Is It Time for a Third Party?

The lane for a common sense party continues to widen.

ICYMI📱: Our buddy Chris Cillizza turned the tables on me — watch our Substack live here, including why winning a “best hair” award is really a curse.

• “What is REALLY Going On in Trump’s Washington?”

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Breaking🚨: Flooding and a rare, long-lasting windstorm — also known as a derecho — tore through the Midwest this week, hitting Indiana particularly hard.

• Indiana Governor Mike Braun declared a state of emergency as the state experienced a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event

  • Rivers hit historic levels

  • Flooding reached the roofs of homes

  • Over 241,000 homes and businesses are without power

  • Wind gusts up to 100-plus mph

• Not over‼️: More storms are expected to hit the area through the weekend.

• Heartbreaking💔: Many of the towns destroyed have no way to come back, and most insurance policies don’t cover floods.

• Watch tonight📺: Executive Director of Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security Director Jonathan Whitham and Indiana Congressman Jefferson Shreve

  • Plus➕: NewsNation’s Marni Hughes on the ground

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Stop the clock🕜: Congress can’t agree on lots of things — tariffs, Social Security, Medicare, budgets — but it looks like they’ve finally found something: Daylight Saving Time.

• President Trump is pushing the Senate to pass a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

  • It’s been an ongoing debate for years — and it looks like the debate is finally going to be done.

  • Reality‼️: We know Daylight Saving Time is dumb because we know it’s just daylight shifting time

• What I’m thinking💭: America has bigger problems to deal with than this…maybe we should deal with those first

  • Flipside 🔄: “Daylight savings means more golf!” writes Amanda — does it?

    • We got some great comments on our First Dispatch video on this.

      • Dan Grosso: “We do not want Daylight Savings to continue. Yes, it is stupid!”

      • Moose: “Stop DST. Don’t care which way it goes… just stop the annual flip flops”

      • Carolyn Brown: “I don’t see a need to change it because people get tired of having to reset their clocks twice a year. It could be worse. I think we have much bigger problems to deal with than worrying about time change.”

  • ‼️Become a PAID War Notes subscriber here for our daily First Dispatch video — you will impress your friends with your newfound brilliance

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There’s hope! Is this time for a third party?👀

🙏Missed by all the talking heads that make money dividing us — there’s real hope from the past two primary elections.

• The normies came out from both sides, resulting in massive misses by the pollsters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

  • The “My Pillow Guy” was ahead by nearly double digits and lost in Minnesota’s Republican primaries

  • Francesca Hong lost in Wisconsin and Abdul El-Sayed squeaked out a win after pollsters had both up double digits days before the election.

  • How it works‼️: Pollsters come up with a turnout model — a prediction of what the electorate will look like and then go call voters until they get a sample that matches their model.

• Takeaway☑️: The middle is no longer apathetic — they will come out to defeat extreme candidates in primaries

• Missed lesson‼️: The extremes of both parties appear not to be listening.

• Opportunity👀: As we’ve been saying for a while — the lane for a common sense party continues to widen

Watch tonight📺: Charlie Dent, Lauren Wright and Chris Cillizza on how a modern-day Ross Perot could come on the scene.

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2024 Flashback🔦

⚠️Republicans are making the same mistake Kamala Harris made in 2024 over and over again as they take the midterms and your vote for granted.

• The GOP continues to pound the table and yell about socialism — all while picking bad candidates and refusing to moderate in any way, shape or form

  • Ken Paxton blowing up in Texas

  • Rep. Max Miller refusing to drop out

  • Giving ICE electric gloves

    • Look back🔙: In 2024, Kamala Harris refused to moderate, and we all know what happened.

    • They kept saying there was nothing to see here at the border and immigration — all while we were facing an immigration crisis.

    • Republicans keep saying there is nothing to see with the economy and ICE isn’t a problem.

Reality‼️: Continuing to scream about Democratic socialism won’t distract voters from their problems

• The Washington Post headlines “Sorry, conservatives. The ‘cancel Thanksgiving’ candidate lost,” writing:

  • “Voters care about grocery bills while politicians fight old cultural battles.”

    • 95% of Americans think the U.S. is in an affordability crisis

    • 51% of Americans say they’re having trouble affording groceries

• If Republicans want to win in November, they need to admit what is going on and come to the center

  • But they won’t and can’t because of Trump

Watch tonight📺: Former chief of staff to the vice president Marc Short, Semafor White House correspondent Shelby Talcott and former Senate communications adviser Matt Whitlock.

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REFUNDS!! Just Not For You🤷

💰Remember the tariffs that made everything more expensive? Well, some people are getting that money back… just probably not you.

• Apple, Nike, FedEx, Amazon, etc. are making more than ever right now — all thanks to tariffs

  • The Wall Street Journal headlines, “Tariff Refunds Are Here — and Turbocharging Earnings,” writing:

    • “So far, over 40 S&P 500 companies have reported some $9.6 billion in refunds in the past quarter or so, including at least $2.1 billion in cash already received.”

• 💸All these companies are getting millions in tariff returns — and we haven’t gotten even a penny.

  • Apple: $2.2 billion

  • Nike: $986 million

  • FedEx: $800 million

  • Amazon: $640 million

  • General Motors: $500 million

    • Good read📰: Fortune headlines, “Amazon may owe you money: It just got $600 million in tariff refunds after a lawsuit accused it of favoring Trump.”

• Dig deep🪏: This is why socialism is on the rise in America — and people don’t mind when Democrats talk about taking over companies.

  • It’s a complete failure by our government.

Tonight📺: Economist Stephen Moore and former Biden Council of Economic Advisers economist Ryan Cummings.