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Closed primaries driving America crazy

How could Donald Trump with bottom-scraping approval ratings decide who would represent the Republican Party in the upcoming Texas senatorial race? The primary system offers an explanation. A simple open primary system would have let the broader public choose — and, ironically, save Republicans from a very possible loss in November. Open primaries let registered voters cast a ballot without being members of the party. Closed primaries allow only party members to vote. About 15 states now run genuinely open primaries. There are mixed systems that still help small numbers of voters ...

The Iran war is eating Trump’s presidency

An Iran war that was supposed to be brief, and then was supposed to be over, is imposing an increasing price on Donald Trump’s presidency. We’ve seen a second term of a Republican administration go this way before. There are distinct echoes of George W. Bush’s Iraq War — the conflict that Trump has long excoriated — in the president’s predicament. Now, the Iran war is different from Iraq. There is no ground invasion, no regime change, no occupation, no counterinsurgency. The casualties aren’t close to the same scale, and Donald Trump has been fighting Iran for ...

Why the Blanche nomination should be rejected

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is not qualified to be the attorney general of the United States because he has demonstrated a hopeless conflict between the rule of law — which he has taken an oath to support — and his sense of personal loyalty to President Donald Trump, whom he represented for several years in a notorious but frivolous criminal case in New York. What to do about a nominee as chief law enforcement officer in the land who has and will not disavow this conflict? Reject him. Here is the backstory. For America’s first 100 years, there was no Department of ...

The real stink of Musk

Elon Musk will be spending $100 million to $120 million in at least eight states to help elect Republicans in November, according to The New York Times. Musk’s spending is set to begin next month, targeting Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio, and potentially North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. Musk will also spend in House races in states including California, Wisconsin, and Washington. The money won’t be spent only on TV advertising. Musk’s “America PAC” is lining up firms that focus on knocking on voters’ doors. Fake grassroots. But Musk’s money ...

Another day, another ‘deal’ with Iran

A friend quipped the other day that President Trump truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because he has already ended the Iran war eight times. Will the ninth time be the charm after his latest decision to call off a military escalation in search of a deal with the revolutionary regime? “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Trump posted at 10:05 p.m. on Saturday. He added that this includes “Immediate, Complete, and Total” opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to ...

Mahoning clerk of courts attracts controversy

It’s almost as if there’s a magnetic force attracting Mahoning County Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone to controversy. The remarkable thing is Ciccone has been in office for only about 19 months. Ciccone first garnered attention back in December 2023 when he served as the attorney for 28 voters of Jennifer Ciccone who contested the results of the Struthers Municipal Court election that she lost by 10.28%. Michael Ciccone’s complaint claimed, without providing details, that there was massive fraud in that race that James Melone convincingly won. A week after filing the lawsuit, ...