The Catchup: Just Deserts

Spring training has begun. One of my favorite sports fan signs of all time came from a then Cleveland Indians fan in the 1970’s. The Indians (now the Guardians) were in the midst of a long pennant slump as they still are. The sign held up by a fan on the first day of spring training read, “Wait ‘Til Next Year!”

Let’s see what else is going on.

Fair maps for Wisconsin. It was a long and winding road and it wasn’t always pretty, but in the end Wisconsin finally has legislative maps that roughly match the overall purple tone of the state. Under the maps Gov. Tony Evers signed into law last week, Republicans have a projected 53-46 majority in the Assembly and a 17-16 edge in the Senate. They currently hold 63-36 and 21-11 majorities. So, while this continues a slim Republican advantage, it puts Democrats back in the game. More on that tomorrow.

Speaking of elections… The state Ethics Commission is urging that charges be filed against Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the Trump campaign committee and others for money laundering. The commission alleges that Brandtjen schemed with Adam Steen, a Trump-backed write-in candidate taking on Speaker Robin Vos in the 2022 Republican primary. The idea was to get around the $1,000 individual contribution limit by illegally funneling money from big donors through county parties. If local prosecutors don’t act within 60 days the commission will probably refer their recommendation to Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Vos was the subject of Trump’s wrath because he didn’t go far enough, in Trump’s view, to overturn the 2020 election results in which Joe Biden won here by 20,000 votes. Vos did go so far as to hire former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to conduct an “investigation” into non-existent election fraud. Also last week Gableman admitted that he destroyed public documents in violation of the open records law.

It tolls for thee. The court decision ordering Donald Trump to pay $450 million in his New York business fraud case was made final last week. That means that Trump gets charged $112,000 in interest every day he doesn’t pay up. And on top of that he owes about $88 million to E. Jean Carroll over her civil case for sexual assault. Of course, he’ll appeal and I suppose his interest payments will be put on hold while that process drags on, though he could run out of court challenges by this summer. It would be a lovely thing if he loses his appeal and the court decides to charge him all the back interest while his case was pending. I’ve never thought it realistic that Trump would spend any time behind bars. But kicking him where it counts — right in his assets — would be every bit as good.

Defying the court on student loans. Joe Biden just won’t give up. He keeps finding new and creative ways to make taxpayers pick up the debts of college graduates who’d rather not make good on their obligations. Never mind that your average college grad earns $1.4 million more over a career than someone without a degree. His latest trick cost taxpayers another $1.2 billion and the total cost of these giveaways is now up to $138 billion, despite a Supreme Court ruling that went against Biden last summer. Last week he proudly said that, “the Supreme Court didn’t stop me.” Given that the court has been pretty clear that there are limits on how much a president can spend without congressional authorization, this could well prompt another legal challenge. Biden has done good work in restoring respect for our institutions, so his crowing about defying the court is out of character and unfortunate.

NCAA at it again. On Friday a Tennessee court ruled in favor of the real world. The court said that colleges couldn’t be prevented from doing what they’ll naturally do: use Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals to recruit athletes. Of course, the NCAA has never had a strong relationship with reality, so its answer is to renew its call for an anti-trust exemption from Congress so that it can enforce rules contrary to the laws of market gravity. Do you really think that even if the NCAA succeeded in defending a rule against using NIL to lure the best athletes, schools (I don’t know, let’s just say like Alabama) wouldn’t do it under the table? The NCAA is also worried that soon enough a court will recognize another form of reality: college athletes are employees who deserve compensation. All this from an organization that just inked a deal with ESPN to televise the expanded college playoff format for $7 billion over the next six years. The NCAA has one purpose: to cheat college athletes out of their fair share of a multi-billion dollar business. May they get sued out of existence.

Why Haley matters. Nikki Haley won’t win the Republican nomination, but she got 40% of the vote in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday and 60% of her voters told exit pollsters that they won’t vote for Trump in November. Even if more than half of them come around to Trump, if that pattern holds in other states, it means that Trump cannot win.