Some nuggets from “The party’s over: young men reject Trump’s tough-guy flim flam and vote Democratic” by thecritical mind at Daily Kos: “In 2024, Trump won because young men cut themselves a slice of the MAGA hype. But like many decisions that seem sensible through a late-night tequila lens, dawn’s light illuminated the folly of an ill-considered choice. In the 2025 elections, these young men returned home. Good…Some left-wing purists might say “Feck ’em.” I say, “Welcome back. Just don’t do it again.”…The evidence for this buyer’s remorse is the demographics of the November 2025 elections. The Daily Mail (I know, “Daily Fail.” But even a blind squirrel can sometimes find a nut) reported:
Just a year ago in the presidential race, Trump won male voters between the ages of 18 and 29 over Kamala Harris by a margin of 49 to 48 percent. The race for this demographic was largely won on the issue of the economy, according to pollsters.
It was an extraordinary 12-point shift from four years earlier, the biggest of any demographic group.
But in the Virginia governor race, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won young men by 17 points. In the New Jersey governor race, Democrat Mikie Sherrill did so by 14 points.
This rapprochement was bicoastal. The report adds:
In New York, it was an avalanche as Zohran Mamdani won 67 percent of men under 30, compared to his rival Andrew Cuomo’s 26 percent. Only five percent voted Republican.
Over in California, 74 percent of young men voted for Proposition 50, a redistricting measure heavily backed by the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.
…The voter is electing Democrats at a time when the Democratic Party has the favorability of a tax audit…The lesson? It’s all about the candidates. And the Democrats are running winners.”
In “Vibsesessions, Part II,” Paul Krugman writes at his substack blog, “voters now blame Trump for the perceived bad state of the economy, showing their anger at the ballot box: In the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections earlier this month, voters who prioritize the economy favored Democrats by 30 points — a 90 point swing…Today’s post is the second in a series about “vibecessions”: periods when the economy, by standard economic measures, looks relatively decent but the general public holds very negative views. Last week’s primer showed that the performance of the U.S. economy during the Biden administration was, by objective measures, very impressive: America shrugged off the negative effects of the Covid pandemic on GDP and employment with remarkable speed, significantly outperforming other advanced countries…During the Biden years, inflation did temporarily spike – which people hated even though their incomes were growing fast enough to keep up with inflation. But the anger persisted even as inflation fell dramatically, and continues under Trump…Even given the gap between what Trump says about how wonderful the current economy is and the reality, however, it’s remarkable how pessimistic Americans are about the economy — significantly more negative than they were a year ago. The long-running Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment is now lower than it was in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The index is even lower than it was in 1980, when unemployment was above 7 percent and inflation hit 14 percent…” Read more here, and some of it is paywalled.
If, like me, your eyes glaze over at the mention of the latest court rulings on different aspects of the Trump follies, even though you know it is important, a quickie digest is what you need. So, take a deep breath and check out “Saturday rewind: The All Rise News playlist: This week on Legal AF: Judge Boasberg vindicated; Pam Bondi exposed; and Comey’s indictment negated?” at All Rise News, which notes in brief (heh, heh): “What a week it was…In Alexandria, Va., a federal judge forced James Comey’s prosecutors to admit that the full grand jury panel did not see the document that became the former FBI director’s operative indictment…In Greenbelt, Md., another federal judge seemed to indicate that there is no final order of removal, likely foiling the government’s plans to whisk Kilmar Abrego Garcia once again to a faraway country — this time, Liberia…A day later, John Bolton learned his trial over his alleged retention and disclosure of highly classified “diary entries” is at least a year away and likely longer…Meanwhile, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg received permission to restart contempt proceedings over the alleged violation of his March order to return Donald Trump’s deportation flights to the United States. Boasberg, a judge with a bipartisan pedigree, quickly walked through that open door…Recap those stories with the videos below.” More here.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelley (D-AZ) takes center stage as a Trump target, as a result of the president’s latest temper tantrum denouncing 6 distinguished Democratic lawmakers as “traitors, who are guilty of seditious behavior, punishable by death.” As Max Rego explains in “Kelly: ‘We’ve heard very little’ from Republicans since Trump’s sedition posts” at The Hill: ““We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress,” Kelly told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”…Kelly acknowledged Trump and GOP lawmakers asking Democrats to tone down their political rhetoric in the wake of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September, asking, “what happened to that?”…Earlier this week, Kelly, along with Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.), directly addressed active-duty military and intelligence personnel in a video on the social platform X, saying, “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”…All six lawmakers have military or intelligence backgrounds. Kelly served in the Navy for 25 years, reaching the rank of captain…Kelly, whose wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), retired from Congress after being shot in the head in 2011, said his office has received “increased threats” since the president’s remarks…Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.), meanwhile, have criticized Trump’s rhetoric. On “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Paul called the president’s remarks “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” and said the country “can do better.”…Tillis said Thursday that Trump “should always be thinking less about the adults you’re reacting to, probably what was objectionable behavior by the Democrats, and the kids that are watching, too,” according to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.” If Sens Paul and Tillis are growing tired of life in the clown car, they can always switch parties and become conservative Democrats.
