I love getting up on Sunday mornings, brewing some coffee, and sitting down to read the paper. A languid Sunday morning and fresh, hot coffee are part of the delight, but so is the anticipation of stumbling across some interesting topic that I wouldn’t have discovered had I not picked up that paper.
These Sunday Morning Coffee posts are written on my laptop, posted on Substack, and certainly don’t come to you via newsprint. But they are a collection of topics I’ve been reading or thinking about, with links to various newspaper articles, magazine pieces, podcasts, and more. Whether you read it on Sunday or on some other day of the week, I hope you’ll also stumble across some random, interesting topic here.
WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT
1. Omaha may indeed be very important to the 2024 election
On March 29, I published a piece about the potential importance of the city of Omaha to this year’s presidential election. Four days later, the conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk, who has 2.8 million followers on X/Twitter, wrote about the electoral scenario in Omaha and called on Nebraska to repeal its law and change the state’s electoral allocation to winner-take-all in order to help Donald Trump.
Within hours, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen endorsed just such a move. The effort died in the legislature, however, primarily because there are only a few days left in the state’s legislative session and members were reluctant to attach this bill to an unrelated piece of legislation.
This didn’t sit well with Trump, who got on the phone to urge Nebraska lawmakers to take action. When he was told there wasn’t time to pass such a bill, the former president reportedly threatened at least one lawmaker, telling him his career was over.
There is now apparently a move afoot to urge the governor to call a special session of the legislature to change the electoral law, though it’s unclear if there are enough votes to overcome a filibuster.
It’s obviously highly unlikely that Kirk or anyone in the MAGA movement saw my Substack piece. What this does show, however, is that what I wrote about is very much a plausible scenario: Omaha could legitimately decide the 2024 election.
2. Is God speaking to America?
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rudy Giuliani seem to think so.
After the earthquake that hit the New Jersey-New York area on Friday, Greene said: “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”
Giuliani likewise suggested that God is sending a message by causing earthquakes in communist states like New York and California.
Hmm. I think I have a few questions …
Is every earthquake a message from God, even those in Republican states?
What about hurricanes? If so, Florida must be on the bad list, no?
Or tornadoes? Looks to me like a lot of red states are in Tornado Alley. Or does God only send messages via earthquakes?
And how did earthquakes get lumped in with eclipses? Aren’t eclipses astronomical events that are known about well in advance?
Also, if Greene and Giuliani are somehow right that this earthquake was a message from God, do they know the epicenter was just a few miles from Donald Trump’s National Golf Club? What could be the meaning of that?
Of course, I’m also wondering why I’m even writing about this. I don’t care a whit about what Greene and Giuliani think, but I sort of have a morbid fascination with the depths to which American politics has sunk in recent years. This is just another example of the idiocy with which we have to contend.
3. Remembering Bobby Kennedy and 1968
Here is a small counter to the idiocy, albeit one connected to a tragedy. On April 4, 1968 (56 years ago this past week), Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. That night in Indianapolis, Bobby Kennedy talked to a Black crowd about King’s death. Smithsonian Magazine called RFK’s discourse “one of the most eloquent extemporaneous speeches of the 20th century.”
It’s only a few minutes long and is worth watching if you’ve never heard it. Not many politicians today would be capable of such eloquence, especially speaking off the cuff at such a tense moment. Indianapolis officials at the time feared an outbreak of violence, which is what happened in dozens of other U.S. cities after King’s death, and warned RFK’s staff they couldn’t guarantee his safety if he went ahead with his speech.
Two months later, Kennedy himself would be assassinated. The dual deaths of King and Kennedy that year sent much of the nation tumbling into despair.
Kennedy was a distinctive figure who attracted support from both Blacks and working class whites. Many historians have wondered what American politics might look like today if 1968 had turned out differently.
WHAT I’M READING
Politics Articles
Is the division of American politics into left and right just an illusion? It appears more likely that many of us adopt positions based on political tribalism rather than on ideology.
Joe Biden says the United States has “the best economy in the world.” Donald Trump says it’s “a cesspool of ruin.” Who is right? CNBC looks at the data and declares a clear winner.
Barstool conservatism. How sports talk radio is increasingly becoming a home for conservative political commentary.
If Trump wins this year’s election, his allies are preparing for the next presidential term to be infused with Christian nationalism.
A question for Democrats: Should Sonia Sotomayor retire from the Supreme Court? Democrats aren’t calling on her to retire but are worried about a repeat of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg scenario should they lose this year’s presidential election.
Some Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be dragging out the war in Gaza to avoid early elections and maintain his grip on power.
Life Beyond Politics
SOLAR ECLIPSES: Are you ready for the solar eclipse on Monday? Here is a look at “how several of the world’s major religions have responded to such eclipses over the centuries.” Another piece delves into two eclipses during Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime and how they impacted Jefferson and his pursuit of scientific knowledge.
TRAVEL: You like the beach. You like to hike. But what are some of the best hikes to a beach? Outside magazine list 25 beach hikes in the U.S.
HISTORY AND WRITING: If you enjoy Jon Meacham’s history books you’ll appreciate this peek inside Meacham’s private study, in a carriage house on his property in Nashville.
SPORTS: The Barkley Marathons is considered by ultramarathoners to be the most grueling 100-mile race in the world. This year, it was won by a 28-year-old Ukrainian.
CLIMATE: Planetary scientists are worried about a tipping point that could cause the Atlantic Ocean’s circulatory system to collapse, resulting in dramatic climate changes.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
At The Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller talks to historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat about authoritarianism and her book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. As part of the discussion, Ben-Ghiat discusses threads that connect authoritarian leaders. Yes, including Trump.
A cult of personality, not surprisingly, is one thread that links authoritarians. But another? Interestingly, they are oftentimes also focused on hypermasculinity, sexual conquests, misogyny, and homophobia.