Latest news with #Dems
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
No joke: A white pigeon walked into a Mass. fire dept., setting off a hunt for its owner
A pigeon walks into the Ashby Fire Department. It's not a Central Massachusetts-themed one-liner, but the beginning of a quest to reunite a lost bird with its owner. An animal control officer was called upon to track down the owner of a domesticated white pigeon that walked into the fire station in the small town north of Fitchburg on Wednesday. The bird did not seem afraid of humans and remained at the station, resting on a firetruck, until firefighters corralled it into a workout room and called town Animal Control Officer Victoria Gallant, the Ashby Police Department said. 'When I got there, he was just walking around while one of the firefighters was exercising on a bike machine,' Gallant told MassLive on Friday. After posting about the lost animal on social media and calling a phone number found on a tag on the bird's leg, Gallant received a call Thursday from the pigeon's owner, according to the department. The firefighters had been calling the bird 'Pete,' the name written on the band around its leg, Gallant said. 'That's actually the owner's name,' she said with a laugh. The man, from Ashburnham, said the bird and two similar white pigeons he owns had been scared off by a hawk. 'I think this is Ashby's first ever case of a missing bird being reunited with its owner,' Ashby Police Chief Derek Pepple said in a statement Friday, commending Gallant. A search continues for the other birds. Ashby Police asked anyone who has spotted them to call the department at 978-386-5652. Karen Read retrial: Biggest takeaways from week 6 as prosecution rests its case Here's where to see fireworks this weekend in Massachusetts Downtown Boston zoning changes could allow buildings up to 700 feet tall Man convicted of attempted kidnapping and rape on Massachusetts rail trail New poll shows who Dems want in 2028 — and it's not Kamala Harris Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Here's where to see fireworks this weekend in Massachusetts
The Fourth of July is still more than a month away. But Massachusetts residents don't need to wait to see fireworks displays. Though fireworks are banned in Massachusetts without proper certification, official events are scheduled across the state throughout the summer, including two this weekend. On Friday, a fireworks show is scheduled at Fitton Football Stadium in Worcester, following a Worcester Bravehearts baseball game. On Saturday, a fireworks display is planned at 10 p.m. at Dighton Town Hall, according to a list of sanctioned summer fireworks shows published by the state Department of Fire Services. For the full list of summer firework displays, click here. Read more: What happens if you set off fireworks in Mass.? You could be paying for the damages Authorities have urged members of the public to leave fireworks shows to the professionals. Between 2019 and 2023, officials said Massachusetts medical facilities treated more than 200 people for burns and other injuries associated with fireworks. Two dozen people were treated for severe burn injuries that covered 5% or more of their bodies. Karen Read retrial: Biggest takeaways from week 6 as prosecution rests its case No joke: A white pigeon walked into a Mass. fire dept., setting off a hunt for its owner Downtown Boston zoning changes could allow buildings up to 700 feet tall Man convicted of attempted kidnapping and rape on Massachusetts rail trail New poll shows who Dems want in 2028 — and it's not Kamala Harris Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Donald Trump fires National Portrait Gallery director for being 'strong supporter' of DEI
President Donald Trump fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, for being a "strong supporter" of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Trump announced the termination in a post on Truth Social on Friday afternoon. "Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am hereby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery," the president wrote. "She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" A White House official told Fox News Digital that Sajet had donated $3,982 to Democrats, including presidential campaigns for former President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Sajet also reportedly donated to other Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris. Dems Erupt After Report Of Trump Firing Librarian Of Congress: 'A Disgrace' The White House also pointed to the gallery's photo of Trump, which was curated by Sajet. The caption of the photo reads, "Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term." Read On The Fox News App The White House official also said it was ironic that Sajet said, "We try very much not to editorialise. I don't want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator's opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it's based on historical fact." The National Portrait Gallery did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the matter. White House Vows To Implement 'System Of Merit' In Us, Dismantle Dei 'Strangulation' According to the National Portrait Gallery website, Sajet was the