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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Schools 'discourage' students' physical activity, healthy eating

State and federal officials spoke with Newton YMCA leadership, staff and participating kids about the reinstated presidential fitness test.

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Aug 17 • 6:01 PM EDT • Health • iowacapitaldispatch.com
Politics Unplugged (Full Episode) August 16, 2026

From GOP teen to Dem candidate, Jacob Martinez eyes District 9; consultants Grodsky & Dell'Artino break down the Governor's race and Mark Kelly's likely 2028 presidential bid.

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Aug 16 • 7:05 PM EDT • Politics • azfamily.com
Politics chat: Democrats take lessons from the primaries, set 2028 calendar

We look at how the Democrats are gearing up for the 2028 presidential primaries, as well as their takeaways from the current batch of primary races.

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Aug 16 • 7:46 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Democrats' 2028 presidential calendar gives Black and Latino voters and union members an early say

The primary lineup pushes Iowa from the traditional top spot and makes South Carolina the leadoff state, voting on Jan. 22, 2028, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1.

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Aug 15 • 3:00 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Democrats Make South Carolina the First Contest in 2028 Presidential Primary Calendar

The party’s membership finalized the new order for the first six states to winnow the candidate field, pushing back Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Aug 15 • 2:27 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Democrats look to states with Black, Latino voters to build momentum in 2028

Democrats on Saturday finalized their 2028 presidential primary schedule, elevating states with diverse populations to the front of a calendar that will shape their party’s fight for an open White House seat.

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Aug 15 • 2:26 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Sizing up the 2028 Republican presidential contenders

Can anyone win by distancing themselves from President Donald Trump?

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Aug 14 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Voters prefer socialist over MAGA candidate in 2028 matchup: Poll

New polling released this week suggests that a socialist candidate would defeat a Make America Great Again candidate in a hypothetical 2028 presidential matchup, a move that implies the reach of progressive leftists isn’t abating despite recent setbacks in Wisconsin. If the 2028 election for president were held today, 55% of respondents said they would […]

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Aug 13 • 1:39 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Sizing up the 2028 Democratic presidential contenders

There’s a long list, but some are getting more traction than others.

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Aug 13 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
The one French politician who’s not on vacation this summer

Presidential candidate Gabriel Attal is forgoing the traditional August holiday in a desperate attempt to catch up with his rivals.

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Aug 12 • 10:00 PM EDT • Politics • politico.eu
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Trump DOJ formally stakes out bold claim that presidential advisers outside government are protected by privilege

Communications that President Donald Trump has with advisers who don’t even work for his administration can be protected by executive privilege, the Justice Department said in a memo Monday evening that comes amid lawsuits and a possible Democratic takeover of Congress.

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Aug 11 • 1:16 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Forty Under 40: Andres Lazarte

Andres Lazarte’s cousin was working on a presidential candidate’s campaign in 2012 and told him some internships were available. He booked a flight to Boston, but before he left, he...

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Aug 10 • 11:30 AM EDT • Politics • talkbusiness.net
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Democrats are about to finalize a decision that will reshape their 2028 presidential race

The new calendar for the 2028 primaries that Democrats are poised to approve later this week will dramatically shake up the race for the party’s next presidential nomination.

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Aug 9 • 6:30 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on Historic Michigan Win: “People Are Sick and Tired of This Politics of Hatred”

We speak with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed after his victory in Michigan’s primary race for U.S. Senate sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party. El-Sayed, a former public health official, ran a progressive campaign focused on affordability, Medicare for All, getting money out of politics, and opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He defeated Congressmember Haley Stevens, who was backed by tens of millions in outside spending including by AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby group. “In an era where many of us can’t afford basic things like groceries or rent or healthcare, the idea that your government is sending your tax dollars to buy bombs and tanks for foreign governments seems anathema,” El-Sayed says. “That money could be spent to fix your potholes, rebuild your kid’s school.” El-Sayed says his focus now is on beating Republican nominee Mike Rogers, whom he calls a “bootlicker for Trumpism,” and to present a positive vision for his party that can lead into the next Democratic presidential administration.

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Aug 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • democracynow.org
US Stand Up for Science movement expands to Europe

A grassroots movement by scientists in the US pushing back against threats to academic freedom is setting up a Swiss outpost to take the movement global. Stand Up for Science started in February 2025 to protest against politically-motivated grant cancellations by the Trump administration. Since then, it has organised numerous rallies by scientists and turned into a broader campaigning organisation, supporting “pro-science” political candidates and attempting to impeach Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the health and human services secretary the group accuses of advancing “quack” science. Now, Stand Up for Science is establishing a Swiss office to take some of its campaigning beyond the US, and its leader is urging European academics to organise similar pro-science groups in case they face similar threats in Europe. There will likely be “spillover” to Europe from what the Trump administration is attempting in the US, said Colette Delawalla, chief executive of Stand Up for Science, who last month returned from a tour of Europe. “Are we going to see a Trump-style scientific [. . .] take over in the same way?” she asked.Delawalla, who is doing a PhD in clinical psychology, said she was driven to help found the organisation after the Trump administration started cancelling health research grants in politically taboo topics, such as transgender people, diversity and HIV, in early 2025. Since then, the administration has introduced several other measures that infringe academic and institutional autonomy.It threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless the university accepted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity.” And this year, it proposed explosive new rules that would allow political appointees at research funders to screen grants to make sure they “advance the president's policy priorities.”US scientists have been at times stunned by the volume of announcements, and the country’s researchers were relatively unprepared. “We sit in front of the fire hose every day,” said Delawalla. For this reason, European scientists need to prepare now for similar assaults. “If you've got a little bit of extra time to start thinking through, and making those preparations and building community and solidarity,” then European researchers will “start five steps ahead of where we were.” She plans to return to Paris in September to share experiences with concerned French academics. Is Le Pen the same?During her European tour, Delawalla said that French academics were beginning to worry about a National Rally (RN) victory in presidential elections next year. She said there were “chilling similarities” between Trump and Marine Le Pen, the RN’s likely candidate. However, so far, the RN hasn’t proposed anything nearly as radical as the Trump administration has carried out. Its current manifesto is all but silent on university and research policy. Le Pen’s 2022 manifesto bemoaned a lack of French R&D spending, including in fundamental research, and promised to modernise labs and strip away grant bureaucracy. The party’s 2024 European election manifesto explicitly supported the Erasmus+ student exchange programme, scientific exchange and joint European technology projects. However, a Le Pen victory next year could see France drastically cut its contribution to the EU, which would hit the budget for science and innovation. Meanwhile, more restrictive immigration policies could hit university recruitment of faculty and students. Climate science denial?As heatwaves and wildfires have ravaged France, the RN has sought to distance itself from previous comments casting doubt on climate science.In the UK, the radical-right party Reform UK, now second in the polls, denied climate research in a draft of its 2024 election manifesto, but its leader, Nigel Farage, then appeared to quietly U-turn and said he was “not arguing the science.” By contrast, Trump has repeatedly and explicitly denied climate change science, in 2025 calling it “the greatest con job.” Like the RN, Reform UK has been light on research and university policy. However, it did say in its 2024 manifesto that universities should suffer “heavy financial penalties” for allowing “political bias or cancel culture” on campus, building on laws brought in by a previous Conservative government. Ahead of September state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, the poll-leading Alternative for Germany has proposed abolishing gender studies and postcolonial studies, and promised money for “critical” climate research and studies of Islam. Starts with rhetoricEven if European radical right parties aren’t currently planning the draconian policy measures of the Trump administration, Delawalla said that academics should not be complacent, and fight even small funding restrictions or anti-science talk from the start. “It starts off with sowing distrust about institutions,” she said. “It starts off with these small things, and then all of a sudden it's there.” There are other, more established science and university advocacy groups in the US aside from Stand Up for Science. But the group stands out because of Delawalla’s refusal to attempt to appear politically bipartisan or conciliatory. “I firmly believe that the US is experiencing fascism,” she said. “We’re not trying to win over the super Maga people,” she said, “and we never have been.” The lesson of the US is that even if universities or other institutions capitulate to government demands, this doesn’t save them from cuts and restrictions. “It doesn’t matter what people do,” she said. Global “pseudoscience”Another aim of Stand Up for Science’s push into Europe is to better coordinate a campaign to protect people in poorer countries from what the group describes as “pseudoscientific exploitation,” trials outside the US used to build a case against things like vaccines. Earlier this year, the group sent an investigator to Guinea-Bissau to investigate a controversial, Danish-run Hepatitis B vaccine project funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The study would have withheld a proven vaccine from newborns, Stand Up for Science argued in a briefing it presented to Congress, risking their health. Significantly, the research group based in Guinea-Bissau, known as Bandim, focuses on the “non-specific effects” of vaccines: impacts on health beyond preventing the target disease. Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationData corner: which fields of health science is the US curbing? The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know The suspicion is that the study was funded as part of an attempt to shop around for results that could help build a case against vaccines in the US, said Delawalla. “This is just code for vaccines cause autism,” she said.Bandim has put out a rebuttal of Stand Up for Science’s criticisms, arguing its work has uncovered a number of vaccine side effects, both positive and negative, which need to be taken into account in public health. However, Congressional Democrats took up the Stand Up for Science cause, and in February, Guinea-Bissau said it had permanently halted the study. WatchdogBut for Delawalla, this is not the end of the fight. Kennedy has made a number of health claims that scientists think lack evidence, such as the idea that seed oils cause inflammation, for example. Delawalla worries that more studies could be launched in poorer countries to fish around for evidence to support this agenda. Stand Up for Science is talking to African science organisations to create a kind of “watchdog” to scrutinise any further trials. “Outsourcing the investigation to some of the most vulnerable children in the world who are desperate [. . .] is fundamentally wrong,” she said.

