Category Archives: Uncategorized

WILL THIS BE THE SEASON OF MONSTROUS TOYS?

As more and more primaries are completed, some nominees are being unveiled, such as Graham Platner (D-ME) and Ken Paxton (R-TX), that aren’t quite clearing the ethical bar we supposedly set for politicians. Should we expect more?

Or should I remind my reader of former Rep Gaetz (R-FL), who was up before the House’s Ethics Committee before he resigned? Former Rep and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) who resigned after charges of misconduct? Former Rep Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who joined DeRemer in the ranks of those who committed misconduct, but in the division of sex? Rep Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), who resigned only after repeated accusations of fornication with an aide who later committed suicide, with strong evidence for the fornication?

President Donald J. Trump (R)?

The nation is not under an obvious and imminent threat of extinction, and thus running out the ethically challenged has not been pursued with enthusiasm, prior to being elected, by the Party; indeed, President Trump makes it a practice to pardon both the convicted and the indicted, thus indebting them to himself. That, and the gathering of centralized power to the Executive, is attracting the mistake-prone and sordid-minded to positions of power; and, as these folks are practiced at convincing their victims to give them money, honor, and virtue, they are often competent at collecting the votes necessary to elevate them as well. More importantly, the Republicans long ago dispensed with the gatekeeper function of the Party, and now it seems it’s the Democrats’ turn.

And while I hesitate to splash the innocent with shit, it’s often hard to say who’s what until the judge’s gavel hits the desk. For example, consider this from the Platner debacle in Maine:

Or as a Maine political operative notes,

One operative who works in Maine noted “the irony of people who have made their political careers decrying a rigged political system now trying to rig the political system for Troy Jackson.” The operative said it wasn’t doing Jackson any favors, either, calling it “horrible optics” to have a candidate tied to someone who had to step aside.

Yes, we’ll see more, much more of this. It’ll be a benefit of voters keep track of the unacceptable, don’t vote for them, and spread the word.

HE’S A MONSTROUS ANCHOR, STILL

Yes, President Trump continues to be a massive drag on Republicans in most States, as flying his flag of incompetency holds little appeal for independent voters, and on certain subjects even Republicans are edging away, and sometimes they even reveal anger at him. For example,

… Rep. Carlos Giménez (R[-FL]) on Sunday said efforts to deport Haitians after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s decision to rescind temporary protected status (TPS) would be a “mistake.”

“In the case of Haiti, without a doubt, Haiti is a failed state, and I think that deporting Haitians that are under TPS right now back to Haiti would be a huge mistake,” Giménez said during a Sunday appearance on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

“I mean, that’s the reason why TPS was established to begin with, just like with Venezuelans. If Venezuelans lose their TPS status — which they have, too — we should reinstate that because of the devastation caused by these earthquakes that happened last week,” he added, noting the U.S. should act as a safeguard to those in need. [The Hill]

Rep Giménez almost sounds like a Democrat, doesn’t he? The drive to expel immigrants, no doubt spearheaded by the self-important and obsessed senior aide Stephen Miller, is an example of the White House’s deafness when it comes to a sane foreign policy – and acquiring necessary votes and building valuable soft power. The President should provide the central decision-making to balance competing interests, and he’s a complete failure. He may not even realize it, being a mere businessman and not a canny political leader.

Another example is the recent spew of President Trump regarding the old topic of Greenland at the World Economic Forum:

US President Donald Trump has said he is seeking “immediate negotiations” to acquire Greenland for national security reasons – and insisted he “won’t use force”.

His repeated demands to take control of the territory have been rejected by Greenland’s leaders, and by Nato member Denmark, of which the island is a semi-autonomous territory.

This has led to a wider diplomatic row, with Trump initially threatening additional trade tariffs against a number of European allies for opposing his plans. [BBC]

And then there’s the recent breakdown of the Trump’s War ceasefire, as reported by CNN:

• Fresh strikes rock Mideast: US forces struck several more locations in coastal Iran today, according to Iranian state media, while Tehran said it fired missiles at a US base in Jordan. The US military has not confirmed the latest exchange.

• Diplomatic scramble: Sources say mediators are working to get Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table as the renewed fighting further erodes a fragile ceasefire agreement. The last two days have seen waves of US strikes and Iranian attacks on other US military bases in the region.

Whether Trump’s negotiators provoked this through incompetency, or if the Iranians are playing the President as being soft-headed, this isn’t going to play well to independent voters, even those who want to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s obvious even to the most bone-headed: he promised to keep the country out of war, and instead he started a war and can’t finish it, while continually boasting and lying about it. Prices of many things, from oil to fertilizer, leap towards the sky, and some may never come down again.

EXCUSE ME, BUT YOUR BATHROOM IS MAKING BEEPING NOISES

Don’t forget, when your food is literally trying to kill you, it was Trump’s minions who ran off with the FDA and won’t return it. You can be all mad about regulations, but when you’re squatting front of that occupied bathroom trying to avoid public humiliation, indulging in anti-regulation screeds is more than a little hollow.

IMPEACHMENT IS NOT SO GOOD

Because that’ll just put J. D. Vance in charge, and his inclination to repeat the praise of Trump like a mimic does not fill me with confidence.

FLAUNT IT IF YOU’VE GOT IT!

But if you’ve only caught it, keep it to yourself.

• I’d hate to be a Texas voter this season, because the Senate candidates from both major Parties seem repugnant. James Talarico (D), as noted here, keeps saying weird shit, but state AG Ken Paxton (R) may be taking the prize for sheer tenacity:
  

  MAGA firebrand Ken Paxton spent Fourth of July weekend with his new lover in Europe—far from Texas, where he is running for Senate.

  Paxton, 63, was spotted sightseeing alongside his mistress, Christian influencer Tracy Duhon, 58, according to footage obtained by the Daily Mail. The pair was recorded “galivanting” in dressy attire near the Westminster Bridge and the London Eye. [Daily Beast]

  So much for making up with the estranged wife. But opponent Talarico seems to have fumbled the response:

  Paxton’s opponent, Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, criticized Paxton for going on a holiday in Britain while America was celebrating its independence.

  “Americans celebrated 250 years of independence from Britain this weekend,” Talarico’s campaign wrote in a statement. “Ken Paxton spent it with the British.”

  Predictable. Standard. I would have said “I was thrilled to spend Independence Day in the United States,” and then let the crickets fill in the blanks.

  It’s true that Texans do have a collection of independents, as well as the Libertarian candidate, to select from for the to-be-open Senate seat, but so far I haven’t heard of any of them leaping out to a lead. Too bad. Both parties need a fright to remind them they’re not going to remain a big fish in a small pond if they don’t put up respectable leaders for the Senate. Not that these two are doomed, but that’s how to bet – on both of them.

