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On our radar this week…
The first-ever recipient of a previously owned Nobel Peace Prize apparently wants to be the Genghis Khan of the 21st Century.
In the last week, Trump has
- Threatened to invade Venezuela if his hand-picked government doesn’t do his bidding;
- Stationed an armada near Iran in preparations for an aerial war;
- Hinted at an imminent effort at regime change in Cuba;
- Doubled-downed on his armed assault on the Constitution in Minneapolis with a change in messaging but little else, He replaced one Nazi-adjacent ICE commander with a fascist-adjacent ICE commander in Minneapolis with vague promises of a future future drawdown on masked thugs roaming the streets, but not now.
- Sent his FBI and Tulsi Gabbard to investigate the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, a continuation of his b.s. claims of fraud costing him a win over Joe Biden, and
- Had his FBI raid the home of a reporter in violation of federal law; and,
- Arrested reporter Don Lemon for covering a peaceful Minneapolis protest because it “disrupted” a religious service
Trump’s war on Minneapolis inspired a powerful anthem from “The Boss.”
Bruce Springsteen’s “The Streets of Minneapolis” pulls no punches in denouncing Trump, ICE Barbie and Stephen Miller. Due to copyright restrictions we can’t play it here … but it’s well worth a visit to YouTube.
Trump World is also having a direct impact on Michigan politics.
- Trump has reportedly inserted himself in the battle for the party’s gubernatorial nomination, torpedoing frontrunner John James and encouraging 78-year-old rich guy Perry Johnson’s newly announced campaign.
- Michigan Democrats have launched their first attack ad on independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Duggan even as the party’s contests for Attorney General and Secretary of State are all but over.
- A Republican dark money group is promoting one of the Democrats in next week’s primary to fill a state Senate primary … with the belief that State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh would be easier to beat in the April general election. Democrats, including Saginaw Dem chair Jennifer Austin and Saginaw state Representative Amos O’Neal, are crying “foul.”
- Senator Elissa Slotkin says Kristi Noem has to go. In a Senate speech, Michigan’s junior senator noted she had voted to confirm Noem … but the cabinet member derided as “ICE Barbie” has betrayed fundamental American values.
We’re joined this week by political science guru Norm Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute with his assessment of congressional dysfunction and Trump’s drive for one-person government.
He is the co-author, with Thomas E. Mann, of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.
Norm is a Minnesota native. He was a child prodigy, graduating from high school when he was fourteen and from college when he was eighteen. He received his BA from the University of Minnesota and PhD in political science from the University of Michigan.
By the mid-1970s, he had become a professor of political science at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., establishing a reputation as an expert on the United States Congress.
Ornstein is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The Atlantic and the National Journal. He wrote a weekly column for Roll Call for 11 years, and was co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. He helped draft key parts of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain–Feingold Act. Ornstein is a registered Democrat but considers himself a centrist and has voted for individuals from both parties.
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