Rahm Emanuel just launched his 2028 presidential campaign -- in Israel. He did so by giving what might be called a "Sister Souljah moment" speech in Tel Aviv, where he delicately tried to thread the needle of addressing the relationship between the U.S. and Israel in a realistic fashion without burning his bridges with either American Democrats or Israeli Jews. That is a challenging thing to attempt these days, which is why Emanuel's speech was such an important political development.

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As of this writing, Graham Platner has still not officially dropped out of the Maine Senate race. That may have changed by the time you read this, however, because he is reportedly going to make some sort of announcement tonight. Everyone knows what he's going to do already, though. So the two big questions before Maine Democrats now are: who is going to replace him, and how will the replacement candidate be selected?

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Once again, the state of Maine is now on the center stage in the American political spotlight. Yesterday, a bombshell report was published with an accusation that Graham Platner -- the Democratic nominee for the Senate race who was going to face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November -- had raped his then-girlfriend only five years ago. Some are calling it "date rape," but at this point quibbling over semantics isn't the important part. The question now is when Platner will bow to the inevitable and drop out of the race, and who will replace him on the ballot?

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A surprise announcement shook up the Democratic primary for an open Senate seat in Michigan over the holiday weekend, as Mallory McMorrow announced she was suspending her campaign. This leaves the race as a two-person contest, which will pit a favorite of the Democratic Party establishment against an upstart progressive.

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Tomorrow, America will celebrate 250 years of independence. That sounds like a long time, to Americans at least. It is a laughably short period to those who live in places with much longer histories, however. Travel around Europe or other foreign lands and you will see ruins and remains that sometimes date in the thousands of years. So while a quarter-millennium is impressive to us, to people who live near (for instance) Roman aqueducts that date to the time of Christ aren't quite as impressed.

Nevertheless, 250 years of one form of government that has endured throughout (well, except for the Articles of Confederation period, which is always conveniently forgotten) is something definitely worth celebrating. The question many are asking at this moment in time is how much longer the same form of government will endure in the future -- will the United States of America still be recognizable in another 100 years? Or 50? Or even five years?

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Once again, it is time for my annual remembrance of the actual facts, rather than the myth that everyone in the country celebrates (a myth that was actually created and endorsed by the Founding Fathers, but no matter...). So join me in lifting a glass in honor of John Adams (and his letter to his wife Abigail), and celebrate with me today the real 250th anniversary of America declaring its independence from the British king!

Originally published on July 2nd, 2012

Happy Second of July, everyone! Happy Independence Day!

Now, you may be thinking: "Has Chris gone bonkers? Why is he jumping the gun, two days early?" The answers to these important queries are: No, Chris has not gone any more bonkers than usual; and, in fact, the rest of you are celebrating a fictitious event on a fictitious anniversary date. So there.

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A paroxysm of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching was set off yesterday, as another Democratic Socialist candidate beat a long-standing Democratic incumbent in a Colorado primary. This likely means there will be at least three new members of the House of Representatives who call themselves Democratic Socialists, which is causing certain political commentators to absolutely freak out.

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As one of the last decisions the Supreme Court handed down in this year's term, they upheld the concept of "birthright citizenship" enshrined within the Fourteenth Amendment. Barely.

The stunning thing wasn't the ruling, which was expected. The truly stunning thing is that the decision was partly 6-3 and partly 5-4. It should have been at least 7-2, with the only dissenters being Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas (who always vote the way Republicans want them to vote, no matter how clear the legal evidence is on the other side). Honestly, the decision should really have been 9-0, since the case is so cut and dried. Having it only 6-3 (or 5-4) shows that too many conservative judges are complete hypocrites when they swear up and down that they are "originalists" or "textualists" who only take into account what the Constitution (or any amendment) meant by the people who drafted it. Whenever that lofty principle becomes inconvenient in a case, too many of the conservatives just start making stuff up instead of reading the clear and unequivocal language of a law or an amendment.

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It is darkly ironic that we are only a few weeks away from celebrating the 250th anniversary of declaring independence from a king while our own Supreme Court continues to advance a vision of American government where the president has powers that can only be described as kinglike. They don't call it that -- they use the term "unitary executive" instead -- but the upshot is the same.

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If anyone needed any further proof that everything that Donald Trump touches turns to schlock (or worse), this week's opening of the Great American State Fair certainly provided some. The initial idea wasn't too bad a concept -- have all 50 states send an exhibit to the National Mall, and it would capture the spirit of state fairs held every year across America. Sounds kind of fun, actually.

But, of course, with Trump in charge of it, things didn't turn out as well as they could have. And that's putting it mildly. The whole thing was supposed to kick off with a big concert, but when the musical artists realized it was a pro-Trump event (rather than a nonpartisan celebration of patriotism), almost all of them immediately pulled out. So Trump, in a hissy fit, said that he'd give a speech instead, with the handful of the few musical artists still willing to perform for him also featured.

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