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Aug 6 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Trump said Qatari jet was destined for his library. That may change

A White House official says no final decision has been made about which plane will go on display at the Trump presidential library. That leaves the fate of the Qatari jet unclear.

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Aug 5 • 11:51 PM EDT • Politics • seattletimes.com
Newsom heading to Michigan to boost Democrats on heels of El-Sayed win

The trip will also allow Newsom to build support in a critical swing state as he gears up for a possible presidential run in 2028.

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Aug 5 • 7:48 PM EDT • Politics • sfchronicle.com
Will Trump Try to Keep His Qatari-Gifted Flying Palace?

Recent comments from Eric Trump indicate that the Qatari-gifted luxury Air Force One won’t be heading for his dad’s presidential library after all.

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Aug 5 • 5:06 PM EDT • Politics • nymag.com
If Not AOC, Then Who?

What do we do if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides not to run for president in 2028? It makes sense that many leftists are currently focused on calling on her to take the plunge. But the absence of a Plan B, or even much discussion about one, is worrisome. The US Left can’t afford to sit out the 2028 Democratic primary. Doing so in 2024 was a disaster: our abstention self-marginalized anti-billionaire politics from the national conversation and thereby gave space for Harris to pivot to the “center” (i.e. the policy preferences of corporate donors, establishment hacks, and AIPAC). Abstaining again in 2028 would be especially counterproductive since democratic socialists now have so much wind in our sails after our big electoral wins in NYC and across the country. It’s time to deepen our momentum, organization, and profile — not to retreat to the margins during America’s single most important political battle. Even more urgently, keeping Trump’s heir out of the White House may depend on whether leftists and the party’s unprecedentedly disenchanted base can force the Democrats in 2028 to take meaningful steps towards a very angry electorate and away from the corporate-consultant blob that has helped get us into this mess. If AOC (or Abdul El-Sayed) decides to run, we should enthusiastically go all in — DSA, fighting unions, progressive organizations, anybody who wants to see a better country and world. But, as far as I can tell from the outside, there’s a real chance that she doesn’t run. And we can’t just wait and see where she lands before discussing alternatives, since AOC’s decision might not come for quite a while, giving us little time to scramble at the last minute for an alternative. So we should start working now on getting a Plan B into motion, and recruiting a good candidate for the role. Here’s one idea. A Worker Candidate — Healthcare Not Warfare 2028 Run a union worker Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Lula, the current president of Brazil, began his political career as a metalworker militant who ran for governor of São Paulo in 1982. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics. Experience abroad shows this clearly. Rachel Kéké — an immigrant hotel housekeeper — ran as the candidate of the leftist La France Insoumise for the National Assembly in 2022, defeating a former minister in the Macron government. The Belgian Workers’ Party in 2024 won its first Flemish seat in the European Parliament by running Rudi Kennes, a three-decade veteran of the Opel Antwerp auto factory. And the South Korean left in 2024 elected auto factory militant Yoon Jong-oh to the National Assembly. If a tiny French Trotskyist organization could make such a big splash in 2002 and 2007 by running a well-spoken postal worker cadre for office — the LCR’s Olivier Besancenot received about 1.5 million first-round votes — it’s not far-fetched to expect that a much larger organization like DSA, together with a broader coalition of the willing, could run this playbook to much greater effect. This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers. The main lesson of the Graham Platner fiasco isn’t that we should never run outsiders for office (the momentum he generated proves the exact opposite), but that they need proper vetting and roots in democratic membership organizations like DSA or a union. In any case, there are plenty of ways to signal working-class authenticity without resorting to Platner’s or Fetterman’s performative macho white dude affect. Better to have someone of any gender or race who is actually working class, with firm socialist politics, who can speak from experience about the day-to-day realities of trying to make it in America. There are surely at least a dozen such worker leaders in our movement nationwide; we just need to sit down and convince one that their personal sacrifice for the greater good (i.e. running for president) will be worth it. If we don’t have a frontrunner with a clear path to victory like AOC (or El-Sayed, were he to win Michigan), it’s better to embrace someone whose decision to run in itself tells an important story about US politics: workers have been iced out of our political system and are now fighting hard to break back in. The novelty factor, in itself, would generate press. And it would help democratic socialists signal to the American public that our movement’s defining characteristic is that we represent workers vs. bosses, not that we’re “the furthest left” force in American politics — a framework that suggests we’re extremists and that helps our opponents isolate us from non-college-educated voters by highlighting extremely minoritarian (and misguided) stances included in DSA’s platform like prison abolition. We don’t get many opportunities to speak to tens of millions of Americans; we need to use these opportunities to broaden our appeal beyond those already in our orbit. Run to polarize the 2028 primary and general election around “Medicare for All” and “End All Aid to Israel” Why should democratic socialists use our scarce time and volunteer energy to run in a race we’re unlikely to win? Running in the 2028 primary will not only recruit us scores of members (imagine having a DSA member intervening in eleven nationally televised primary debates!), but — more importantly — it has the potential to be a decisive leap forward towards an America that finally starts meeting the needs of working people instead of HMO and AIPAC billionaire donors. Polarizing litmus tests are good, actually — as long as they’re fought for around popular demands in a thoughtful and strategic way. Democratic socialists have an opportunity and responsibility to make the 2028 primary about two of the most widely and deeply felt issues of our moment: domestically, America’s unaffordable, family-breaking private healthcare system; internationally, America’s bankrolling of the genocidal Israeli government. A candidacy relentlessly demanding Medicare for All and No Aid to Israel would pose a sharp question to the American public, the Democratic Party, and other 2028 contenders: Why can’t working-class Americans afford their healthcare bills at the same time that our government is spending at least $3.8 billion yearly to fund an Israeli regime eager to keep dragging us and the world into more forever wars? Our candidate can agitate around a clear message: I’m running to give voice to all those working-class Americans who are struggling to get by. No matter what state you live in, who you voted for in 2024, or your background, it’s just plain common sense that we should make healthcare more affordable instead of spending billions to enable the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity. Every American who agrees with me when I say ‘Medicare for All — Not a Dime for Israel’ should make their voice heard through our campaign. Racking up a high number of votes for this agenda is a crucial way to show the Democratic Party and the country as a whole that we can’t keep supporting a life-destroying status quo in our healthcare system and in the Middle East. If we want to defeat Trump’s handpicked crony this coming November, we need to speak to ordinary people’s frustrations with the status quo — we can’t keep running the same tired establishment playbook and expecting a different result. For those highly engaged voters (or skeptical media pundits) who raise concerns about wasting votes, the candidate can take the time to explain why this isn’t the case: It's true I'm a long shot. But Zohran showed anything can happen — and voting for me is a pragmatic decision, not a wasted vote. In a heavily divided primary with a large number of candidates and a very discredited establishment, my campaign and the democratic socialist movement I’m part of are positioned to be the balance of power if we can get a large enough number of voters to loudly demand Healthcare Not Warfare. Since there’s a high chance no candidate will get to 50% in the 2028 primaries, the Democrats could very well be heading towards a brokered convention, where a disciplined, principled current committed to breaking from corporate donors can play an outsized role in making sure whoever ends up with the nomination raises the banner of single-payer healthcare and cutting aid to Israel. How exactly could running this sort of primary campaign be translated into actual leverage? The candidate replies: I’m aiming to win the nomination, but if I don’t achieve that goal, my delegates and I will pledge our support in the primary only for a candidate who agrees in the general election to call for ending US aid to Israel and establishing Medicare for All at home. These are both winning planks for November against the Republicans, and the only reason I can see that other candidates haven’t yet raised these is that they’re still more scared of the donor class than they are of the people. That needs to change. If Democratic leaders want young people, workers, and those sick of the status quo to show up in big numbers this November, they need to meet us halfway. In this way, whether or not we win the nomination, democratic socialists could still play a decisive role in 2028. The approach outlined here is similar to what radical left parties periodically do in parliamentary democracies like Denmark or Sweden when they find themselves as a junior partner electorally: they dictate to center-left allies what their terms would be for enabling, from the outside, the formation of a new government. Running a Healthcare Not Warfare candidate will make it significantly more likely that the 2028 Democratic candidate stands with ordinary people instead of donors on these two pivotal planks — a shift that will, in turn, make it easier to achieve the existentially important task of defeating MAGA’s heir in November. Look at how much popular traction the Uncommitted movement got with a similar