I was offline for a few hours early this evening and returned to the media stream to find a new story reporting that the Steele Dossier and Fusion GPS’s research into Donald Trump and Russia was originally funded by a GOP campaign funder and then later funded by Democrats. In other words, we now know what we knew literally a year ago. Or to put it differently, Democrats agreed to fund continued research into Russia possibly owning Donald Trump after Republicans decided they didn’t care anymore.
Is this hyperbole? Not really. This is exactly what happened. And this has been known, widely reported, since before election day. Read More
I see no need to romanticize Jeff Flake. He has always struck me as having a personal decency that is recognized by many who don’t agree with his politics. He has also been much more willing than most of his colleagues to speak out against President Trump, even though he’s significantly more politically vulnerable than all but one of them. With all this said, he’s not just a conservative but a very conservative Republican.
For all his criticism, he has been a very reliable vote for President Trump. Read More
Bob Corker’s 7 harshest criticisms of the sitting President of his own party who he clearly believes is not fit to serve as President.
Yesterday I noted that Facebook is testing a new ‘product’ that would kick publishers off the Facebook platform unless they begin making cash payments to Facebook. Overnight Facebook put out a carefully crafted non-denial denial of plans to implement this new ‘product’ worldwide.
I annotated the statement below to flag the non-denial portions … Read More
Roy Moore, GOP Senate candidate in Alabama, says the Supreme Court’s ruling on same sex marriage was “worse” than its decision upholding slavery in Dred Scott.
Fascinating twist in the Bowe Bergdahl case. Bergdahl’s lawyers, not surprisingly, have raised the issue of now-President Trump repeatedly calling Bergdahl a “traitor” on the campaign trail. The military judge in the case allowed himself to be questioned by lawyers about his impartiality and insisted he could be impartial. But he had more questions about the perceptions of military justice created by Trump’s comments. Read More
Gerald Kominski is a Professor of Health Policy and Management and Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. His research focuses on evaluating the costs and financing of public insurance programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Workers’ Compensation. Gerald received his Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School in 1985, and his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1978.
Gerald will be hosting a Q&A in the Hive to discuss health care, CBO scores, single-payer, and more! Post your questions and join us on Thursday. If you’d like to participate but don’t have TPM Prime, sign up here.
Robert Mueller is now looking into Democratic uber-lobbyist Tony Podesta as part of his probe into lobbying work tied to Paul Manafort. This is not part to the Russian tampering in the 2016 election but rather the 2012-14 era work in Ukraine that Podesta worked with Manafort on. Tierney Sneed has our story.