Mired and Tired Of It

Up and down, down and up, getting nothing accomplished except my dishes and a lunch. 

 Trump Goes Crazy Online After Judge Hammers Him on Golf Course  (The New Republic)

Trump’s posting may have already landed him in trouble. At a hearing Monday, the preservation group mounting the legal challenge against Trump’s federal takeover of the course introduced the president’s own Truth Social post as evidence that the government plans to proceed with renovations “IMMEDIATELY!”

 

Trump tried to throw a ‘lunatic’ judge off his DC golf course case. Here’s what happened next (The Independent).

  Reyes hauled government officials back to her courtroom Monday to keep pressing them for information about who, exactly, was responsible for greenlighting the tree removal and other plans for the park.

“There is no universe in which all of this just coincidentally happened at the same time,” she said Monday. “There just isn’t.”

The judge said she didn’t know who to believe: the Justice Department and top parks officials, or the president of the United States.

“Do I believe the president of the United States, or do I believe you?” she said. “What do I do if I believe President Trump that there is an imminent closure?”

Reyes also wanted to know if any government lawyers wanted to come forward to say they agreed with Woodward’s attempts to knock her off the case. She later withdrew her request, saying that “we all have better things to spend our time on.”

Woodward told her the initial request was “inappropriate” and instructed Justice Department attorneys to ignore it.

“I’m the one who’s going to say how we move today,” Reyes fired back. “Not you.”

At the end of Monday’s seven-hour hearing, the judge said her family members have texted her “freaking out” over reporting that her office has received death threats because of the case.

“A federal judge is getting death threats over a golf course,” she said. “I really don’t think that’s what the founders envisioned.”

Trump Warns America Will Burn if Republicans Lose This Election  (The New Republic)

Trump is only in Kansas because the Republican Party is polling historically low, putting normally safe candidates in jeopardy thanks to his own bad economic policies and an ill-advised war he started. Republican Senator Roger Marshall was expected to coast to victory in the state, but is now polling neck and neck with Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton.

Trump’s fearmongering over the invented specter of riots is a desperate effort that isn’t likely to sway any voters on the fence, who can plainly see skyrocketing fuel prices and inflation with their own eyes. Besides, if Republicans lose big, which side of the American political divide, based on recent history, is more likely to violently protest?

An Encouraging Direction (Sheila Kennedy)

But even assuming that those Democrats succeed at the polls, even recognizing that most of them are both competent and well-intentioned, there are systemic barriers that will prevent them from making the sorts of changes that most Americans want to see. I have frequently posted about those systemic flaws: gerrymandering, the filibuster, the Electoral College, the incredibly damaging Citizens United decision that has allowed people with money to dominate the voices of the electorate in general…There are others.

Even assuming an election result that a majority of us will applaud, the challenge facing newly-elected lawmakers will be to resist a return to a very flawed status quo. So I was gratified to come across a Vox article describing a “radical” Democratic plan to “change America” by addressing those systemic flaws.

Is ferment in Indiana’s 5th District a harbinger of a Democratic midterm wave?

No surprise, then, that when I started paying attention to the race, the 5th District contest continued to languish in the leading handicappers’ Safe Republican categories. In recent days, the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Inside Elections have moved the seat to Likely Republican; Sabato’s Crystal Ball still has it at Safe Republican. None of the three has it in a genuinely competitive category.

They may be right that there’s nothing to see here. Still, there have been signs of greater-than-expected ferment.

In the May 2026 primary, Spartz’s opponent, veteran Scott A. King, took 40% of the vote in a two-way race; King narrowly won the votes from Delaware County (Muncie) outright. That’s after a campaign when King was essentially an unknown and had few resources to work with.

In the general election, an internal poll from Democratic challenger, former state Sen. J.D. Ford, found Spartz with just a two-point lead. Spartz’s recent email communications have taken a more aggressive tone than one might expect from someone running a shoo-in race, including complaints about allegedly stolen yard signs and AI-generated attack ads against her. She’s even asked Ford for a debate, so far unsuccessfully — an unusual dynamic for a safe incumbent.

As a Devout Christian, I Believe Everyone Should Be Free to Practice My Religion (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)

Trump only knows how to buy, not persuade: Farmers to get one-time payments from $8 billion program, Trump says: What to know 

 What I meant to do this morning I did not do. I am running down to the convenience store and then try to accomplish something before I meet CC tonight.

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