Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“A swing-seat congressional primary in Nebraska that’s already swarming with outside spending has a new twist with a familiar ring. Big money from a pro-Israel super PAC was en route to help its preferred candidate, but the ham-fisted attempt to conceal that support may backfire on its intended beneficiary, centrist New Democrat–endorsed candidate Denise Powell. Since mid-March, outside groups have spent $2.93 million (as of April 29) in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, supporting Powell and opposing state Sen. John Cavanaugh, a populist candidate with an extensive personal and family political history in the Omaha region that the district encompasses. Cavanaugh had been the early favorite in the race for the open seat vacated by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and won by Democrats in the last two presidential elections. The nearly $3 million already poured into the contest is an enormous amount for the relatively modest media market of Omaha and environs.” (04/30/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/04/30/controversial-pro-israel-pac-launders-spending-powell-nebraska/

Source: Washington Monthly
by Michael McGough

“His jabs at the pope probably would matter more if Congressional Republicans and JD Vance weren’t already heading for grim midterms.” (04/30/26)

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/30/trump-pope-catholic-voters-midterms/

Source: Persuasion
Angel Eduardo & Aaron Terr

“[T]he term ’86’ has been around since the 1930s, commonly used in restaurants and other contexts to mean ‘get rid of,’ ‘throw out,’ or ‘refuse service to.’ When combined with the number 47, referring to our current 47th president, the message becomes clear: Get rid of Trump. To assume that ’86’ means ‘kill’ or ‘assassinate’ is, at best, uncharitable. There are obvious ways to ‘get rid of’ a president without ending his life …. Even if they can somehow establish that ’86’ unambiguously means what they say it means, the prosecution still has their work cut out for them. … The law is clear that merely wishing for someone’s death is and should be protected speech, as distasteful as it may be, absent more evidence proving intent to cause harm.” (04/30/26)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/you-cant-just-call-something-a-threat

Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker

“I have written before on the AI bubble. The stock valuations we are seeing now look a lot like the valuations we saw before the Internet bubble began to crash in 2000. Even a quarter century later, people miss much of the story of that bubble. It’s true we had companies that never made a profit, like Pets.com, with valuations in the billions. But the story went far beyond some flaky companies having ridiculous market capitalizations. The irrational exuberance, to use Alan Greenspan’s great term, infected everything.” (04/30/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/30/will-gravity-pull-down-the-ai-bubble/