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Cronyism

Elon Musk (Scott Olson / Getty)

SolarCity and the Silver Spoon

Having a successful business takes a lot of hard work, good market analysis, a better product or service than the competition, and advertising. Add in a bit of luck, and hopefully it will grow. If, however, you are a politically favored business—say solar—your story is different.

Jerry Brown climate change (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

Jerry Brown: Another Energy Conflict of Interest

The web of potential conflicts of interest associated with Jerry Brown widened with news that the California governor’s sister is a paid board member of America’s largest natural gas utility–which is leaking 500,000 metric tons of CO2 a month.

Screen Shot McConnell Omnibus 2016

Watch Senate Leaders Block Public Debate On The $1.1 Trillion Budget Plan

With a mere 68 seconds of almost incomprehensible Senate legalese, the top Republican and top Democratic leaders together blocked any debate and any public visibility into the myriad unpopular or popular, effective, dysfunctional or counterproductive measures in the $1.1 trillion 2016 omnibus spending plan.

Paul Ryan

House Freedom Caucus Makes Excuses For Ryan’s $1.8 Trillion Tax-And-Spend Plan

Politico reports that members of the supposedly anti-establishment House Freedom Caucus are offering excuses to shield House Speaker Paul Ryan from getting the blame for his closed-door, budget-busting, welfare-extending, refugee-boosting, illegal-immigrant-funding, job-outsourcing, regulation-preserving, $1.8 trillion spending-and-tax plan, which has thrilled Democrats and angered GOP voters.

Jerry Brown at museum (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Jerry Brown Says Wanted Oil Info for ‘Glass Case’

Governor Jerry Brown insists that his request for the Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to ascertain whether his 2,700-acre ranch lay atop an oil pool was motivated by a desire to obtain information about his ranch that he could store in a “glass case.”

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GOP Legislators Push Plan That Could Replace Americans, Import 264,000 Foreign Workers

The complex bill is a gift to donors and businesses because it allow them to reduce wages, thus justifying their demand for cheaper H-2B visa workers. It also provides a huge loophole that technically keeps the current annual cap of 66,000 H-2B workers — but excludes from the cap any H-2B workers who got a H-2B visa in the prior three years. That clever loophole would allow employers to simultaneously hire up to four years of H-2B workers, or 264,000 foreign workers in place of 264,000 Americans.

File

Godfather Appoints Cop-hater as ‘Senior Adviser’ to Police Panel

Monday Emanuel fired his police chief and appointed this new task force to investigate the practices of the Chicago Police Department. As for Deval Patrick, he now comes full circle. He began his career, such as it is, as what Tom Wolfe once described as a “mau-mauer,” a community organizer-type, an NAACP lawyer filing suits against the death penalty and prison conditions.

GettyImages 2007 amnesty march

Donald Trump Faces Immigration Backlash from Tech-Billionaires

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his Internet-billionaire friends really don’t want Donald Trump to be president because he will block their plans to increase immigration above the current inflow of 1 million people per year, according to a report from Politico.

House Speaker Boehner AP

John Boehner Hand Picked Paul Ryan, Now Doing Same with Congressional Seat

Just as former Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) influenced who would replace him as House Speaker, sources in Butler County, Ohio – part of Boehner’s district – are telling Breitbart News that he’s trying to do the same with his congressional seat – even sending his staff to work for County Auditor Roger Reynold’s campaign for Ohio’s 8th Congressional District.

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Majority of Americans Feel Like ‘Stranger in Own Country’

On Friday, a SuperPAC tied to Ohio Governor John Kasich announced a new multi-million dollar effort to torpedo Donald Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination. Trump’s continued dominance of national and state-level polling has vexed the GOP establishment and pushed it to near-panic as voting nears.