shut in the nuthouse

Two very different Americas

Here's your citation:

President Donald Trump has found a new way to go after politicians he doesn't like: dragging their marriages into his political feuds.

On Saturday, the 80-year-old president unleashed a flurry of posts on Truth Social, including one targeting Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, 41, and his wife.

The post paired a photo of Trump and Melania Trump, 56, with one of El-Sayed and his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku, putting the two couples side by side beneath the typo-riddled caption: "Two VERY DIFFERENT America's."

The man on the left was able to transfer into UPenn's Wharton School in part because his older brother asked one of his best friends in admissions to interview the man on the left. In addition, transfer acceptance rates were high in 1966, the man on the left did NOT graduate with honors and was NOT on the dean's list the year he graduated.

The man on the right has an MD from Columbia University. He also won a Rhodes Scholarship, which enabled him to get a DPhil in Public Health from Oxford.

The man on the left has spent his life focused on accumulating wealth and power any way he could, including by lying and conning people. His far-right policies as president have hurt many Americans, immigrants and people around the world, while enriching himself, his family, and his billionaire buddies and corporate donors.

The man on the right devoted his early career to teaching and research and his later career to public health.

The woman on the left dropped out of college after a few months, worked as a model, and once posed for nude photos.

The woman on the right has an MD from Columbia University and a master's degree from Oxford, and she works as a psychiatrist.

The woman on the left looks like a "trophy wife" or "arm candy" in that dress.

The woman on the right is dressed modestly and is wearing a hijab or shayla. The hijab can be controversial to non-Muslims. However, it has many meanings for Muslim women, and those Muslim women who live in the West often choose to wear it out of modesty and/or as a symbol of their faith.

The couple on the left looks emotionally and physically distant from each other, even though they are holding hands.

The couple on the right looks physically and emotionally comfortable with each other.

Is there one of her husband wearing inflatable boobs during one of his “bimbo” fetish sessions? Or one of her ICE agents murdering civilians?

Natalie Hausmann at Democracy Docket:

California passed its statewide Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2002. Not many followed suit. But over two decades later, states are revisiting the idea with urgency. A dozen states have now passed VRAs, with half enacting the legislation under the second Trump administration. And in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, a flurry of states are passing their own versions of the legislation. Most recently, Delaware’s General Assembly passed its state VRA to fight suppressive voting measures and reinstate previously guaranteed federal guardrails.

In Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court ruled against a court-ordered congressional map establishing two majority-Black districts because it said the state could not use race to redistrict for electoral representation.  The ultra-conservative court also now requires proof of intentional discrimination, meaning pro-voting groups must present evidence that gerrymandered maps were drawn with a racially discriminatory motive. Voting rights and legal experts have rebuked the updated standard as nearly impossible to prove. State VRAs also reject this premise. “Voter suppression claims do not require evidence of intentional discrimination,” the text of the Delaware bill reads. 

[...] While 10 states already had their own protections, New Jersey joined Delaware as one of two states to pass statewide voting rights acts following the Callais decision.

[...] While there’s been increasing progress, not all state VRAs have survived legal scrutiny. Right-wing groups have wasted no time issuing challenges. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a conservative legal group, sued to strike down Illinois’ Voting Rights Act in May. It pulled directly from the Supreme Court’s Callais decision to justify blocking the law. Governor JB Pritzker (D) formally asked the court to dismiss the case. PILF’s attack on state VRAs is just the latest in its anti-voting work.  And even in states without VRAs, GOP leaders have seized the moment to target states seeking to protect against voter suppression. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) was outspoken in advocating for legislators to take action against blue maps “drawn or defended under the old regime” during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in May. Schmitt also called on Trump’s Department of Justice to “end illegal racially-gerrymanded districts,” to which DOJ head Harmeet Dhillon promptly responded.

Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

Minnesota voters on both sides of the aisle are weighing the direction of their parties – and their chances of winning over the general electorate – in marquee statewide races on Tuesday. On the left, Peggy Flanagan, the state lieutenant governor and a progressive, faces off against Angie Craig, a US representative, for the Democratic bid for US Senate in a race punctuated by the role of immigration enforcement in the state that saw two residents killed by immigration agents in a winter surge. On the right, Mike Lindell, an election denier and pillow salesman, carries Donald Trump’s endorsement in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for governor, where Republicans face an uphill battle to challenge Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic contender and a US senator, now seeking the governor’s office. After Tuesday, the general election for the open governor and US Senate seats will shape up, signaling a change for top roles in the state. Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, initially sought a third term, but dropped his bid after ongoing fraud scandals threatened to distract from the race.

[...]

US Senate race

While Republicans have a primary for US Senate on Tuesday as well, Michele Tafoya, a former National Football League sideline reporter, is likely to be the GOP nominee. On the Democratic side, polls of the race have been mixed. Flanagan has attacked Craig for supporting the Laken Riley Act, a federal law that requires immigration detention for undocumented immigrants accused of local crimes, named after a woman murdered in Georgia by an undocumented immigrant. Craig has since expressed regret for her vote, writing in March that it has “become clear that supporting any bill that gives ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] new authority in this administration was the wrong decision”. [...] Tafoya, a Republican who is pro-choice, is counting on winning over independent voters. She has centered her campaign on the fraud scandals. Republican delegates at the state convention endorsed Adam Schwarze, a marine and Navy Seal.

[...]

Governor’s race

Lindell, the pillow salesman, is hoping to ride Trump’s endorsement to a victory over Lisa Demuth, the Minnesota House speaker, and Kendall Qualls, a businessman. Qualls won the endorsement of Republican activists at the state party convention earlier this year. Lindell has faced opposition from the state Republican party, which has questioned his eligibility to hold office in the state, saying it wanted clarity on whether Lindell has lived in Minnesota long enough to qualify. Lindell, who is from Minnesota, has also lived in Texas. He has said he moved back to Minnesota in August 2025, though only registered to vote in the state in July 2026. Lindell, who has been sued for defamation by voting machine companies and others, has not relented in his claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that Trump had actually won. [...]

Klobuchar faces several Democratic contenders in a primary, though is likely to easily win on Tuesday. Klobuchar, who ran for president in 2020, has handily won her US Senate campaigns since she was first elected in 2006.

Tonight is primary night in Minnesota, and a couple of key races could decide where the parties will go.

MN-Gov (R): MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell is likely favored to get the nomination. Lindell would likely lose heavily to Amy Klobuchar (D).

When Trump was being loaded into the catering truck to be secretly moved to a different plane, I can safely guarantee that he never once asked if it was wrong to leave everyone else on the decoy plane with no knowledge of the danger they were being put in.