SINCERETALK

Yesterday, the Republican-led Senate confirmed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to be the next U.S. attorney general. Like Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, Blanche has carried out the illegal orders of a president of the United States. As was Mitchell’s fate, Blanche should be behind bars. Mitchell served 19 months of a two-and-a-half year sentence for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal. Instead, Senate Republicans have given Blanche a promotion. On Thursday, a Republican-led Senate panel voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week. At that hearing, Fauci sat stoically for three hours, invoking his constitutional right not to answer questions about his leadership during the pandemic because of his justifiable fear that Senate Republicans would try to find something he might say to charge him with perjury. As it stands now, Senate Republicans may ask the Justice Department...

While admitting that most conspiracy theories surrounding President Donald Trump are not convincing, the D.C. insiders at "Pod Save America" this week revealed the newest one that they actually buy into, arguing that it is something "I can see with my own eyes." Trump on Wednesday made an appearance at a political event at the Red Rocks Casino in Las Vegas, where, amid a string of verbal struggles during his speech, he made headlines for his seemingly different head of hair. Compared with other recent appearances, where his hair appeared graying and thinner than before, his hair at the Vegas event appeared much longer and thicker, with a more youthful-looking color, leading many to suspect that he might have gotten a new wig or new hair extensions. In the latest edition of the "Pod Save America" podcast, hosts and former Obama administration staffers Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer lambasted Trump's strange new change in appearance, and argued that so...

A half-century ago, America had the largest middle class in the history of the nation and of the world. Then, those on the “left” wanted stronger social safety nets and more public investment in schools, roads, and research. Those on the “right” sought greater reliance on the “free market.” But as power and wealth have moved to the top in America (and, to a lesser degree, in other “rich” nations, almost everyone else — whether on the old right or the old left — has become disempowered and less secure. America’s huge middle class has become a small shadow of what it once was. The bottom 90 percent are struggling to make ends meet. The richest 10 percent account for a large and growing portion of all consumption. The top one-tenth of one percent holds an increasing portion of all wealth. Today the great divide is not between left and right. It’s between democracy and oligarchy. The word “oligarchy” comes from the Greek word oligarkhes , meaning “few to rule or command.” It refers to a g...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pushed back on one Republican lawmaker’s attempt to clear President Donald Trump and Republicans of their stagnant economic numbers that came out this week. “That just doesn't hold water,” Tapper said, after U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) attempted to lay the nation’s plummeting job numbers on temporary sports events like the World Cup. The exchange began with Tapper asking Gimenez to answer for the economy delivered to voters by Trump and his congressional Republican majority in weeks preceding a problematic November mid-term. “But I understand the frustration that the American people have,” said Gimenez, who then tried to blame former president Joe Biden for the economy nearly two years after Biden and his cabinet departed, despite Biden topping Trump’s job numbers. “… I think our message is, ‘look, it's not perfect right now, but if you go back to what we had with Biden and the Democrats, you're going to get out of control spending, which is ...

Former Bush speechwriter and Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller lamented the sorry state of the modern Republican Party, explaining that the party keeps slipping deeper into President Donald Trump’s grasp despite wide majorities of voters hating the man. Miller pointed to the recent surrender of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in approving Trump’s controversial AG nominee (and former Trump personal defense attorney) Todd Blanche for confirmation, despite Blanche’s blatant toadying to Trump. Republicans, Miller told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace, are in a rotten position however, thanks to their own capitulation to the worst element of their party. “You have these candidates who I do think are scared if they try to get away from [Trump] too much, then he’ll do them in. But if they stick with him too much, they'll doom themselves. … The economy is terrible everywhere. We lost jobs last month. It's really bad in Kansas. It's really bad in the plains and the farm country. And [incumben...

President Donald Trump lost his 21st court case in his attempts to rig the midterm elections through various voter suppression methods. He has not prevailed a single time. "A California court dealt Republicans a major defeat Thursday, rejecting their bid to soften the official description of an anti-voting measure and preserving ballot language warning that it would bar citizens from voting unless they present government-issued identification," wrote Democracy Docket's Yunior Rivas on Thursday . "The decision is a significant win for California voters seeking clear information about how the measure could prevent eligible ballots from being counted." Rivas added, "Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell denied the GOP-backed petition Thursday, ruling that Attorney General Rob Bonta’s title, summary and label accurately describe Proposition 39 and fall within his legal authority to prepare ballot materials." Republicans attempted to...