“We shouldn’t be punishing people for bringing new ideas to the forefront.” By Branko Marcetic In These Times (5/16/19) NORMAL, ILL.— On May 5, newly elected Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair Cheri Bustos faced a surprisingly chilly reception at this year’s College Democrats of Illinois Convention, which is typically a chance for participants to hone organizing skills and hobnob with elected officials. Bustos’ appearance quickly turned into an interrogation. The College Democrats questioned her about the DCCC’s new policy of refusing to hire consultants and vendors who work with any challenger to a Democratic incumbent. The policy is widely…

  Here are the facts about all eight active inquiries into the gun rights group. By Daniel Nass The Trace (5/13/19) The National Rifle Association is caught up in a rapidly expanding tangle of investigations — six launched in the first five months of 2019 alone. Investigators in Congress are probing the gun group’s ties to Kremlin-linked Russians and to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, as well as several potential campaign finance violations exposed by The Trace, while the New York Attorney General and the Senate Finance Committee are scrutinizing its nonprofit status. Because it’s challenging to keep track of these probes, we’ve rounded…

By Alex Kotch Sludge (5/10/19) News broke on Friday morning that Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden is crafting a “middle ground” climate policy that will seek to restore Obama-era environmental protections, focusing on rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, increasing fuel efficiency, boosting natural gas, and deploying carbon-capture technology. But there’s already a potential conflict of interest: Former Obama adviser Heather Zichal, who recently occupied a lucrative seat on the board of the Texas-based liquified natural gas (LNG) company Cheniere Energy, is now an “informal adviser” on climate change policy to the Biden campaign. The company has profited in recent years as the U.S. has increased…

  By Jeremy Scahill Intercepted (5/8/19) JOHN BOLTON THREATENS Iran with “unrelenting force” as Benjamin Netanyahu unleashes a new assault on Gaza. This week on Intercepted: As the U.S. moves a strike group and bombers near Iran, The Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain discusses Trump’s motley crew of regime-change warriors, what war with Iran would look like, and the strategy behind the economic sanctions. At nearly 88 years old, former Sen. Mike Gravel may be the oldest candidate for president, but he also has the dankest social media memes. Gravel discusses his insurgent run for the Democratic nomination led by his campaign volunteers…

“You don’t lose this much money unless you are a really bad businessman.” By  Andrea Bernstein Trump, Inc. Podcast / ProPublica (5/10/19) President Donald Trump has refused to release his tax returns. He has sued his former accountants and Deutsche Bank to keep them from releasing his returns after they were subpoenaed to do so. And his treasury secretary has refused to provide the returns to Congress. But bit by bit, The New York Times’ Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner have been gathering returns and tax data from Trump’s earlier years. In the latest installment, they show how Trump claimed over a…

  Weird that no one in the media — either the mainstream or the left  — ever mentions the rather obvious involvement of the Bush Administration in the earlier failed coup against Hugo Chavez. The CIA apparently supplied a plane to fly Chavez out of the country, and when the coup leaders went too far  (among other things, disbanding the Venezuelan Supreme Court) and the coup  failed, the coup leader was allowed to fly to Jeb Bush’s Florida. This was a bit suspicious since  Chavez himself had been denied travel to the US due to his own involvement in a…