Yesterday the U.S. MNT won their round-of-32 World Cup tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in somewhat dramatic fashion. The Americans were ahead 1-0 an hour into the game when the hero of their round robin win against Paraguay, Balogun, was belatedly awarded a controversial red card after VAR review of a play that hadn’t even resulted in a yellow card before the VAR got involved. This was eerily reminiscent of how Bosnia had reached the World Cup in the first place, beating favored Italy in penalties after Italy had taken a red card while up 1-0. This time, however, the U.S. scored a second goal on a free kick from just outside the box and held on to win 2-0. With no ability to appeal Balogun’s 1-game suspension for the red card, the U.S. will be missing a key player for their round-of-16 match against Belgium, who had beaten the U.S. 5-2 in a spring friendly.

In my last post I had mentioned new NYTimes polling of the Texas and Maine Senate races. Shortly after I had published that article, the NYTimes release similar polls of four other key Senate races in red states: Alaska, Iowa, North Carolina, and Ohio. While Governor Cooper has a comfortable lead in North Carolina, the three other races currently lean to the Republicans by 2 or 3 points. This polling suggests that having the Democrats reclaim control of the Senate in 2026 remains odds-against, but still more plausible than one would have thought a year ago, given the seats that are up this year.

More recently, Fox News released polls of the Georgia and Iowa Senate races. They have Sen. Ossoff up 56-43 over Rep. Collins in Georgia (and also have Bottoms leading in the Georgia Governor’s race), while in Iowa they have the Democrat ahead, 50-46. They also have Sen. Collins up 50-47 over Platner in Maine.

Earlier this week, Speaker Johnson sent the House into its 4th of July recess sooner than expected, reflecting internal dissension in the Republican caucus. Retiring moderate Republican Congressman Bacon of Nebraska referred to the dissidents as “shitting in their own house because they’re mad at the neighbor.” Sounds about right.

Finally, we are now 2 days away from the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — and indeed, it was 250 years ago today that the vote to declare independence passed, although to John Adams’ dismay we eventually adopted the 4th and not the 2nd as the national holiday. Unfortunately, the celebration of the semiquincentennial has become mired in partisanship. Today the Democratic staff on the House Natural Resources Committee issued an interim report, “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People out of their 250th Birthday”. Quoting from the Executive Summary:

“In 2016, Congress established an independent, nonpartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission tasked with organizing celebrations in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. America250 was created to lead the celebrations on behalf of every American, insulated from the political whims of any particular administration. It was designed to leverage public-private partnerships without any quid-pro-quos or outsized political influence infecting the celebrations. The National Park Foundation—the official philanthropic partner of the National Park Service for more than five decades—stood ready to channel private generosity toward the parks and public spaces where the nation would gather.

But under President Donald Trump, this anniversary has been hijacked and perverted into a hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment. … The White House first attempted to bend America250 to its purposes, demanding spectacles focused on promoting President Trump rather than the country while forcing partisan content, campaign-style fundraisers, and favored contractors onto an organization Congress designed to serve the whole country, not
one party or president. … When America250 would not yield, the White House created a replacement: Freedom 250 LLC, a shadow organization capable of infiltrating the celebrations and injecting America’s 250th with Trump’s extreme, partisan agenda. Lodged within the National Park Foundation, the new entity could exploit the credibility and donor
relationships of a beloved public charity while operating outside the transparency and accountability requirements Congress wrote into the semiquincentennial framework.”

The centerpiece of Freedom 250’s efforts is the Great American State Fair, currently taking place on the National Mall. Attendance has been abysmal, hindered in part by a massive heat wave impacting much of the country. Trump intends to give a major speech — or as he put it, “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all” — on the Mall on the night of the 4th as part of the “Salute to America 250 Celebration and Fireworks” event, promising “the LARGEST FIREWORKS SHOW IN HISTORY.” The forecast high in D.C. for Saturday is 99, with a ‘feels like’ of 109. Sounds wild.