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Meet Meet Mary Anne Clarkson and John Merlino, the two Senate employees who have to read out the entire 628 page text of the COVID relief bill because Sen. Ron Johnson and his colleagues thought it would be a cute delaying tactic. They’re two hours in and about 100 pages through.

This is one of the most concerning installments yet in the much-too-early-but-inevitable political musings about 2024.

During an appearance on Fox News’ Sean Hannity last night, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a pretty firm “maybe” to the prospects of running for president in 2024 — a prospect that his former boss has already called dibs on in the strongest possible terms.

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One of the issues we’re focused on in the post-Trump presidency era is the series of developments which have made the threat of political violence a constituent part of American politics in a way it hasn’t been in many decades or perhaps as far back as the 19th century. This is largely due to ex-President Trump. But it involves trends which predated him and ones he began but now have a life of their own. This will be one of the organizing focuses of our coverage for the foreseeable future.

We have a pretty stark example of it actually today. Read More 

Steve Bannon was, of course, among the 100-plus people Trump pardoned during his last months and days and minutes in office. But there’s been speculation since the pardon was issued about how much weight it would actually hold — Bannon had only been charged, but not convicted, of allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a border wall crowd-funding campaign for personal use.

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Here’s a really fascinating interview New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz did with David Shor, a left-wing Democrat public opinion data guy whose analyses of public opinion and voting often confound Democratic orthodoxies, often supporting arguments advanced by more right-leaning factions within the Democratic party. It’s worth your time to read.
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