first woman to serve as the director of the National Portrait Gallery, and she spent time in the role looking for ways to put her experience and creativity at the center of learning and civic awareness. Prior to taking the position, Sajet was the president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and held other positions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her biography notes that she was born in Nigeria, was raised in Australia and is a citizen of the Netherlands. She came to the U.S. with her family in 1997. Defunding Dei: Here's How The Trump Administration Has Undone Biden's Very Prized Programs While speaking at the Richardson Symposium: Racial Masquerade in American Art and Culture, at the National Portrait Museum on Nov. 4, Sajet told a crowd that she was asked what she spent most of her time on, to which she answered, "identity politics." "America has never been able to separate a person's appearance from their potential," she said. "Our history is filled, and continues to be, with examples of hatred, discrimination, fear, and alienation." She then talked about a moment on Dec. 7, 1972, when she "suddenly felt" the world was going to come together and do away with "petty differences" while thinking holistically about what it meant to be a human. That was the day astronaut Jack Schmidt of Apollo 17 snapped a picture of the earth and coined it the "Blue Marble." "Well, that utopian vision feels very, very far away today in the terrifying wake of the most uncivil, mistrustful, racially insensitive, sexually exploitative, factually untruthful, digitally manipulated, secretive and inflammatory election of the modern era," she said. "The National Portrait Gallery, as I've mentioned, is all about identity politics, whether it is to defend the label text that says President Eisenhower was cautious on civil rights or explaining why only 25% of women were historically considered cool or standing firm or not, allowing Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, to be removed from the Smithsonian or even outlining why we show the portrait of Sylvia Rivera, the transgender activist in the galleries," Sajet later said during the same speech. Hours after taking the Oath of Office on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate all DEI programs from the federal government. A day later, the president directed the Office of Personnel Management to notify heads of agencies and departments to close all DEI offices and place those government workers in those offices on paid leave. Earlier this month, Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, who was in charge of the U.S. Copyright Office, which came just days after terminating the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The termination was part of the administration's ongoing purge of government officials who are perceived to be opposed to Trump and his agenda. Both women were notified of their termination by email, The Associated Press previously reported. Hayden tapped Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this article source: Donald Trump fires National Portrait Gallery director for being 'strong supporter' of DEI
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Whole Hog Politics: Filibuster follies to hover around Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
On the menu: Trump approval bounces back; toastmasters; Dems argue over which way out of the wilderness; warning sign for Cuomo; his ship has come in Dysfunction is both the cause and result of the most dangerous problem in Washington today: an imbalance of power between the branches. President Trump is intent on mowing down the remaining restrictions on executive power, and a series of cases awaiting the Supreme Court could scythe through many of the few remaining authorities Congress keeps for itself. This is the result of a decades-long effort by members of both parties to only oppose executive abuses when they come from the other party. Congress hasn't so much been defeated as surrendered, one majority at a time — and Trump is intent on taking all the spoils won by his predecessors' 50-year siege. Another way in which partisanship has brought us to this incipient defeat of the constitutional order is that the Congress has been rendered all but incompetent by faction. Over that same 50 years of executive pushing, pushing, pushing, the partisan primary system was coming into full force after a halting initial implementation. With a tiny sliver of activist voters holding the same power to deny a candidate an office as a majority of the broad general electorate, the incentives for bipartisanship have all but disappeared in most states and districts. The idea of Congress working smoothly in a bipartisan way on substantial issues isn't entirely dead, but almost. The policy divisions are often arbitrary — think of the reversals on trade, spending, national security and even the primacy of Congress itself — but party allegiance is constant. Even on matters where there is broad popular agreement among the people, like immigration or abortion, the duopoly forbids constructive action. With Congress perpetually stuck, frustrated citizens look to the only office elected by the nation as a whole, the presidency. But when presidents