April 29, 2026 - Pensito

Iran Attention Span

April 29, 2026 Buck Banks

The news from Trump’s economy these days is all doom and gloom,
And though he’s ended it twelve times, Trump’s ending the Iran war again soon.
All this bad news really rankles
Trump — from his hairdo to his cankles —
When all he really wants to do is build his big, beautiful ballroom.

Red Meat Rhetoric

April 29, 2026May 8, 2026 Buck Banks

The current state of our national political debate is pathetic,
And politicians’ performative stunts make us crave an emetic.
But when the bullets start flying,
Both sides start denying:
Saying MY violent rhetoric is less violent than YOUR violent rhetoric.

DeSantis’s Redistricting Plan Relies on Fantasy Latino Vote

April 29, 2026 Buck Banks

“For DeSantis’s map to work, he is betting that Latinos will stick with the GOP at 2024 levels. There is not much evidence to support that bet. … The worst-case scenario for a gerrymandered map is that it produces a worse result than the old map. That’s called a dummymander.”

— Dan Pfeiffer

House Republicans Are ‘Clueless’ on Strategy

April 29, 2026 Buck Banks

“They’re clearly not talking to their members. They have no clue on strategy or how to move anything across the finish line, and it’s just frustrating as hell.”

Day: April 29, 2026

Iran Attention Span

Red Meat Rhetoric

DeSantis’s Redistricting Plan Relies on Fantasy Latino Vote

“For DeSantis’s map to work, he is betting that Latinos will stick with the GOP at 2024 levels. There is not much evidence to support that bet. … The worst-case scenario for a gerrymandered map is that it produces a worse result than the old map. That’s called a dummymander.”

— Dan Pfeiffer

House Republicans Are ‘Clueless’ on Strategy

“They’re clearly not talking to their members. They have no clue on strategy or how to move anything across the finish line, and it’s just frustrating as hell.”

— Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), quoted by Punchbowl News, on the House Republican leadership.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”