  In other unfortunate state AG Paxton news, he who enforces the law may have been caught breaking the election laws, according to The Texas Tribune, leading to this chuckle-inducing quote:

  Campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy did not answer the questions from the news organizations. Instead, she issued a statement saying that the attorney general has been “a national leader on election integrity, with a long record of defending Texas elections.” Cercy said that “attempting to insinuate otherwise and tear him down with a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story is not real reporting.”

  How very Karoline Leavitt of her. For those readers who’d like a list of Paxton’s scandals, here’s Steve Benen with a list that’s only slightly out of date.

• In Maine, the eye of the storm is on Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner (D-ME), accused of, and denying, rape. While he may still repudiate the nomination by the end of today [he did – Hue], fulfilling my prediction at the above link, reportedly he and his team are hanging on in hopes of influencing the selection of his replacement:
  

  Graham Platner and a small team of strategists behind his candidacy are trying to navigate an exit from the consequential Senate race in Maine without entirely squandering the movement he built, people familiar with the matter said, rather than digging in or trying to find a path forward for his candidacy.

  “We’ve said from the very beginning that this campaign was never about Graham but about a movement of working people united to take back power,” Ben Chin, the campaign manager for Platner, said in a message to supporters on Wednesday. [CNN]

  It seems the establishment Democrats are less than charmed, perhaps because they lost to someone who has, himself, thrown away an opportunity:

  “While we may be frustrated with Graham Platner’s continued efforts to manipulate this process, we are so thankful for his supporters and all of their efforts to defeat Susan Collins — they are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner’s replacement,” [executive director of Maine’s Democratic Party Devon Murphy-Anderson] wrote on social media.

  The real trick here is that the Democrats cannot withdraw the nomination; Platner must repudiate it himself. Worse yet, he must do it by 13 July, and then the Party would have until 27 July to submit a new nominee.

  So far, it sounds like turmoil to me. WaPo’s Carine Hajjar shakes her fist, demanding the gatekeepers stop letting the unacceptable into the Democratic Party:

  Yet in shedding their old polish, Democrats along the way also dropped all sense of standards, too. Candidates rarely tick all the boxes on ideology and image, and a few shallow scratches would have revealed deep flaws in Platner’s candidacy. Put aside the long list of personal scandals. The “oysterman” — which, by the way, isn’t a term actual oyster farmers use — turned out not to be the working-class kid he portrayed onstage. The facade started to crack somewhere between revelations about his private schooling, his dad helping out with his mortgage and his mom’s restaurant being his biggest client.

  In incumbent Senator Collins (R) Maine has an experienced politico, but one so old she may have a failing intellect and/or health, or is falling out of sync with today’s America. It’s a pity the Democrats couldn’t field someone with distinction, and was reduced to finding a “fighter,” who may actually be little more than a poseur, if one with a Marine background.

  [Later] And Graham Platner has, indeed, dropped out of the Maine Senate race, late on 8 July. Reflecting what seems to be demographic strains within the Democratic Party,

  Even as he withdrew from the race, Platner remained insistent that the accusations against him, as well as other controversies dating back to October, were false and part of a larger campaign “by the establishment to put structural pressure on us.”

  “We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed,” Platner said.

  Without commenting on whether the incidents he insists are fiction are so, I do have to say that ‘normal’ people aren’t always the best choice for US Congress; I’d be more comfortable with distinguished or extraordinary people. I haven’t studied what Mr Platner had to say, or how it was interpreted; then again, I don’t take the right seriously when they call him a Nazi, based on a disowned tattoo, or a communist.

  But I do ask how Platner prepared for the job. Not for the campaign, but for the job. Does he have a relevant degree in government, or relevant work experience? Or even just some insightful commentary? Being a member of Congress is a huge job these days, and rightfully so. His talk of structural pressure raises a red flag for me: it’s a call to victimhood. So far in this century, those who invoke victimhood appear to just  be out for power, and have often been found to be inventing some aspect of the victimhood, from membership to its very experience, to justify bizarre claims or recommendations.

  Platner’s background as a Marine and oyster farmer endeared him to many Mainers, I think, as it suggests that they remain in control of their futures. But by fixating on that and his “fighter” personality, and not expressing doubt concerning his potential performance in that role, they became vulnerable to anyone with charisma. I was concerned about lack of qualifications, but since I don’t live there, I figured I’d just watch. And now I’ve watched him go down in flames – but quite early. The Democrats still have time to rue their first choice and make a second choice.

• In Nebraska, the rumors that Democratic nominee for the Senate Cindy Burbank would repudiate her nomination and endorse Dan Osborn (I-NE) have yet to be fulfilled.

The Most Exciting Dachsund Races In Politics

Texas? Maine? Nebraska? Alaska? How about the dark horse, Mississippi?

Have a good weekend, folks.

Microbarom:

ADMIN NOTE

WordPress, the software powering this blog, is not entirely free of bugs. One of the Campaign Updates has the wrong date stamp, and I missed it, so now I have to reference Campaign Updates that don’t appear correct, yet are.

My apologies.

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO FOCUS THE PUBLIC LIKE THIS?

President Trump sure loves a circus, however he defines it, and this may be something that impressed him in his youth:

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Republicans will hold their first-ever national convention ahead of November’s midterm elections, an unusual event aimed at boosting turnout in races that will decide whether the party maintains control of Congress.

The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.

Although both major parties traditionally hold blockbuster conventions during presidential campaigns, Trump has long floated the idea of a similar gathering this year to focus voters’ attention on a sprawling collection of House and Senate races. [AP]

Ah, a political convention. Fanatical fans, er, delegates. Speeches, clapping, adoration, and the learned analysis afterwards. How can a man with pathological narcissism and probably dementia resist? It’ll be just like the conventions of his youth: drama, horse-trading, maybe a murder or two…

However, reminding voters of the President and Party that have brought economic ruin, artificial intelligence, data centers, and war down on their heads doesn’t strike me as a wise approach to the midterms. But he loves that sweet and delicious attention, no matter how much it costs Republicans.

So is this a convention that’ll cost Republicans a Senate seat or two, or will the Democrats’ shift to the left, with Mamdani’s New York City victory and progressive candidates who don’t realize that left extremism has no more appeal to the independents than right extremism, negate the potential pickup?

HOW ABOUT VOTING AT ALL?

Will the SAVE Act become law? Speaker Johnson (D-LA) claims so, but retiring Senator Tillis (R-NC) strongly disagrees:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says the SAVE America Act, President Trump’s No. 1 legislative priority, is “dead” on Capitol Hill because there is not enough time to change election laws before the midterms — even if Senate Republicans muster 60 votes for the legislation, which is unlikely.

“Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater,” Tillis told The News & Observer, repeating arguments he has made in Washington calling on GOP colleagues to move on to other priorities. [The Hill]

BACK ON THE RANCH

The barn full of old news is thataway.

• Fox News Polling is giving Georgia incumbent Senator Ossoff (D) a big lead of 56% – 43% to Trump endorsee and GOP nominee Rep Mike Collins (R). The Senator may have been considered vulnerable prior to the mid-term season, but so far the GOP pick is looking like a mistake. Then again, the other two major candidates, Rep Carter (R) and former football coach Derek Dooley (R), also struck me as unsuited to the position as well.
• 

  On The Issues: Rep Hinson (R-IA).

  Fox News Polling is giving Democratic nominee Iowa State Representative Josh Turek (D) a four point lead of 50% – 46% over GOP nominee and Trump-endorsed US Rep Ashley Hinson (R), just outside of the margin of error of ±3 points. This race should be interesting as Hinson is not as far-right as many of her fellows in other Senate races; perhaps that’s why she attracted Trump’s endorsement, although he’s mostly attracted to being right rather than being a leader.

• In Michigan State Senator McMorrow (D), last seen trailing badly in the Democratic primary in third place behind El-Sayed (D) and Rep Stevens (D), has dropped out. CNN’s reporting includes
  

  McMorrow’s exit ahead of the early August primary doesn’t just reflect her own struggles, but also an emphasis among many Democrats to stop El-Sayed, out of fear he would be a weaker general election candidate against former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican.

  McMorrow, in a video on X, touted her achievements as majority whip of the state Senate and urged her supporters to “elect Democrats up and down the ticket” in November, though she did not endorse either of her former opponents.

  “Whoever wins this primary on August 4 will have my full support,” she said.

  McMorrow had earlier rejected Senator Schumer (D) as Democratic leader in the Senate, so it’s not clear to me why CNN thinks McMorrow dropping out will benefit the establishment candidate, Rep Stevens. Rep Stevens did pick up the immediate endorsements of Michigan AG Dana Nessel and of EMILY’s List, an abortion rights group.

  But suggesting Michigan independent voters might go for former Rep Mike Rogers (R) over El-Sayed is a bit of stretch, too, as Rogers will be closely identified with President Trump, whose chronic mendacity is becoming more and more widely known and loathed. I’d be more concerned about a progressivism that may not appeal to Michigan voters, resulting in their absence from the polls.

• In Massachusetts Rep Moulton (D), Senator Markey’s (D) main rival in the upcoming primary, may have mis-stepped on the transgender issue, if Leon Sapir has the proper numbers. While the impact may appear small, when one trails in a race even the smallest mistake can be catastrophe.
• In Alaska, naked intimidation is the order of the day, according to NBC News:
  

  State and federal prosecutors in Alaska are investigating whether the campaign for a U.S. Senate candidate who has the same name as the Republican incumbent could be part of a conspiracy to confuse voters, two people with knowledge of the investigations told NBC News.

  Despite this …

  Just this week, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Dan J. Sullivan can stay on the state’s August primary ballot. The state’s elections division had initially disqualified the challenger from the ballot, with Elections Director Carol Beecher alleging that the challenger filed to run “with a purpose to confuse or mislead” voters.

  It looks to me like the second Dan Sullivan has been given the big O K. It is true that, in the cited article, he has a shit-eatin’ grin on his face, but please don’t convict on the count of his teeth.

• It’s chaos in Maine as the Democratic nominee for the seat currently held by Senator Collins, oyster farmer and Marine veteran Graham Platner (D), is now being accused of rape.
  

  A woman who said she previously dated Graham Platner, the 41-year-old ex-Marine and Democratic nominee in Maine for the U.S. Senate seat, alleged in interviews with The Washington Post that he sexually assaulted her in her home near the end of 2021.

  Jenny Racicot said Platner showed up at her home intoxicated after she sent him a text that she says he misinterpreted as an invitation to come over. She told The Post he entered her home through an unlocked door and then immediately climbed on top of her on her couch as she repeatedly told him no. She said he went on to have nonconsensual intercourse with her in her bedroom. [WaPo]

  The title of this TPM article says it all:

  Dam Breaks As Elected Dems Withdraw Support, Urge Platner to Drop Out of Maine Senate Race

  Are the allegations true, or is this a political hit job? And who’s the backer?

  Either way, there are three groups party to this nomination.

  1. The backers of Platner. I take this to be the younger segment of the Maine Democratic Party, who are generally more progressive; this also includes out of state endorsers, though, such as Senator Sanders (I-VT) and Senator Warren (D-MA). For the Maine Democrats, this may embitter them, but if they’re serious about being involved in politics, regardless of the flavor, this is a learning opportunity: Screen your candidates and keep the adoration in check. The former has been done successfully, intermittently, by both parties; adoration, as irrational and destructive as it can be, is a near-constant of politics, I’ve noted, even among members of my own extended family. But will the embittered Platner backers vote for a replacement candidate? Hard to say. And this event does suggest the Democrats nation-wide need to strengthen the gatekeeper functionality of the Party.
  2. The Democratic establishment, who backed Governor Mills (D). Did they decide to take back the process and dictate a nominee, or are they merely the folks who’ll have to clean this up through some sort of pre-election operation? Investigative journalists will be examining the public record of the accuser, and that may tell us if this sordid tale is sadly true, or if an angry Democratic establishment decided to remove him.
  3. The Republican Party. If the Platner backers are embittered, the Republicans must be bitterly frustrated. Here’s right wing pundit Erick Erickson’s assessment of the Maine Senate race from 29 May:
     

     Graham Platner, the Nazi turned Communist, in Maine, has hired a bunch of mercenaries not personally invested in him and a bunch of far-left progressives who see everything in terms of warfare. In Maine, most voters pride themselves on independence, and they will reject a Communist and his communist staff who believe you’re either a communist or the enemy.

     While trusting any pundit, including me, is a problematic conundrum, and Erickson has a certain reckless love of the hyperbolic adjective, Erickson’s core assessment is probably more accurate than Platner’s backers would like. Platner had far too many problems, and this will be, in my assessment, the straw that breaks the camel’s back, as well as the Republican Party’s hopes for an easy Maine Senate victory. Honestly, I’ve been watching Platner stumble from one gopher hole to the next badger hole, feeling his odds were getting worse and worse, and now the Republicans will watch in disbelief as he repudiates the nomination on 7 or 8 July; soon after, Governor Mills will be selected for the nomination, and if that’s not done in an offensive manner (see: Kamala Harris), we’ll see an old politico beating up old politico action, which will have a 50% chance of resulting in a Senator Mills. This, in the end, may actually be fortunate for the Democrats.

