Donald Trump Is Doing One Thing Well: Appointing Lifetime Judges
From the Los Angeles Times: Brett J. Talley, President Trump’s nominee to be a federal judge in Alabama, has never tried a case, was unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Assn.’s judicial rating committee, has practiced law for only three years and, as a blogger last year, displayed a degree of partisanship unusual…
Robert Mueller Is Investigating a Kidnapping Plot That Involves Mike Flynn
Octavio Jones/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA From the Wall Street Journal: Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating an alleged plan involving former White House national security adviser Mike Flynn to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars, according to people familiar with…
Does the Individual Mandate Work?
This chart sits at the middle of a big controversy: This is CBO’s estimate of how many people would skip buying health insurance if the individual mandate were repealed. Within two years, 12 million people would drop out, and they’d do it because the tax penalty for non-insurance went away: “In CBO and JCT’s estimation,…
Republicans Say They’ve Got to Act on Tax Reform—or Donors Might Get Mad
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Everyone knows politicians pay excessive attention to the demands of their campaign donors. But if you’re a politician, you’re not supposed to actually say that publicly. Yet so far this week, two Republican politicians have done exactly that. “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again,’”…
With Trump’s Ban Looming, Transgender Service Members Talk About What the Military Has Meant to Them
Jacob Eleazer, Regan Kibby, Sheri Swokowski, Blake DremannWDRB 41 Louisville News, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Brian Ebner/Optic Nerve, Courtesy of Blake Dremann Sheri Swokowski Brian Ebner/Optic NerveFrom an early age, probably five, I thought I should be wearing my sister’s clothes. At times when I found myself home alone, I did. But I grew…
David Dinkins Thinks He Got a Raw Deal
David Dinkins was mayor of New York City from 1990 to the end of 1993. His successor, Rudy Giuliani, was credited for turning around New York’s crime problem, but current mayor Bill DeBlasio thinks that’s unfair: “Dinkins got a raw deal largely because of race,” Mr. de Blasio said in a telephone interview before his…