Episodes

On Our Political Radar This Week… (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, Pool) This is our 300th episode, dating back to March of 2021. We thank you for making the last 5+ years possible! When we launched, the two state parties had just wrapped up their winter conventions one month after that January 6 Trump-led riot at the U.S. Capitol. State Democrats held what was pretty much a controversy-free event. The Republicans’ convention marked the begin of the MAGA takeover of the state party with election of co-c...

On Our Political Radar This Week… “Stupid on Stilts”. That’s how Republican Senator Thom Tillis characterized Donald Trump Jr.’s decision to let a Putin Pal pay for his Gatsby-style wedding reception … but it could serve as the theme for the entire Trump 2nd term. Even ultra-conservative billionaire and Trump acolyte Peter Thiel is conceding that Trump has surrounded himself with a band of incompetent suck-ups instead of “the best and the brightest.” How else can you describe a group that inclu...

On our radar this week… “Degenerates and Losers” – That’s Trump’s description of MS NOW after the network reported the administration is considering adding Trump’s name to Ford’s Theatre, the theatre where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The latest overnight online rant comes hours after a federal court overturned Trump’s ban on MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House … along with the release of polling showing Trump’s approval rating has dropped to less than one-third of Americans, wit...

On our radar this week… The battlelines are drawn in Michigan and across the nation over the tandem futures of data centers and artificial intelligence. Unlike the decades-long warnings over climate change threatening the future of the planet, the lighting speed of A-I development has catapulted the tech issue to the top tier of political issues. It seems like ancient history, but in reality it’s only been a week since Donald Trump demanded fealty from the MAGA masses at his self-praising two-d...

On our radar this week… For the first time in our nearly six years and 295 episodes we’re on the road, delighted to be in Grand Haven with good people of Progressive Lakeshore, a nonpartisan, women-led initiative working to connect, inform & grow the progressive community. Absentee ballots go into the mail in just 16 days … unless Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court majority decides to ignore the U.S. Constitution AGAIN! Trump has filed still another appeal with the Court demanding that the Post ...

On our radar this week… Yes, the Donald Trump one-dollar coin is now in circulation. It’s just a matter of time until the faux gold coin is available in a special gold case exclusively on the website More Trump Crap for Sale Dot Com. The fall campaign is underway in Michigan, with ballots going in the mail beginning in just 3 weeks … unless the Supreme Court backs Donald Trump’s clearly unconstitutional plan to have the Post Office decide who votes. Both Abdul El Sayed and Jocelyn Benson have s...

On our radar this week… Jeff takes a week off and just like that, Trump starts another war! This time with him smack-ass in the middle of it. Jeff and his bride were in Canada’s Maritimes and was attacked with Canadian kindness, poutine, real beef and not diseased Argentinian horse meat, the best lobsters and oysters in the hemisphere, and the inability of artisans and merchants to ship their goods to their traditional U.S. partners – or even for me to ship purchases home, due to the economical...

On our radar this week… Another bad week for the 80-year-old President as he gets roasted by Jon Ossoff with a riff that mentioned Natalie and infuriated Trump, setting off a social media frenzy with a​ttacks on the Georgia senator along with CNN and the reporter who asked Trump about the mention of his consta​​nt companion. Trump’s priority issue this week seems to be as construction boss for the White House. He’s ordered his Justice Department to appeal a halt to further construction of his ...

On our political radar this week… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Republican general election strategy has been launched. It’s a 3-legged stool of misdirection: Gaslight voters on the economy, taxes and Trump’s failed war against Iran Accuse any and all Democrats of wanting to bring Communism to America Constantly remind voters that Abdul El-Sayed is a Muslim which makes him a terrorist – the 2026 version of Trump’s claim that Obama was born in Kenya Trump gave Democrats another campai...

On our political radar this week… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In multiple battles on election day, some candidates won despite being heavily outspent. The list includes Abdul El-Sayed prevailing over Haley Stevens’ $60-million campaign GOP Gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson seeing another $30-million of his personal fortune disappear in his loss to John James Multi-millionaire Congressman Shri Thanedar outspending state Representative Donavan McKinney 17-to-1 … and losing Mid-Michigan ...

On our political radar this week… Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed are in the center of the national political spotlight We’re in the final days of a primary campaign that’s being watched by the nation: will the Democratic Socialist wing of the Democratic Party upset the centrist leadership? It’s the top political story of the week nationwide. Donald Trump’s approval rating is now officially in the deep freeze: 32-percent approval in the latest Quinnipiac poll. So Trump and his allies are rolli...

On our political radar this week… Canadian officials cut the ribbon today to herald Monday’s scheduled opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge. Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford spoke directly of the latest Trump assault on America’s number one trading partner, saying “ Ontario will be ready to respond in any new American tariffs, will not back down, and will negotiate from a position of strength as a top trading partner, more than half of the United States.” Because of Trump’s latest tariff tantrum no...