strategy in 2024 with so little on-the-ground organization — surely we can go much further with a working-class candidate, a much bigger DSA, and a Democratic Party base that has turned against Israel, billionaires, and the hacks in the party who prop them up. Objections and Responses There are quite a few objections to this proposal, many of which are very reasonable. Let me briefly address each here. Socialists shouldn’t waste their scarce time and resources on a candidate unlikely to win. This is a good rule in general, but there are important exceptions, and presidential elections are the main one. There’s no other political contest that gets anything like this level of attention and engagement in the US, so if you want to be a serious force in nationwide politics, you basically can’t afford not to have a candidate. Far from being an overall drain on our resources, running a dynamic 2028 campaign would likely result in a major net increase in members and capacity. In that spirit, the very pragmatic Milwaukee sewer socialists — who mostly ran to win at home in Wisconsin — supported Eugene Debs’s propagandistic presidential campaigns, which they correctly saw as a crucial means of recruiting to the Socialist Party. And now that the (post-1972) Democratic Party gives more weight to voters than party operatives in determining its presidential nomination, it’s become feasible to run as a socialist in primaries without risking a split in the vote against the Republicans in November. We should just support Ro Khanna, who also supports M4A and ending aid to Israel. I like Ro Khanna and would enthusiastically vote and canvass for him for president were he to get the nomination. But there’s a real chance that Khanna’s bid for office doesn’t catch on; he lacks the grassroots organizational apparatus of DSA, and, because he’s not really of the Left or labor (despite his current very good positions), he’s unlikely to generate the type of buy-in and enthusiasm that a DSA candidate would. Moreover, Khanna would be running as an individual, not as someone emerging from and building an organized movement — his campaign would not likely focus on building sustained power from below, nor would it likely polarize the 2028 primary around M4A and Israel aid. Also, and not inconsequentially, the poor electoral results for Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti this spring suggest that there’s perhaps not much of a popular appetite in the Democrats’ base to support multi-millionaire class traitors. Much better, then, to run a democratic socialist worker. If by Super Tuesday it’s clear that our campaign has captured the main left lane in the primary, Khanna should drop out and endorse us; conversely, if he’s managed to capture this lane, DSA could at that point transform its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign into an independent campaign to elect Ro Khanna focused on winning (and holding him accountable to) those two critical planks. An openness to consolidating an anti-corporate candidate by Super Tuesday is a necessary component of the strategy I’m proposing, because otherwise we risk splitting the primary votes (per DNC rules, you need at least 15% to get any delegates to convention). We should convince Shawn Fain or Sara Nelson to run for president instead. I agree it’d be great if either ran for president, but my impression is that there’s basically no chance that will happen in 2028, because both are firmly focused on their union leadership duties (and, in the case of Fain, beating back a federal witch-hunt). This plan could have DSA end up endorsing a non-socialist, non-DSAer for president. That’s against our principles. It’s a myth, and bad politics, that socialists can’t ever support candidates who aren’t members of their organization and/or who don’t call themselves socialists. Bernie, after all, was not a DSAer. And socialists abroad regularly make tactical decisions about if and when supporting a non-socialist candidate makes sense from the standpoint of promoting working-class interests, defending democracy, and building a socialist current in the process. If your “principles” prevent you and DSA from helping achieve the momentous stride forward of having a Democratic candidate in 2028 run on Medicare for All and ending aid to Israel, those “principles” are not very good. In fact, they actively undermine the causes they’re aiming to support. We shouldn’t confuse principles (working-class independence) with tactics (the best way to advance this in a given context). In my recent article in Catalyst on Milwaukee sewer socialism (I’ve uploaded the full text here), I have a section showing how similarly rigid rules about endorsements had to be eventually discarded in the old Socialist Party nationwide after WWI because they tended to lead socialists towards a sectarian abstention from broader anti-corporate electoral insurgencies beyond their party’s control. For what it’s worth, Lenin’s current under Tsarism frequently backed bourgeois candidates in the second round of elections and Lenin himself advocated that British Communists support Labour Party candidates; for his part, Kautsky in 1912 defended the German Social Democracy’s electoral pact with the Progressives in the runoffs. If our predecessors could be that tactically flexible in an era before the limits of their underlying strategic assumptions about intransigent class politics in capitalist democracies were made clear, then there’s no need to insist on being more tactically rigid today, after a century’s worth of accumulated experience. As long as you maintain your own political profile and organization while engaging in broader coalitional efforts, there’s zero inherent contradiction with the principle of political independence. More specifically: DSA and allied organizations should enthusiastically back Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed if AOC declines to run and he throws his hat in the presidential ring. (I have no idea whether he’s even considering this path, but there’ll surely be chatter about it if he wins his Senate race this November.) Though he doesn’t call himself a socialist, El-Sayed is a principled Berniecrat, a consistent fighter for Palestine, and would have a clear path to victory. Using the “s” word is far less important than whether a campaign fights for the interests of working people at home and abroad — and whether actively participating in it can grow the organized working class and the Left. And the same holds true if a less anti-corporate candidate were, under pressure, to adopt our two Healthcare Not Warfare planks. Why focus only on M4A and ending US aid to Israel? There are so many other important issues to fight for! Obviously there are many pivotal issues beyond healthcare and Israel, and our candidate — and especially our organizations involved in the campaign — should be prepared to speak on all of these. But one of the crucial lessons of the Zohran campaign is that you have to relentlessly stay on message if you want to cut through the noise. CNN and Fox News will want to talk about DSA’s views on Venezuela and abolishing the police; we need to polarize the debate on the widely and deeply felt issues that are most favorable for growing the Left, isolating our opponents, and winning urgently needed changes. One recent poll found 63% of Americans support M4A, even after respondents were told it would raise taxes and eliminate most private insurance. Another found that 74% of Democrats opposed “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.” And focusing on two demands sets the campaign up to be able to leverage its mandate to make clear demands upon other candidates (which we can’t do if we run with a laundry list of demands). Talking about a Plan B is a distraction from the more urgent work of building a groundswell of calls on AOC to run. It’s good for DSAers, fightback unionists, and progressive organizations to try to convince AOC to run. This proposal is meant as an addendum to pushes to get AOC to run and to line DSA up for that eventuality, not as a substitute for those efforts. But I’m worried that, like in 2024, we might eventually find ourselves with no time to find a viable alternative unless we start now. DSA, with its abundant deliberative processes, moves slowly. The approach you’re suggesting seems risky. If a DSA candidate runs but doesn’t receive a lot of votes, it’ll undercut our current national momentum. This is a reasonable worry. All big initiatives always carry risks, and the path I’m advocating is certainly not free of these. That said, if a Healthcare Not Warfare campaign doesn’t catch on like we envisioned, it’s a pretty simple pivot in March 2028 to explain that in the future we really need our standard-bearers like AOC, or our growing bench of national electeds, to step up in presidential primaries. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the risk of my Plan B proposal is on the whole significantly less than the risk entailed by an AOC run. We should all back her if she runs, since she’d fire up the base, provide huge openings for organizing, have a real shot at defeating a Republican (especially given MAGA’s unpopularity), be a great standard-bearer for our issues, particularly M4A and ending aid to Israel, and be less willing than mainstream candidates to capitulate to any anti-democratic machinations from Trump and co. But it’s also true that AOC could lose, which would be a devastating setback to the country and the Left. Or she could win and find herself unable to pass much, if any, of her (and our) program, a demoralizing prospect. So if we’re willing to take these risks with AOC (and we should), it follows that we should be able to take lower-level risks if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring. What’s Your Plan B? The US Left is facing its biggest opening for growth and influence since the 1930s. Initiatives that would have been impossible a few months ago are now potentially feasible. A President AOC is now easier to imagine, but if she ultimately assesses that the risks aren’t worth the potential reward in 2028, we can’t be left flat-footed. So even if you’re not convinced by the specifics of my Plan B, I hope you can at least agree that it’d be a disaster for us not to have one — and not to start getting a Plan B into motion. Hopefully other organizers and political currents will put forward their responses and alternative ideas ASAP. The stakes are too high to just wait and see. More As always, please share this article widely. This newsletter depends on all you lovely people to get the word out. Thank you! I uploaded the full text of my Catalyst article on Milwaukee sewer socialism here (it’s updated and 3x as long as the version published earlier on this substack). If you haven’t yet, please make sure to subscribe to Catalyst here; I read every issue front to back, highly recommend. 🌹🎵 Ivan Lins (arranged by Arthur Verocai) — “General da Banda” 🌹🎵