act, as they increasingly have this century, outside of the limits of their office, the results tend to be unsatisfying. This slate of overbroad executive actions will be reversed in part by the courts. What remains will be countermanded at the next change in power, the countermander then adding his or her new round of decrees, and on and on. And so it will go until one day, the courts give up and let presidents rule by the strokes of their pens, ultimately bowing to the will of the people who will prefer substantive action from a despot to a permanently dysfunctional republic. That's what will eventually happen unless Congress gets a hold of itself and starts delivering results on major issues and returns to the fight against executive overreach in a meaningfully bipartisan way. But the trick is that those two things aren't often complementary. After months of declaring themselves wholly devoted to the legislative filibuster, indeed after years of having raked Democrats for their enthusiasm for ending it, Senate Republicans dipped their toes in the cool waters of majoritarianism. Republicans overruled the Senate parliamentarian, who had ruled that a measure repealing a Biden-era regulation allowing California to ban gasoline-powered cars was subject to regular rules and a 60-vote threshold, not the simple majority allowed under the 1996 Congressional Review Act. That is certainly within the power of the majority. It takes a simple majority to evade the 60-vote threshold. Majorities can even get rid of parliamentarians, replacing them with ones of their choosing. Between 1981 and 2012, there were only two parliamentarians, but not consecutively. When Republicans had the chance, they picked Robert Dove (1981-87 and 1995-2001) while Democrats preferred the ministrations of Alan Frumin (1987-95 and 2001-12). One imagines that the Democratic-picked Elizabeth MacDonough, who has served since then, is feeling the winds of change herself these days. What happened with the California rule should be thought of as something of a test case for what's coming this summer as Republicans take the plunge on the reconciliation package that landed in the Senate's lap this month after the House produced its version. The secret trick of reconciliation is that Congress gets a chance to add tweaks to the budget — to reconcile it — twice every federal fiscal year. Harry Reid, also remembered for starting the rollback of the filibuster by excluding some presidential nominations from the rule, was the great innovator of imaginative reconciliation when he found a way to say that the invention of a whole new federal program, ObamaCare, was actually just a little tweak and didn't need to meet the higher standard in 2010. Now Republicans are ready to take their latest turn with the filibuster hall pass, and the pressure will be on MacDonough to be creative in her thinking about what is legislation and what is reconciliation. She was game in 2017 for the Trump tax cuts, but this package appears to have actions that would typically fall outside the rules. If she doesn't agree with the majority, one suspects that she will get the boot in favor of someone with a more capacious definition of reconciliation. Similar things have happened before, so that would hardly be the end of the Senate, but it all points in the same direction: Frustrated primary voters put pressure on senators for both action and strict partisanship, which do not work well together. In order to have both in a narrowly divided nation, lower standards are required. And that's the funny thing about power in a government of separated powers. Presidential power is straightforward: Presidents want more of it and seek to destroy obstacles to its swift and easy exercise. Congress, though, derives its power through complexity. The Senate has more power because of the 60-vote threshold because it must be catered to and heeded in order to build a large enough coalition. The easier it is to get legislation through Congress, the less power Congress has. Holy croakano! We welcome your feedback, so please email us with your tips, corrections, reactions, amplifications, etc. at WHOLEHOGPOLITICS@ If you'd like to be considered for publication, please include your real name and hometown. If you don't want your comments to be made public, please specify. NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION Trump Job Performance Average Approval: 45.2 percent Average Disapproval: 53 percent Net Score: -7.8 points Change from last week: +1.6 points Change from last month: +5 points [Average includes: Ipsos/Reuters: 42 percent approve – 52 percent disapprove; Quantus Insights: 48 percent approve – 48 percent disapprove; Marquette: 46 percent approve – 54 percent disapprove; Gallup: 43 percent approve – 53 percent disapprove; Harvard-Harris: 47 percent approve – 58 percent disapprove] Few Americans choose to directly engage with artificial intelligence (AI), but most interact with some form of the technology when browsing the web. Percent of respondents who ____ in March 2025 US adults: Viewed a search page with an AI-generated summary: 58 percent Viewed the website of a generative AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini): 13 percent Searched for an AI-related term: 10 