Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss joins to talk about his victory in a hotly contested congressional primary; we discuss whether Gavin Newsom's Twitter is homophobic or merely tacky.
I found both Josh and Megan's take on Trump and recklessness compelling, and I wonder...could both be correct? Isn't it possible that Trump is indeed, as Megan suggests, living the YOLO life, and also, as Josh asserts, worried that Democrats will take Congress and give him trouble?
People often behave in conflicting ways, and Donald Trump is one of the least coherent and disciplined people imaginable. I don't think it's crazy to believe that he's reacting one way today and the next tomorrow, and then back to the first the day after that. Also, Trump is easy to roll if you flatter him, so it's possible he's obeying whatever impulse has been validated by Fox News or whoever has weaseled their way into his inner circle. In a way, Trump is quite predictable; it's just that you need constantly updated information to accurately predict him.
I know this seems like a wishy-washy, take-both-sides view, but it seems reasonable to me.
I think I would have thought that the candidate who is "just the right amount of Jewish" to run for the Dems in 2028 is not John Shapiro (too Jewish) but Jon Ossoff.
I live in NJ-11 and am highly annoyed by AIPAC spending that got Mejia nominated (Malinowski is a bit to my left but I voted for him because I was concerned this was going to happen), but Israel didn’t meddle and get her elected - boneheaded American Jews who support AIPAC did.
One more thing on their strategy that totally baffles me is that they did spend big to get Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman tossed in 2024, but both of those races made total sense (terrible incumbents that were super anti-Israel and in Bowman’s case a large Jewish population that was willing to give him a shot in 2020 that he squandered). But Mayor Biss and Tom Malinowski are normie progressives, not foaming lunatics.
This seems correct to me. AIPAC were used to ejecting low quality candidates like Cory Bush and Bowman, who were obviously idiots regardless of ideology. They have gotten spooked recently with a very high quality far leftist like Mamdani that they can’t seem to shake down. He hasn’t conceded an inch to them but he is actually moderating on other issues like crime, which is making them even more nervous, which is causing them to lash out and intervene in unhelpful ways like the New Jersey primary.
I found both Josh and Megan's take on Trump and recklessness compelling, and I wonder...could both be correct? Isn't it possible that Trump is indeed, as Megan suggests, living the YOLO life, and also, as Josh asserts, worried that Democrats will take Congress and give him trouble?
People often behave in conflicting ways, and Donald Trump is one of the least coherent and disciplined people imaginable. I don't think it's crazy to believe that he's reacting one way today and the next tomorrow, and then back to the first the day after that. Also, Trump is easy to roll if you flatter him, so it's possible he's obeying whatever impulse has been validated by Fox News or whoever has weaseled their way into his inner circle. In a way, Trump is quite predictable; it's just that you need constantly updated information to accurately predict him.
I know this seems like a wishy-washy, take-both-sides view, but it seems reasonable to me.
Genghis Khan could win a primary but he’d get crushed in the general
I think I would have thought that the candidate who is "just the right amount of Jewish" to run for the Dems in 2028 is not John Shapiro (too Jewish) but Jon Ossoff.
I live in NJ-11 and am highly annoyed by AIPAC spending that got Mejia nominated (Malinowski is a bit to my left but I voted for him because I was concerned this was going to happen), but Israel didn’t meddle and get her elected - boneheaded American Jews who support AIPAC did.
One more thing on their strategy that totally baffles me is that they did spend big to get Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman tossed in 2024, but both of those races made total sense (terrible incumbents that were super anti-Israel and in Bowman’s case a large Jewish population that was willing to give him a shot in 2020 that he squandered). But Mayor Biss and Tom Malinowski are normie progressives, not foaming lunatics.
This seems correct to me. AIPAC were used to ejecting low quality candidates like Cory Bush and Bowman, who were obviously idiots regardless of ideology. They have gotten spooked recently with a very high quality far leftist like Mamdani that they can’t seem to shake down. He hasn’t conceded an inch to them but he is actually moderating on other issues like crime, which is making them even more nervous, which is causing them to lash out and intervene in unhelpful ways like the New Jersey primary.