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Aug 3 • 12:50 PM EDT • Politics • laborpolitics.com
Courageous Colorado bucks Trump’s federal stupidity

There are several theories regarding the rhythm of American politics. The most frequently cited is the pendulum hypothesis — positing that episodes of liberal dominance are then interrupted by spans of conservative control. Since Ronald Reagan’s presidential election in 1980, these swings have been foreshortened, interrupting modest reigns of far-right rule in Washington with only […]

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Aug 3 • 3:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Democratic socialists face a prove-it moment in battleground Wisconsin

Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist leading Wisconsin’s Democratic field for governor, could soon test whether the progressive insurgency that notched primary victories in deep-blue districts this summer can prevail statewide in a perennial presidential battleground.

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Aug 2 • 12:00 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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A democratic socialist in the White House? Activists are thinking big.

The Democratic Socialists of America summit was abuzz about whether to endorse a presidential candidate, potentially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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Aug 2 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Infantino is teetering at FIFA. Is football finally poised for a great reset?

With a presidential election looming next year, surely football can produce a candidate who can offer the sport a fresh start

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Aug 1 • 10:25 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
France’s Wildfires Are Swallowing Its Politics

The country’s next presidential election is more ominous in the glow of its latest environmental disaster.

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Jul 31 • 4:59 PM EDT • Politics • foreignpolicy.com
WATCH LIVE: Trump hosts Cabinet meeting at Camp David

President Donald Trump is taking Friday's Cabinet meeting on the road — to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, a rustic backdrop for sessions that have come to be known for being overly long and consumed by administration officials' endless praise for their boss.

