Put this in the Point of Personal Privilege File.

​I’ve written in the past of my cousin Andy Elisburg (his branch of the family spell it different, long story…), who is the Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Miami Heat of the NBA.
 
A couple of days ago, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote a terrific article about Andy.  It wasn’t a typical sports article though, and nothing that most readers would have remotely expected.  But it’s one that tells a fascinating story worth repeating here.  Normally, I’d just post a link to it, but I’m embedding the full thing below for two reasons – 1) I suspect that few people would click to go read a long article on my cousin and so posting it here is just easier, even if it’s unfair to the journalist and newspaper, and 2) for those who would click on the link, they wouldn’t be able to read it, because the newspaper is behind a paywall.

The article is very well-written, and builds the story slowly.  Adding unexpected twists and turns along the way.  And the payoff is a yowza.  But since it’s long (and deservedly so, for the full tale), I’m sure that most people who read it in the Sun-Sentinel are Miami Heat fans.  Which is not the case here.  So, I want to give at least a hint of what the article is about, though without giving away too much of the twists and turns.

Two passages seem appropriate.

One comes near the beginning –

“Moments later, after weeks of negotiating hospital hallways, Elisburg maneuvers into the usual spot he has held on draft night in his three-plus decades with the franchise.

“Aides are on hand. His blood pressure is regularly monitored. As the Heat’s No. 20 selection approaches, those numbers rise, not from the aggressive infection that led to these unusual circumstances, but because of the comfortably familiar stress of the situation.”

So, that should give you an idea that this isn’t a normal sports story. Though, in fairness, the headline of the article sort of does, too.  But it's too subtle. Really. Honest.

And then there’s a second passage that stands out, which should make that point even more clear --

“It started late last season, as the Heat were fighting for their postseason life, when something felt off for the Maryland native who has come to be respected as one of the NBA’s ultimate salary-cap savants.

“An infection that initially had sapped strength and mobility, suddenly had become life and death.”

The fact that this comes even before the halfway mark in the story (or before halftime, to put it in basketball terms) should give an additional idea that there are indeed twists and turns to the tale.

Among the many things that stand out to me is how upper management was so supportive of this.  The “Pat” referred to throughout is Pat Riley, the former Los Angeles Laker Hall of Famer, and now president of the Miami Heat.  And “Micky” and Nick” are the father and son owners of the team.

Anyway, here’s the article --

It is June 25, NBA draft day. The practice court at Kaseya Center in downtown Miami again has been set up as a makeshift war room. All of the Miami Heat brass is there: Micky Arison and Nick Arison from the ownership wing, Pat Riley and Adam Simon from the executive wing, Erik Spoelstra representing the coaching staff.

All the while, one floor below, a rented ambulance is pulling into the P1 parking garage, where players, coaches and executives typically enter in privacy.

Moments later, a gurney is rolled into the Heat locker room, with general manager Andy Elisburg then transferred by a nine-member medical team to a high-tech wheelchair.

With the transfer complete, a sense of normalcy washes over the 58-year-old executive.
“And the line I’ll never forget was from one of the therapy people, who said I looked happier coming to my office than most people do going to their houses,” Elisburg says months later.

Moments later, after weeks of negotiating hospital hallways, Elisburg maneuvers into the usual spot he has held on draft night in his three-plus decades with the franchise.

Aides are on hand. His blood pressure is regularly monitored. As the Heat’s No. 20 selection approaches, those numbers rise, not from the aggressive infection that led to these unusual circumstances, but because of the comfortably familiar stress of the situation.

Moments later, Nick Arison, the team’s CEO, ceremonially hands the phone to Elisburg, as has been tradition at such a moment. Elisburg informs the league that the Heat’s selection is Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis.

“When I was done giving the pick,” Elisburg says now, “I was able to reach over and hang up the phone. And the people in the back, all the therapists, and all the doctors were so excited, ‘He’s using his core! He’s using his core!’ Because, for me, I hadn’t had the ability. It was an effort to do that.”

