part I: The Trump administration has made it a policy to acquire equity stakes in many different corporations. After all, Trump was elected to be CEO of USA, Inc. Late last week, just in time for the slow part of the news cycle, the Department of Commerce announced that it was taking stakes in seven more companies, all of them in the business of manufacturing semiconductors.
Our Take: Government ownership of the means of production (at least, until the government is abolished) is the core tenet of The Communist Manifesto. Despite what Republican candidates would have you believe this campaign season (and every campaign season since about 1948), the most Marxist politicians in the country are not found in the Democratic Party.
Who's the Communist?, Part II: Meanwhile, alleged communist Zohran Mamdani (D-New York City) is getting rave reviews for cutting red tape and making it easier to do business in the Big Apple.
Our Take: So, Republicans are trying to take over the means of production and Democrats are cutting regulations and promoting capitalism. Also, up is down, black is white, cats and dogs have become best friends and the clocks are striking thirteen.
Running Scared, Part I: In the race for Texas' U.S. Senate seat, Democrat James Talarico has agreed to participate in three debates, while Republican Ken Paxton has refused to even commit to one.
Our Take: It's no secret that Talarico is an excellent public speaker and Paxton is a terrible one. Plus, it's not easy to figure out a debate schedule when you have to work around the trips you're taking to London with your mistress.
Running Scared, Part II: Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), running for his state's U.S. Senate seat, has a black sheep in the family. Well, more like a white sheep. Actually, more like a white supremacist sheep. It's his son-in-law, who has promoted both white supremacist and antisemitic content online. Collins doesn't particularly want to alienate racist voters, but he also doesn't want to hug his son-in-law close, so he's refusing to answer questions about the situation.
Our Take: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has raised $98 million so far, Collins has raised less than $8 million. Polls have Ossoff with an average of 50% support, Collins with 42.5%. Hard to imagine why.
Don Trump: Capital One shut down accounts owned by Donald Trump, his sons, and his businesses. The Trumps claimed it was for political reasons (which, it should be noted, is a legal basis for refusing to do business with someone). In court yesterday, attorneys for the bank explained that the accounts were actually closed because there were too many red flags for money laundering.
Our Take: Is anyone surprised? What are the odds that, one day, we learn that the Trumps' main source of income from, say, 1995-2015, wasn't licensing the family name, it was money laundering? 20%? 30%? 50%?
No Arc Support: The National Park Service, which is apparently one of the few portions of the federal bureaucracy that has not been compromised, just released a list of 40 sites in Washington that will be negatively impacted, in one way or another, by the Arc de Trump.
Our Take: Trump does not care one bit about any of this, and if he can get the Arc built, he will get it built. However, it does make it much easier for the next Democratic administration to tear the thing down.
Speaking of Monuments: John F. Kennedy actually earned his monument, namely the Kennedy Center. Trump tried to horn in on JFK's territory, which is certainly more efficient than building your own monument. The problem is that neither the Kennedy family nor the courts were impressed. Trump's name did come down, but the tarps hiding the restored facade are still up, well over a month later. A judge has demanded answers as to why the tarps are still there.
Our Take: Because Trump has a paper-thin ego, Judge. Any other questions?
Speaking of Johns: Sen. John Fetterman (D?-PA) got some ugly polling news this week. According to PennLive/Bravo Group, when Pennsylvania voters are given the choice between Fetterman and "someone else," the Senator lost to "someone else" by 18 points, 58% to 40%.
Our Take: That's not quite as bad as it seems, as a lot of that 58% is people who never voted for Fetterman in the first place. Still, he's a very unpopular fellow. He hasn't said much about running for reelection, but if that's his plan, he might want to think again. It is virtually certain he will face a primary, probably by former Rep. Conor Lamb and others.
Bad Analogies: A couple of weeks ago, we wrote that USA Today columnist Nancy Armour had locked up the "Worst Analogy of the Year" award with her comparison of Caitlin Clark to the people who killed Emmett Till. Numerous readers wrote in and said that Armour probably does deserve that award, but that when they first read the header, they thought we were referring to this story, about how Republicans are pushing for Voter ID laws by noting that if you have an all-you-can-eat pasta pass at Olive Garden, you have to show ID to get your food. If you have to show ID for pasta, GOP politicians are observing, you should have to show ID to vote.
Our Take: That is also a very poor analogy. First of all, voting is a constitutional right, all-you-can-eat pasta is not. Second, there is no evidence of widespread voting fraud, while Olive Garden implemented the ID policy after many people were caught sharing their all-you-can-eat pasta cards with their friends.
Old Man Shakes Fist at Cloud: Former senator Joe Manchin, who is 78, has launched something called the Independent Leadership Council to support independent candidates for political office.
Our Take: Manchin has a very particular idea, formed over 60 years ago, of how politics should be, and he keeps trying to force the system to bend to his vision. Independents rarely win elections and, when they do, they're just "independents" who are either Democrats in all but name (see Sanders, Bernie) or, more rarely, Republicans in all but name. Manchin has been around long enough to know this, so either he's in denial, or he's just hungry for attention now that he's not a U.S. Senator anymore.
Phew. We cleared at least some of the backlog. (Z & A)