Attending the National Press Club for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s impassioned speech on corruption, my mind drifted to an intoxicated phone call I made to Chris Mathews. It was during the Mondale/Reagan campaign, when Mathews was chief of staff to House Speaker Tip “All politics is local” O’Neil. Mathews was phenomenally gracious, given that he didn’t know me from Adam, I woke him at midnight and my tequila-fueled exasperation fell short of diplomatic grace.

Anyone who’s had the pleasure of knowing Tom Dunkel knows he’s an adept and fair observer of unique Americana who readily turns phrases that do his subjects justice. His book "Color Blind: The Forgotten Team that Broke Baseball’s Color Line," about a Depression-era integrated semi-pro baseball team out of North Dakota, is regarded as a top-tier sports book deftly matching cultural insight with entertainment.

I don’t want to genuflect to Robert Mueller as if his sainthood is imminent. Plenty of others are already busy at that task. Separating him from his legal environment is a challenge, as it’s difficult to ignore a stench floating above many aspects of the US Dept. of Justice.

Allow me to introduce a friend, Elliott Negin, who writes for the Union of Concerned Scientists. The UCS, marshals volunteers and a network of twenty-thousand scientists for a variety of objectives including fighting misinformation and attacks on science, on matters from global warming to pollution to nuclear weapons.

Allow me to offer a few additional thoughts on the recent Economic Inequality Town Hall that triggered Howie’s post on job guarantees.

If you’re the Yes Men, you meet NRA lunacy head on with the ludicrous. If you don’t know the Yes Men, Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, from their prior projects beginning in 1996, don’t take no for an answer. They’ve just released a twenty minute film on YouTube that underscores how the NRA’s steam is generated by fear rooted in racism.

Hoo-boy! It’s that time again. Carnivals around the world are gearing up to pay tribute to Fearless Leader. He’s back, and it’s as if he never went away. These are not the parades Trump had in mind. I’ve experienced plenty of Carnivals throughout a good chunk of the world. Sense of duty. Their varied traditions, some back to the ancients, …

Here’s Where We’ve Met Him Before – And What It Tells Us About The Swamp Birds of a feather. Ever notice the gravitational pull that brings sleaze together in the legal world, how those of similar ilk find each other? Sure, everyone’s entitled to a defense, but too often the ethics of high profile, highly connected power clients dovetail with …

The Graham-Cassidy attempt to hamstring the health care of millions– the latest fruit of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s eternal gift to democracy, the Citizens United accelerant of bribery– has flamed out. But the donors to bought-and-paid for members of Congress will not go quietly, not when their congressional minions have their tin cups out. Increasingly desperate to fill campaign coffers, the minions …

Most recent plaudits for John McCain focus on flashes of character on his campaign trail when he condemned crazed birther and racist attacks on candidate Obama. I’d like to jump in the Way-back and travel to when McCain earned a “maverick” label. Give Senator McCain praise for his early efforts at campaign finance reform, done across the aisle with then-Senator Russ Feingold. It was …