Fulfillment envelops the room, as Riley offers congratulations to all involved.

Then, moments later, reality again for Elisburg, whose dramatic rise in the organization dates to his time as a media-relations assistant at the team’s founding 38 years ago. The curfew for Elisburg’s return to the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center has been set for 11:30 p.m.

Another transfer from souped-up wheelchair to gurney.

Back to the awaiting ambulance.

Making curfew now the goal.

“I was in my room by 11:15. So I made my curfew with 15 minutes to spare,” Elisburg says with a laugh.

•••

When the Heat open training camp Tuesday in Boca Raton at Florida Atlantic University, Elisburg plans to be in attendance.

How he gets there is not as important as how he got here, to this life-balance stage of the fight of his life.

It has been a monthslong journey that largely has come in typical Heat stealth. The organization is bent on keeping the main thing the main thing, so Elisburg over these past few months has mostly conducted business as usual, even when it has been anything but usual.

At times, Riley sat alongside on a hospital bed, briefcase opened as if at a staff meeting at 601 Biscayne Boulevard, not in Miami’s medical district. At other times, the Arisons have stressed time off, only to be met with spreadsheets, suggestions and, ultimately, the franchise’s biggest personnel move of the offseason, the cap-complex trade for Los Angeles Clippers forward Norman Powell.

“All my time at Lynn I only missed one rehab session, and that was when we agreed to the Norm trade that Monday morning at like 9:30. I had a 10 o’clock rehab session and I just looked at my therapist and said I’m not making it this morning,” Elisburg says with a pride unique to the situation. “But I also had a 2 o’clock session, so I pushed the trade call to 3:30.”

For weeks, months, a support system encouraged him, one that very much put Heat Culture and Heat Nation into capital letters. From the ownership branch to the executive suite to the coaching circle to the locker room to the business side, it was as if the entire organizational chart had visited at bedside. Beyond the Arisons, Riley and Spoelstra, other visitors included team executives Eric Woolworth, Sammy Schulman, Raquel Libman, Michael McCullough, the Heat broadcasters and former initial public-relations boss Mark Pray.

“In a hospital,” Elisburg says now from his office suite, “it’s very easy to feel isolated. And I never took it for granted that so many people were willing to come and wanted to come. At one point in time, we limited it to certain days, because I had to make my work phone calls.”

•••

It started late last season, as the Heat were fighting for their postseason life, when something felt off for the Maryland native who has come to be respected as one of the NBA’s ultimate salary-cap savants.

An infection that initially had sapped strength and mobility, suddenly had become life and death.

“We were playing against Memphis on the second night of a back-to-back, and I was exhausted.” Elisburg says, as he begins to retrace an offseason like no other. “I just felt extra exhausted. I canceled an appointment I had that day, and I said, ‘Let me just sleep in and go to the game.’ I went to the game that night. Before the game, I was feeling fine. I was out there for a while. And then I just felt really lousy.

“I called back to the trainers and said, ‘When the doctors get here, let me know. I need to see ’em.’ I just felt really, really run down. My best friend (former Heat executive and college classmate) Marjie Kates saw me and was like, ‘You look gray.’ ”

The vitals at the moment came back fine, but an infection was detected in his foot.
“I didn’t stay for the game that night, and I started on antibiotics. Anyone who knows me, knows me not staying for a game is a big deal.”

Days passed, with a return to better health, as the treatment with antibiotics continued.
“It seemed like it was under control.”

It was not — even as Elisburg continued with his work through the balance of the regular season, the play-in tournament and the playoffs.

•••
​
“The day after the season ended,” Elisburg says of April 29, “I woke up in the middle of the night, and thought I threw a muscle in my back, one of those ones you get up and suddenly you fall right back down in the bed. It was like someone stabbed me with an axe in the back.

“I’d pulled a muscle before, so I thought I’d pulled a muscle.

