IT’S POLITICAL:  A significant “uncommitted” vote in yesterday’s Michigan primary spelled out a warning for President Biden and his support for Israel even though he won the Democratic vote.  Michigan is a critical state for Biden in the general election.

  One in eight voters were uncommitted and in some predominantly Arab-American districts it was one in four. That means that the war in Gaza is a political liability for Biden.

  Donald Trump easily won the Republican primary by a 42 point spread. He told supporters, “We win Michigan, we win the whole thing.”  

  Nevertheless, a spokeswoman for opponent Nikki Haley said the proportion of Republicans who did not back Mr. Trump was a “flashing warning sign for Trump in November.” Just over 26 percent voted for Haley, who now says she will stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday on March 5^th. 

SHUTDOWN LOOMING: Despite the White House reporting encouraging results in talks with top congressional leaders, the government is still cruising toward a shutdown on Friday at midnight.

  House Republicans are loading up their spending bills with partisan items that have no chance of passing the Democratic Senate. Among them are measures to restrict access to abortion medication and another to restrict the Department of Veterans Affairs from flagging veterans deemed mentally incompetent to buy a gun. The Republicans are also targeting nutrition assistance for low-income families as well as for women and infants.

  Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York said, “These hard-right chaos agents in the House do not represent a majority of Republicans in the country.” 

THE LOST CAUSE: The Virginia legislature has passed bills that would eliminate tax exemptions for the marble-clad headquarters of the Confederate heritage group United Daughters of the Confederacy.  The House of Delegates also passed a bill that would revoke the exemptions for the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc., and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.

  The vote was largely along party lines with the Republicans against. The question now is whether Gov. Glen Younkin, a Republican, will sign the bills into law. 

 The Daughters was founded in 1894 for women descended from Confederate soldiers and has been instrumental in perpetuating the glory of “the lost cause” through memorial preservation and charity work. They describe themselves now as a “patriotic Organization” although their purpose is to honor people who fought to break up the country.

  The United Daughters built statues and taught the fiction that the Confederacy fought for states’ rights, rather than for the right to own slaves. They were granted tax-exempt status during the years of racial segregation. 

  The Daughters now say loss of their tax status could hinder the organization’s ability to function as well as maintaining their headquarters in Richmond.

THE SPIN RACK: A spokesman says that the late Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny will be buried Friday after a public funeral service in Moscow. — The mission for Odysseus, the first privately developed spacecraft to touch down on the moon, ended early because the six-legged machine tripped and fell over on landing. The 14-foot machine was still sending back pictures and information but battery life was severely shortened because sunlight could not hit its solar panels. — The troubled Macy’s department store chain is closing about a third of its stores, 150 of them. The company that owns Macy’s says it is changing its focus to luxury. — The 18-year-old son of right wing Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert has been charged with 22 counts of theft. —Lawyers for convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried are arguing for a 6 ½ year sentence. He could get a max of 110, but that’s not likely.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Wendy’s fast food chain says that it is going to move to “dynamic pricing.” 

  Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner said during an investor meeting that, “Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and … AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling.”

  First, no business these days makes things better for customers and certainly not their employees. And to translate the corporate-speak, what they are saying is that the longer you wait in line to order your burger, the more you will pay for it.

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