Matt Taibbi

Veteran Moscow reporter Mark Ames discusses American encouragement and complicity in what I call the oligarch's "rape of Russia" under Boris Yeltzin, and how that led to the rise of Putinby Gaius PubliusI'm going to keep the reading part of this piece short and encourage you to listen to the above interview, with veteran reporter Mark Ames. His main point and mine — the U.S. is responsible for what I call "the rape of Russia" (or "extreme privatization," a classic Bill Clinton goal) by Boris Yeltzin and the newly created oligarchs because it suited U.S.

Covering Western foreign policy: the Morning Star versus The Guardian
by Ian Sinclair
Medium
29 December 2016

Last year, one of the very first candidates Blue America endorsed for Congress was Jamie Raskin, a Maryland state Senator and constitutional law professor at American University. We knew him from his work as a counsel at People for the American Way and as the very skilled and successful majority whip in the state legislature.

The Clintons help Trump celebrate his wedding to Melania. Will they laugh like this again? Of course, but not where you can see them, for a while at least. by Gaius PubliusA couple of election notes from Corey Robin, plus a bonus note from me:Blaming the LeftThis is something we all anticipate:

I didn't know NY Times reporter reporter Josh Barro was a Republican who has only this week registered as a Democrat. He explained his metamorphosis earlier today.

John Paulson, who has managed to accrue 10 billion lightly taxed dollars for himself, made his fortune in 2007, using credit default swaps to bet against the subprime mortgage market, profiting as people were kicked out of their homes. A few years later he threatened that he would move to Singapore if his taxes went up.

First public/pubic Trumpanzee in Union Square-- Thursday morning-by Helen KleinAs the Trump campaign continues to implode, he may be sorry, very sorry, that he ever began his run for President. With all the horrors we already know about him, there is much more lurking just beneath the surface.

The two top contenders for the Democratic nomination for Florida's Senate seat are congressmen Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson. They don't have much else in common. Murphy is the handpicked dull-minded candidate of the party establishment, chosen specifically to assuage Wall Street banksters demanding Schumer balance out Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown.

The Clinton Machine, Obama Biden, Schumer, Reid, the media lobbying and donor elites that serve them... are sure at the apex of the Democratic establishment.

Part of Last Conversation Piece by Juan Munoz, by the Hirshhorn Museum. Its conspiratorial feel, with panicked outsiders, seems apt for Washington.- by Skip KaltenheuserFrustrations on the coverage of the Democratic primaries have been slow-cooking quite awhile. Not just with the networks, I’m also looking at you, National Public Radio.