APPENDIX A.1.x.y.z

Perhaps Maine will move back to the Likely to Flip column, but that’s not entirely clear just yet.

I’ve been ignoring the World Cup, not being a soccer (football) fan, so I’ve only been peripherally aware that one of the stars of the USA team had been given a red card, which presumably disqualifies him from the next game, or maybe the tournament. I recall even seeing a CNN headline stating that the red card would not be withdrawn or cancelled.

But, to tell the truth, this is not a big surprise:

‘Unprecedented, incomprehensible, and unjustifiable’: Soccer world stunned by FIFA’s Balogun decision [CNN]

More detail here:

If you missed this news break yesterday, here is a quick breakdown to catch you up.

During the USA’s Round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, striker Folarin Balogun was sent off for an accidental foul on an opponent. He didn’t mean to do what he did, but his foot did rake down a defender’s leg which could have caused a serious injury.

Anyway, off he went and FIFA pointed to a rule in its laws that stated Balogun would miss the next game as he serves his mandatory one-match suspension. US Soccer said it couldn’t appeal the ban and started working up a plan on how to beat Belgium tonight without its main goalscorer.

Only yesterday, FIFA decided to suspend the one-match ban for a year, allowing Balogun to play the Round of 16 match and the rest of the tournament. As soon as the news broke, most people guessed what might have happened. And it appears they were right.

Donald Trump thanked FIFA for “reversing a great injustice” on Truth Social and a source familiar with the matter told CNN that the president spoke with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the call. [CNN/Sports]

The crowd stares in disbelief.

And if the USA team wins?

Trump will take the credit. He used his position to pressure a vulnerable official, the FIFA President, into giving the USA team special treatment, and, to his mind, cheating and lying are simply stratagems to be employed at all times to gain advantage.

He doesn’t think about long term consequences, which is the leading reason for being honest, for following rules. In this scenario, the world becomes more and more embittered towards the USA, and Trump will ignore it, not recognize it, anything to avoid accepting a critique of his behavior that should have been delivered by his parents. The value of the process is zero, in his mind; everything’s a trophy for him to collect, and the value of the process is disregarded.

So now his fingerprints are all over the World Cup.

Readers paying attention may remember I was a little confused as to whether the Trump family was doing well with their crypto investments. This report suggests that they are being successful:

President Donald Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency-related income in his latest annual financial disclosure released Tuesday, with digital assets emerging as the largest source of his personal earnings during his second term.

The 927-page disclosure, covering 2025 and filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, shows Trump earned more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company he co-founded in 2024 with his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. He also reported another $635 million in income tied to sales of the $TRUMP meme coin. [MS NOW]

That opens the question of whether MAGA will stick with Trump, and how MAGA investors have done with the President’s memecoin, $TRUMP. Here’s a lifetime chart:

Source: CoinMarketCap.

From greater than $40/coin at the beginning to July 5th’s $1.71, it’s been downhill since then, and so it has been for the Trump investors. Here’s another report driving the point home.

But will that affect support for him from MAGA?

Probably not. Most MAGA investors won’t monitor financial disclosures, they won’t trust liberal sources such as MS NOW, and conservative sources will not mention this inconvenient fact.

All Trump has to fear are MAGA leaders who are still angry at suppression of the Epstein Files. If they choose to pick this disclosure up and run with it, it might be disaster for Trump’s allies.

And cryptocurrency claims more victims.

Which might be considered redundant in some circles.

My family coat of arms is fancier than your coat of arms!

Dragonwyck (1946) is a dated but tense horror drama exploring the general societal view of agnosticism in 1844. Young Miranda Wells, raised by her strictly observant parents in Connecticut, receives an opportunity to visit her distant cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn, in Hudson, NY. There she discovers he reigns over his plantation almost like a king as patroon.

But Van Ryn faces opposition, not only from the tenant farmers who seek the right of not working for him, but from local Dr. Turner. Turner and Van Ryn have a history of mutual antagonism, but when Van Ryn’s wife, Johanna, takes a turn for the worse, Van Ryn calls upon Dr. Turner for help.

It doesn’t go well, and Johanna, a virtual exile in her own home, passes away. Soon, Van Ryn and Miranda are courting, and we discover what an agnostic in this age may yearn for, if not God: an heir. This is not an unfamiliar goal for the men of this age, but Van Ryn, unrestrained by God, societal expectations, or anything else, makes it part of the narcissism that characterizes his life, and failures at this ultimate goal loom large.

Soon, we’re part of the spiral of madness in which God has a plan for all of us fails to act as a release valve for Van Ryn. Miranda, being but a female, aggravated my Arts Editor as well as myself with her learned helplessness, although women in that era in America were not expected to assert their opinions. It’s a bit of a blotch on the emotional character of the story.

But, overall, it’s not a bad story at all. Well-acted, excellent cinematography and sets, the agnosticism as a path into self-destructive narcissism is an interesting byway on an otherwise painfully righteous path often ascribed to the era.

This is an atypical horror story that we found fascinating. And if that doesn’t lure you into watching, at least you Vinnie Price completists should see this, as Price has the lead role.

The association between betting and criminal behavior is a very long-running theme in human civilizations, and here we are doing it all over again:

Supporters of Kalshi and its biggest competitor, Polymarket, have defended the sites as game-like platforms for following and perhaps profiting off the news. But critics like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) have said they are creating a more “dystopian world” by helping people gamble on life-and-death crises and military assaults in a way that could incentivize political violence.

“This is American commercial immorality on steroids,” Murphy said in an interview. “Once events that involve good and evil simply become a financial product, I don’t know how right and wrong matters any longer. … People shouldn’t be rooting for people to die because they placed a bet.” [WaPo]

Senator Murphy, above, didn’t go nearly far enough. It’s not in the least difficult to envision a bettor, having made a potentially lucrative bet on the timing of the death of a prominent person, whether celebrity or politician, then moving to ensure potential becomes reality. That falls into the corruption category, because an implicit assumption of gambling is that the focus of a bet, such as rolling dice, is free of undue influence; that is, no one is knowing or influencing the future with reference to the focus of the bet.

Some readers may protest that Kalshi and Polymarket are not gambling sites, but predictive market sites. In my view, waddling and quacking usually makes for ducks; critters camouflaged to look like different and, usually, dangerous critters, while legitimate exceptions, are rare and must pass assiduous examination before acceptance as exceptions. These sites offer monetary prizes for predicting some event while tendering money. So far as I can see, Kalshi and Polymarket offer the same service as do gambling palaces and dens.

And enable the same corruption as do straight up gambling dens.

