© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com

On our political radar this week…

The Trump Retribution Parade continues as his Department of Payback indicts James Comey for posting a picture of sea shells on social media. If that doesn’t work, they could try claiming the 6-foot-8 Comey’s height poses an imminent threat to the safety of the President.

New polling from the Detroit Chamber shows “Undecided” remains the leader in Michigan Democrats’ battle for the U.S. Senate nomination. There’s a new controversy in that race, with long-ago Tweets from Mallory McMorrow coming back to haunt her. Among Republicans, John James continues to lead Perry Johnson, Mike Cox, and the rest of the field. The one no-contest race: Jocelyn Benson has a 58-point lead in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The US Supreme Court has effectively repealed the last remnants of the Voting Rights Act, setting the stage for a possible new round of partisan gerrymanders. It comes as the last four black Republicans in Congress retire, leaving the GOP with the prospect of no black House members in 2027. The impact goes beyond the U.S. House of Representatives. In Michigan, it effectively eliminates majority-minority as a criterion for Michigan’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission when it draws future state legislative district maps – quite possibly before the 2028 elections.

The Donald Trump narcissism parade continues to grow. The latest: His snarling mug will now appear on commemorative U.S. passports, although Trump-free passports will continue to be available. And King Charles presented him with the ship’s bell from the World War II submarine HMS Trump. One ominous sign: that ship was sold off and broken up for scrap in August 1971.

In response to the war of words over election integrity, Secretary of State Benson has announced that 2.1 million outdated voter registrations have been canceled since 2019 or are in the cancellation process. For the first time ever, this includes over 180,000 dormant registrations of people who haven’t voted in a single election in the last 20 years or longer.

Control of the state Senate will be decided Tuesday when voters in Michigan’s 35th Senate District will decide whether Democrat Chedrick Greene or Republican Jason Tunney will represent them for the rest of the year in Lansing. The district includes Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. The Democrats are heavily favored to win and maintain control of the Senate.

The quote of the week comes from The Bulwark’s Tim Miller: We’re in the Fat Elvis era of the Trump presidency.

A note on the passing of Senator Don Riegle. First elected to the U.S. House from Flint in 1966, he served 5 terms and then 3 terms in the Senate, where he succeeded the legendary Phil Hart. He was one of the few people ever elected to Congress from both parties, switching from Republican to Democrat in protest of the Vietnam War and the corruption of the Nixon administration.

We also lost a friend of this podcast, former Detroit News reporter and later Department of Justice lawyer Jim Mitzelfeld. Jim and his reporting partner Eric Freedman won a Pulitzer Prize for their uncovering of a million-dollar corruption scandal in the state House Fiscal Agency. Jim died of melanoma a day short of his 65th birthday.

Joining the conversation this week is President of End Citizens United, Tiffany Muller. Mark and Walt Sorg talked with Tiffany Muller. She simultaneously leads the affiliated groups Let America Vote, and the End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund – organizations dedicated to reversing what many consider one of the worst rulings of the Supreme Court in the last century which opened the floodgates for dark money funding of political campaigns. Since joining ECU, Tiffany has helped grow the group from a start-up to a nationwide organization with more than 4 million members and 1 million grassroots donors.