Rahm Emanuel has apparently launched his 2028 presidential bid. A wonky story about him appeared prominently in today's Washington Post, on the subject of his ideas for fixing education in America. He also recently tossed out a different provocative idea during a recent speech, which further indicates he is in the process of building a political platform to run on. Rahm Emanuel is one of those politicians with an outsized opinion of his own popularity and a strong conviction that the country is ready for him to lead it. That's nothing new -- people like that are a dime a dozen in Washington -- but his new idea is certainly an interesting one: instituting a mandatory retirement age for everyone in the federal government.

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The midterm congressional elections will happen in early November, which is now less than four months away. Trump has already been making drastic moves (such as firing all the members of a federal elections security board) seemingly designed to sow chaos (or worse) when the ballots are cast. Which is why tonight's speech is so worrisome. And which is why I felt the need to run the following column again. Trump's Big Lie is poisonous to American democracy, which is why I am not exactly looking forward to tonight's speech.

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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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It's that time of year again. "SCOTUS season" has begun. The end of June is traditionally when the weightiest Supreme Court decisions are handed down, as the high court ends its judicial year and begins a summer break that will last for months. The weightiest of the decisions still yet to be announced will answer the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment means what it clearly says it means or not, on the subject of birthright citizenship. Other high-profile cases will deal with Donald Trump's expansive view of executive power (including the power to fire anyone he wants for any reason he feels like). But the biggest news from the court this year may come right after their term ends.

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I saw a story over the weekend that made my skin crawl and sent a chill down my spine. The news first broke in what I assume is a technical journal, MedPage Today. From their report:

Members of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) were escorted by police out of the convention center in New Orleans during the organization's annual meeting on Friday as they handed out copies of an editorial criticizing Trump administration changes to U.S. biomedical research.

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There's a political cartoon out there just waiting to be drawn. Picture a coat-check window, with a line of people in front of it. But instead of coats, the sign says "Spinal Check." The person behind the counter is handing the person they're waiting on a full spine, while saying: "Here you go, Senator! Once you get it reinstalled, you'll find it's really liberating to get your spine back!" ...or something along those lines. The people in line would (if the cartoonist was good enough) resemble prominent Republicans who are now increasingly breaking with Donald Trump's agenda, of course.

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This Wednesday, we will hit a political milestone which is rather grim for me to contemplate (please read this as a trigger warning: this is going to be a very dismal column, so please stop reading now if you aren't in the mood for that sort of thing). On May 20th, Donald Trump will have been in office for exactly one-third of his second term. It will mark 16 months from when he was sworn in -- but the grim part is that this means we've still got twice as long as what we've all just been through before his term will finally be over. When you consider what has already happened so far, contemplating another 32 months of it is downright frightening.

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The U.S. Senate did some interesting things today, including voting on yet another motion to end the war in Iran -- which would have actually passed if John Fetterman had voted with his fellow Democrats, since there are now three Republicans backing the idea. But what caught my eye was a 99-0 vote (!) that is mostly symbolic and merely a baby step, but it is at least a baby step in the right direction.

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