Happy May Day to all who celebrate. My wife and I rescheduled some planned shopping just to not spend any money today, but we’ll probably still go to a locally-owned restaurant or coffee shop so the service workers won’t have a zero tips day. My general comment on weekday protests is that it’s easy to shit on the youngs for not participating, but they have to work. I don’t, so I’m picking up some of the slack.

Speaking of money, I listened to the terrible, awful, no good interview of DNC Chair Ken Martin by Pod Bro Jon Favreau yesterday. It was so bad, and Favreau was so pissed, that he put a preamble on the audio version re-making the points he made over and over during the video interview that was released first.

What a fucking mess. At this moment, the DNC is in the hole because their fundraising has been pretty anemic. Also, Martin went back on his promise to release the 2024 election “autopsy”. Martin is almost a caricature of the base Democrats’ critique of the establishment. He won’t release the report for a number of reasons: if he did, all we would do is fight about it; it’s too close to the election and we need to concentrate on winning, and all the “lessons learned” have been gathered together in the Democratic Playbook anyway. DNC fundraising isn’t anemic because Martin decided to release money early; he took out a loan which is a good thing, actually, since he can pay it back whenever he wants, and a bunch of blah blah blah where he tries to re-work the numbers to make them sound better than they are.

If you want to see the spirit of the interview, for my money you can just re-watch the Jerry Lundegaard “True Coat” scene from Fargo:

The guy and his wife buying the car are two sides of the Democratic base. We want the fucking car (i.e., to win elections) and we know we’re being lied to. So we get angry (or cower and just want the argument to be over in the case of the wife). We were lied to, but we don’t have a good alternative (or we perceive that we don’t). Ken Martin, is of course, Jerry Lundegaard (William Macy), the liar speaking in a Minnesota accent.

The reality, though, is that base Dems aren’t quite as pathetic as the couple shopping for a new Oldsmobile in a mid-90s Coen Brothers film. We’re not coughing up the money. We’re not giving money to the DNC, and we’re not giving money to the DSCC for Schumer to give to his handpicked candidates like Janet Mills. Instead, we’re pouring money into candidates like Kat Abughazaleh and Graham Platner, who would never get a penny from the DCCC/DSCC.

The hope that Martin is clinging to is that a win in 2026 will let him spike the football and claim that he was right all along. I think Jeffries is in the same boat. But I want leadership, not lying denial (Martin) or being pushed, prodded and dragged to doing the right thing (like Jeffries on redistricting). The stakes are just too high. Even some Senators realize that after the Mills debacle, and are calling Schumer out.