J.D. Scholten

This year, the Republicans will do anything-- and apparently everything-- to avoid talking about issues. (Unless you consider the Ron DeSantis ad above-- yes that is a real ad than ran on television statewide in Florida-- an "issues" ad.) Kara Eastman and Beto O'Rourke had punk rock bands in high school and college. Jared Golden got a tattoo (with his unit fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan). Beto also skateboards and likes women with dyed hair... and eats BBQ-ed tofu... This is all crazy.

The 6 women in this focus group are all from swing states and all voted for Trump. Most would do it again... although half say they are disappointed. They all say they want to use the midterms to "send a message." Take a look. One thing for sure, this sure doesn't sound like part of any wave. But, keep in mind they were all Trump voters in 2016.This morning Axios launched an idea for how they plan to measure the upcoming wave.

Above is a first rate long-form video done this week by Brave New Films on J.D. Scholten, the former baseball player-- and progressive Democrat-- running against Iowa bigot and neo-fascist Steve King. It's unlikely the ad will ever be seen on television, although it's very likely it will be seen by lots of IA-04 voters. The video and shorter excerpts from it show start appearing on social media very soon. Does that count? Oh, I think so.A campaign manager contacted me about an ad recently.

It's hard to determine who the worst member of Congress is. Devin Nunes? Dana Rohrabacher? Marsha Blackburn? Paul Ryan? Jim Jordan? All horrible-- but there is no list of the most horrible congressmembers that wouldn't include Steve King (R-IA).

That Fox News poll that came out yesterday had some interesting findings beyond just Trump's skyrocketing disapproval ratings (53%).

Last Tuesday one of the most promising candidates running for governor, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, lost his race. I tweeted that he ran a great campaign but that it was now time to get behind Gretchen Whitmer and help her defeat Trump's hand-picked extremist candidate Bill Schuette. One of the first people to "like" my tweet was Abdul.

The GOP thought that at least they'd have one "achievement" to run on in the midterms-- the massive taxcut. But the tax cut-- which many call "the tax scam"-- has turned out to not be that popular, not popular enough to run on. Over the weekend, the NY Times reported that Republicans aren't barging about and aren't even bragging about the continuation of the Obama economic expansion Trump takes credit for.

Bad campaign messageThe albatross is on the way! Republican incumbents got some really bad news Friday evening on Hannity's show. Down deep, Trump knows he's really bad at being president. He would never admit it but he knows the 38% job approval is silly. It should be 8%, not 38%. He's terrible at his job. Everything he touches turns to shit.

Andrew Wheeler by Nancy OhanianThis isn't Climate Change:This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

My congressman, New Dem Adam Schiff, didn't join the new Medicare-For-All Caucus. I bet his constituents would freak out if they know. In fact, though I'm not a betting man, I'd bet a lot on that assertion. Some of the most progressive Democrats in the country live in Schiff's district-- West Hollywood, the Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, Hollywood, East Hollywood, Silverlake, Glendale, and Burbank.