Over the weekend, Bernie unveiled his plan to end all corporate giving in federal elections. It should come as a surprise, since he's been talking about it for years and put as much of it as possible into effect in his own campaign.
Auschwitz Revisited by Nancy Ohanian"Trump," wrote Philip Bump in his Washington Post column yesterday, "appears to simply be making the figure up." What figure? Does it matter? Trump makes everything up.
Most Americans outside of Washington and other than his own constituents in Baltimore had never heard of Elijah Cummings before Trump went on a week-long tirade against him. Can you recall Trump being more consistently vitriolic against any other member of Congress? Not Pelosi, not Schumer, not Adam Schiff, not Maxine Waters, not AOC, not Justin Amash, not Frederica Wilson, not Rashida Tlaib... Maybe Ilhan.
HR-1 was supposed to be Pelosi's big reform legislation to start off her new speakership. No one imagined #MoscowMitch would ever allow a vote in the Senate, so HR-1 will never be enacted until the Democrats take back the Senate-- and the White House. It takes some necessary steps towards reform, but not nearly enough.
3 yes votesYesterday, the House passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act-- an amendment that Ted Lieu put together with Justin Amash (I-MI), David Cicilline (D-RI), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Eliot Engel (D-NY). The purpose is to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates through a bogus emergency declaration that Pompeo and Trumpanzee have been cooking up to bypass Congress' authority.
Calk (left) with Swamp Monster (right)As Bess Levin wrote yesterday for Vanity Fair, "scoring a presidential favor or a gig in the administration is fairly straightforward: simply kiss the ring and/or line Trump’s pockets.
I admit I watch a lot of Maddow and pretty much embrace all the Russian conspiracy stuff she's constantly peddling. But I never needed her to tell me that Trump's is the swampiest presidency since Warren G. Harding's. Maybe Ulysses S. Grant's? Except in Trump's case, it's clearly the man at the top who's the most corrupt of all. And one thing that I never doubted for a second is that Trump takes bribes-- from any and all sources... including from abroad, a major no-no.
Closing In by Nancy OhanianWithin moments of Elizabeth Warren's inspiring speech in Lawrence yesterday, announcing her 2020 presidential campaign, a Trump spokesperson was on the attack with the name-calling and negativity, calling her a fraud and claiming "the American people will reject her dishonest campaign and socialist
The Swamp by Nancy OhanianYesterday, House Democrats put out the details of HR-1, their first bill in the new Congress, a sweeping anti-corruption bill aimed at showing they want to stamp out the influence of money in politics and guaranteeing that all American citizens really do have the right to vote.
photo by Al Teich-by Skip KaltenheuserAttending the National Press Club for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s impassioned speech on corruption, my mind drifted to an intoxicated phone call I made to Chris Mathews.It was during the Mondale/Reagan campaign, when Mathews was chief of staff to House Speaker Tip “All politics is local” O’Neil.
