Politics

Authored by Caroline Baum, originally posted at MarketWatch.com,

To clean up Washington, send the swamp creatures packing

When they run for re-election, more than 90% of House members win.

When we said that an authority conferred by the free suffrages of the people never harmed a republic, we presupposed that the people, in giving that power, would limit, as well the time during which it was to be exercised. – Niccoló Machiavelli, “The Discourses,”. 1517.

After a Democrat filibuster of Rand Paul's "Audit the Fed" bill - reintroduced in January along with 8 co-sponsors and passed by 53 Senators including Bernie Sanders, the Senator from Kentucky believes he may find a friend in President Trump, who has previously endorsed the idea. Opponents to the audit, also known as establishment shills, suggest that transparency might lead to scrutiny. You don't say?  On Tucker Carlson Tonight, Paul explained how the Fed hurts people:

The Senate has voted to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general in a 52-47 vote that went along party lines, following days of rigorous discussion and capping a vicious debate that left Democrats and Republicans seething, and Elizabeth Warren barred from speaking.

Sen. Joe Manchin was the only Democrat to break party rank and vote to back Sessions. Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted alongside 45 Democrats in opposition to the nominee.

President Trump’s administration is considering a proposal to label Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, according to U.S. officials. The IRGS are answerable to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and play a highly capable part in Iran’s military. They wield considerable political and economic power and played a crucial role in defending Iran against Saddam Hussein’s aggression during the eighties.

Trump’s volatile behavior has created an environment ripe for leaks from his executive agencies and even within his White House, according to The Huffington Post. And while leaks typically involve staffers sabotaging each other to improve their own standing or trying to scuttle policy ideas they find genuinely problematic, Trump’s 2-week-old administration has a third category: leaks from White House and agency officials alarmed by the president’s conduct.