percent [Pew Research, 2025] ON THE SIDE: TOASTER TRANCES Poet Nora Claire Miller on the surprising history of the screensaver. Paris Review: 'The world's first screen saver was not like a dream at all. It was a blank screen. It was called SCRNSAVE. … SCRNSAVE was a big deal engineering-wise but it never caught on with most computer users. … Before long, software developers figured out how to convince people to adopt screensavers: aesthetics. The screen savers had to make people want to look back at the screens they had just looked away from. … In 1989, a software company called Berkeley Systems launched a program called After Dark. Instead of just going blank, After Dark screensavers showed animations: flying toasters, or falling rain, or overlapping curved lines in neon gradients. The new screen savers took the world by storm. But in terms of preventing burn-in, flying toasters were no better than a blank screen. Their purpose was pleasure.' PRIME CUTS Democrats can't count on a repeat of 2018 in the second Trump midterm: The Washington Post: 'With Democrats already picking up some momentum in early midterm polling, they could be poised for another strong performance in 2026. But even with Trump back in the White House, the circumstances will be different this time, presenting new challenges for both parties. … With all that's changed, how likely is it that the national environment will be as blue as it was in 2018? … An energized base and a Republican electorate that is structurally less likely to turn out are two key advantages Democrats hold heading into the 2026 election cycle. We saw a preview of this dynamic in the 2022 midterms, when President Joe Biden's low approval ratings translated into only relatively modest gains for Republicans. But not all news is rosy for Democrats. In the upcoming 2026 cycle, there will be fewer districts in play than in their previous midterm as the out-party. In 2016, 23 Republicans won seats carried by Hillary Clinton and 12 Democrats won seats carried by Trump — a total of 35 crossover districts going into 2018. But the landscape is very different now as polarization and gerrymandering continue to thin the herd of competitive races.' Putting the Dems' deficit with male voters in perspective: The Liberal Patriot: 'Thinking that these young men can be swayed back to Democrats by developing more politically left-leaning media outfits for guys misunderstands the situation. As Daniel Cox has previously outlined, young men haven't necessarily become more ideologically conservative, but many are politically disaffected and uninterested in traditional party politics. In fact, they often to have dour views of both parties. Cox's polling found that many were drawn to Trump's irreverence and find his shtick 'entertaining.' And though they may not agree with Trump on all policy matters, they were much likelier to believe he was looking out for men more than Harris. Essentially, though young men often actually agree with the Democrats on the issues, many still don't view the party favorably. These men have deeper concerns, including that they don't think Democrats are prioritizing their interests.' Policing the language police: The Washington Post: 'Maybe it's using the word 'oligarchs' instead of rich people. Or referring to 'people experiencing food insecurity' rather than Americans going hungry. Or 'equity' in place of 'equality,' or 'justice-involved populations' instead of prisoners. … The latest debate is, in part, also a proxy for the bigger battle over what the Democrats' identity should be in the aftermath of November's devastating losses — especially as the party searches for ways to reverse its overwhelming rejection by rural and White working-class voters. … 'Some words are just too Ivy League-tested terms,' said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona). 'I'm going to piss some people off by saying this, but 'social equity' — why do we say that? Why don't we say, 'We want you to have an even chance'?' … Other Democrats and progressives strongly disagree, saying the party's problems can hardly be traced to a few terms that, they say, are used by activists far more than by actual Democratic politicians.' Nate Silver: Busting the turnout myth for Democrats: Silver Bulletin: 'Presidential campaigns — and particularly Democratic campaigns — tend to see turnout as their lodestar. … But a new, highly detailed analysis of the 2024 vote from Catalist, an analytics and voter database firm, suggests that turnout was probably a relatively modest part of the problem for Harris last year. … [Catalist analysis] finds that Harris and Tim Walz performed poorly among the exact sort of infrequent voters that Democrats once counted on for higher turnout. … About 56 percent of dropoff voters — people who voted in 2020 but not in 2024 — had voted for Biden in 2020, excluding third-party voters. … That hurt Harris, certainly. But two other shifts also harmed Democrats. First, unusually, a majority of new voters (people who didn't vote in 2020) voted for Trump. Since many new voters are young voters, this reflected a substantial tepidness toward Democrats among the younger ranks of Gen Z. … What's more, Harris also (slightly) lost to Trump among repeat voters, a majority of whom