“I got some medicine for it, stayed in bed for a few days. It was bad enough that I didn’t come to the exit interviews.”

And got worse.

“Two or three days later, it seemed to be getting better — but it never got really better. And then, over the weekend, it started feeling worse. I was having a problem sleeping, I hadn’t been sleeping at all. I thought I wrenched my knee. And it was getting worse.”
Team physician Harlan Selesnick had scheduled a home visit for a few days later. In the interim, Marjie and the team trainers said it might be time to get to the hospital.

“Me being me, I said, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.’ ”

On the scheduled day of Selesnick’s visit, “I started getting out of bed, and my left leg didn’t work. . .  . which is probably as scared as I’ve been in my entire life.”

Upon ambulance arrival at Baptist Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, “I was a whole lot sicker than I realized I was. That’s where they discovered I had an infection throughout my body — in my knee, in my back. My kidney numbers, my liver numbers, everything was up and elevated.

“There were people who were not quite sure I was going to come out of that.”
Amputation of part of his foot followed, “amid concerns about my vital organs,” since his kidneys were essentially at dialysis level.

Multiple surgeries ensued, “like five or six that wound up having to happen over the next week to 10 days.”

•••

Medically, the worst was over.

Now the work was about to begin, work unlike anything that had come before, even for someone who acknowledges far more time spent in the office than at home.

“Nothing is more important than your health. I’ve heard it a million times. I’ve said it a million times. And I’ve meant it every time I’ve said it and every time I heard it,” Elisburg says. ” But when you can’t walk, it’s amazing what those words mean.
“I want my life back.”

So even amid those grueling rehabilitation sessions, ones that are still ongoing — now he is able to take steps through parallel bars while under close supervision — there has been a work-life balance. The body may have failed, but the mind remained sharp — salary-cap sharp, luxury-tax sharp, player-personnel sharp.

“One of my procedures was happening the day of the lottery and got delayed and kept being delayed. And so it wound up happening during the lottery. So I get out of the operating room, I get to the recovery room that I’m awake, alert enough to bring my friends in to see me, and my first question is, ‘So who won the lottery?’ ”

The Dallas Mavericks won, from the lottery seed the Heat would have held had they not made the playoffs.

The moment was not lost on Elisburg, even in that post-surgical moment.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s going to be an interesting thing.’ ”

After three weeks at Doctor’s Hospital, the move was made to the rehab facility.

“I had basically been in a bed for a month without moving. At that point in time, it was enough of a challenge just to be able to move, to be able to sit. It took like six people to be able to get me up to be able to sit on the edge of my bed, and I’m in agony of every step of the way of it happening.”

It had become clear what the main thing actually was.

“Pat and Micky and Nick, from the first time I got sick, basically were,  ‘You don’t have to do anything. Do not worry about work. You need to worry about taking care of yourself and being healthy. We will cover whatever has to happen here. You worry about you.’ That was the first thing they said to me.”

But the work also helped pass the time.

“It was hard for me to sit in a hospital bed and sleep or watch TV,” Elisburg says. “And after a while, I said, ‘I’ve got to get something going.’ I started making some phone calls, started talking about the draft and trades and things of that nature.

“When I would talk to Pat and Nick, I’d say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some information.’ Initially, it was, ‘You worry about you.’ I was like, ‘I need to do this. I need something to get my mind going.’ And it went to now we started to have regularly scheduled meetings.

“There were times when Pat came over and we sat and just were talking, it was just there for support. And there were other times we had meetings and discussed what the next strategy would be. And we did it from my chair or my hospital bed. Mentally I was in a good place. Keeping things going with my mind was really good for me.”

•••

That normalcy allowed for a degree of business as usual. Many outside the organization were not aware of the situation.

“There are times I got calls from GMs during therapy sessions. Now, the old Andy Elisburg, he would have been in the lobby having a phone call if a GM called during therapy. Now, it was like, I’m doing my therapy, and when I get upstairs, I’ll return the phone call. I had to change my approach to, ‘I need to focus on me and my health now ahead of work.’ Which is, to anyone who’s known me for any number of years, was not me.”

