Opinion

When you read about all the ring kissing and boot-licking that's going on at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort these days, it is clear that Republicans of all stripes see him as president-in-exile, our once and future Dear Leader. He is believed to be so powerful that his endorsement will make or break any candidate, from the loftiest seat of power in the U.S. Senate to a lowly election clerk in a small jurisdiction in Real America. The big question facing the GOP now is whether or not that's actually true. And new reports from around the country suggest that it may not be as clear-cut as many think.

The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher characterized Trump as a "modern-day party boss" and quotes insiders comparing his "Mar-a-Lago Machine" to the notorious Tammany Hall, which dominated New York politics for centuries. Naturally, Trump is personally making money from it and he's not the only one:

There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The news for Pennsylvania Democrats is bad.

Both Gov. Tom Wolf’s and President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have taken another hit in the most Franklin & Marshall College poll.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, it becomes increasingly apparent that one of the major parameters is disinformation. For example, the attitude inside Russia seems to be that Vladimir Putin's military operations are justified because Putin is protecting "the fatherland" from neo-Nazis. Pro-Putin propaganda has been disseminated throughout the world; It has infected Republican legislators.

Russia: In the United States, a narrative has circulated suggesting the war will end when Russians rise up and depose Putin. Nonetheless, Russian opinion polls suggest that Putin is very popular because the average Russian believes that Putin is protecting "the fatherland." A recent Levada poll discussed in Newsweek "Showed that approval of Putin's actions increased from 69 percent in January to 83 percent in March." (Statista confirms that within Russia, Putin has strong approval ratings.) Nonetheless, a recent academic study discussed in the Washington Post indicates that Putin's ratings are fragile: "These findings suggest that much of Putin’s support is based on perceptions that he is popular. Without that perception, Putin’s popularity fades."

It isn’t every day that a presumably non-partisan state agency issues a press release with a headline reading like this: “FLORIDA REJECTS PUBLISHERS’ ATTEMPTS TO INDOCTRINATE STUDENTS.”

But that was the choice of the taxpayer-funded Florida Department of Education (FDOE) late Friday. The release -- apparently translated from the original Russian -- announced that state authorities “found 41 percent of the submitted textbooks were impermissible with either Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics.”

Every year, Christians from around the world gather for worship on Easter Sunday. Also known as Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, Easter is the final day of a weeklong commemoration of the story of Jesus' final days in the city of Jerusalem leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection.

Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as Holy Week. In Western Christianity, Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Easter is the third day of the larger three-day festival known as Holy Triduum, which begins on the evening of Maundy Thursday, marking the night of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. Good Friday marks Jesus' suffering, crucifixion and death. Holy Saturday marks Jesus' burial in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. The festival reaches its climax on early Sunday morning with the Easter Vigil and ends on the evening of Easter Sunday.

We’re told Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law is “anti-grooming.” We’re told it will prevent school kids from being victimized by sex predators.

That’s false.

Last Thursday, Lizelle Herrera was arrested in Texas after indictment for murder for the alleged involvement in a self-managed abortion.

Herrera was held on a $500,000 bond. The district attorney’s office seemed unable to explain what law justified this prosecution. They ultimately dropped the charges after outcry by abortion advocates.

Well, the Big Lie, Russian style, has begun. It's not exactly like losing an election — that's never going to happen in Vladimir Putin's Russia — but losing a guided missile cruiser, the Moskva, the most important warship in Russia's Black Sea fleet is, let us say, just a little hard for the big guy to stomach back at the Kremlin, or the dacha, or whatever bunker he's keeping himself in these days.

This article first appeared in Salon

Some right-wingers have taken to using “groomer” to describe those who are sensitive to the concerns of LGBT-plus people.

A spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron Desantis tweeted: Don’t Say Gay “would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill.”

Prosecutors are always looking for the “smoking gun,” that elusive shred of evidence that conclusively establishes guilt. Attorney General Merrick Garland may be hesitating to indict Donald Trump not out of timidity, but for lack of a “smoking gun.” In Manhattan, fledgling prosecutor Alvin Bragg apparently lost his enthusiasm for a convincing false financial statement case against Trump. He says however, that his “investigation is continuing.” He is doubtless searching for a smoking gun.

Webster defines a “smoking gun” as “something that serves as conclusive evidence or proof (as of a crime or scientific theory).”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's latest attempt to garner national attention and trigger the libs was always likely to blow up in his face. Now it's apparent that Abbott's effort to one-up fellow Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis went a bit too far — seemingly upsetting everyone from Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) to truckers to the Trump-supported agriculture commissioner in Texas.

Abbott "is taking actions to move migrants without adequately coordinating with the federal government and local border communities," said CBP chief Chris Magnus said this week, after the governor's pointless and sadistic decision to bus newly arrived migrants all the way from Texas to the front steps of Fox News' Washington, D.C., studio.

Donald Trump, the former president who is testing his political capital by endorsing large numbers of GOP candidates to bolster his own personal brand, is expected to endorse J.D. Vance, a far right Christian conservative who last year was accused of antisemitism. Vance, a venture capitalist, is running to replace retiring Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman.

Why?