The Globetrotter: No Cakewalk for Democrats
Five weeks out, the arithmetic definitely favours Democrats. Their lead on the generic ballot hovers around eight points; Trump’s approval sits in the high thirties; gas prices, tariffs and a war in Iran keep the mood sour. The House looks theirs to lose and the markets agree. The Senate is another matter. Republicans hold 53 seats and Democrats need a net gain of four from a map tilted against them. Add JD Vance to the picture and it gets ironic: the understudy is tidying the star. He keeps Trumpism’s grievances but sands off the improvisation, talking tax cuts, faith and family while skirting Iran and prices. Whether a doctrine can be salvaged from a personality is his real audition for 2028. Yet Republicans are only wounded, not finished. The GOP’s unpopularity is a tailwind for Democrats but not a guarantee, and midterm voters have a habit of surprising everyone. Besides, Democrats should worry less about Trump. A restive left, loud and organised, is pulling the party towards positions that swing voters in Arizona, Georgia or Pennsylvania may not indulge. Every gain in the primaries risks a loss in November. Are Democrats piggybacking their young socialists forgetting that opposition is not a programme? Or that wave elections are lent, not owned?
Pleasure after Pain
Chrissy Amphlett is singing again, thanks to a dusty garage shelf. Three songs she wrote in 1998 with Tim Finn, formerly of Split Enz, surfaced on a forgotten studio reel and arrive this week as the EP Some Times. They show a singer seeking a gentler register, away from the snarl that defined Divinyls. That snarl made her famous. Gym-slip on, mocking propriety, she fronted a band whose 1990 single ‘I Touch Myself’, a frank, playful anthem to female desire, topped the Australian charts. Since her 2013 death from breast cancer, it has doubled as a public call for early detection.
The End of Manchester City’s Beginning
The Premier League confirmed Manchester City are guilty of all charges related to breach of financial rules. Even after the Athletic first broke the news that the independent commission had found City guilty on 100-plus of the 115 Premier League charges, neither the club nor the league published it. Sanctions are undecided and City will appeal. The charges are of two kinds: that between 2009 and 2018 City misreported their finances, including what they paid players and managers and bogus deals to disguise £900 million in secret funding, and that they then obstructed the league’s inquiry. The reckoning: possible points deductions and relegation. Even expulsion. So, in theory, is the recall of titles won in those years. Yet while rival players and fans scent redress, several owners are queasy because precedent cuts both ways. Chelsea, fined over the Abramovich era, could fear a tap on the shoulder. The accusers now fear the law they wrote. Pep Guardiola’s teams, of course, are not in the dock as most of the years under scrutiny predate him. But those years laid the ground he built on. None of this was quick. Appeals will grind. It is rather the end of the beginning.