There also was no masking the situation as he dealt with other NBA executives and agents.

“Usually you get to, ‘How you doing?’ I’d say, ‘Well, that’s an interesting question.’ I was pretty open with the people I know. I was fairly forthcoming.”
No, not necessarily business as usual, but work getting done, trades made, players signed, cap ledger squared.

•••

Back at his Miami condo since mid-July, with therapy on an outpatient basis, Elisburg is also again spending time at the office, again a fixture at the practice court during scrimmaging and informal player workouts.

The logistics getting to that practice court have been simplified since that draft-night visit, even as normalcy remains a work in progress, including the inability to get to Micky Arison’s Hall of Fame induction two weeks ago.

“That one hurt a lot, and I wound up with a little bit more infection in the foot. And I decided doing things crazy is one thing, doing stupid things is something else.

“I’m probably (doing) about 80% of what I’d been doing at this point in time in September.”

“I’m doing well. There’s still a lot of roads ahead,” Elisburg says. “I’m still dealing with some infections, I’m still dealing with pieces of it.

“There’s nothing at this point in time that has had anybody saying I can’t walk. So I’m viewing myself as getting back to my life.

“But I also can’t go without saying my incredible appreciation for my family and everybody at both Doctors Hospital and Lynn for what they did to save my life.

“I walked into Doctors Hospital a lot closer to not being around than I realized then, and realized later.

“The nurses and the doctors and the therapists and all the people at Lynn and what they did and what they’ve done on a daily basis to get me where it is, because Erik’s line is so true, it’s about getting 1% better every day.

“Marjie was there every day at the hospital. My parents were there often. In fact, my dad also had to go to Lynn for therapy, so my mom was going back and forth to both rooms.

“The care of all the doctors and all the nurses, all the therapists and all my home health aides are why I’m here today. Look, it’s unfair what happened to me and I can sit there and look at that. But I also look at it as, ‘Look, I’m the luckiest person in the world. I love my life.’
​
“I’m looking forward to the season and lucky that I do something that I have such a passion for and still am able to do it.”

​Over the past few days, Trump has added several large, new tariffs -- including ones on big trucks, upholstered furniture (yes, really), cabinetry (yes, really) and drugs.  Because...oh, I don't know, to make kitchens great again, or something.

And then yesterday, Trump added one more.  On movies made in foreign countries.  I'll let him explain, because I don't have the heart to speak for him on this one.  (Note: The yellow highlighting was put in by them third-party person who posted this, not Trump.)

Trump hinted at this months ago -- and him actually finally getting around to doing it is not less ludicrous and ignorant about moviemaking now than it was then.

And it's very ludicrous and incredibly ignorant about moviemaking -- and on so many levels.  And just to explain that this is not hyperbole, yesterday I got calls from two friends who are filmmakers, and both asked, "Can you explain what's the point of these tariffs??  Because I don't understand."  To which I answered, no, because there is no point to them.  "I ask," they each said, "because that's not Hollywood works."  I know, I replied, that's what my article for tomorrow is is about.  And then they kept describing all the things that don't make sense to them.  To which I replied -- again -- that's what's in my article.

For a very basic starting point on what's so ludicrous and ignorant about how moviemaking works in this tariff, from what Trump says here -- because he says very clearly that this is about "all movies that are made outside the United States" -- the tariffs will include foreign movies made by foreign filmmakers shot overseas in their foreign home countries that aren't stealing anything from America.  Nothing, zero.  And that makes absolutely no sense.  (Furthermore, if that's just a slip of the tongue and he doesn't mean those foreign-made movies, then it's even more loony since Trump is then giving an advantage to foreign filmmakers over Americans.)
 
But back to the very basic starting point, here's just one recent example why this is ludicrous and ignorant.  There are, oh..., a great many thousands others.
 
