Culture of Corruption

Despite political promises on the campaign trail about solving the massive red tide outbreaks that littered Florida’s shores with dead sea creatures and scared away tourists last year, the state Legislature ended up passing a bill that sets up a task force to study the perennial problem. The bill specifically names the private Mote Marine […]
Hats off to Southwest Florida Congressman Francis Rooney for pressing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies to tell the public what it knows about the threat of toxic blue-green algae. Finally, a public official is focusing attention on our public-health crisis, particularly in Southwest Florida. The dead fish that piled […]
Our leaders like to talk about “American exceptionalism,” but America is not so exceptional when it comes to renewable energy. In fact, we are falling far behind. Countries all around the world are demonstrating that a transition away from fossil fuels is not only possible, but is a plausible, clean, and affordable path forward. Here’s […]
In an ideal world, the thought of impeaching Donald Trump would warrant at least three cheers, along with some somersaults and a marching band (my preference would be for a New Orleans Second Line led by Trombone Shorty). Yet in an ideal world Donald Trump would be nothing but a bad dream. Our world is […]
In mainstream American media, the political left is frequently portrayed as a nexus of intolerance and out-of-control partisanship. Writers like Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff write entire books warning that left-wing campus protest will undermine academia’s intellectual traditions of vigorous debate and fearless inquiry. The Atlanticran a report at the beginning of March identifying Boston’s liberal Suffolk County as the most […]
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke declined to sign a pledge from climate activists not to accept any money from the fossil fuel industry, saying he won’t take donations from oil and gas executives, lobbyists or political action committees but won’t turn down contributions from workers. “If you work in the oil fields, you answer the […]
In the fall of 1999, a young Democratic state senator from the South Side of Chicago decided to take on the area’s longtime congressman, Bobby Rush, in the following year’s Democratic primary. Convinced he had something new and fresh to offer voters, and encouraged by his political consigliere Dan Shomon, the senator nonetheless received numerous […]
On Sunday afternoon Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress noting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” The message also noted that Mueller could not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, but […]
On Thursday, Pulitzer Prize-winning business writer David Cay Johnston wrote an editorial laying out the hard truth for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: he has no legal choice but to hand over President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress. The law says he must.“The reason will no doubt surprise those who think Trump can thumb his nose […]
Newly appointed Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt is the latest member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to come under investigation by his own agency’s watchdog. The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General on Monday confirmed that it has opened an investigation into allegations of conflict of interest and other violations during Bernhardt’s tenure as the […]
Congress has recessed for two weeks without passing a desperately-needed disaster relief bill. Why not? Because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t want to anger Donald Trump by adding money for Puerto Rico that Democrats have sought but Trump doesn’t want. America used to have a Senate. But under McConnell, what was once known as […]
This story was published in partnership with NBC News. INTRODUCTION Taxpayers are scrambling to make last-minute payments due to the Internal Revenue Service in just four days, but many of the country’s largest publicly-held corporations are doing better: They’ve reported they owe absolutely nothing on the billions of dollars in profits they earned last year. […]
If you tuned into cable news over the past few days, you may have seen a clip of freshman Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) tearing into JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over the wages he pays to low-level employees. Making a few simple points about household budgeting, Porter demonstrated how the bank’s $16.50 minimum wage is not […]
For anyone who thinks Maddow is only good for explaining complicated Putin-Gate conspiracy theories and related judicial developments, the video above is one of her best-ever segments… and unrelated to Putin-Gate. This is Maddow at her very best– an…
And on Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers grilled Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan Tuesday over the bank’s practices of predatory lending, misleading and defrauding customers, and its relationship to the NRA, private prisons and the fossil fuel industry. California congressmember and Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters called Wells Fargo “a recidivist financial institution.” After the hearing, she told […]
Who will Saturday Night Live cast to play Li Yang? The Chinese-born pimp is already more famous than Schenectady-born presidential candidate, Obama’s former Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurshi, Andrew Yang. She appears to be the new Jeff…
The Democratic measure would expand voting rights and crack down on gerrymandering and dark money. The House of Representatives on Friday passed the most significant democracy reform bill introduced in Congress since the Watergate era, by a vote of 234 to 193. The sweeping bill, known as HR1: the For the People Act,would massively expand voting […]
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