If you want to know what's going on with the threatened recall of California governor Gavin Newsom, read Ed Kilgore. (My Take: Barring some unpredictable calamity, I don't see a chance that Newsom will be removed. He's not much less popular than he was when he was elected and heavily-Democratic California is not going to replace him with a Republican as the backers of the recall fantasize.)
If you want to know what's up with Ted Cruz's threat to remove the anti-trust protections for Major League Baseball, read Jonathan Chait. (My Take: I've long thought M.L.B. should lose those protections but if Cruz is for it, I probably need to rethink this. Anyway, they aren't even pretending that this is about anything other than trying to make it harder for minorities to vote.)
If you want to know why the U.S. is withdrawing from Afghanistan and what will likely happen, read Fred Kaplan. (My Take: I agree with Fred.)