www.sej.org/headlines/sh... Latest evidence that all you need to succeed in the Trump administration is to see clothes on the emperor.

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/10/03/a... “Flashier governors in larger states … are currently grabbing headlines and Democratic hopes for 2028. But Beshear may yet emerge as a strong contender … with a common-sense approach, everyman looks and an almost quaint aversion to pretension,” sez Zachary Clary

Independence is a virtue. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/u...

www.wdrb.com/news/politic... Story fails to note that it was Trump who canceled the meeting, which is important context when the former majority leader says they need to be meeting, and soon.

kansasreflector.com/2025/09/14/d... William Allen White still has something to say.

www.wuky.org/wuky-news/20... “Outright quackery,” says Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s health secretary and former public-health director.

nkytribune.com/2025/09/opin... Ted Cruz got the attention, but his argument was based on political strategy, not principle. The Kentuckians mentioned here were unabashed supporters of free speech.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Rand Paul, Tom Massie and Ted Cruz, are warning of government overreach on free speech and abuse of the Justice Department. Will other Republicans speak up? www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

nkytribune.com/2025/09/opin... This column was written before the FCC chairman threatened Disney-ABC, which reacted by indefinitely suspending the Kimmel show. That’s a whole separate column. This is about the principles and practices of free speech in America.

Watching all these centrist pundits stress the “civility” of Charlie Kirk’s style without addressing the ugliness of his substance is giving me a renewed appreciation of how the civil, polite White Citizens’ Councils conned the same crowd into thinking they were distinct from the cruder Klan.

www.politico.com/news/magazin... A Massie backer “joked,” ⁦‪@jmart‬⁩ writes, “If the frontrunner in the Senate race, Daniel Cameron, wants to run for Congress, then Thomas Massie will switch with him and become the frontrunner in the Senate race.” That might not turn out to be a joke.

nkytribune.com/2025/08/opin... As Democrats around the country look for ways to success, gatherings of party members in rural Kentucky and Louisville last week got some talking about ideas and approaches.

Jack Kirby, the master

It is useful to remember that Vance is the only administration official Trump can't fire. And I think he's smart enough to have avoided creating any kompromat that could be used to force him out. www.thebulwark.com/p/et-tu-jd-v...

www.notus.org/2026-electio... It didn’t start with Cameron’s people, the story says. It also says Morris is “surging” but cites no evidence of that. However, some of the sources probably have polling.

nkytribune.com/2025/08/al-c... The big question after Fancy Farm.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/o... “Environmental contagion is important not because it is possible to keep everything at bay, but precisely because we cannot. The world is inside us, now. What are we going to do about it?”

As Mitch McConnell took the stage, spoke and was repeatedly applauded at the Republican breakfast before the Fancy Farm Picnic, Senate candidate Nate Morris stayed seated with hands folded. He was flanked by his opponents for McConnell’s seat, Rep. Andy Barr and ex-attorney general Daniel Cameron.

www.axios.com/2025/07/29/e... heads in the sand

nkytribune.com/2025/07/opin... Andy Beshear finds South Carolina to be friendly territory.

www.politico.com/live-updates... Just as in the 2023 governor’s race, ⁦‪@DanielCameronKY‬⁩ is way behind in fundraising. Meanwhile, ⁦‪@RepAndyBarr‬⁩ is raking it in and ⁦‪@NateMorris‬⁩ is using his own money to buy name recognition, the only metric that shows Cameron ahead.

George Will welcomes Andy Beshear to the big leagues and writes, “Kentucky, which is contiguous to seven other states, is a laboratory for learning to speak Middle American, a skill that has atrophied in a Democratic Party with coastal obsessions.” Beshear’s in SC today and tomorrow. wapo.st/44yV50H

www.news-expressky.com/news/opinion... Mitch McConnell gets some pushback from the editor in Pikeville.

President Donald Trump is using false claims to promote his massive domestic policy bill. | Fact check cnn.it/4enGnwx

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... Good on-the-ground reporting from parts of Massie’s district, but more is needed from other parts. And how about a map of the district, not some antique from circa 1830?

A warning about this platform: the Bluesky bubble hurts liberals and their causes, Megan McArdle writes for The Washington Post. Im not seeing the gift link, so I hope you can read it.

www.wired.com/story/grok-c... Beware

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/a-nuanced-... One of the best health columnists on a subject that’s getting more attention but sometimes too much opinion and not enough fact.

@hcrichardson.bsky.social deftly summarizes yesterday's hearings in Congress, in which the raging incompetence, stupidity and deceit of Trump appointees was on full display. You must read it to believe it really happened. open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Every day for the next ten days is going to be the same backwards (palindromic date): 5/20/25 5/21/25 5/22/25 5/23/25 5/24/25 5/25/25 5/26/25 5/27/25 5/28/25 5/29/25

“Sorry I’m late, a chickadee was collecting my dog’s hair on the porch and I’d be a monster to interrupt.”

Why Harris Lost: Trump got the electorate he wanted, with plenty of infrequent (and generally low-information and lesser-educated) voters. Sarah Longwell says that gives Democrats hope for 2026. But what about 2028? The information landscape will likely be the same. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

If public health is the intersection of health and politics, health has been T-boned.

Another late-Friday special, perhaps from a leak timed to get the story missed over the weekend and then largely forgotten.

This has been shared by many but I join because it’s a comprehensive, documented account of the depredations of Donald. It’s long, because the depredations are many, but we can’t let him overwhelm public discourse and the rule of law by sheer volume of offenses. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... Anybody who considers Medicaid “welfare,” as the administration officials described it, is trying to mislead you. Benefits are not paid to beneficiaries. They go to providers who provide the care, and the payment rates are low. This is more messaging than reform.

Good lineup on Kentucky Tonight on KET right now: Republicans KC Crosbie and Andy Westberry and Democrats John Yarmuth and Jonathan Miller.

www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trum... McConnell’s first biographer, former Republican John David Dyche, returns to punditry with an inspired “Trump questionnaire for Kentucky Senate candidates.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/04/w... “Pope Francis’ name was just cranked out by someone operating a stonecutting machine, probably via sandblasting from a template prepared on a computer,” expert says. Francis deserves better. It’s a distraction. (Also, kerning isn’t the space; it’s the reduction of it)

Rand Paul recalls a congressional meeting with a Trump administration trade representative: “It reminded me of a meeting on industrial policy in the Soviet Union . . . If you’re nice to the czar, they’ll bequeath upon you exceptions to the iron fist." Read more at: www.kentucky.com/news/politic...

"Transparent," by Nick Anderson 🐂💩 open.substack.com/pub/nickande...

www.axios.com/2025/05/02/u... I think this is a bit alarmist, but only by national metrics. Factor in the weakness of local journalism and you can make an argument that it’s more accurate than not. The decline of journalism and truly independent news outlets is a major cause of our current issues.

www.axios.com/newsletters/... Follow the money. Grifters at work, profiting from public office.

Having a horse named Journalism as the morning-line favorite in the Kentucky Derby should give Americans a little prompt to think about what the word is supposed to mean and the value of it to our democratic republic. Here's Joe Gerth's take on that. www.courier-journal.com/story/opinio...

nkytribune.com/2025/04/opin... For Derby Week, our annual roundup of Kentucky politics.

www.axios.com/newsletters/... Top winner at WH Correspondents Dinner was Alex Thompson for revealing that Biden’s “cognitive decline was impacting his ability to do his job, information the White House tried to conceal." Thompson said, “We, myself included, missed a lot of this story."