For the record, the WaPo article does mention the above scenario:

Lawmakers have worried that allowing death-related trades could offer fatal incentives; an assassin, for instance, could plan and then profit off the date of a victim’s death. “There’s a reason we don’t let people take fire insurance policies out on [other people’s homes] — because it would incent arson,” [Amanda Fischer, director at the financial advocacy group Better Markets] said.

In a decade, as people have sense knocked into their skulls, I expect predictive market sites will just go away. But don’t, ah, bet on it.

Or am I just finding an excuse to exhibit this North of the Border video? Feel free to skip to the end to view the finished product, but this guy does fairly good narration.

Incidentally, at one job in the far past, my colleagues said the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were disease, war, famine, and Jerry, who headed up the support department and was famously cynical.

Nicholas Grossman comments on the latest war strikes in the Strait of Failure Hormuz:

This isn’t a return to full-scale war, but it isn’t peace either. It is a new phase in the conflict: the fight to control Hormuz. The United States already lost the fight Trump started; it failed to achieve his declared goal of the Iranian regime’s unconditional surrender, or, barring that, Tehran’s acceptance of stringent nuclear restrictions. Now the conflict is over whether Iran controls Hormuz and can charge fees, or if the U.S. can restore the pre-war status quo, with ships transiting freely.

The two sides are making incompatible claims about the MOU’s contents. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that under the agreement, Iran has sole responsibility for the strait. Meanwhile, the Trump administration asserts that the U.S. will not allow Iran to “illegally control an international waterway.”

The MOU itself is ambiguous enough to allow for either interpretation. But that’s the problem: this core issue was never worked out. The MOU was essentially a negotiated agreement to negotiate an agreement, punting all major points of contention to future talks. [MS NOW]

This is the sort of loose-ends that I’d expect arrogant amateurs, telling themselves for years that their predecessors were overstaffed and underqualified, to leave behind. Now putting innocents in danger, needlessly expending munitions.

It’s a bad sign for the Strait of Hormuz and all the nations in the area. Well, except for Iran. Whatever you think of theocracies – I despise them – it doesn’t keep them from developing expertise in the areas of diplomacy and negotiation.

The summer blooms bleating for attention.

Tiger lily, lurking for prey.

Waiting for the de-icing fluid.

The Three Stooges plus manager.

Another in the line of waving hands frantically for attention:

President Donald Trump in recent months has cultivated a side project: counting the number of trees in a public park across the street from the White House.

Under Trump’s plans for Lafayette Square, which he has previously described as “the entrance to the White House,” the public park would feature 47 trees, matching his status as the nation’s 47th president, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the administration’s plans for the park. The trees would all be maples, a favorite of the president’s. [WaPo]

Sure, that’s congruent with the President claiming you have to slap your name on things if you want to be remembered, if one accepts 47 as an alternate name, or symbol, for Trump. But it’s also a way to get the attention of the Divine, as mentioned earlier in this thread. Self-glorification, for the fools who’ll believe it, will get the Divine’s attention as much as achievement, or, at least for Christians, service to the unfortunate.

This may seem a bit single-minded, but the President does have that reputation, an example being the Central Park Five incident, in which he insisted on the guilt of five boys in a violent assault incident, even after they had been exonerated.

But it is what it is: a symptom of a mental illness inappropriate in an American President.

From March, Scott Hodge has a suggestion for covering our annual deficit:

The menu of solutions to close this gap is just as depressing: slash benefits and services or raise taxes. But one option could generate substantial revenue while making the tax system fairer: ending the tax exemption for America’s massive nonprofit business sector.

Many “charities” have become big businesses. While numerous benevolent charities do wonderful work, the industry is dominated by some of the top companies in America operating largely free from the tax obligations that burden their for-profit competitors. The commercial revenue generated by these nonprofits totaled $2.8 trillion in 2023, nearly three times the amount nonprofits receive from donations and government grants.

The warning signs were there in 1909 when Congress exempted charitable organizations from the corporate income tax. Although lawmakers intended to protect small fraternal societies providing insurance to widows and tending to the poor, they also exempted enterprises such as mutual lending and insurance companies, thus opening the door to exempting other business-like entities. [WaPo]

This is the sort of thing where the initial and continuing evaluation approach are attempts to discredit it. To me, the problem requiring a lot of thought is how to reliably distinguish between charitable and non-charitable revenue streams.

But I think it’s worth at least investigating further, and to ask whether or not charities really should not be paying taxes.

Kinism:

Kinism is the belief that Christians have a duty to prefer the members of one’s family – and by extension, one’s ethnic group – and should preserve racial differences in “racially homogeneous families, congregations, and in distinctive social and perhaps even national spheres.”^[1] The term is often used to refer to a “movement of anti-immigrant, ‘Southern heritage’ separatists who splintered off from Christian Reconstructionism to advocate that God’s intended order is ‘loving one’s own kind’ by separating people along ‘tribal and ethnic’ lines to live in large, extended-family groups.” [Wikipedia]

Not being Christian, I suppose I shouldn’t comment, but that doesn’t sound like any sort of Christianity of which I’ve ever heard. Noted in “Christians, Pay Attention to This,” Erick Erickson, The Erick Erickson Show:

This entire community, which seemingly found each other on social media, is trying to spread throughout reformed denominations and infest them with kinism, racism, and ethno-nationalism. One cannot say they lack discernment, which is what some people want to charitably do. They intentionally avert their eyes relying on Christian grace and charity to excuse them of their behaviors.

It’s the kickoff for the Trump Administration’s idea for bringing Americans together, the Great American State Fair^[1], headlined by the President himself. How far did he kick the ball? Let him describe it:

The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience. I wish we were able to have an even larger area, which we will be able to do on July 4th when I’ll be speaking again. The airplane flyovers and music were fantastic. Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America. See you again on July 4th! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Sounds lovely! But the President has a small reputation as a self-promoter, so let’s check a few other sources:

Roughly half of those in Wednesday’s crowd of more than 1,000 wore Trump’s slogans or likeness on their clothes. For them, America’s 250th birthday was secondary to an opportunity to see the president. [NBC News]

Well, I suppose, technically, more than 1,000 is congruent with 45,000, but that’s only if implied societal agreements about using inexact numbers, such as rounding down to the nearest thousand, are ignored.

The President also made a point of saying his crowd was riveted. Yet,

¹ Here’s a fair description:

The event, organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership created by Trump that labels itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, marked the beginning of the 16-day exposition, envisioned as a modern-day world’s fair to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. [NBC News]

Why make a remark like this?

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday expressed sympathy for former president Richard M. Nixon, suggesting that Nixon was wrongly forced out as president in 1974 and comparing his political travails decades ago to those facing President Donald Trump now.

“As I joked … backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story,” Vance said in remarks at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California. “The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.” [WaPo]

A couple of explanations that come to mind.