had voted for Biden in 2020.' SHORT ORDER Ranked choice voting could help aggressive progressive topple Cuomo in New York mayoral race — WPIX Crowded Alabama field takes shape in hours after Tuberville Senate retirement — Dem front-runner has the lead in Michigan Senate race, but not by much — The Hill Ken Paxton still riding herd on Cornyn in Texas Senate primary — The Hill New Jersey's Democratic machine looking rusty in governor race — NBC News Most Americans disagree with Vance on judicial power — National Journal Shaheen's daughter makes a play for New Hampshire House seat — The Hill TABLE TALK Playing it cool … 'The Government Accountability Office or GAO is a quasi-independent arm of the legislative branch that played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax. They are going to call everything an impoundment because they want to grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt. These are non-events with no consequence. Rearview mirror stuff.' — White House Budget Director Russell Vought said in response to the Government Accountability Office's ruling against the Department of Transportation's pause on congressional funds for electric vehicles. MAILBAG 'It's nice to be informed on actual percentages as related to federal spending. Wish we could get people to drown out all the white noise. A pipe dream at best.' — Craig Grzech, Livonia, Mich. Mr. Grzech, Pipe dreams are better than no dreams at all! One of the principal reasons behind our mounting fiscal peril is that it's hard to generate urgency for solving a problem that seems far off in the future. But as the moment of truth arrives, what was once seen as too distant suddenly becomes too overwhelming. We went from 'we'll deal with it later' to 'it's too big to deal with at all.' I've long thought that the federal debt is for conservatives as climate change is for progressives. The forecast is apocalyptic, but the disaster is always just over the horizon for the people in power at the moment. The proposed remedies are painful, and requiring long-term implementation as they must, may not even survive the next election. Rational self-interest tells politicians that the smart move is to keep up the game of hot potato in hopes that they won't be the one who gets burned when the time is up. But the consequences are increasing and there's a growing understanding in Washington that the 25-year vacation from fiscal reality is coming to a close. For all of its chaos and melodrama, the DOGE effort spoke to that understanding. It's not surprising that the first efforts at taming the budget beast would be fanciful and promise painless results. Washington loves a 'win-win' even when the real choices are between 'lose a little' and 'lose a lot.' All best, c You should email us! Write to WHOLEHOGPOLITICS@ with your tips, kudos, criticisms, insights, rediscovered words, wonderful names, recipes, and, always, good jokes. Please include your real name — at least first and last — and hometown. Make sure to let us know in the email if you want to keep your submission private. My colleagues and I will look for your emails and then share the most interesting ones and my responses here. Clickety clack! FOR DESSERT Perils of globalization BBC: 'A man in Norway woke up to find a huge container ship had run aground and crashed into his front garden. The 443ft-ship missed Johan Helberg's house by metres. … Mr. Helberg was only alerted to the commotion by his panicked neighbour who had watched the ship as it headed straight for shore. … 'The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don't like to open,' Mr. Helberg told television channel TV2. 'I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship. … It's a very bulky new neighbour but it will soon go away,' Mr. Helberg added. … According to reports, the ship had previously run aground in 2023 but got free under its own power.' OFF THE MENU Whole Hog Politics is taking a brief recess next week but will return with everything but the squeal on June 13. Please enjoy the start of your summer. See you soon! Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for The Hill and NewsNation, the host of 'The Hill Sunday' on NewsNation and The CW, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of books on politics and the media. Aliza Jane Fassett contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Whole Hog Politics: Filibuster follies to hover around Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
On the menu: Trump approval bounces back; toastmasters; Dems argue over which way out of the wilderness; warning sign for Cuomo; his ship has come in Dysfunction is both the cause and result of the most dangerous problem in Washington today: an imbalance of power between the branches. President Trump is intent on mowing down the remaining restrictions on executive power, and a series of cases awaiting the Supreme Court could scythe through many of the few remaining authorities Congress keeps for itself. This is the result of a decades-long effort by members of both parties to only oppose executive abuses when they come from the other party. Congress hasn't so much been defeated as surrendered, one majority at a time — and Trump is intent on taking all the spoils won by his predecessors' 50-year