Senate 2018

Look, I've been Señor Optimista about the midterms ever since Señor Trumpanzee entered the White House. It was obvious to me that he'd unleash an anti-red wave, especially if the Republican Congress acted as enablers, which they certainly have.

Minnesota and Mississippi each has two Senate elections in November. In Mississippi, Senator Roger Wicker is up for reelection. In June he easily put away a Trumpist primary challenger Richard Boyanton 83-17%. The primary drew 157,170 voters, compared to just 87,931 in the Democratic primary, which resulted in a runoff between Howard Sherman (31.79%) and David Baria (30.98%)-- 713 votes separating them.

Can you picture me spinning country music at a cowboy bar? Interviewing dozens of country music stars for Country Music Magazine? How about being on the Board of Directors of the Country Music Association? Yeah, and I was the west coast editor of Country Music Magazine too. Don't worry, I was never into the Nashville sound, just Outlaw music, the punk rock of country. That's how I met Willie... around 40 years ago. He had recently released Red Headed Stranger which I wore out on the turntables of the Cinch and wrote about as often as possible and for as many outlets as possible.

The two venal and equally corrupt party establishments have created an electoral system where the cost of entry has put all the power into their own hands.

But rotten conservative DCCC staffer is working to undermine himSaturday, President Obama headlined a rally in Anaheim for California Democratic candidates that the DCCC is pushing: Katie Porter, Harley Rouda, Mike Levin, Gil Cisneros, Josh Harder and T.J. Cox. Katie Hill was also invited but had a previous commitment.

The hell with Kirsten Gillibrand-- Bill Maher endorsed Al Franken for president on his HBO show Friday night. He explained why in the video above but, clearly, "he's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people still like him!"Then Bill goes after #MeToo excesses. You don't need me to reiterate it or even weigh in. Just listen to it yourself. Besides, I've made it clear who I'm backing for the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Two of the most important Senate races this cycle pit women against each other. One of the Senate's most progressive Democrats, a courageous reformer with a fantastic voting record that spans a career as a state legislator, a congresswoman and more recently as a senator, Tammy Baldwin, is up against a conservative Republican, Leah Vukmir, in Wisconsin.

Do Americans like being lied to? Over a third apparently don't mind-- or are incapable of discerning a consistent pattern of lying-- when the liar is the authoritarian daddy-figure they craze. When the Washington Post first started their project to measure how many lies Trump tells per day, "he averaged 4.9 claims a day.

"An essential motivating force"I wish I had a poll of every state like the one Franklin & Marshall just released about Pennsylvania. These kinds of polls mean so much more than the national ones we keep getting bombarded with.

Last month Paul Ryan's corporately funded, sleazy SuperPAC ran thousands of dollars of really nasty radio ads beating up on progressive Democrat Kara Eastman for having been in a punk band, Pieces of Fuck, when she was in college. Ryan's PAC is desperate to save the Omaha congressional seat-- which is quickly slipping from their grasp-- for failed Trump rubber-step Don Bacon.