Comment on California's legislative leaders say budget agreement is near

New York Times: “From suburban Philadelphia to upscale Phoenix neighborhoods, interviews with more than 50 voters in critical battleground areas made clear that these voters indeed exist, and tend to be particularly bothered by far-reaching abortion bans and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”

“Kemi Badenoch’s elevation as leader of Britain’s Conservatives is a historic moment in British politics — but you can expect the Tories to take it in their stride,” Politico reports. “The 44-year-old is the first Black woman to become a leader of a major U. K. political party, after defeating her opponent Robert Jenrick in a vote of Tory members on Saturday.”

“The third and final release of YouGov’s model estimating every 2024 U. S. Senate election and U. S. House elections in each congressional district shows Republicans taking the Senate by a narrow margin, and Democrats gaining control of the House by an even smaller margin.” “Each outcome would be a reversal of the current Congress.”

Tim Alberta: “In conversations with nearly a dozen of the former president’s aides, advisers, and friends, it became apparent that Trump’s feeling of midsummer tedium marked a crucial moment in his political career, setting off a chain reaction that nearly destroyed his campaign and continues to threaten his chances of victory.” “Even as they battled Democrats in a race that refuses to move outside the margin of error, some of Trump’s closest allies spent the closing months of the campaign at war with one another: planting damaging stories, rallying to the defense of wronged colleagues, and preemptively pointing fingers in the event of an electoral defeat.” “At the center of this tumult, people close to Trump agreed, is a candidate whose appetite for chaos has only grown—and serves as a reminder of what awaits should he win on November 5.”

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