Cutting Back the Dangerous Levels of Corporate Power
We Americans today are frogs, in a slowly heating pot of corporate political power. It’s time to pay attention. Our Constitution provides no role for corporate entities in the governance of America. Why would it? A corporate entity is a legal fiction, with neither morals nor soul. Corporate political power was not even a topic […]
Seize Russian yachts, jets and Picassos. Then use the money to help Ukraine.
The split screen is stomach-turning: In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s rockets fall on fleeing refugees, missiles gash occupied apartment buildings and hospitals, and civilians huddle in metro stations as bombs fall above. Outside Ukraine, mega-yachts ferry Russian oligarchs between tropical islands, private jets shuttle them to ski vacations and priceless art adorns the walls of their […]
In the federal court wars, the right has jumped through a dark-money looking glass
When Supreme Court vacancies occur, a Republican dark-money operation swings into action. Now, an anonymously funded right-wing group is airing an ad aimed at the yet-to-be-picked nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer. The group alleges that liberal dark-money interests will guide President Biden’s choice. The music is ominous, the central claim […]
How Cruz Supreme Court case could lead to unlimited anonymous election spending
The long, dark-money plan to capture the Supreme Court is delivering the goods. The “capture” mission is accomplished, now 6-3, and the captors seek to claim their prizes. Dark money was the weapon used to capture the Court, so it’s no surprise that the No. 1 deliverable is to protect maximum dark money. It is […]
Summit for Democracy will follow the money
America is engaged in a clash of civilizations, pitting democracy and the free market on one side against kleptocracy and corruption on the other. We have vital national security stakes in this contest: Almost all the international evil that has come America’s way in recent decades has come from regimes outside the rule of law, […]
How Russian Hackers Helped Expose the Right-Wing Dark Money Corrupting Our Courts
A piece of news that came out on the same day that the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case—at the center of what the NRA has bluntly termed the Republican justices’ “project” to overturn gun safety— revealed how deep the rot goes. The news came from Russian hackers on the dark web. According to […]
Justice Alito complains, but the evidence is clear: This Supreme Court was built by dark money
Justice Samuel Alito wants desperately for us to believe that everything is just fine at the Supreme Court. Indeed, in his view the court is a victim. Before an audience at Notre Dame on Sept. 30, Alito denounced “unprecedented efforts to intimidate the court.” He aimed his outrage at the media, at leading legal academics, […]
Fighting climate change means putting our coasts on par with our mountains
It’s hard to find states more different than New Mexico and Rhode Island. One is big, the other small; one is landlocked mountain ranges and high desert, the other seaside coast. But both count on a healthy, clean environment, and each presents wondrous natural beauty. So we both fight tirelessly to defend that environment as […]
A World Without Fossil Fuels Funding Our Enemies Would Be A Safer World for America
We are a conservative Republican and a progressive Democrat who disagree on a great many things. We write today, however, to highlight an area of strong agreement: a global transition to renewable energy would greatly assist in our nation’s fight against the world’s most corrupt and illicit regimes. If you could wave a magic wand, […]
To Thwart the Illegal Narcotics Trade, Expose the Dark Economy
READ FULL OP-ED HERE This spring, I began work as chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. The panel focuses on battling drug trafficking and improving cooperation with our international partners, and on the public-health aspects of narcotics use, including research into addiction. To undermine the illegal narcotics trade, we must better understand […]
