Sometimes when I launch into a topic I have no idea where the stream of consciousness is going to take me, but damned if this isn't a good one, y'all, if I do say so myself.

Georgia Republicans want to make Georgia a "closed primary" state, and that's (spoiler alert) bad for democracy. If Republicans are for something, when it comes to elections, you can be sure it's "bad for democracy."

Now, listen, fellow Democrats ... we have to accept that our issues in 2016 exposed that we weren't exactly "pro-democracy" or all about "open primaries" ourselves, either, so take your medicine when I discuss that and how it correlates with the current conversation. A majority of Americans (58%) seek a complete overhaul of governance, and while they're getting one, it's not the one they wanted. At least 53% oppose Elon Musk's involvement. Doesn't that mean the left's ideas have a better shot with voters, if given the choice?

Speaking of Bernie Sanders, he and just ten other Democratic Senators have managed to oppose every Trump Cabinet appointment (save for Marco Rubio) - netting a meager "10%" Thune score (John Thune, Senate Majority Leader). We're starting to see evidence of the Democatic party bowing up - and with DOGE's incursion into the US Treasury, a rally yesterday featured Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Rep. Jamie Raskin, among others, speaking of solidarity and action. We'll see ...

Meanwhile just a week after my guest, Professor Anthony "Tony" Lemieux noted that Trump's J6 pardons mean 'if you do things in service of Donald Trump, you will be ... protected from the ramifications from it." That's going to be tested in a South Carolina case where a white guy has been charged with kidnapping, larceny and assault & battery, along with impersonating a law enforcement officer after a disturbing video surfaced showing him harassing a Spanish-speaking man in a truck, taking keys from the ignition and dangling them in the driver's face while insinuating he'd be deported "back to Mexico."

Expect more acts like this, though, with Republican lawmakers eager to put bounties out for citizens to be encouraged to "hunt" for.

This is how Germany lurched towards Nazism in the 1930s. Literally.