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Jul 31 • 11:01 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know

The US has unveiled what officials claim is the most radical overhaul of the public R&D system in a generation, which if implemented could have significant implications for transatlantic research collaboration. Science: A New Golden Age derides universities as “legacy institutions” and instead wants to prioritise funding on technological challenges, new research labs and funding that follows individual scientists, rather than being linked to their institutions. “Too much of our research enterprise has come to serve itself rather than the scientists within it,” writes Michael Kratsios, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the only named author of the report. “Federal funding agencies should support a broader range of performers.” But some critics argue that the strategy is a smokescreen, using genuine problems in academia as an excuse to further weaken US universities, which US vice-president JD Vance has labelled “the enemy..”Even as it talks of a “golden age” for science, the White House has proposed halving the 2027 budget of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and has put forward double-digit cuts for other funding bodies, such as the National Institutes for Health. It asked for similarly steep savings in 2026, but Congress stopped them going through. Science: A New Golden Age says success will be measured by the extent to which scientists are “free” to pursue the most “vital questions,,” painting academia as currently hidebound by bureaucracy, sluggishness and consensual conservatism. And yet the Trump administration is simultaneously planning new rules that will hand political appointees unprecedented powers to screen and cancel grants. The report has pretentions to be the successor to Science: The Endless Frontier, the seminal 1945 document in which presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush set out the case for post-war government funding of basic research, helping to spur the creation of funders such as the NSF. Even the title page font is the same. But it remains unclear if the latest report will leave anything like as lasting a legacy.Here, Science|Business explains some of the biggest proposed changes in Science: A New Golden Age, and how Europeans think it might change the landscape of their biggest science partner.Universities under fireA key target of the report are US universities, which it repeatedly suggests are outmoded as research institutions. It criticises the NSF for channelling resources “overwhelmingly to a single type of performer, the university-based, principal investigator-led research group..” Universities “extract” money from researchers’ grants to support “growing administrative bloat,” alongside legitimate uses. The Trump administration has been trying to cut the overhead costs in federal research grants that flow to universities. Instead, new institutions are being built. In May, the NSF announced it would spend $1.5 billion on two new so-called X-Labs, focused on scientific instrumentation and quantum systems. The idea is that they fill a niche in the landscape, tackling problems that are too big for a university lab, but too early stage for private start-up funding. Parallel with Europe?This shift to new research organisations parallels moves in Europe to set up new innovation agencies, such as Germany’s Sprind, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, and the EU’s European Innovation Council. The Dutch and French governments are looking to set up their own entities too. There’s now an emerging consensus, evident in a number of new strategies, that public R&D needs to be shaken up, Charles McIvor, an economist at the OECD, has written in response to Kratsios’s plans. “What stands out for me across these strategies [in the US, Germany, South Korea and Japan] is that governments are realising that the old ways of delivering STI [science, technology and innovation] programming no longer works,” he said in a LinkedIn post. Metascience wins?The document is, at least on the face of it, also a big win for some policy thinkers in the US who want far more experimentation with new forms of research grant and institution.It name-checks a litany of new public R&D ideas, from focused research organisations and advance market commitments to “golden tickets,” which allow grant reviewers the power to hand applicants money without requiring the consensus of other review panellists.Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationFocused research organisations: what are they, and how do you set them up? NIH turmoil risks reciprocal EU-US access to health research funding In addition, every federal research funding agency should set up a metascience unit, the strategy says, “with authority to run controlled experiments on review and funding mechanisms.” The UK has already set one up, the strategy points out. This mirrors recommendations to the European Commission. In 2024, a report led by former Portuguese science minister Manuel Heitor also advised the EU to set up an “experimental unit” to test out new methods of funding research. So far, however, Brussels hasn’t put forward any plans to do so. Bypass universitiesBut there’s a worry that the Trump administration is using the metascience movement to justify an overhaul of public R&D that punishes universities, which it sees as centres of political resistance. Last year, it threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless it hired and admitted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity” across campus. It’s also attempted to strip academics of funding for working on politically forbidden areas, like LGBTIQ people’s health.The new strategy appears to be a “move to bypass the power of universities full stop and allow funders and political bureaucracies to handpick the projects and people who will execute them,” said Jean-Claude Burgelman, a former senior official in the Commission’s research directorate, on LinkedIn.The EU’s science counsellor in Washington, Florent Bernard, wrote that the plans risk diverting public research funding so that it “solely serves private interests.” “Who, if not independent universities, will do research that demonstrates the impact of tobacco on lung cancer or the role of human activities in our current climate crisis?” he wrote.Should we take it seriously?“I would view the overall document as a bad faith argument,” said Cole Donovan, director of science policy at the campaigning group Stand Up for Science, and a former OSTP official. “I don’t see the project itself as something that can be isolated from the broader attack on the system.” He thinks the argument that academia has become dysfunctional and in need of radical reform is being deployed as part of a “PR argument” to legitimate moves against US scientists. The strategy presents ideas like metascience units as new, whereas there were moves to set them up at the NSF during the previous administration of Joe Biden, Donovan said. The other caveat here is that the OSTP has limited power to carry out any of these recommendations. While Kratsios has issued a memo to research agencies telling them to implement the recommendations in the report, he doesn’t have direct budgetary control. “As a former OSTPer myself, this does not seem like a document that is realistic,” said Donovan.

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Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Analysis | What the midterms mean for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2028 hopes

A Democratic sweep of Pennsylvania’s competitive U.S. House and state legislative races could boost the case for Shapiro in his party’s presidential primary.

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Jul 29 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Newsom affair as mayor resurfaces amid presidential run rumors

Rippey detailed her ongoing struggle with alcoholism and sobriety.

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Jul 28 • 4:45 PM EDT • Politics • sfgate.com
Whole Hog Politics: Ready or not, 2028 field is taking shape

Democrats not only can’t decide the order for their 2028 primary calendar, but they also can’t even agree on when the decision should be made. Is it better to have certainty for the states and potential presidential...

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Jul 27 • 9:45 AM EDT • Politics • aei.org
Legal fight over churches endorsing candidates renewed as midterms near

The so-called Johnson Amendment has long barred houses of worship from direct involvement in politics. But an ongoing legal fight could change that.

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Jul 27 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • usatoday.com
Can a Progressive Win in a Purple State? Abdul El-Sayed Wants to Find Out.

Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary is a critical front in the fight between Democrats’ progressive and moderate flanks and a preview of the 2028 presidential primary.

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Jul 27 • 5:05 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
French politicians can’t get enough of ‘De Gaulle’

The five-hour-long movie captures the zeitgeist of French politics ahead of next year’s presidential election.

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Jul 26 • 10:00 PM EDT • Politics • politico.eu
California leaders split over war in Iran

California lawmakers and leaders are divided over the war in Iran, now in its fifth month, as debates over funding and presidential authority continue in Washington D.C.

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Jul 26 • 11:25 AM EDT • Politics • kcra.com
Brazil denies entry to Trump officials ahead of elections

Brazil rejected visas for two planned US envoys, alleging that Washington was seeking to shape Brazil's upcoming presidential election. The development adds to a deepening political tension between Brazil and the US.

