Dear Friends,

Here’s what gerrymandering looks like.

I hope you’ll give this week’s Fallon Forum a listen. As always, I’d love your feedback. You’ll hear Charles Goldman and I praise Republican state legislators across the country for their finely honed gerrymandering skills.

Ok, I’m being sarcastic. The truth is, given the upcoming redistricting of legislative and congressional boundaries and the US Supreme Court siding with the gerrymanderers, state legislatures may be even more important electoral battlegrounds than the US Congress. (Note: Democratic politicians have committed the sin of gerrymandering, too, but no one does it like Republicans.)

Here’s what a congressional district map is supposed to look like.

Of course, the most important battleground will be the race for the White House. President Trump now has not one but three credible primary opponents — former Rep. Joe Walsh (IL), former Rep. Mark Sanford (SC), and former Gov. Bill Weld (MA).

But don’t expect Trump to waste time debating his opponents. As he told reporters this week when they asked whether he’d debate Walsh, Sanford, and Weld, he declined, saying, “They’re all at less than one percent. I guess it’s a publicity stunt.”

As we’ve seen, no one understands publicity stunts better than Donald J. Trump. Furthermore, debates would eat into the time Trump spends at his resorts and other properties, which during 2017, tallied well over 100 days.

But I digress. During the program, Charles and I reflect on how the White House’s “stable genius” has also acquired almost magical meteorological skills. Trump’s doubling down on mistakenly claiming that Hurricane Dorian had Alabama in its crosshairs is a response beyond puzzling.

We also look at the Democratic contest for president and discuss how the climate crisis and income inequality may well be the ticket to turning out millennial voters in 2020 — not just in the primary, but in the general election.

Charles and I also reassure the one-percenters in our audience (yeah, we know you’re listening, both of you) that their fortunes shall further expand, as the Trump administration and its corporate allies ponder yet another tax cut.

Finally, we talk about the significance of last week’s ruling by the Iowa Utilities Board regarding the proposed expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline. More on that later this week, but in a nutshell — IT’S GREAT NEWS! Stay tuned.

Ed Fallon