1. It’s part, even the consequent of, an attempt to normalize the repugnant behavior of an American President. By so doing, they normalize the behavior of President Trump, not only legally but socially. That social normalization I see as basically a defensive maneuver as the Republicans attempt to make President Trump’s behavior acceptable to doubtful members of the Party.
2. Vance is trying to be cool, like a younger kid trying to be cool with the older kids through imitation. He doesn’t really get it; he’s marinated in the culture of victimhood for long enough that even the remark, You can hear him suborn perjury on the tapes. He’s telling an intermediary, what to tell someone who’s about to be interviewed by the FBI, what to say and what not to say, by Presidential historian Timothy Naftali, doesn’t penetrate the repeated message.

All this doesn’t reflect well on the Republican Party. A key part of governance is the ability to recognize and comprehend basic realities. He doesn’t seem to have that ability, which makes the thought of a Trump resignation disturbing.

Suborn:

1. verb (transitive)
   to bribe, incite, or instigate (a person) to commit a wrongful act
2. criminal law
   to induce (a witness) to commit perjury [Collins Dictionary]

Noted in “Vance dismisses Watergate scandal, says ‘deep state’ went after Nixon,” Dan Diamond, WaPo:

“You can hear him suborn perjury on the tapes. He’s telling an intermediary, what to tell someone who’s about to be interviewed by the FBI, what to say and what not to say,” said Naftali, who oversaw the Nixon library’s Watergate exhibit. “You can hear Nixon being told that money had been found to hire teamsters to go and break the bones of demonstrators. That’s all illegal.”

Suborn perjury is itself a phrase I ran across in legal contexts.

Since I write this blog primarily to blow off steam, let me take a secondary target today and critique some bad writing. Understand, folks, I’m not a stylist, nor do I pretend to be. I’m an obsolete software engineer who still writes a lot of code, and, as most software engineers will affirm, I have a literalism mechanism running in the back of my mind most of the time. It dings when something I’m reading descends into masked gibberish, into contradictory statements which have no value in being contradictory, into cliched expressions that writer-wannabes throw onto the page in the belief that this’ll mark them as writers, but do not advance the story, but even inhibit the story, and a few other types of writing crimes.

That mechanism was triggered several times today while reading Maddowblog’s Mini-Report of last night, 24 June. Please note this is not a condemnation of Maddowblog, because the editor, who’ll remain unnamed for good reason, is merely copying the prose of other writers – uncredited. That latter is somewhat execrable, although they at least leave a link to follow.

I do this because I feel it helps readers to think more slowly and deeply, which, in today’s data-ridden social environment, is a necessity for those who wish to gain an understanding, rather than mere social standing. We’ll begin with …

* Sometimes, suppressed truths reach the public anyway: “A study on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness has finally been published after being blocked from a government health journal. The vaccine was found to be about 55% effective against COVID-19-associated hospitalizations, and reduced COVID-19-related trips to emergency departments and urgent care clinics by 50%, according to the study published Tuesday by JAMA Network Open.”

A vaccine is a preventative, not a cure. On a third reading of the above, I can see the writer was trying to be clever, but they have a horse and wagon problem in their writing, because administering a vaccine does not reduce hospitalizations that have already occurred due to COVID-19.

* The state of the U.S. refugee program: “Under Mr. Trump, the program has effectively become a whites-only path to life in the United States, a culmination of the president’s longstanding antipathy toward immigrants and his embrace of the concept of ‘reverse racism’ as a guiding principle in his administration.”

This makes sense only if immigrants cannot be white, which is not true. Perhaps a word or two was inadvertently dropped by the writer or that mythical creature, the copy-editor.

* The push for a data center moratorium picks up a notable advocate: “House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey on Wednesday called for Congress to impose a nationwide data center moratorium. Pallone is now the most powerful congressional Democrat with jurisdiction over energy and environment issues to support such a policy in the face of public backlash.”

… in the face of public backlash usually refers to an opinion opposite to that of the general public on some issue. In this case, the issue is the mass construction of public data centers to support the build out and operation of artificial intelligence (AI) services, in particular generative AI. Public city council meetings on the matter are facing protests here in Minnesota, according to the news, and national news sources report similar protests in some other parts of the country.

From this, I’d expect Pallone to be on the side of the builders of the data centers, but no: he’s asking for a moratorium.

And three writing blunders in a single post is way too much when coming from alleged writing, or reporting, professionals, even if their sources isn’t where they appeared here. They’re misleading, jarring, and betray a lack of thought that really can lead to conclusions that are unjustified.

And now back to your regularly scheduled imprecations, improper allegations, and impulsive accusations. Enjoy.

The only surprise has been the relatively light load of these:

S. 4692 was introduced in the Senate on June 4, 2026, by Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Mike Lee (R-UT). The bill seeks to ensure “continued consumer access” to homeopathic products by amending the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). As CFI knows from our many years of opposing homeopathy, S. 4692 would give health care fraudsters the ability to mislead and endanger medical consumers.

Put simply, homeopathy is a multi-billion-dollar health care fraud, an industry that relies on pseudoscientific and illegitimate health claims. Annually, American patients are cheated out of billions of dollars per year and sold fake medicine for real medical problems. [from an email from Committee for Inquiry (CFI)]

Tuberville? Check. Lee? Check.

To be complete, a few Democrats have also supported fraudulent medicine over the years, some Senator from Iowa if memory serves. But I think he was in earnest, while neither one of these Republicans has done anything impressive in their time in the Senate.

CFI’s request?

We urge every CFI supporter to contact their Senator and call on them to vote against S. 4692.

It’s Tuesday and it already feels like Trump is flopping about like a salmon cornered in the shallows of the spawning river by a hungry bear. From important news such as

Trump keeps claiming Iran made concessions. Iran keeps denying them

and

Congress votes to rein in Trump on Iran in rare rebuke

and

Todd Blanche hit with state bar complaint backed by 101 former judges

not to mention the DNI debacle, now with sequels, or simply noting his entire Cabinet is not made up of the “best,” as he promised oh so long ago, but the worst. Moving on to relatively obscure failures, we have ducks dying as a consequence of his gross and possibly illegal mismanagement of the repair of the Reflecting Pool, the stock market slumping with the NASDAQ down 2.21% today, shrinking oil and munition stockpiles, and … oh, stop there?

Sure.

Look, maybe Trump has the patience of a saint, but I doubt it. Following the trail of squirrel-chewed baked goods into the forest, let’s ask the bleeding obvious:

What will he do to relieve his feelings of failure and inadequacy?

He has nuclear strike capability.

So, if Trump decides to take Tehran off the map, what will happen?

Will someone in that Cabinet try to stop him?

How about in the military?

Will Vance finally step up?