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Jul 26 • 1:45 AM EDT • Politics • dw.com
Trump administration admits it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy projects ‘based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state’

In this case, that includes 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

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Jul 25 • 10:54 AM EDT • Politics • fortune.com
A day in the life of Caitlin Clark: All-Star business as usual, Barack Obama's presidential perspective and 'Studbudz' shoutouts

At her third All-Star in as many seasons, Caitlin Clark is garnering more attention than ever.

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Jul 24 • 10:17 PM EDT • Business • sports.yahoo.com
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential

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Jul 24 • 8:27 PM EDT • Politics • triblive.com
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

The Trump administration has again acknowledged in court documents that it terminated $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election

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Jul 24 • 8:15 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

The Trump administration has again acknowledged in court documents that it terminated $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

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Jul 24 • 8:06 PM EDT • Politics • clickorlando.com
Democrats select South Carolina for their first 2028 presidential nominating contest

South Carolina has long been the first Southern contest and has served as a key test of candidates’ support among Black voters.

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Jul 24 • 5:26 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Democrats select South Carolina for first presidential nominating contest in '28

The decision most likely cements a Democratic primary calendar that moves away from Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of more racially diverse states

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Jul 24 • 1:45 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
DNC committee sets up South Carolina to vote first in Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries

Key Democrats had pushed for the state as a signal of Black voters’ importance, especially after the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

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Jul 24 • 1:13 PM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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South Carolina picked by DNC panel to lead off Democrats’ 2028 presidential primary

South Carolina is poised to remain the first Democratic presidential primary state after securing a key panel’s recommendation, a move that will maintain Black voters’ prominent position on the calendar.

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Jul 24 • 1:12 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Democrats to finalize their 2028 presidential nominating calendar, led by more diverse states

Democrats are expected to recommend the states that will hold the first presidential nominating contests in 2028, likely cementing a calendar that moves away from Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of more racially diverse states

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Jul 24 • 12:06 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
New poll complicates Vance’s status as Trump’s likely 2028 heir apparent

Marco Rubio surged from 7% to 26% in New Hampshire's latest GOP primary poll, dramatically closing the gap with JD Vance in the hypothetical 2028 presidential nomination race.

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Jul 23 • 2:34 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Rep. Jim Jordan refers Jack Smith for possible prosecution, saying he have have misled on Trump probe

Jordan referred Smith to the Justice Department for possible prosecution related to closed-door testimony about whether he had obtained records of lawmakers while investigating Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. Lawyers for Smith deny the allegation and say he testified truthfully.

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Jul 23 • 12:49 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Josh Shapiro may be the biggest fundraising juggernaut Pennsylvania politics has ever produced

As the governor seeks reelection with an eye on a presidential run, he’s raising more money than any Pennsylvania chief executive since at least 2010.

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Jul 23 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • inquirer.com
Democrats zero in on Nevada and South Carolina to kick off 2028 presidential primary calendar

Nevada and South Carolina are the leading contenders to be recommended to head Democrats’ 2028 presidential primary calendar, according to conversations with members of a powerful panel within the Democratic National Committee.

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Jul 22 • 7:13 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Conan O’Brien shares the hilarious yet painful reason why he has a new hairdo (exclusive)

Conan O’Brien is finally addressing his new hairdo, revealing that the slicked-back look is the result of a sunscreen mishap at the Obama Presidential Center event.

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Jul 22 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Pritzker for president? Handicapping the Illinois governor’s political future

The Illinois governor is showing up in presidential polls, and he’s building coalitions with state parties while also strengthening his national name recognition. He’s also explored fundraising that doesn’t include self-funding — if a presidential run is truly in the cards.

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Jul 22 • 10:08 AM EDT • Politics • nprillinois.org
Democrats could take initial vote on 2028 presidential primary calendar this week

Democrats could vote as early as this week on the order of their primary calendar for the 2028 presidential election, although the decision wouldn't be final until the full Democratic National Committee agrees.

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Jul 21 • 7:52 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Colombia's Petro calls on supporters to defend economic reforms in last presidential speech

Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on his supporters to protect his government's social and economic reforms and resist any efforts by the nation’s incoming administration to change labor laws.

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Jul 20 • 6:46 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
McCain: If 2028 Dem nominee has Mamdani’s tone on US politics, GOP has ‘huge f—ing problem’

Meghan McCain, the daughter of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said Monday that if the 2028 presidential nominee for the Democrats shares New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) tone about poli…

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Jul 20 • 3:06 PM EDT • Politics • thehill.com
As Budget Cuts Loom, French Theater Turns Up the Political Heat

This year’s Avignon Festival has transformed into a staging ground for protests, defiant new works and some early 2027 presidential campaigning.

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Jul 20 • 10:57 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
The Wingman

Mark Kelly’s résumé and the goodwill he’s accrued as Gabby Giffords’s spouse have granted him a high level of admiration. Can it translate to excitement for a presidential campaign?

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Jul 20 • 9:00 AM EDT • Politics • theatlantic.com
How presidential travel is the ultimate expression of political power

President Donald Trump's luxury plane donated by Qatar is just the latest in a line of aircraft and vehicles that advertise the power of the office.

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Jul 19 • 4:25 PM EDT • Politics • inquirer.com
At a Florida fundraiser, Pete Buttigieg stresses the need to ‘restore democracy’

Buttigieg’s message ahead of a potential presidential run has focused on how the nation’s most important institutions need a major course correction to survive.

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Jul 19 • 11:55 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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Trump is taking longer to approve disaster aid and denying Democratic states more frequently

When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks — or even months — to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn't support President Donald Trump, chances are greater that aid will be denied.

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Jul 16 • 12:14 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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Inside Iowa Politics: How Pete Buttigieg thinks Democrats should show ‘tough’

Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg doesn't think Democrats need to emulate President Donald Trump as they campaign before voters.

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Jul 16 • 11:45 AM EDT • Politics • kwqc.com
Fixing America’s polarization with proportional representation

Presidentialism plus single-member districts is a bad combination that incentivizes leaders to consolidate power by fueling division.

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Jul 14 • 9:12 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Russian anti-war opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin detained by police

Boris Nadezhdin attempted to run against Vladimir Putin at the 2024 presidential election, but was prevented from doing so.

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Jul 13 • 12:07 PM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Pritzker for president? Handicapping the Illinois governor’s political future

The Illinois governor is showing up in presidential polls, and he’s building coalitions with state parties while also strengthening his national name recognition. He's also explored fundraising that doesn't include self-funding — if a presidential run is truly in the cards.

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Jul 13 • 6:05 AM EDT • Politics • wbez.org
Inside California Politics: National view on Newsom ahead of 2028

(Inside California Politics) — With Gavin Newsom drawing closer to a seemingly-inevitable presidential run, host Nikki Laurenzo spoke with a top national journalist about how the California governo…

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Jul 12 • 10:00 AM EDT • Politics • fox40.com
They're Building Half A Bridge to Save Science...