Two weeks ago, I watched the movie Hytti Nro 6 (Compartment No. 6), a production from Finland that won the Cannes Grand Prix award.  The story of film is “A Finnish student and an uncouth miner slowly forge a hesitant connection when they throw together in cramped train quarters on a journey across Russia.”
 
I can assure you with almost near-certainty that if Finland filmmakers hadn’t make the movie, no one in the Hollywood, or anywhere in the United States would have.  In fact, it’s possible that if you had suggested it, you might have been laughed out of the studio executive’s office, after which he would have told his secretary, “If you let that person back in my office ever again, you’re fired.”  Zero American jobs were lost because of Compartment No. 6.  Going further, I suspect every year at the Oscars, when the Best International Film category comes up, tens of millions of Americans watching the broadcast are thinking, “Why do they even have this category??  I’ve never heard of these movies.  And I will never watch them.  I hate foreign films.  It’s people sitting around in berets smoking cigarettes and pausing in silence for minutes on end."  And these are the best of the foreign-language films.  (And no, that’s not what foreign films are.  The best of them especially are often remarkable.  But still Hollywood wouldn’t make most of them.)  Occasionally, Hollywood does remake a great foreign film – though when they do, it’s make here in the Good Old U.S. of A, with Good Ol' Amurican actors and crews.
 
And as I noted, there are mountains of other examples.

For that matter, if a U.S.-financed movie is shot overseas, yes, the jobs on that film will mostly be foreign -- but the revenue made will go to the U.S. company, on which it will pay taxes.  Moreover, many, if not most, movies today have co-production deals with foreign companies for the overseas market.  Those (even though filmed in the U.S.) are not "made" outside of the U.S. -- but some of the revenue goes outside the country.
 
But this isn’t even the main stupidity and ignorance of Trump's 100% tariff.
 
The U.S. film and television industry -- from global box office, licensing, home video, and streaming services -- is one of the biggest international revenue industries in the United States.  From international box office alone, its revenues are around $34 billion.  It’s actually doing really well. No one is stealing anything from Hollywood.  The concept is laughable.  If anything, it’s long been the very opposite.
 
But further, if a U.S. studio has a story about romance in Paris or exploring 19th century Brazil, or ancient Roman ruins, where does Trump expect it to be made? Pacoima?  Also, yes, California has lost some productions, but they have gone to other U.S. states offering major tax concessions, not to Europe!  They're still in the United States!  (In fact, within the past month, California just passed a state law to provide tax breaks in order to combat what’s known as “runaway productions”.  That’s what was needed – not tariffs, for higher taxes on American consumers. 
 
And even more, the most ignorant thing about putting tariffs on movies made overseas, is that it’s far more likely to devastate movie theaters in the U.S. than studios. Studios don’t rely on U.S. movie theaters – and that was true long before COVID upended how people watch movies with streaming.  In fact, studios don’t even necessarily rely on the U.S. for revenue – as hugely important as the U.S., of course, is.  But the world market is 2-3 times bigger than the U.S. market. 
 
Oppenheimer made a massive $330 million in the U.S.  Overseas, it made $645 million.
 
Avator grossed an ungodly $785 million in the U.S.  Internationally, it made $2.1 billion.
 
(Its 2022 sequel made $684 in the U.S. Around the rest of the world, it took in $1.6 billion.
 
Barbie made $636 million in the U.S.  Overseas , it made $811 million.
 
You get the point.  Although, no, you probably don’t.  Because most people in Hollywood don’t really get it.  Here’s what I mean.
 
When they made Bridget Jones Diary, it grossed $71 million in the U.S.  But the sequel, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, was considered a big flop by Hollywood experts, only making a paltry $40 million here.  But if you’re wondering why they’ve made two other Bridget Jones movies – that’s because that Edge of Reason sequel gross $224 million internationally!!
 
