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On our political radar this week…

Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan adds to decades of proof that an independent candidate for statewide office is doomed, pulling the plug on what had become a fading Quixotic quest. He was supposed to be the star of the annual Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce policy conference on Mackinac Island which was wrapping up as we recorded. There are no major surprises coming from the two days of fun, fudge and high-level schmoozing and boozing … and also no gubernatorial debate even though the major contenders are all at the Grand Hotel. It became a wake for the reality of Duggan’s “impossible dream” which proved, in fact, to be impossible. Does it clear the way for Jocelyn Benson to ride a Blue Wave into the Governor’s office?

National Democrats have launched a circular firing squad over the 2024 Autopsy report with DNC chair Ken Martin facing calls for his ouster. But does anyone outside of the party’s org chart and the political media give a damn? Meanwhile, Michigan Democrats are making a pitch to the DNC to put Michigan into the first tier of presidential primaries.

President Donald Trump’s push to reshape congressional districts ahead of the November elections suffered a double setback Tuesday, as South Carolina senators declined to do so and a federal court blocked a Republican-backed map in Alabama. As early in-person voting began Tuesday in South Carolina’s primaries, the state Senate rejected a Republican plan to cancel those congressional votes and instead schedule a new primary under revised districts designed to help the GOP oust Jim Clyburn, the state’s only black member of Congress.

A Republican win in Texas could well mean a Democratic win in November. Utterly corrupt Attorney General Ken Paxton outlasted Senator John Cornyn despite multiple national Republicans correctly pointing out that Paxton was a grotesquely flawed candidate. He’s under federal indictment, he narrowly avoided CONVICTION AFTER impeachment – BY A GOP LEGISLATURE, and he’s being sued for divorce by his state senator wife thanks to his affair with a former aide and state securities regulator.

Democrats in Washington have made it clear that a Blue Wave flip of congressional control will mean investigations into the Trump administration’s corruption. As lawmakers grow increasingly frustrated with President Donald Trump’s planned $1.8 billion lawsuit settlement fund and his thousands of stock trades totaling hundreds of millions dollars, a trio of House Democrats is launching a new caucus aimed at fighting malfeasance in government. The new End Corruption Caucus is launching at the direction of Representatives Jason Crow, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mike Levin, D-Calif., spanning the party’s centrist to progressive wings.

When Donald Trump is feeling down, he brings in his Cabinet which spends a couple of hours telling him how great he is. On Wednesday the latest gathering focused on extolling what great things Trump has done for the economy and bringing Iran to its knees … nevermind that neither is consistent with reality. In fact, the latest reports from the Trump government is that inflation moved higher again last month … to the highest level in 3 years. Yes, inflation was lower during the final 2 years of the Biden administration.

All of this to help him cope with his cognitive decline and his pending mortality after continual images of his rotting hands, his incessant bragging about being able to pass rudimentary dementia tests (that seem to be a regular occurrence), and news that he’s had not one, not two, but THREE physicals at Walter Reed Hospital in less than a year, along with the realization that he was facing humiliation in the mid-term elections … which, all of a sudden, he claims are meaningless for him.

And it gave Trump a chance to introduce the latest merch available for his flock to buy on his QVC-style website, even laying out his newest tacky 55-dollar baseball cap in front of each of his cabinet members. Thankfully, none of them wore them during the meeting…and there’s no report if the men in the room were wearing their Trump-mandated Florsheim shoes.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will admit an additional 10,000 white South Africans into the U.S. as refugees this year, increasing its historically low annual cap but still blocking people from other countries from entering through the program. Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office and, since then, has turned it into a vehicle to allow Afrikaners — a group of white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers — into the U.S.

And there’s more than a little turmoil at Michigan State University. The Board of Trustees offered president Kevin Guskiewicz a $1-million pay raise and a contract extention. He said ‘no thanks’ and, after just two years in East Lansing, moves to President of Clemson University. This, after the board enacts controversial rules muzzling individual members … and penalizing two trustees for refusing to agree to the changes. All this adds to proposals to have the Governor appoint all university boards instead of relying on state political party nominations and partisan elections.

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