“There are too many people who think, ‘What can I say that will get me on the evening news or give me a sound bite or get me on this Twitter account,’ or something else. They don’t care about the country. They care about their political ambitions.”
— Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told the AP that too many politicians in Washington “don’t care” about the country.
credit: Bloomberg A new Public Affairs Council/Morning Consult poll examines what outrages people most about Washington politics, whether President Trump’s critical tweets change opinions, and how White House policies have affected American businesses.
Pew Research: “Nearly six-in-ten women (58%) say they are paying increased attention to politics since Trump’s election, compared with 46% of men. Overall, more Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than Republicans and Republican leaners say they have become more attentive to politics. But there are similarly wide gender gaps in heightened interest to politics among members of both parties.” Also interesting: “Most people (59%) say it is ‘stressful and frustrating’ to talk about politics with people who have a different opinion of Trump than they do; just 35% find such conversations ‘interesting and informative.’”
In the midst of our bountiful October harvest of Trump grotesqueries, the Russians and Julian Assange organized a WikiLeaks dump of private emails from the Clinton campaign. These revealed a shocking and scandalous fact about the former Secretary of State: she is a politician. Indeed, the documents represent one of the most reassuring moments of this calamitous campaign. The overwhelming impression is of the candidate’s and her staff’s competence and sanity–and something more: a refreshing sense of reality about the vagaries of politics.
You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.
— Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, who died Feb. 4 at age 85, quoted by Space Flight Insider.
On this all can agree: Strange happenings are afoot in the 2016 presidential cycle, the kind that leave experts scratching their heads. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, talk of a third-party run—we’ve never seen anything quite like it, right? … Except that we have. It happened in 1968, and if you are seeking precedents for this cycle, that year’s momentous presidential election is a good place to look. Here’s something further to consider: The 1968 race so shook up the political system that we’re still feeling its aftershocks today, more than a generation later. There is at least a chance this year’s race could become a similarly realigning campaign.
Whether it is entertainment, consumer goods or almost anything else that can be purchased, viewed or clicked on, Millennials are the most coveted demographic. There are about 80 million Americans between the ages of 18-34 and next year they are expected to spend $2.45 trillion. But when it comes to politics and national policy they have relatively little clout because most of them don’t reliably vote and aren’t major political contributors. These young adults have voluntarily checked out of a political system they consider corrupt and dysfunctional.
I am who I am. I don’t think my educational history or my age or voter registration has anything to do with what I’m trying to do in this city. … This is my first rodeo, and I’m disappointed that the media are bringing me down.
— Embattled Laguna Beach City Council candidate Jon Madison, claiming he is being “ambushed” over evidence that he falsified his age, educational and work histories on his campaign website, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot reports.
When Joe Biden tripped, Donald Trump made a big to-do.
When Trump slipped, tripped and gripped, it went viral, too!
But hey, you’re the president,
And it pays to have a sycophant
Like Li’l Marco, who will badly fake a trip to cover for you.
“I noted over the weekend several reasons why Donald Trump himself, his presidency, and his administration overall are nowhere near prepared for the Iran/Israel situation. … But the more that it becomes an Iran/US situation, the more it’s important to add one more important point: Trump is absolutely, utterly unprepared to rally the nation around a war effort. And nothing we’ve seen in the last ten years even hints that he’s capable of it.”
“Conventional political analyses do not come close to describing the way our world has been turned on its head. Yes, the GOP lost its spine and its balls; Democrats flailed; the electorate realigned. The enter>tainment wing of the GOP routed the establishment. Much of the rest of the media has been enshittified. … But that really doesn’t capture the velocity or the scope of the transformation. It’s not just our politics. America has become dumber, crueler, crazier, and more violent. To much of the rest of the world, we have become unrecognizable.”
“As is so often the case, Donald Trump’s opponents are playing into his hands. This is exactly the kind of fight that Donald Trump loves, with his opponents carrying Mexican flags past burning cars.”
“Don’t kid yourself they know they are absolutely getting cooked politically with their terrible bill and rising prices, and they want to create a violent spectacle to feed their content machine. It’s time for the mainstream media to describe this authoritarian madness accurately.”
— Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), reacting on X to President Trump sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
“The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle! And exactly 80% of people agree. This is fate.”
— Elon Musk floated a new political party on Friday after falling out with President Trump over the big, beautiful bill, The Hill reports. He followed up with a potential name for the group, “The America Party.”
America’s millionaire population grew by 379,000 for a total of 23.8 million, the most of any country, according to a new study by UBS, CNBC reports. Much of that wealth growth came from strong markets and a stable dollar, which both have been disrupted so far in 2025 by a trade war and recession fears.
A new Economist/YouGov poll finds 60% of Americans think the U.S. military should not get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran. Only 16% support U.S. military action, and 24% are unsure.
A new Washington Post poll finds Americans opposing U.S. airstrikes against Iran by a 20 percentage-point margin — 45 percent to 25 percent — with a sizable 30 percent saying they are unsure.
Americans broadly disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president and favor Democratic U.S. House candidates for the 2026 midterms by 8 points, 45% to 37%, a new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds. The president is underwater on 10 out of 11 issues.
An Economist/YouGov poll found that only 16% of U.S. adults and less than a quarter of Republicans think the U.S. should get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel. Trump voters are even less enthusiastic than Republicans as a whole. Only 19% of 2024 Trump voters support U.S. involvement.