Dem
47
GOP
53
Let's run down some recent political news:
Bye for Now, Bye Forever: The Board of the Kennedy Center officially voted to shutter the venue for 2 years for "renovations." It will close after some Independence Day events, and will theoretically reopen in July of 2028. Given the follow-through that is characteristic of this administration (see East Wing, White House), not to mention the embarrassment of approximately 100% of potential Christmas performers saying "No, thanks!", there's an above average chance the venue does not re-open during Trump's presidency.
Meanwhile, shortly before the vote, Trump cashiered now-former CEO and Executive Director Ric Grenell, as Grenell did not satisfactorily manage the negative PR caused by all of Trump's monkeying around with the venue.
Our Take: It is remarkable how quickly Trump managed to run the Kennedy Center into the ground, even by his rather lofty standards of rapid failure. Meanwhile, the primary PR problem was that Trump allowed his name to be added to the venue. That was something that even Edward Bernays could not have smoothed over.
So That's What Did It: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who got the ignominious distinction of being the first member of the House to be successfully primaried this cycle, has figured out what went wrong. He says that, these days, there are many Republican voters willing to believe false information about a candidate.
Our Take: You don't say? That's obviously the sort of keen insight that only a member of Congress can offer.
Public Housing: And here you thought that government-funded housing was only for poor people. Not in the Age of Trump it's not. "Attorney General" Pam Bondi has become the latest member of the Cabinet to move into housing provided by the U.S. government, joining Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and, until recently, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in doing so. The stated reason for all of these moves is "security concerns."
Our Take: We see two possibilities here. The first is that this is a grift, and that "security concerns" are just a way to allow high-ranking members of the Cabinet to fatten themselves a bit more at the teat of Uncle Sam. The second is that there really are "security concerns." If so, then it raises the question: "What is this administration doing differently from every other administration, since no other president has had to move a bunch of Cabinet officials into secure housing?"
What Took So Long?: This week, we saw the first instances of a story that you ALWAYS see coming from the minority party in the midterm year. To wit: "Some members are not so sure they are willing to keep Minority Leader [X] after the elections." Naturally, the calls for change come from the fringes of the party—so, progressives for the Democrats, Freedom Caucusers for the Republicans.
Our Take: We will believe it when we see it. As far as we can tell, Jeffries has played his hand fairly well. And besides, you can't really know until a person becomes Speaker and has real power. In any event, it's very difficult to get rid of a party leader who does not go willingly, in the same way that it's difficult to get rid of a president who does not go willingly. And that is for the same reason: Anyone who turns apostate risks getting burned if the rebellion fails. Hard to find the necessary number of people willing to take that risk.
Maybe AI Reporting Is NOT the Wave of the Future: The Washington Post, which was already in financial trouble before it laid a bunch of people off, lost 60,000 more subscribers immediately thereafter. It turns out that if you want people to pay for a product, you have to offer them, you know, a product. Now, Jeff Bezos himself is trying to get some of the laid-off staffers to come back to work for the paper.
Our Take: Many of our readers are Star Trek fans, and are aware that when NBC dropped the original series, network executives neglected to talk to ad sales department. If they had, they would have learned that while the ratings were not great, the demographic that the show was delivering (young people, especially young men) was golden, and had no real parallel among other TV shows of that era. So, Trek was actually wildly profitable. Similarly, killing the Post's sports section was a stupid choice, because those folks not only sell newspapers, they also sell advertising. Do you really think Budweiser or Ford or Hanes wants to advertise in the Arts section? All of this said, if we were former Post reporters, we'd only return if there was no better option available. You just can't trust Bezos or the other leadership at the paper. For a really smart guy, Bezos is kind of stupid. His best course now is simply sell the paper to some other company in the newspaper business, for example, Gannett or McClatchy.
John Roberts Disrobed: NBC has been polling Americans' confidence in the Supreme Court for close to 30 years. And in their latest, SCOTUS drew the worst numbers it's gotten in that time. Only 22% of respondents have "great confidence" in the Court, 40% have "some confidence" and 38% have "little or no confidence."
Our Take: Since SCOTUS has no enforcement powers of its own, it is reliant on public confidence in its rulings much more than the other two branches. After all, if people and institutions think a ruling is B.S., they will ignore it, or at least try to subvert it. Responsibility for this low point for the court falls on many people—Clarence Thomas and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) certainly leap to mind. But it falls most heavily upon Chief Justice John Roberts.
True, it may be true that there are some things the Chief Justice could not have controlled, like the shenanigans surrounding Brett Kavanaugh. But Roberts had a milquetoast response to Thomas' blatant acceptance of bribes and to the leaking of the Dobbs opinion, both of which hit the Court's reputation hard. He's also been in the majority in some very problematic decisions, such as the ones chopping away at the Voting Rights Act, and the one granting Donald Trump king-like status. And the Chief has stood by while the shadow docket was abused beyond all reason. These things were all within his power, and he dropped the ball. He will justly go down as one of the two worst chief justices in American history (it's between him and Roger Taney and, these days, we give the edge to Roberts).
That's the news. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. (Z)