Donald Trump

Great idea, Indivisible folks. You've fashioned a clear, easy to understand, transparent scorecard for the Democratic presidential contenders that rates them on three criteria: Policy Platform: Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed to enacting bold, popular, progressive policies across a range of areas, including immigration, climate, economic justice, health care, and other critical policy areas. Day-One Democracy Agenda: None of the policy reforms we want to see in 2021 are possible without a democracy that responds to the people. Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed first and foremost to ambitious reforms to save our democracy. Building Grassroots Power: Indivisibles know that…

Today I started reading Neal Katyal's compelling little book, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. Katyal has personally argued thirty-nine Supreme Court cases. He's a law professor at Georgetown University. He's taught an impeachment course there twenty times. And he's an excellent writer. Below is how his book starts out. In a bit less than 300 words, Katyal nails the case for impeaching Trump. The rest of the book is icing on the impeachment cake. So if you're in favor of impeachment and someone questions why this makes sense, say you'd like to read them a brief argument by a…

Having watched a good share of the two weeks of televised open hearings in the House impeachment inquiry, I'm well-qualified to draw some reasoned conclusions about our national politics. (1) Trump is the worst president in our nation's history. Not just recent history. Our entire history. (2) Trump doesn't care about what's best for our country. He only cares about what's best for himself.(3) Congressional Republicans have sold out their ethical values in exchange for Trump not tweeting bad stuff about them.(4) Anyone who still supports Trump is guilty of aiding and abetting his unethical behavior. To me, that fourth point…

We here at the world headquarters of the Salem Political Snark blog -- located, appropriately enough, in Salem, Oregon -- strongly believe in citizens being actively involved in politics. One great way to do this is by contributing to political campaigns. So when a fellow patriot shared with me a spreadsheet of Salem donors to President Trump's re-election campaign, information that is publicly available via the Federal Election Commission, I had two strong reactions. (1) I'm so clueless about spreadsheets, it's damn impressive that someone was able to combine donations to the Trump Make American Great Again Committee and the Donald…

A little while ago I watched the House Judiciary Committee vote to hold the Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, in contempt of Congress. This is only the second time in our nation's history that an A.G. has gotten a contempt citation. It's a big deal. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the chair of the committee, just told reporters that we're now in a constitutional crisis.  The Trump administration is refusing to honor every subpoena Congress issues. The Trump administration refuses to allow Robert Mueller to testify about the report he issued into Russian interference with the 2016 election, how…

For a political junkie like me, today's non-stop coverage of William Barr's embarrassingly awful press conference and subsequent analysis of the redacted Mueller report has felt like taking a really long hot shower that leaves you both blissfully exhausted and pleasantly energized. I've read the tweets. I've looked over Washington Post and New York Times stories. I've listened to much of what MSNBC had to offer, while fast forwarding through repetitive or uninteresting parts. I've scanned some of the report. Here's what leaps out at me after the initial coverage of the lengthy Mueller report. Barr should be impeached. Likely…