I think the answers here are No. But I think what might happen is this: Countries with nuclear missiles and surveillance capabilities will note the launch and the impact, and a few minutes later one, or more, of them will hit D.C., or Mar-a-Lago, or wherever Trump is located, with their own nuclear strike.

Because Trump will have demonstrated that he is insane, and, out of self-defense, they’ll take him out.

Or the American military will arrest and execute him after a summary court-martial.

Let’s hope this doesn’t happen. Oh, Mr. Vance, you really do need to pursue 25th Amendment proceedings with vigor.

No doubt my reader has heard a bit of the Reflecting Pool debacle, in which President Trump handed a favored company to fix some long-standing problems with this national memorial and only made it worse.

But then this occurred:

Jailbreak:

Jailbreaking is defined as the process of removing or bypassing limitations set by manufacturers of the device, developers of the operating system, or the application store. It is a process that empowers end users to have the right to install unauthorized software, access system features that are not visible, and modify system behavior. For instance, iOS jailbreaking enables iPhone users to change or add new applications, tweak fundamental settings, and download new modifications not available in the App Store. According to statistics, jailbreak solutions make up to 10% of the applications in some third-party stores, pointing to steady demand among geeks. However, such changes are accompanied by increased risks associated with the use of stolen accounts or the presence of viruses in the distribution network. [SentinelOne]

A morality-neutral definition. Noted in “The White House said Anthropic’s powerful AI was ‘jailbroken.’ Here’s what that means.,” Kevin Schaul and Nitasha Tiku, WaPo:

ADMIN NOTE

No more brevity, as the brace came off as anticipated, and the surgeon was pleased with the healing progress. I think I’m back to typing at my old speed, which is no great shakes but still better than hunt & peck, aka the seek and ye shall find technique, as my Dad used to call it.

VALUING INDEPENDENCE

For those voters who understand and value the importance of Senators being independent of Party directives, also known as the gibberish of President Trump, in our form of government, it may be cheering to see Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) orchestrating some counter-moves to President Trump’s foolishness with regard to Trump’s War, tariffs, and nominations.

As to the latter topic, Trump’s designation of Bill Pulte as Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) certainly needed a rebuke, since the only qualification Pulte possesses is championship-level sycophancy towards Trump; he has no national intelligence experience. Since Trump values loyalty and physical appearance (“right out of central casting”), not merit or competency, above all else, he selected Pulte, who has used his previous and still-current position of Director of Federal Housing Finance Agency to attack Trump’s political enemies, such as now-former Fed chairman Powell.

Thune wants a proper DNI, as do the Democrats, and reauthorization of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is being held up as a leverage tool. Presumably, word reached Trump that Pulte was unacceptable, and persuaded him to nominate US Attorney for SDNY Jay Clayton, but then he withdrew the nomination and is letting Pulte run the agency until the Senate approves a voter ID bill of which Trump is overly fond.

So far as I know, Clayton also lacks qualifications required by law, so this all may be a moot machination. However, Clayton has not caught my attention for stunts on par with Pulte’s clumsy bluster.

All that is to note that GOP Senators up for reelection do seem, at least in part, to be trying to separate themselves from the incompetent President.

ALIENATION?

Still, they need to worry about alienated voting groups, like this:

The last time President Trump faced a midterm election, in 2018, congressional Republicans were dragged down by his unpopularity and lost more than three dozen House seats.

But even in defeat, the bottom never truly fell out for the Republicans that year — the party actually gained ground in the Senate — as working-class white voters largely kept their faith in Mr. Trump’s economic know-how.

Today, that once-deep reservoir of good will has largely evaporated.

Blue-collar white voters are, for the first time, seriously doubting Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy. A review of polling by The New York Times shows an extraordinary swing on that issue among white voters without college degrees between his first midterm election and now. [The New York Times]

I’ve seen similar reports for farmers as well. The relevant GOP Senators may have to campaign aggressively in rural areas, and have prominent disagreements with President Trump, to break that association of the President and his persistent foolishness with the Senators. But what to do for blue collar workers in general is not so clear. There’s little time for cleaning up the economy.

FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF BREADCRUMBS

Here’s some.

• The 16 June primary runoff elections in Alabama yielded Everett Wess as the winner of the Democratic primary, defeating Dakarai Larriett. Mr. Wess appears to have little electoral experience.
  

  On The Issues: Rep Barry Moore (R-AL).

  The Republican side of the primary season has been a raucous affair as inexperienced Jared Hudson was seen by some pollsters to be leading Rep Barry Moore, but in the end Rep Moore won rather easily, 55.8% – 44.2%, although I suspect many observers were shocked that even a primary was necessary. So it’ll be Wess vs Moore, with expectations being an easy victory for Moore. President Trump’s endorsement of Rep Moore should be a light burden in Alabama.

  Further, Moore is a favorite of the cryptocurrency industry, whose super PAC is spending $9.8 million on pro-Moore ads. I’ll skip the joke about printing money to give away, I’m sure someone would howl that it’s not true. Yes, I do have vague concepts on cryptocurrency implementations.

  Notably, while Democrats saw 339,903 votes in the primary election, only 89,585 made the effort for the runoff. Comparable Republican numbers are 481,952 and 310,529, suggesting much greater enthusiasm. Which way will independents lean? Probably Republican.

• 

  On The Issues: Rep Collins (R-GA).

  The 16 June primary elections in Georgia gives Erick Erickson some reflux as Rep Collins defeats former football coach Derek Dooley in the Republican primary for the Senate seat, 55.9% – 44.1%. It’s not a bad showing by Mr Dooley, but given the Senatorial performance of Senator Tuberville, another former football coach, and the babblings of failed GOP nominee Herschel Walker in 2022, neither of whom had any experience in elective office, the Georgia GOP voters showed some wisdom in picking someone with experience, even a far-right candidate like Collins. But that’s a very small amount of wisdom, as this strategist emphasizes:

  “If you went to a laboratory and tried to create the worst general election candidate for this state and environment possible, you couldn’t do better than Mike Collins,” a prominent Georgia Republican strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told MS NOW.

  “He has a ton of personal baggage and won’t be able to raise money. He possesses the unique ability to offend female voters with that personal baggage but also with the hardest right abortion stance you can have. He will lose the Atlanta metro in unprecedented fashion, and we have to hope he doesn’t take everyone else down with him.”

  Or go read Erickson. I suspect that, absent black swan events, Senator Ossoff’s (D-GA) seat is now safe.

• 

  On The Issues: Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK).

