Nonpartisan League founder A. C. Townley had a simple strategy to elect NPL members to state office in North Dakota. It relied on getting members to ignore their old political tribalism while taking advantage of others. Townley figured out that he could make use of a very recent development, the primary election of party nominees, [...]

Many people are still trying to figure out what exactly Congress voted to do last week when they passed their fake budget. Kagro and Dave Dayen go back and forth here, here and here. But one thing is for certain: if procedural experts are still trying untangle what happened, there is no way 215 members [...]

A.C. Townley was the founder of the Nonpartisan League, which within only three years of its founding in 1915 took over the government of North Dakota and enacted several major reforms. That makes the NPL one of the most impressive political organizations in American history. Townley was able to do this through a combination of [...]

At the turn of the 20th century, North Dakota’s population was mostly rural farmers, yet a small number of powerful corporate interests dominated the state’s politics and finances. Most of these powerful financial interests could have served an important role in the economy of the plains but had decided instead to embrace maximum profitability through [...]

Large corporations with a huge corrupting political influence are exploiting regular people. Bankers and traders on an exchange are selling phantom commodities to make huge profits to the detriment of the working class. A left-leaning group turns to politics to address these grievances, and the Chamber of Commerce and the mainstream attack it as “socialist,” [...]

I’m glad the DNC decided to clear something up for me. You might sometimes mistakenly think the Democratic Party is not about endless wars with no clear goals or defined victory. Well, this news release from the DNC about Michael Steele’s statement that history proves an outside army can’t pacify Afghanistan should completely dissuade you [...]

It is good to see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is vigorously calling for an end to the filibuster. From Ryan Grim at Huffington Post: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some advice for her Senate counterparts: Try majority rule for a change. Pelosi, in an interview with the Huffington Post, called for an end [...]

The Blue Dogs did not want to pass a budget because it would acknowledge long-term deficits and Republicans would be mean to them. But if you’re in the majority and you can’t even pass a friggin’ budget you look like an irresponsible douchebag. Without consulting the progressives who voted her in as Speaker, Nancy Pelosi [...]

I don’t know about you, but I am just tickled pink that Nancy Pelosi punted on passing a budget and handed responsibility for cutting the deficit by 3% of GDP to the fucking Republican CEO of Honeywell. Jamie Dimon as unaccountable oligarch whipping boy was getting old. Watching one of the world’s biggest defense contractors [...]

The first time I heard of Barry Eisler’s book Fault Line was when Skippy emailed me to tell me he was reading this New York Times bestselling thriller, and I was in it as a bit character. As were Josh Marshall, Hilzoy, Atrios and a few other bloggers. . . and Glenn Greenwald  had a [...]