It’s primary day in several states, including Pennsylvania, and the national punditocracy has made clear it will claim the results shall determine the future of the Democratic Party. It’s true that many districts have drawn multiple hopefuls, a byproduct of Republican vulnerability. When the opposition looks weak, lots of people are willing to take a chance.
You can’t blame pundits for looking for a clue about where the Democratic Party is going, because Democrats are just as split as Republicans were (16 dwarfs, remember?) before Trump took over the party. An ugly real-world sign of it is playing out in Minnesota, where Wellstone Action, the progressive activist outfit founded by the sons of late Sen. Paul Wellstone, is coming apart in acrimony and allegations of financial foolery. But the flashpoint appears to have been over singling out race and gender equality for action; the late senator, inconveniently for those who kicked Wellstone’s sons off the board, championed the rural poor, who in Minnesota are primarily white.
In pre-Trump times, the story about a Chinese bank investing $500 million in a Trump project in Indonesia would dominate headlines for weeks. If Obama did it, not only would it lead to immediate impeachment proceedings, it would be touted as proof he’s Muslim besides. But, as it’s not about Russians or porn stars, Trump will again get away with blatantly violating yet another campaign promise.
On the other hand, Trump isn’t even the biggest grifter in his administration. That honor goes to Scott Pruitt, who not only is openly corrupt, he invariably tells blatant lies about it.
I normally ignore whatever horror du jour Americans are committing overseas, but the massacre of 58 Palestinian protesters in Gaza yesterday deserves special attention for one big reason: The Israelis justified opening fire because the protesters were trying to cross the border en masse. Make no mistake, this is the policy Trump would like to follow at the Mexican border, and I consider an incident more likely now that Israel has done just that.
Mike Pence strikes me as dumb but sneaky. I don’t trust him, you don’t trust him, and guess who else doesn’t trust him: Donald Trump. The ever-paranoid prez fears that Pence is plotting to supplant him. For example, Trump wasn’t supposed to speak to the NRA — he decided to do it when he found out Pence was going to be the keynote speaker.
Speaking of dumb, but not nearly sneaky enough, ex-Rep. Blake Farentold, Mr. Duck Pajamas, landed a lobbying job in Texas just five weeks after ankling Congress. But that duck pajama photo is forever.