Or better still – the sequel to the hit comedy Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson was called Johnny English Reborn.  And it only took in a threadbare $8 million in U.S.  It wasn’t just considered a flop by Hollywood so-called experts, but a massive disaster.  However, around the rest of the world, it made – are you ready? -- $151 million!!!  That’s why there was a third Johny English film.  (Alas, it made a microscopic $4 million in the U.S.  Although – and yes, you may have figured this was coming if  you’ve figured the point out by now – it made an additional $154 million overseas.
 
So, yes, Hollywood loves the U.S. market.  It's huge.  Important.  Very important.  But as a core, overriding, foundational principle, no, it doesn’t need it.  The world market is 2-3 times bigger, sometimes much more. That's something most people, including Trump, haven’t grasped.  It's U.S. movie theaters who need it.  
 
Though, putting aside how ignorant this is on moviemaking --  I'm not sure what Trump is putting a tariff on.  When a film is made overseas and the footage is "brought" into the U.S., does Trump think that product – the raw stock footage, or the digital content -- is then “sold” to Americans???  Of course it isn’t.  A copy is shown in theaters for the public to watch, or its streamed into homes.  They don’t even make DVDs to sell anymore.
 
For that matter, for all I know, films could be streamed from Europe without even going through Customs.
 
But there’s Trump, trying to pretend he’s an expert on everything, this time on Hollywood and moviemaking.  Not beginning to understand it, not understanding how really well it’s doing for the United States and much revenue it brings into the country.  Not understanding what “runaway productions” really are – nor understanding that taxes were just lowered to address the problem.
 
I was asked by someone what in the world the point was to put tariffs on movies made overseas.
 
There is none.  Because this action is so ludicrous that it borders on insane.  The closest I could figure is that it’s Trump’s dementia.  His existing tariffs have been horrible for the economy already, and haven’t even seriously kicked in yet.  And then he’s started to pour out more tariffs – and then added even more, on big trucks, upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinetry, and drugs.  And now…movies made overseas???!  Tariffs are all his dementia obsessed mind can focus on.  So, it keeps repeating, and we get more and more and more.  And it will get worse because dementia is degenerative.  And there’s no one he’s put around him who is competent to help him – if they even wanted to, at risk of losing their jobs.
 
And this is not just about Trump.  It’s about the MAGOPs in Congress who enable and support him.  And are unwilling to vote to stop Trump’s declare “emergency” and take back their Constitutionally mandated authority as the only branch of government who can create tariffs.

If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver last night, his Main Story -- well, he initially said it was about "Israel," but it turned out to actually be about Benjamin Netanyahu, which is a whole different matter.  It's an excellent, detailed and deservedly scathing report that they also manage to make very funny though a good part of it.

I only have one quibble.  A couple of times, Oliver mentions that Netanyahu is unpopular in Israel -- which is very important fact, critical in differentiating the story from being about Israel or Netanyahu.  But he never explains how unpopular.  Many months ago, I read about a poll in Israel that showed his unpopularity being around 80%, which is massive and significant.  (Whether it's still that -- higher or lower -- I don't know.)  Oliver does give poll numbers for Netanyahu's unpopularity in the U.S.  But for some reason, the show chose not to give Israeli numbers.  And they have video of a massive protest against Netanyahu -- but no details on what his unpopularity actually is.  That's a shame, since it's a meaningful fact.  Other than that, it's an excellent report -- pointed and funny.

A few weeks back, I wrote that for a while my pure guess from watching Special Elections was that Democrats had increased their vote in all Special Elections since Trump took office by 10-20 point.  And then added how I'd heard the excellent analyst Mathew Dowd say that the number was, in fact 16 points.  Smack dab in the middle.  Well, there's an update to that --

On Saturday, Harry Enten, the pollster for CNN, said that the number now is 18 points!!
 