On our political radar this week… America was treated to still another delusional rant from Donald Trump Thursday night about the issue that’s his singular fixation: imaginary election fraud six years ago. The speech came in a week of bad news from the mad man in the Oval Office: Iran continues to dog-walk Trump and make the U.S. a laughing stock for the world, while the idiotic war continues to drive prices for American voters higher and higher. Trump was finally forced to pay millions of doll...

On our political radar this week… Demagogue Senator Joe McCarthy’s Red Scare tactics of the 1950s are back. The GOP game plan for the 2026 campaign is clear: branding Democrats as soft-on-crime and communists who want to destroy America. Using Hollywood terms, it’s a sequel to what was, for a while, a highly successful 1950’s crusade led by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The candidates in Michigan’s two very high-profile primary battles had TV debates in the last few days. Did the debates ch...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… Trump’s heavily hyped Great American State Fair has been labeled the All-American Fyre Festival. Crowds are non-existent. It’s even so bad that Vanilla Ice pulled out at the last minute. Jeff notes that he’s had larger crowds in his shower than at Trump’s latest shitastical narcissistic failed attempt at performative jingoism. Voting has begun in Michigan’s primary election, headlined by the Republicans’ 3-way battle for the par...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… AI created satire (in case you couldn’t figure that out!) There are dead ducks everywhere. In Switzerland, it could well be J.D. Vance’s presidential ambitions as the 60-day pause in Trump’s War is looking shakier by the day. In Lansing, it’s the almost invisible but now dead campaign of state Senate GOP Leader Aric Nesbitt’s gubernatorial campaign, with the final blow coming from Donald Trump. And in the nation’s capitol, it’s ...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… In the first days of Donald Trump’s Middle East War, he proclaimed that the only acceptable end was “unconditional surrender.” He didn’t specify WHO needed to surrender. This week, we got the answer. Iran wins permanent control of the straits of Hormuz, keeps its nuclear program, and gets around a half-trillion-dollars in direct aid and unfrozen assets. Trump got a lobster dinner at Versailles. Americans got the bill for tens-of...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… A summer snowflake sighting in Wisconsin: Donald Trump stalked out of an NBC interview when his lies about election fraud were challenged by NBC’s Kristen Welker. While Trump was attacking mainstream media as “crooked”, his allies at CBS were proving they fit that description by firing 60 Minutes anchor Scott Pelley for calling out management efforts to spin stories on behalf of Trump. Just days after proclaiming “ I don’t think...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… Donald Trump says he’s getting bored with his war, doesn’t care about the mid-terms … but is laser focused on what matters: his reflecting pond renovation, diverting money from national parks for his D.C. cleanup, the Arc ‘d Trump, taking over DC golf courses, the UFC version of the ancient gladiator battles to the death, and reminding us daily that he’s passed a dementia screening test four times. His latest middle finger to th...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan adds to decades of proof that an independent candidate for statewide office is doomed, pulling the plug on what had become a fading Quixotic quest. He was supposed to be the star of the annual Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce policy conference on Mackinac Island which was wrapping up as we recorded. There are no major surprises coming from the two days of fun, fudge and high-level schmoozing a...

Subscribe to our YouTube channel On our political radar this week… Donald Trump, who has had a lifetime personal wealth-building obsession, set a new standard for corruption this week with three outrageously grubby grifts: The $1.8 billion slush fund, under his total control, that he can use to pay off his political crime family, even the January 6th rioters An agreement signed by his onetime criminal defense attorney giving him, his family, and his businesses immunity from any and all tax fra...

On our political radar this week… In between Oval Office naps, his costly, tacky fixations on the Reflecting Pool on the National mall and his $1-billion NOW TAXPAYER FUNDED ballroom, misogyny toward female reporters, rage posting on Truth Social, his bizarre, constant bragging about his regularly scheduled dementia tests, and stuffing his pockets full of payola from domestic and foreign tycoons and potentates, Donald Trump did Democrats a huge favor – voicing a soon-to-be Democratic campaign c...

© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com On our political radar this week… The $200-million, privately funded Trump desecration of the White House has morphed into a $1-billion project … with taxpayers picking up the tab. While the White House focused on the ballroom, taking over DC Golf Courses, repainting the reflecting pool, details of the White House UFC fight on July 4, and signage at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach, Michigan Democrats mainta...

© Clay Jones – https://claytoonz.substack.com On our political radar this week… The Trump Retribution Parade continues as his Department of Payback indicts James Comey for posting a picture of sea shells on social media. If that doesn’t work, they could try claiming the 6-foot-8 Comey’s height poses an imminent threat to the safety of the President. New polling from the Detroit Chamber shows “Undecided” remains the leader in Michigan Democrats’ battle for the U.S. Senate nomination. There’s a ne...