What was expected to be a free-for-all contest among Maine Democrats instead turned into a coronation this weekend. After Graham Platner ended his campaign to take on Senator Susan Collins in November, Maine's Democratic Party only had a couple of weeks to name a replacement to appear on the ballot instead of Platner. They could have used any method they wanted to select a new nominee, and the method they settled on led to an anticipation of a messy convention fight. Instead, what happened was one candidate essentially swept the field of challengers and will now (barring any unforeseen problems) be officially named the new Democratic Senate candidate at the party convention next weekend.

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Rahm Emanuel has apparently launched his 2028 presidential bid. A wonky story about him appeared prominently in today's Washington Post, on the subject of his ideas for fixing education in America. He also recently tossed out a different provocative idea during a recent speech, which further indicates he is in the process of building a political platform to run on. Rahm Emanuel is one of those politicians with an outsized opinion of his own popularity and a strong conviction that the country is ready for him to lead it. That's nothing new -- people like that are a dime a dozen in Washington -- but his new idea is certainly an interesting one: instituting a mandatory retirement age for everyone in the federal government.

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The midterm congressional elections will happen in early November, which is now less than four months away. Trump has already been making drastic moves (such as firing all the members of a federal elections security board) seemingly designed to sow chaos (or worse) when the ballots are cast. Which is why tonight's speech is so worrisome. And which is why I felt the need to run the following column again. Trump's Big Lie is poisonous to American democracy, which is why I am not exactly looking forward to tonight's speech.

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Up until now, some Democratic worries about the upcoming midterm elections have been dismissed by the "It could never happen here" crowd as unfounded nightmares. They pooh-pooh such worries as being laughably outlandish and accuse people who express these worries for overreacting about things that couldn't possibly happen right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. But this week should make such scenarios a whole lot less laughable and a whole lot more worrisome.

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Today's rerun was an easy choice, even though it was originally published less than two months ago. Because today the House of Representatives actually passed the Sunshine Protection Act, by a vote of 308-117. As the article below mentions, what's unusual about that vote count is that it was amazingly bipartisan, with 193 Republicans and 114 Democrats voting in favor of it. Not many things are that bipartisan these days.

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As the M.O.U. crumbles, the price of gas is going back up again. That's where America stands with Donald Trump's on-again/off-again war of choice with Iran. The Memorandum Of Understanding that both sides signed less than a month ago now lies in tatters, Trump just announced that U.S. military ships will re-impose the blockade of Iranian ports, and ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz are under attack again from Iran. All of which has spooked the world's oil market, where prices are (once again) rising fast.

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Last week, we warned everyone that July was going to be a sketchy month for us, in terms of our ability to write these Friday columns. So we begin today with a program update. Today's offering is not a complete Friday Talking Points column. It is bare-bones, at best. We're not even really going to attempt reviewing the past week, and we're also not going to write out talking points at the end (although we did complete the two awards sections). Just to warn everyone up front.

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Rahm Emanuel just launched his 2028 presidential campaign -- in Israel. He did so by giving what might be called a "Sister Souljah moment" speech in Tel Aviv, where he delicately tried to thread the needle of addressing the relationship between the U.S. and Israel in a realistic fashion without burning his bridges with either American Democrats or Israeli Jews. That is a challenging thing to attempt these days, which is why Emanuel's speech was such an important political development.

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Once again, the state of Maine is now on the center stage in the American political spotlight. Yesterday, a bombshell report was published with an accusation that Graham Platner -- the Democratic nominee for the Senate race who was going to face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November -- had raped his then-girlfriend only five years ago. Some are calling it "date rape," but at this point quibbling over semantics isn't the important part. The question now is when Platner will bow to the inevitable and drop out of the race, and who will replace him on the ballot?

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A surprise announcement shook up the Democratic primary for an open Senate seat in Michigan over the holiday weekend, as Mallory McMorrow announced she was suspending her campaign. This leaves the race as a two-person contest, which will pit a favorite of the Democratic Party establishment against an upstart progressive.

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