  The 16 June primary elections in Oklahoma yielded Rep Hern (R) as the Republican nominee for the to-be-open Senate seat of appointed Senator Alan Armstrong (R-OK), garnering 67.3% of the Republican primary vote. The Democrats had a less definitive result, as nurse N’Kiyla Thomas, with 45.2% of the Democratic vote, and lawyer Jim Priest, with 23.9% of the vote, advanced to a primary runoff to be held 25 August. Neither appears to have elective experience. The Libertarian candidate will be Sevier White, although whether he will fill a key role in this election is not yet clear, and may not be clear until after the general election is finished.

  Rep Hern (R) should be considered the odds-on favorite for the general election in November.

• I didn’t anticipate writing about the Massachusetts Senate primary, but now Suffolk University has released a poll which shows Senator Markey (D) leading likely Republican primary winner John Deaton (R) 55% – 30%, and Markey’s primary rival, Rep Seth Moulton (D), leading Deaton by even more at 54% – 26%.I confess I’ve not been paying attention, since I see Massachusetts as safe for the Democrats, and so it remains. But is Senator Markey safe, or, having been in various elective offices since 1973 and being 79 years of age, is he burned toast? Is Moulton making inroads with his questions about transgender rights when it comes to sports? For primary voters, that seems unlikely – but we shall see.
• In Michigan pollster Mitchell Research, fairly respectable in 2024, gives Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a 42% share of the Democratic primary election for Senator, while fellow Democrat Rep Haley Stevens has a 33% share, and Mallory McMorrow, who disavowed Party leader Senator Schumer a few weeks ago, has been reduced to a 6% share. I noticed the number of participants in the survey is a relatively low 409, resulting in a margin of error of a largish ±4.85. The primary is 4 August, a long ways off.
• SurveyUSA was a highly respected pollster in 2024, with a 2.4/3 FiveThirtyEight rating, so this KSTP/SurveyUSA^[1] poll of Minnesota voters is of interest:
  

  Former sportscaster Michele Tafoya is easily in front right now in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

  Tafoya received 36% of the vote today, far ahead of the 15% for Royce White and 7% for GOP-endorsed candidate Adam Schwarze. However, 27% are still undecided.

  That Mr Schwarze, the candidate endorsed by the attendees of the GOP convention, is failing this badly demonstrates a potential gap between GOP devotees willing to give up a weekend to attend a convention, and the more casual member of the Minnesota GOP base.

  Results for Democrats in the same poll …

  [Rep Angie] Craig garnered 41% of the vote, ahead of the 36% for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who won the DFL endorsement. Roughly 18% of respondents are still undecided while 6% support another DFL candidate.

  I appreciated the demographic breakdown:

  • Craig received nearly half the vote from men while Flanagan leads slightly among women.
  • Younger voters favor Flanagan slightly while older voters, especially 65+, skew toward Craig.
  • Unsurprisingly, more liberal voters are backing Flanagan while moderates favor Craig.

  Can Rep Craig maintain her appeal to moderates? Independents will mostly skew moderate. Lt Governor Flanagan and Rep Craig have been going at it hammer & tongs in commercials, seems to me as a Minnesotan who doesn’t seek out politics but has them thrust upon him, and there will be some damage to whoever wins the nomination.

  And then the general election result? Let me draw an analogy, again from the same poll …

  MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is ahead of the field in the Republican primary for governor.

  The businessman and staunch ally of President Donald Trump is getting 27% of the primary vote today. House Speaker Lisa Demuth garnered 22% of respondents’ votes, with GOP-endorsed Kendall Qualls at 17%. Roughly 24% of likely Republican voters are still undecided.

  Lindell is a conspiracy theorist and gabbling lunatic who appeals to those from the victimhood cult. If that characterizes much of the Minnesota GOP, it’s quite likely some portion of the GOP portion of the electorate will stay home on Election Day, convinced either that the dark powers have deprived them of their chosen candidate, or that the candidate is unrepresentative of their views.

  Minnesota primary election day is 11 August, and don’t mistake the limited number of candidates listed above as the totality; both sides have more than these listed. And, no, I don’t recognize any of those names, but I come from an age of pseudonymous social media, so my lack means little. Good luck to all of them, and I hope they accomplish whatever it is they’re trying to accomplish, so long as it’s not illicit.

• In Montana the left’s hopes to turn back Kurt Alme’s (R) bid for the Senate seat may have suffered a setback:
  

  When Alani Bankhead, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Montana, announced that she would hold a news conference Monday afternoon, many fellow Democrats hoped she would announce that she was dropping out.

  The idea was to make way for an independent candidate, Seth Bodnar, who is seen by many as more electable than Ms. Bankhead in a heavily Republican state.

  Ms. Bankhead did not play ball.

  “If dropping out was the right move to pave the way for a better candidate, I would absolutely do it,” Ms. Bankhead said in a defiant speech. “But Seth Bodnar is absolutely the last person on the face of the Earth I would ever drop out of this race for.” She added: “I am never dropping out. Ever. Ever.” [The New York Times]

  Ms. Bankhead finds her offense in … two-year-old news that the university had settled a sex-discrimination lawsuit during his tenure. Mr. Bodnar had “established a pattern of dismissing and discriminating against women,” and he should “read the room and back out,” Ms. Bankhead said.

• Maine’s Senator Collins (R), up for reelection against oyster farmer and former Marine Graham Platner (D), regrets nothing, apparently:
  

  NEWS CENTER MAINE: This is the first reelection campaign that you’re run since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I was hoping you could talk to me a little bit about your vote to confirm Kavanaugh and whether you regret that?

  SUSAN COLLINS: I do not regret that vote.

  Do Mainers dislike Justice Kavanaugh? Or is this an irrelevancy?

• Is this, net, good or bad for Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn (I)?
  

  On Friday [19 June?], CNN’s KFile team reported that Dan Osborn, the Democratic-backed independent Senate candidate from Nebraska, recalled calling ICE on replacement workers hired after his union went on strike in 2021, despite heavily criticizing the agency throughout his campaign. [Mediaite]

  Independent voters who are against mass migration may approve Osborn’s behavior, along with union members and moderate Republicans; progressive Democrats may disapprove, but moderate Democrats may approve. Scabs, the colloquialism for replacement workers, seems a problematic topic in left politics.

• In Wyoming, the Democrats have a second candidate running in the Democratic primary, Billy Benavidez. He does not appear to have experience with elective office, and is using the well-worn I’m new around here approach to the election.

  For the record, Rep Hageman (R), the presumed favorite in the Republican primary, has four competitors. There are no polls in this race, as of yet.

ON THE MARQUEE

The next Senate voting opportunity comes on 27 June for Louisiana’s primary runoffs for both Republicans and Democrats, followed by Colorado’s primary election on 30 June.

¹ KSTP is the Twin Cities ABC network affiliate.

Recent headline, like so many:

I’m a couples therapist. Here’s how to have a better relationship.

Time for a new headline.

I’m a grifter. Here’s why you should believe what I say.