siege. Another way in which partisanship has brought us to this incipient defeat of the constitutional order is that the Congress has been rendered all but incompetent by faction. Over that same 50 years of executive pushing, pushing, pushing, the partisan primary system was coming into full force after a halting initial implementation. With a tiny sliver of activist voters holding the same power to deny a candidate an office as a majority of the broad general electorate, the incentives for bipartisanship have all but disappeared in most states and districts. The idea of Congress working smoothly in a bipartisan way on substantial issues isn't entirely dead, but almost. The policy divisions are often arbitrary — think of the reversals on trade, spending, national security and even the primacy of Congress itself — but party allegiance is constant. Even on matters where there is broad popular agreement among the people, like immigration or abortion, the duopoly forbids constructive action. With Congress perpetually stuck, frustrated citizens look to the only office elected by the nation as a whole, the presidency. But when presidents act, as they increasingly have this century, outside of the limits of their office, the results tend to be unsatisfying. This slate of overbroad executive actions will be reversed in part by the courts. What remains will be countermanded at the next change in power, the countermander then adding his or her new round of decrees, and on and on. And so it will go until one day, the courts give up and let presidents rule by the strokes of their pens, ultimately bowing to the will of the people who will prefer substantive action from a despot to a permanently dysfunctional republic. That's what will eventually happen unless Congress gets a hold of itself and starts delivering results on major issues and returns to the fight against executive overreach in a meaningfully bipartisan way. But the trick is that those two things aren't often complementary. After months of declaring themselves wholly devoted to the legislative filibuster, indeed after years of having raked Democrats for their enthusiasm for ending it, Senate Republicans dipped their toes in the cool waters of majoritarianism. Republicans overruled the Senate parliamentarian, who had ruled that a measure repealing a Biden-era regulation allowing California to ban gasoline-powered cars was subject to regular rules and a 60-vote threshold, not the simple majority allowed under the 1996 Congressional Review Act. That is certainly within the power of the majority. It takes a simple majority to evade the 60-vote threshold. Majorities can even get rid of parliamentarians, replacing them with ones of their choosing. Between 1981 and 2012, there were only two parliamentarians, but not consecutively. When Republicans had the chance, they picked Robert Dove (1981-87 and 1995-2001) while Democrats preferred the ministrations of Alan Frumin (1987-95 and 2001-12). One imagines that the Democratic-picked Elizabeth MacDonough, who has served since then, is feeling the winds of change herself these days. What happened with the California rule should be thought of as something of a test case for what's coming this summer as Republicans take the plunge on the reconciliation package that landed in the Senate's lap this month after the House produced its version. The secret trick of reconciliation is that Congress gets a chance to add tweaks to the budget — to reconcile it — twice every federal fiscal year. Harry Reid, also remembered for starting the rollback of the filibuster by excluding some presidential nominations from the rule, was the great innovator of imaginative reconciliation when he found a way to say that the invention of a whole new federal program, ObamaCare, was actually just a little tweak and didn't need to meet the higher standard in 2010. Now Republicans are ready to take their latest turn with the filibuster hall pass, and the pressure will be on MacDonough to be creative in her thinking about what is legislation and what is reconciliation. She was game in 2017 for the Trump tax cuts, but this package appears to have actions that would typically fall outside the rules. If she doesn't agree with the majority, one suspects that she will get the boot in favor of someone with a more capacious definition of reconciliation. Similar things have happened before, so that would hardly be the end of the Senate, but it all points in the same direction: Frustrated primary voters put pressure on senators for both action and strict partisanship, which do not work well together. In order to have both in a narrowly divided nation, lower standards are required. And that's the funny thing about power in a government of separated powers. Presidential power is straightforward: Presidents want more of it and seek to destroy obstacles to its swift and easy exercise. Congress, though, derives its power through complexity. The Senate has more power because of the 60-vote threshold because it must be catered to and heeded in order to build a large enough coalition. The easier it is to get legislation through Congress, the less power Congress has. Holy croakano! We welcome your feedback, so please email us with your tips, corrections, reactions, amplifications, etc. at