Today’s post is about science: what you can do now to protect it from unprecedented threats, and how your action is the first half of a long-term program that Congress must take up next. Let me start with describing the embryonic state of science advocacy. There are many well-meaning organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Research!America, and subject-specific organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Physical Society. Their general approach is to emphasize the common good: the remarkable value that science and innovation have provided to all Americans. However, these organizations are offering an incomplete solution. Before I start, a preliminary: If you already know about the threat, go ahead and weigh in with OMB at this link. Ideas about what to say come from Research!America and the American Physical Society. You have until Monday, July 13 at 11:59pm Eastern. Then come back here and read the rest of this post. Finally, get in touch with whoever is likely to be your next member of Congress in 2027. The threat: An end to merit-based science… The onslaught of attacks on science is accelerating. It’s not just cuts to grants, which was the last battle. That battle is not done yet, but there is a new and worse threat. Now comes a proposed public rule from the Office of Management and Budget. The rule would take decision-making power over grants away from experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. Former NIH official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote an excellent summary of what OMB is trying to do, which is codify the executive branch’s ability to award or terminate grants, for arbitrary cause or no stated cause. Since World War II, a necessary step in scientific grant-making has been consideration of scientific merit. This approach has made America into a dominant scientific superpower, the envy of the world. Of course, political considerations do come into the mix. The proposed rule tilts the balance dramatically away from merit. …but why? Many people have difficulty comprehending why Russell Vought and OMB would want to damage science in this way. If you’re a working scientist, you are likely to be particularly uncomprehending. Who would hurt an activity so self-evidently good? The answer is: this is part of the program to replace the rule of law with a personalist regime. OMB Director Russell Vought, a Christian nationalist, would like to implement what legal scholars call a “unitary executive,” and what I would call a dictatorship. Or if you like, a personalist authoritarian regime. I am a working scientist. This rule will debilitate my research. It may chill the speech of scientists for speaking freely in the public sphere. It is a form of personalizing power and decision-making within the executive branch. In short, it sacrifices science in the service of tyranny. To Russell Vought, a decrease in the quality of science might be an acceptable cost. He might even consider it an added benefit to weaken a pillar of soft U.S. power based on knowledge and skepticism. The professional societies are building half a bridge The nonprofits are asking you to make public comment. Public comment is like building the first half of a bridge. Before implementation, OMB is compelled by law to have a period of public comment. Rules have to be consistent with the law and the Constitution. They express the federal government’s stance toward how those laws will be implemented. When a presidential administration works in good faith, these public comments are used to inform their eventual action, and sometimes mitigate it. The comment period reflects our First Amendment right to petition our government. The executive branch is then supposed to take those comments into account - completing the bridge between us, the people, and our government. Project 2025 seeks to take away the second half of the bridge. We have to replace it. The first half of the bridge Organizations like AAAS, Research!America, and SfN are partly right. You should certainly comment. Their core model is earnest: if enough of us make noise, then we will achieve change. This idealistic point of view is offered in good faith. That point of view is also currently bullshit. The fundamental reason is that the federal rulemaking process has two parts: There has to be a period of public comment. OMB makes the final rule…but is free to disregard public comment. Oops. That’s a loophole. However, not all is lost. Congress can complete the bridge Congress has enormous power. That power suggests a roadmap for how to proceed. This lawless administration is still going to issue that rule. Nonetheless, your comments still play an essential role. Here are two steps you can take. Step 1: Send your comment to your Representative and Senator. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, many of them support science. Whatever you wrote as public comment in the Federal Register, also send it to your member of Congress. You can include information about jobs in your district or state by looking at Joshua Weitz’s ScienceMatters interactive map. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give your town, zip code, or state, then deliver your message. Step 2: Politicize the hell out of science. You heard me, politicize it as an issue. We hear a lot from the old scientific establishment about science being nonpartisan. This is obsolete, sentimental thinking. Under normal conditions, it was true. But we can no longer make that assumption. We can keep on pretending, but we’re putting science at risk. There is a way forward. Rules are subordinate to the law…and Congress makes laws. Therefore Congress can step in. In this fall’s election, it is likely that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives. That puts at least one chamber of Congress in the hands of Democrats. They are far more inclined than the current Congress to investigate and legislate. This opens a path to undoing the damage. It also creates a permission structure for pro-science Republicans to find a way back from the brink. We have to encourage them. In the House, every district is up every two years. In your district, contact both of the major party candidates. If your state has a Senate race, contact those candidates too. Specifically mention the proposed OMB rule. Ask for two things: For this year’s appropriations process in August and September, ask that amendments be added to stop the implementation of the new rule. Those amendments should support peer-reviewed science and stop political interference. Looking ahead to next year, ask the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator to work to hold hearings in 2027 on the importance and benefits of peer-reviewed science for health and prosperity. What hearings and amendments will accomplish Congress can use its investigatory power to summon heads of agencies and the director of the OMB. That will allow fact-finding regarding the consequences of this rule. Congress can override the rule through the appropriations process. They can write into statute a requirement to follow peer review and best scientific practices. In this way, Congress can stop the attacks on science. Postscript: Moving forward Now I have a request for you, to help me. As many of you know, I ran for Congress in order to save democracy and science. Although I did not win, that battle continues by other means. I met and heard from thousands of supporters both here in New Jersey and nationally. I learned that pro-science, pro-democracy activists have the potential to become a much greater force. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be building ways to harness that energy. I will be announcing those plans soon. In the meantime, an important step is to wind down the Congressional campaign, which has a few remaining bills to pay. Please help me retire that last debt.

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Jul 12 • 2:14 AM EDT • Science • samwang.substack.com
An American Politician is Blocked by Israeli Settlers in the West Bank

Representative Ro Khanna was barred from leaving for 90 minutes. Where past U.S. leaders toured the region to show support for Israel, today’s Democratic presidential aspirants are going to bolster their credentials as critics.

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Jul 11 • 6:41 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Q&A: A conversation with Chris Van Hollen

Maryland Matters sat down with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) shortly after he said he was "kicking the tires" on a possible 2028 presidential run, to talk about his presidential musings, the state of political discourse in the U.S. and in Maryland – and his role in it.

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Jul 11 • 4:27 AM EDT • Politics • marylandmatters.org
‘Politicians have always been schemers’: upheld conviction fails to dent Le Pen’s popularity

Presidential bid by leader of far-right National Rally has no shortage of supporters in scenic Montargis

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Jul 11 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
Political expert says Platner’s exit unprecedented in modern Maine politics

University of Southern Maine political science professor Ron Schmidt says he has never seen a U.S. Senate candidate in Maine withdraw this close to Election Day. He compared the Graham Platner situation to the 2024 presidential race, when…

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Jul 10 • 3:09 PM EDT • Politics • baltimoresun.com
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Trump seeks to limit funding that doesn't 'advance' presidential policies

Proposed in late May, the rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over federal grants for research, education and infrastructure.

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Jul 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • latimes.com
Appeals court clears way for Le Pen's presidential bid

Marine Le Pen's conviction for misusing European Parliament funds has been upheld, but the leader of France's far-right National Rally will be able to run for president if she chooses.

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Jul 8 • 12:52 PM EDT • Politics • dw.com
Le Pen affirms presidential run after ruling

The French far-right leader will attempt to replace President Emmanuel Macron

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Jul 8 • 11:57 AM EDT • Politics • theweek.com
Rahm Emanuel warns that Israel has become a 'territorial pariah' in a blistering speech

Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, warns that Israel is becoming isolated due to its leadership.

