Politics

Let me tell you a ghost story. We are, after all, only a month out from Hallowe’en. It’s about a titan of American politics, who reshaped the nation’s, and the West’s, history over the tail-end of the last century. His leadership helped thaw the Cold War and transform the country’s languishing economy. And now, four decades later, his specter still looms large over the party he recalibrated. Tonight, the GOP’s undercard contenders will clash at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. And you can be darn sure his name will come up a lot.In last month’s debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, America’s 40th president was the subject of one of many flashpoints between former VP Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Democratic Senator Robert “Bob” Menendez of New Jersey — and his wife — have been indicted by a Manhattan federal grand jury, according to court filings unsealed this Friday. Prosecutors allege that the couple, say, the Menendez Crime Family, accepted lavish bribes in exchange for special favors. Specifically, the family is accused of holding “a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey associates and businessmen.” The senator also allegedly accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes, including bars of gold, mortgage payments, a luxury car and lots of cash.  The indictment alleges that the bribes were given in exchange for official acts that enriched businessmen in his state, as well as the Egyptian government.

Welcome to Thunderdome, where this week for the first time we saw major backlash to Donald Trump over an issue that was key to his past political success. The relationship between pro-life voters and Donald Trump was always transactional. The question Trump raised in comments this weekend is whether he views that transaction as over. In 2016, he needed the support of abortion foes to win the GOP nomination. Now, he doesn’t think he needs them at all, and it seems he’s more focused on a general election mindset of the suburban voters he lost in 2020 and his endorsed candidates struggled to win back in 2022. There’s already major backlash to Trump’s language from leading pro-life groups and figures — but is it enough to make an opening for another candidate to rise in response?

The choose your own adventure surrounding House Republican leadership is leading to a predictable dead end. The approach House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has used to great effect to this point, achieving far more legislatively than he was expected to in a Speakership with a razor-thin majority, has been to let conservatives get a seat at the table to demand what they want, and work from there. The strength of that strategy was giving House conservatives buy-in on the negotiating process, thus using them as an ally, not an adversary. The weakness of that strategy? It doesn’t work when the conservatives can’t agree about what they want.

I have been meaning to weigh in on [cue scary music] Special Counsel David Weiss’s sham indictment of Hunter Biden on felony gun charges for a few days. I am glad I waited.  It’s not that I have changed my mind about the indictments, or company man Weiss. Everyone knows he is on the job as an interior decorator, whose primary task is to produce window dressing for the Department of Injustice so that its two-tier deployment of police power is not too obvious to the casual onlooker. Weiss has supposedly been investigating Hunter Biden for the last five years. Wouldn’t you know it, the statute of limitation on many of the tax charges is passing by like that herd of cows outside your train window even as I write.

At midnight Friday, more than 12,000 workers walked out of factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, marking the first time in history that the United Auto Workers union has gone on strike against all of the Big Three auto manufacturers at once. The UAW started contract negotiations asking for a 40 percent pay increase over four years and a four-day work week. The Big Three have countered with an offer of an approximately 20 percent pay increase, which would make up for real wage decline due to inflation since 2008. Neither side has moved significantly since bargaining began two months ago.  The unprecedented strike is centered in the Midwest, but it no doubt has major political ramifications back in the nation’s capital.

For more half a decade, the massive nonprofit now officially blessed by Bidenworld to be its main backup on the outside has been soliciting donations via ActBlue, the Democrats’ top online fundraising tool. It turns out that this is almost certainly illegal. According to website archives, the Future Forward USA Action (FFUSA) has had a “donate” button on its homepage that links to an ActBlue site since at least 2018. Groups like FFUSA are usually given about two years to get their paperwork in order, but for a group this big to be this far behind in getting its act together is raising eyebrows in the campaign finance world.

You don't need to be a political genius to see that this Hunter Biden indictment is an obvious smokescreen for the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The three-part indictment is very simple and straightforward and could’ve been brought a long time ago... so why this week? Why does it come after a rough opening to September for Democrats, with horrible polls released concerning Joe Biden's age and approval ratings — and particularly the same week that Republicans finally pulled the trigger on an impeachment inquiry? First, it serves to muddy the waters.

In the closing months of the 2022 midterms North Carolina residents began receiving text messages and phone calls from unfamiliar numbers, a ritual all too familiar to a swing-state voter. The benevolent voice on the line had seen the recipient’s name on a petition to allow the Green Party on the ballot and wanted to ensure the signature was on the up and up. With validity confirmed the anonymous caller would reveal himself to be a Green Party representative. “If the Green Party is on the ballot, it’ll take votes away from Democrats, giving Republicans a huge advantage. It will help them win North Carolina in 2022 and 2024. There’s far too much at stake to let this happen. Are you interested in asking to have your name removed from this petition or leave it as is?