WHOLEHOGPOLITICS@ If you'd like to be considered for publication, please include your real name and hometown. If you don't want your comments to be made public, please specify. NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION Trump Job Performance Average Approval: 45.2 percent Average Disapproval: 53 percent Net Score: -7.8 points Change from last week: +1.6 points Change from last month: +5 points [Average includes: Ipsos/Reuters: 42 percent approve – 52 percent disapprove; Quantus Insights: 48 percent approve – 48 percent disapprove; Marquette: 46 percent approve – 54 percent disapprove; Gallup: 43 percent approve – 53 percent disapprove; Harvard-Harris: 47 percent approve – 58 percent disapprove] Few Americans choose to directly engage with artificial intelligence (AI), but most interact with some form of the technology when browsing the web. Percent of respondents who ____ in March 2025 US adults: [Pew Research, 2025] ON THE SIDE: TOASTER TRANCES Poet Nora Claire Miller on the surprising history of the screensaver. Paris Review: 'The world's first screen saver was not like a dream at all. It was a blank screen. It was called SCRNSAVE. … SCRNSAVE was a big deal engineering-wise but it never caught on with most computer users. … Before long, software developers figured out how to convince people to adopt screensavers: aesthetics. The screen savers had to make people want to look back at the screens they had just looked away from. … In 1989, a software company called Berkeley Systems launched a program called After Dark. Instead of just going blank, After Dark screensavers showed animations: flying toasters, or falling rain, or overlapping curved lines in neon gradients. The new screen savers took the world by storm. But in terms of preventing burn-in, flying toasters were no better than a blank screen. Their purpose was pleasure.' PRIME CUTS Democrats can't count on a repeat of 2018 in the second Trump midterm: The Washington Post: 'With Democrats already picking up some momentum in early midterm polling, they could be poised for another strong performance in 2026. But even with Trump back in the White House, the circumstances will be different this time, presenting new challenges for both parties. … With all that's changed, how likely is it that the national environment will be as blue as it was in 2018? … An energized base and a Republican electorate that is structurally less likely to turn out are two key advantages Democrats hold heading into the 2026 election cycle. We saw a preview of this dynamic in the 2022 midterms, when President Joe Biden's low approval ratings translated into only relatively modest gains for Republicans. But not all news is rosy for Democrats. In the upcoming 2026 cycle, there will be fewer districts in play than in their previous midterm as the out-party. In 2016, 23 Republicans won seats carried by Hillary Clinton and 12 Democrats won seats carried by Trump — a total of 35 crossover districts going into 2018. But the landscape is very different now as polarization and gerrymandering continue to thin the herd of competitive races.' Putting the Dems' deficit with male voters in perspective: The Liberal Patriot: 'Thinking that these young men can be swayed back to Democrats by developing more politically left-leaning media outfits for guys misunderstands the situation. As Daniel Cox has previously outlined, young men haven't necessarily become more ideologically conservative, but many are politically disaffected and uninterested in traditional party politics. In fact, they often to have dour views of both parties. Cox's polling found that many were drawn to Trump's irreverence and find his shtick 'entertaining.' And though they may not agree with Trump on all policy matters, they were much likelier to believe he was looking out for men more than Harris. Essentially, though young men often actually agree with the Democrats on the issues, many still don't view the party favorably. These men have deeper concerns, including that they don't think Democrats are prioritizing their interests.' Policing the language police: The Washington Post: 'Maybe it's using the word 'oligarchs' instead of rich people. Or referring to 'people experiencing food insecurity' rather than Americans going hungry. Or 'equity' in place of 'equality,' or 'justice-involved populations' instead of prisoners. … The latest debate is, in part, also a proxy for the bigger battle over what the Democrats' identity should be in the aftermath of November's devastating losses — especially as the party searches for ways to reverse its overwhelming rejection by rural and White working-class voters. … 'Some words are just too Ivy League-tested terms,' said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona). 