“Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is launching his next political endeavor: a federal political action committee that will seek to recruit and support Democrats in rural communities nationwide. Walz announced the creation of the Small Town PAC on Monday, April 20, saying he wants to help build a new pipeline of candidates rooted in the places Democrats have struggled to win in recent years. … Walz, who has served two terms as governor and was the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2024, told the Minnesota Star Tribune last month that he planned to play an active role in this year’s midterm elections, particularly in governors’ races. He serves as finance chair of the Democratic Governors Association. But Walz faces a harsh political reality as he begins his new venture: His approval rating has plummeted in greater Minnesota in recent years.” (04/20/26)
“To paraphrase the late President Richard Nixon, what will Democrats do when they don’t have Donald Trump to kick around anymore? It’s a valid question. Currently, shared hatred of Donald Trump is the baling wire holding the fractured Democratic Party together. The party is deeply divided over nearly every facet of government and policy, with progressives and moderates warring over taxes, gender issues, AI, climate change, law enforcement and Israel. It isn’t at all clear who the party’s leaders are. Is it Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose approval rating nationally among Democrats barely clears 40%, or is it leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who may challenge Schumer for his Senate seat in 2028 but who is currently, astonishingly, under fire from progressives for trying to reach moderate voters?” (04/21/26)
“A 7.7 magnitude earthquake Monday off northern Japan sparked a short-lived tsunami alert and an advisory of a slightly higher risk of a possible megaquake for its coastal areas. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a megaquake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged residents to confirm their designated shelters and evacuation routes and to check emergency food and grab bags so they can run immediately when a megaquake hits.” (04/21/26)
“Federal Reserve chief nominee Kevin Warsh called for ‘regime change’ at the U.S. central bank, including a new approach for controlling inflation and a communications overhaul that may discourage his colleagues from saying too much about the direction of monetary policy. Warsh’s comments during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee left key questions about his nomination unresolved, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis using his full time to explain why he would not vote for the 56-year-old lawyer and financier until the Trump administration dropped a criminal probe of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell — a stance that could leave Powell as head of the central bank indefinitely.” (04/21/26)
“Republicans are at it again, and it’s hard to overstate how chilling this is and what it tells you about the direction people in this Party want to take America. Texas Congressman Chip Roy is preparing to introduce legislation he’s calling the ‘MAMDANI Act,’ named after Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected democratic socialist mayor of New York City, that would let the federal government bar entry to, deport, and strip naturalized citizenship from any person who advocates for or is ‘affiliated with’ what Roy calls ‘totalitarian’ movements. The list includes, from Rep. Roy’s webpage: ‘[A] socialist party, a communist party, the Chinese Communist Party, or Islamic fundamentalist party, or advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.’ The bill targets people who ‘write, distribute, circulate, print, display, possess, or publish’ material supporting socialism or any of those other ideas.” (04/21/26)
“Beneath the weather of the daily headlines, slow tectonic shifts are changing America’s political landscape. Demographic developments are moving voters (and congressional seats, and electoral votes) from blue states to red ones. Trust in the traditional media (routinely in the tank for Democrats) has plummeted. And the entire education industry, a key pillar of the leftist establishment, is crumbling, too. The long decline of higher education (the subject of my 2012 book The Higher Education Bubble) has been slowly accelerating for over a decade, driven by sky-high tuition and shrinking employment prospects for recent college grads. When Hampshire College in Massachusetts announced its plans to close last week, it became the latest private college to fall victim to the ruin.” (04/21/26)
“Madonna has offered a reward for the return of the outfit she wore on stage at Coachella last weekend, after several of her vintage costume pieces went missing following the festival. ‘These aren’t just clothes, they are part of my history,’ the Queen of Pop wrote on Instagram. Among them were the purple jacket, corset and dress she wore during her surprise guest appearance with Sabrina Carpenter at the California event on Friday night. ‘I’m hoping and praying that some kind soul will find these items and reach out to my team,’ Madonna wrote, adding that she was ‘offering a reward for their safe return’. The outfits are particularly special to the singer because she wore the same boots, corset and jacket during her Coachella performance 20 years ago. ‘It’s like a full-circle moment, very meaningful for me,’ she told the crowd as an adoring Carpenter looked on.” (04/21/26)
“Ukraine has completed repairs on a damaged oil pipeline and is preparing to resume flows, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, while warning that there is no guarantee Russia will not target the infrastructure again. Repairs to the Druzhba pipeline became a contentious issue, delaying approval of a major 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan intended to support Ukraine’s military and economic needs over the next two years. Zelenskyy said repairing the pipeline was linked to freeing the funds, which had been blocked by Hungary and Slovakia. But top EU officials are now cautiously optimistic that the massive loan scheme might be approved as soon as Wednesday, ending months of political deadlock.” (04/21/26)
“When we had shipping expert Sal Mercogliano on our Organized Money podcast, he said that for every day the Strait of Hormuz is shut down to traffic, it’ll take a week to untangle the problem afterward. Yesterday was day 52 of the crisis, so that’s a year on the back end, even if it ended imminently. So get used to more from us at Aftermath, as we detail the consequences before the fighting even stops. Tell your friends and scroll through previous editions at prospect.org/aftermath. We are [still at war]. My colleague Bob Kuttner ran down the latest as of yesterday afternoon. The fundamental problem is that this war turned the Strait of Hormuz into a bargaining chip, and both sides want to use that chip by closing the strait, which continues to punish the global economy with price spikes and shortages.” (04/21/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“We all sense it deep in our marrow. We all know something has gone terribly wrong. If you lived in an alternate reality without wars or poverty, where everyone had enough and governments did what’s in the interests of the people and the ecosystem, it would never occur to you that there was anything odd about it. It would feel completely normal. Things would be more or less how you’d expect them to be. You can’t say the same about the present status quo. The whole thing instinctively scans as weird and counterintuitive. The more you learn about the way the world works, the more insane it all looks to you. Have you ever had to explain war to a young child? It’s terrible. If you’re actually honest with them about what war is and why it is waged, it completely shatters their understanding of the world.” (04/20/26)
