If you’d like to read this issue on my website, click here! If you’d like to sign-up, and receive this in your inbox each week, click here! Read past issues here.
Good Friday Morning! Except to Chuck E. Cheese, which had to explain to kids why a man in the mouse costume was arrested and taken out of the store. Florida police were seen cuffing and walking a man in a Chuck E. Cheese costume out of the building, and taking the mascot head off in the parking lot.
He was arrested on credit card fraud. One internet commentor renamed him to Chuck Embezeelement Cheese. The pictures and story are wild. Only in Florida…
This week, I’m going to take a look at how the Democratic Party is splitting itself apart – links to follow.
Quick Hits:
- Gov-run grocery stores don’t work. Zohran Mamdani’s big idea to tackle inflation and food prices is to get the government to run grocery stories and compete against other stores. This is causing everyone to look at other states where this has been tried. The example this week is Missouri: where city run grocery stores are sitting empty, both of food and customers. You can’t make this stuff up, or the failed policies that socilialists will cling to.
- The American Almanac is growing! I want to express my sincere gratitude to those of you who subscribe, share, and help us grow. This week, we’ve announced a second edition of the Almanac, which will be released at 9 pm CST on weekdays. Look for that in your inboxes moving forward. You can subscribe here for free. Additionally, please check out Capital Digest (finance/economics) and Real Talk Digest. There are more projects in the pipeline. If you don’t see anything a day after signing up – check your spam folders.
Where you can find me this week
Please subscribe, rate, and review The Horse Race on YouTube — the reviews help listeners, and readers like you find me. Make sure to sign up for the Conservative Institute’s daily newsletter and The American Almanac.
Trump Is Right To Defund NPR – Conservative Institute
The Stephen Colbert Conspiracy Theories Are Untrue – Conservative Institute
Trump Gets Columbia University To Cave – Conservative Institute
The Democratic Party Splits In Half
The last week has gotten dominated by the Epstein coverage and all the declassified things around Tulsi Gabbard. Both of those stories need more time to purculate before we know what is going to happen. But while that’s ongoing, the Demcoratic Party is quietly getting pulled in polar opposite directions. It’s a dynamic that will define the eleciton races this fall, early 2026 primaries, and the the lead-up to the 2028 elections.
The split is this: on the one hand there’s the radical left represented by AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is the best example here because he quite literally holds every single far-left belief. The trans issue is good example. On his website, Mamadani says:
Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to spend $65 million in taxpayer funds on transgender treatment — including for minors — if he’s elected to lead New York City.
The Queens assemblyman, who is locked in a close race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, says on his campaign website that the money would be funneled to public providers to help transgender New Yorkers.
About $57 million would be allotted for public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers and nonprofits with another $8 million for more expanded services, the website states.
This radical stance is no different than Kamala Harris saying she’d use taxpayer funding for trans surgeries for illegal immigrant inmates. Trump hammered her on this point, and it was consistently Trump’s best ad of the cycle (Harris is for They/Them, Trump is for you/America).
Mamdani is a doubling down on this stance, and a demand that it work. In fairness to Mamadani, he’s likely to win because Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo are splitting the vote, providing a simple path forward. Those two are also running awful campaings, while Mamdani runs laps around them.
On the flip side, you have Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor Chicao, former Obama Chief of Staff, and generally considered to be the closest thing to a mafia-type person in modern politics. Emanuel went on Megyn Kelly’s show to pitch his longshot presidential hopes.
Here’s the viral moment from that interview:
“Can a man become a woman?” Kelly asked Emanuel, former President Biden’s ambassador to Japan, on her SiriusXM show.
“Can a man become a woman? Not — no,” the former Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff replied.
“Thank you,” Kelly responded, adding later that Emanuel’s answer was “so easy.”
“Why don’t more people in your party just say that?” she added.
“Because we’re — I’m now going to go into a witness protection plan,” he joked.
On the one hand, we’ve got Mamdani funding all of this with taxpayer money, and on the other Emanuel denies any of this is real.
This issue isn’t going away – in fact, it’s going to be a flashpoint in 2028. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committees banned transgender athletes from competing in the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympic games, to be held in Los Angeles (which kicked off Trump’s presidency with riots, another thing I’m guessing will get referenced).
The odds of protests around the Olympics simply due to Trump being president would be near 100%. Sprinkle in the trans athete ban, and you’re ascending well above 100%. All of this will be occuring with a backdrop of the Presidential election – primaries in the winter/spring, conventions aorund the Olympics, and so on.
But for Democrats, this is a worst-case scenario. They’ll have debates on this point in 2027. Kamala Harris got ravagaed on the trans ad, and there’s not a single left-leaning debate coming up that won’t ask about it. And here you have the party splitting in very different directions.
The other interesting character in this group: John Fetterman. The Daily Mail ran a piece where his wife was terrified of him running for president. And while I don’t necessarily believe anything his wife says, it is telling that this suggests the thought has crossed Fetterman’s mind.
Unlike other Democrats, Fetterman has an extremely good read on the political moment. He introduced legislation to ban a cashless society. He typically sides with Trump on ICE and immigration. All while voting with Democrats. He’s a very schrewd operator.
Interestingly, Fetterman has voted with the left on this point, while trying to not talk about it much. Even he’s struggling to navigate this topic.
But, like I said, it’s going to be front and center in 2028 purely because of the Olympics. The networks will talk about it. And it’s L.A., so protests are a given.
What is interesting is that Democrats don’t have a clear path forward on this, or how to navigate the radical split. Barack Obama appealed to the moderates and the radicals. Joe Biden was normalcy in the middle of a pandemic. Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom are neither of those things.
I suspect Democrats will just embrace the radical left and try to move through regardless. But for a moment, right now, there’s a divide. They’re pulling in opposite directions.
Best of luck on an issue most of America doesn’t agree with them on.
Links of the week
Lara Trump Out. Michael Whatley in for NC Senate – Politico
Iowa boy born at just 21 weeks becomes Guinness World Records ‘most premature baby’ ever – NYPost
How Obama Admin Turned ‘Unverifiable’ Report Into Russiagate Dynamite – RealClearInvestigations
A Times investigation: As west Altadena burned, L.A. County fire trucks stayed elsewhere – LA Times
As Redistricting War Looms, Republicans Have More Plausible Gerrymandering Targets than Democrats – Sabato’s Crystal Ball
‘E! News’ Canceled After 34 Years: E! News will continue on as a digital brand; ‘Access Hollywood’ is unaffected. – Hollywood Reporter
Coldplay’s Streams Surge After Viral Concert Kiss-Cam Moment: The seven-time Grammy award-winning group’s on-demand audio streams are up by 25 percent, according to data from Luminate. – Hollywood Reporter
Skydance-Paramount Merger Clears FCC At Last, With Deal Set To Close And Changes Coming – Deadline
X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week
There’s no such thing as low energy consumption and wealthy nations.
Satire of the week
Ghislaine Maxwell Can’t Help But Notice Interview Room Covered In Plastic Sheeting – Onion
Biden Excited to See What Autopen Comes Up With For His Memoir – Babylon Bee
Freshly-acquitted Diddy gives your weekend safety brief – Duffel Blog
Going Long-Distance? This Woman’s Friends Moved a Couple of Streets Down the Road – Reductress
Millennial Woman Who Starts and Ends Each Day With 3 Hours of Screen Time Really Into Mindfulness, Self-Care – The Hard Times
“Here’s How We Can Still Restore the Snyderverse,” Says Man Taking James Gunn Hostage at Knifepoint – The Hard Drive
Keith Richards Starting To Worry Now – Waterford Whispers News