Tom Price

When I met Jeff Merkley in 2007, he was Oegon's state House speaker and a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Gordon Smith. He was a working class guy seeking to join a millionaires club. As minority leader of the state legislature, he directed the successful Democratic drive to win the majority and was unanimously elected speaker in 2006. He ran as an unabashed progressive from day one and Blue America endorsed him.

Since the begging of October, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been without an official secretary following the ouster of Tom Price, who resigned due to public outrage over his extensive and costly travel on private jets for government business and his personal use.

Referendum violence, the economics of bribery and political clowns + this day in history w/the start of the Beltway Sniper spree and our song of the day by Luna on your Morning Monarchy for October 2, 2017.

Tonight-- midnight-- we end the Green Day guitar contest. As we mentioned last weekend, Blue America has a signed Fender Squire Bullet Strat that each member of Green Day autographed for me while I was president of their label. Everyone who contributes here-- any amount-- to Randy Bryce's campaign has an equal chance to win the guitar-- pictured below with Randy holding it. We'll pick one person at random in the next couple of days. If you give $1,000 you get a chance to get the guitar.

Obama appointed Andy Slavitt to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2015 and he served until Putin managed to install Trump in the White House. His tweet above caught my attention Friday.

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(ANTIMEDIA Op-ed) — As he vows to put an end to the opioid epidemic by boosting law enforcement and upping spending on border security, President Donald Trump has, once again, done nothing but mimic his predecessors when it comes to drug policy. Like Barack Obama or George W. Bush before him, he believes government has the answer to the drug problem despite evidence proving the exact opposite.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price speaks outside the White House. (AP/Andrew Harnik)
In the spring before the 2016 presidential election, the Obama administration’s 12-nation trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, was still alive. Negotiators worked on details as Congress considered whether to ratify the pact.

(ZHE) In a report by Axios this morning, citing White House sources, President Trump is reportedly considering a “huge reboot” of his core staff and cabinet members that could lead to the termination of everyone from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, to counsel Don McGahn and

Hanford collapse, hunger strike and the brewery wars + this day in history w/Astor Place Riots and our song of the day by RAC & Rostam on your Morning Monarchy for May 10, 2017.