This really should scare the bejeepers out of Texas MAGOPs and all Red states that are gerrymandering in hopes of picking up House seats.  To gerrymander, especially as Texas is doing, means you’re taking voters out of Safe Red districts in order to turn Leans Blue districts into Leans Red.  But, importantly, what it also means is that you’re turning Safe Red districts to only Leans Red.  And Leans Red tends to mean having a margin of about 6-10 points.  And normally that's pretty safe, too.  The problem for MAGOPs is that with Democrats increasing their margins – right now – by 18 points, then  all those Leans Red districts would seem to be in serious risk.  Including, of course, the ones that used to be Safe Red, before the party took voters away.
 
And this doesn’t take into consider the 12 districts (I think that’s the number) that have MAGOP representatives but voted for Biden.  It seems highly likely that all of those districts will flip from Red to Blue easily.
 
On another numbers subject --

There are been a lot of stories lately about how much money is being spent by both sides in California’s Proposition 50 vote on gerrymandering.  And that isn't surprising, since I’ve been seeing a ton of Prop 50 ads on television.  More to the point, thus far there have been an inordinate number of “Vote No” ads, and I'm aware that there are a couple of major far-right billionaires who have given almost $35 million to defeat the proposition.  ($30 million of that has come from one man, billionaire Charles Munger, Jr.  The name may sound familiar to some, though it's not exactly -- he's the son of Charles Munger Sr., who is the partner of Warner Buffett.  This is no aspersion on either of those two gentlemen, since I have no idea what their politics are.)  So, before of all that money raised by the "Vote No" side -- albeit raised mostly from two (or one) men, I was surprised to find out that the “Vote Yes” said has outraised the other by about $80 million to $35 million.  Which also means the “Vote No” side is having a very hard time raising money outside of those two (or even just one) billionaires.  While the "Vote Yes" side has raised much more money from a far more extensive number of donors.
 
More to the point, I was curious what the polls show on the vote.  My concern is that Californians really like their Independent commission – and many may not be following the news closely about Texas and other MAGOP gerrymandering states.  (Though California faces the same reality of taking votes away from Safe Blue districts for its temporary gerrymandering effort, with the 18-point average Democratic gain in voting, that means making a Safe Blue district Leans Blue significantly less of a problem, of course.) 

Well, I found an Emerson poll – which is a very good polling organization – and their most recent results say it it’s Yes 51%, No 34% with 14% undecided.   So, even if all undecideds vote no – which is improbable – the proposition still passes.  But all the better, when the poll asked the same question to people who are “very likely” to vote, the number became 55% Yes, 35% No.  So, it looks like it will pass solidly, likely with close to 60% of the vote.  Which is about the percentage that Democrats generally get in statewide elections.
 
So – that's all positive news.  Yes, it’s still a year away from the Mid-Terms, but as I've noted, I think that things will get worse for MAGOPs -- being lead by someone with dementia, which is degenerative, whose starting point is a 38% approval and is surrounded by unqualified incompetents who don't have the skills to get him out of problems, and in fact caused many of them.  And as for the California Special Election, that is only five weeks away. Sample Ballots have already been sent out, and mail-in ballots should arrive any day.

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is Grammy-winning singer and musician Laufey from Iceland.  Her conversation with host Peter Sagal is charming and self-effacing, And often quite funny, especially when talking about her identical twin sister.  And also when addressing the topic of the quiz.
 
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts just before the 20:45 mark

The guest on this week’s Al Franken podcast is election lawyer Marc Elias, who is founder the Democracy Docket.  As the show writes, “One of Donald Trump's priorities when he returned to the White House was to target law firms that he felt had wronged him. While some immediately caved to his demands, others fought back... and won. We're joined by Marc Elias, preeminent election lawyer, to discuss Trump using his second term to settle personal scores, abuse his power, and put a strain on the judicial system in America. Marc and Al discuss the growing authoritarianism and how the recent Supreme Court decisions won't slow it down. But with the unpopularity of Trump's disgusting immigration policy to his handling of the economy to The Big Beautiful Bill, we look with hope towards the midterms.”