For more than 150 years, the United States resisted the creation of a large standing army. To a great degree, technology and especially geography made it unnecessary. The United States maintained a significant, though relatively small Navy and a small professional army which served as a nucleus around which a large force could be assembled during national emergencies. This happened during the Civil War, World War I and again in World War II. The World War II army was never fully demobilized and a large standing army (all four services) has been the new normal for three-quarters of a century. Most of us take this as a given. But it is worth remembering why early Americans thought standing armies were at least in tension with democracy if not outright inimical to it. Read More

Philip E. Wolgin is the managing director of Immigration Policy at American Progress. He directs American Progress’ research and publications on immigration and has helped lead the team’s work on a diverse set of issues, such as immigration reform, child refugees at the United States’ southern border, border security, executive action, rebuttals to nativist claims about immigrants, and E-Verify. Philip will be in The Hive to discuss immigration, DACA, and Trump’s new regulations after his travel ban. Post your questions and join us on Wednesday! If you’d like to participate but don’t have TPM Prime, sign up here.

Here’s part one of my two part podcast interview with Bhaskar Sunkara, editor, publisher and founder of Jacobin Magazine. If you’re not familiar with Jacobin, definitely take a moment to listen to this interview. Sunkara and Jacobin are very important voices on the socialist left in American today.This is an interview I really looked forward to doing.

It seems worth noting that the now widely-shared statement of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in response to President Trump does not in fact even mention Trump’s name.

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EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt now has an 18 person, 24/7 security detail. The effort has become so elaborate that the EPA has now had to take agents off actual EPA criminal investigations to focus on protecting Pruitt.

This is offensive and ridiculous. Read More

Senate Republicans are trying to run out the clock, passing Graham-Cassidy before the CBO has enough time to score it and (presumably) show how bad it is. But Brookings has run the numbers and reports that 21 million people would lose their coverage under the proposed law.

One of the recurrent features of the Russia investigation drama has been the Trump inner circle’s hunt for a fall guy. It’s a very weird progression because not only has the designated fall guy changed but the people in the inner circle have changed. Indeed, at some points, it’s been a member of the putative inner who was the designated fall guy. It’s complicated.

Let’s go back to the Spring. Read More

The executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors talked to Alice Ollstein this morning about what a tough spot Graham-Cassidy puts red state Medicaid directors in:

We have members whose governors are strongly in favor of the bill who would be in a tough position if they spoke out. But I’ve talked to lots of people who said, ‘Politically, my state is going in one direction, but I’m extraordinarily concerned about what it would do to my state and its people in the long term.’

More here.

In the first signs of a new strategy from DC Republicans, Sen. Chuck Grassley is pressing the FBI to explain why they never warned Donald Trump about his top advisors’ ties to Russia.