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Jul 8 • 11:07 AM EDT • Politics • news4jax.com
Le Pen Launches Presidential Campaign, in a Twist for French Politics

The day after a court decided the far-right leader Marine Le Pen could run for office again, cheers and boos met her campaign kickoff in a rural stronghold.

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Jul 8 • 10:46 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
As Israel Loses Support in the U.S., Rahm Emanuel Criticizes Netanyahu

The former Chicago mayor, a Democrat exploring a 2028 presidential run, is in Tel Aviv calling for an end to unconditional U.S. support of Israel.

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Jul 7 • 7:23 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Rahm Emanuel to deliver bracing message in Tel Aviv as American politics shifting against Israel

Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country's relationship with the United States is "at a crossroads."

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Jul 7 • 11:32 AM EDT • Politics • abc7chicago.com
Rahm Emanuel will assail Netanyahu in Tel Aviv speech as American politics shift against Israel

Emanuel argues changes are needed, including sanctions on Israelis who attack Palestinians.

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Jul 7 • 8:42 AM EDT • Politics • twincities.com
Rahm Emanuel will assail Netanyahu in Tel Aviv speech as American politics shift against Israel

Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country’s relationship with the United…

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Jul 7 • 8:37 AM EDT • Politics • chicagotribune.com
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen cleared to run for French presidency — but under a condition she rejects

An appeals court shortened the ban on Le Pen, 57, holding public office. But it ordered her to wear an electronic ankle tag for a year, making a presidential campaign politically and logistically difficult.

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Jul 7 • 8:08 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
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Rahm Emanuel will assail Netanyahu in Tel Aviv speech as American politics shift against Israel

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a br…

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Jul 7 • 7:19 AM EDT • Politics • kxan.com
Rahm Emanuel will assail Netanyahu in Tel Aviv speech as American politics shift against Israel

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country's relationship with the United States is “at a crossroads.”

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Jul 7 • 7:18 AM EDT • Politics • wral.com
Rahm Emanuel will warn Israel-US ties at crossroads in Tel Aviv speech

Potential Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel plans to deliver a strong message in Tel Aviv about U.S.-Israeli relations being "at a crossroads."

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Jul 7 • 7:16 AM EDT • Politics • apnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Marine Le Pen verdict live: France's far-right leader awaits appeal ruling with presidential race at stake

Marine Le Pen will learn from a Paris appeals court whether an electoral ban for illicit party financing will prevent her running in next year's presidential election.

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Jul 7 • 6:33 AM EDT • Politics • reuters.com
Rahm Emanuel to tell Israel its alliance with the U.S. cannot ‘survive as it has been’

In a Tel Aviv speech Wednesday, the presidential prospect plans to warn that Israel faces a “dead end” without change, a move reflecting Democratic pressure.

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Jul 7 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
What Trump’s FIFA Scandal Says About His Politics

Now the whole world is getting a lesson in presidential coercion.

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Jul 6 • 5:39 PM EDT • Politics • slate.com
Business Monday: Big Island companies continue to recover from Kona low storms and earthquake

With the completion of property damage assessments from South Kona’s magnitude 6 earthquake that struck on May 22, Hawai‘i County officials now are waiting for Gov. Josh Green’s decision about whether he will file for a presidential disaster declaration that will help individuals and business owners secure funding for repairs.

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Jul 6 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • bigislandnow.com
In pictures: Marine Le Pen’s political rise and frustrated presidential ambitions

French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen could see her 40-year political career come to an end on Tuesday if French courts rule that she is guilty of embezzling public funds and ineligible to stand…

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Jul 6 • 8:58 AM EDT • Politics • france24.com
A timeline of Marine Le Pen's political career and the rise of the French far right

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s political fate is at stake Tuesday when a Paris appeals court is to rule on whether she may be barred to run in the 2027 presidential election.

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Jul 6 • 6:18 AM EDT • Politics • wral.com
A timeline of Marine Le Pen's political career and the rise of the French far right

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's political future is on the line as a Paris appeals court rules on her eligibility to stand in the 2027 presidential election

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Jul 6 • 6:16 AM EDT • Politics • abcnews.com
America celebrates its 250th birthday after another rough year

War, inflation and presidential grifting mark an Independence Day best put in the past. But America has made it through worse times, which lends perspective and offers hope for better times ahead.

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Jul 5 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
Returning to pre-Trumpian politics won’t save America

The opening of the Obama presidential library set off a wave of nostalgia for an era that is not coming back

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Jul 5 • 12:00 AM EDT • Politics • ft.com
Ro Khanna, the Democrat Musk wants behind bars: ‘Money has hijacked politics in the US’

The Silicon Valley congressman is leading the push to release the Epstein files and does not rule out a 2028 presidential bid. ‘They are not going to silence me,’ he warns

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Jul 4 • 12:00 AM EDT • Politics • english.elpais.com
The FBI is directing hundreds of analysts to its investigation of Georgia's 2020 presidential election

Georgia's votes in that year's presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's win.

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Jul 3 • 4:42 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
Trump joins Usha Vance’s “Storytime” podcast, reading on presidents and sports

President Trump made a guest appearance on second lady Usha Vance’s children’s podcast, where he read a picture book about U.S. presidents while offering unscripted commentary on his presidential p…

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Jul 3 • 4:26 PM EDT • Sports • thehill.com
Statues of US presidents' heads are crumbling in rural Virginia

After a Virginia park closed 2010, one man saved 42 presidential statues from being crushed. Now, they're a massive tourist attraction.

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Jul 3 • 11:42 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
National Science Foundation's X-Labs initiative draws fire as 'terrible idea'

Criticism comes from former presidential science adviser and NSF director Neal Lane

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Jul 3 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • physicsworld.com
Bolsonaro Adviser Says Fiscal Bill to Be Focus

Daniella Marques, an adviser to Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, said in an interview with SBT News that, if victorious in this year’s elections, his eventual government would propose a constitutional amendment focused on controlling spending and the debt trajectory right from the start. The goal would be to restore confidence and facilitate an adjustment in the benchmark interest rate.

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Jul 3 • 9:34 AM EDT • Politics • bloomberg.com
FBI directs hundreds of analysts to probe of Georgia 2020 presidential election

The FBI describes it as a "priority investigation"

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Jul 2 • 6:22 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
FBI directs hundreds of analysts to probe of Georgia 2020 presidential election

The FBI describes it as a "priority investigation"

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Jul 2 • 6:22 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
😐 Neutral (22%)
ahah
100%
France Politics

France's President Emmanuel Macron chairs the fifth follow-up meeting on combating drug trafficking, at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris, Thursday July 2, 2026. (Simon Wohlfahrt/Pool Photo via AP)

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Jul 2 • 8:13 AM EDT • Politics • springfieldnewssun.com
The new presidential fitness test is a positive step, not the solution, experts say

Physical activity needs to be fun to keep kids engaged. And the test risks embarrassing them, instead.

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Jul 2 • 4:30 AM EDT • Health • statnews.com
☹️ Negative (-40%)
wow
100%