'I'm going to piss some people off by saying this, but 'social equity' — why do we say that? Why don't we say, 'We want you to have an even chance'?' … Other Democrats and progressives strongly disagree, saying the party's problems can hardly be traced to a few terms that, they say, are used by activists far more than by actual Democratic politicians.' Nate Silver: Busting the turnout myth for Democrats: Silver Bulletin: 'Presidential campaigns — and particularly Democratic campaigns — tend to see turnout as their lodestar. … But a new, highly detailed analysis of the 2024 vote from Catalist, an analytics and voter database firm, suggests that turnout was probably a relatively modest part of the problem for Harris last year. … [Catalist analysis] finds that Harris and Tim Walz performed poorly among the exact sort of infrequent voters that Democrats once counted on for higher turnout. … About 56 percent of dropoff voters — people who voted in 2020 but not in 2024 — had voted for Biden in 2020, excluding third-party voters. … That hurt Harris, certainly. But two other shifts also harmed Democrats. First, unusually, a majority of new voters (people who didn't vote in 2020) voted for Trump. Since many new voters are young voters, this reflected a substantial tepidness toward Democrats among the younger ranks of Gen Z. … What's more, Harris also (slightly) lost to Trump among repeat voters, a majority of whom had voted for Biden in 2020.' SHORT ORDER Ranked choice voting could help aggressive progressive topple Cuomo in New York mayoral race — WPIX Crowded Alabama field takes shape in hours after Tuberville Senate retirement — Dem front-runner has the lead in Michigan Senate race, but not by much — The Hill Ken Paxton still riding herd on Cornyn in Texas Senate primary — The Hill New Jersey's Democratic machine looking rusty in governor race — NBC News Most Americans disagree with Vance on judicial power — National Journal Shaheen's daughter makes a play for New Hampshire House seat — The Hill TABLE TALK Playing it cool … 'The Government Accountability Office or GAO is a quasi-independent arm of the legislative branch that played a partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax. They are going to call everything an impoundment because they want to grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt. These are non-events with no consequence. Rearview mirror stuff.' — White House Budget Director Russell Vought said in response to the Government Accountability Office's ruling against the Department of Transportation's pause on congressional funds for electric vehicles. MAILBAG 'It's nice to be informed on actual percentages as related to federal spending. Wish we could get people to drown out all the white noise. A pipe dream at best.' — Craig Grzech, Livonia, Mich. Mr. Grzech, Pipe dreams are better than no dreams at all! One of the principal reasons behind our mounting fiscal peril is that it's hard to generate urgency for solving a problem that seems far off in the future. But as the moment of truth arrives, what was once seen as too distant suddenly becomes too overwhelming. We went from 'we'll deal with it later' to 'it's too big to deal with at all.' I've long thought that the federal debt is for conservatives as climate change is for progressives. The forecast is apocalyptic, but the disaster is always just over the horizon for the people in power at the moment. The proposed remedies are painful, and requiring long-term implementation as they must, may not even survive the next election. Rational self-interest tells politicians that the smart move is to keep up the game of hot potato in hopes that they won't be the one who gets burned when the time is up. But the consequences are increasing and there's a growing understanding in Washington that the 25-year vacation from fiscal reality is coming to a close. For all of its chaos and melodrama, the DOGE effort spoke to that understanding. It's not surprising that the first efforts at taming the budget beast would be fanciful and promise painless results. Washington loves a 'win-win' even when the real choices are between 'lose a little' and 'lose a lot.' All best, c You should email us! Write to WHOLEHOGPOLITICS@ with your tips, kudos, criticisms, insights, rediscovered words, wonderful names, recipes, and, always, good jokes. Please include your real name — at least first and last — and hometown. Make sure to let us know in the email if you want to keep your submission private. My colleagues and I will look for your emails and then share the most interesting ones and my responses here. Clickety clack! FOR DESSERT Perils of globalization BBC: 'A man in Norway woke up to find a huge container ship had run aground and crashed into his front garden. The 443ft-ship missed Johan Helberg's house by metres. … Mr. Helberg was only alerted to the commotion by his panicked neighbour who had watched the ship as it headed straight for shore. … 'The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don't like to open,' Mr. Helberg told television channel TV2. 'I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship. … It's a very bulky new neighbour but it will soon go away,' Mr. Helberg added. … According to reports, the ship had previously run aground in 2023 but got free under its own power.' OFF THE MENU Whole Hog Politics is taking a brief recess next week but will return with everything but the squeal on June 13. Please enjoy the start of your summer. See you soon! Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for The Hill and NewsNation, the host of 'The Hill Sunday' on NewsNation and The CW, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of books on politics and the media. Aliza Jane Fassett contributed to this report.
