This eloquent essay offers the most compelling presentation of the Trumpism = racism hypothesis that I have read. The argument is similar to Ta-Nisi Coates' in The First White President, but I find it much more thoughtful and well-researched. It's long but well worth the read.

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos' guilty plea is a must, must, must read. He confesses to colluding with Russian agents to arrange a meeting between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. One of his contacts mentions "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." This was not a rogue operation. Papadopoulos acknowledges communicating about this plan with at least three unnamed individuals referred to as "Campaign Supervisor," "Senior Policy Advisor," and  "High-Ranking Campaign Official."

Another Republican senator throws in the towel

This piece by a University of Chicago law professor (who happens to be my brilliant sister-in-law) explains that the ACLU's position on the 1st Amendment evolved as a pragmatic strategy to achieve social justice rather than a principled commitment to free speech for its own sake.

PS Disregard the misleading L.A. Times headline.

Over the first six months of 2017, the Republican National Committee pulled in $75 million—nearly twice as much money as the Democratic National Committee, which raised $38 million. The predicament isn’t simply that there is a funding gap between the parties; it’s what kind of money they attract. Republicans have quietly taken a decisive edge over Democrats when it comes to small-dollar fundraising.

“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” shouted communications director (ahem) Anthony Scaramucci to journalist Ryan Lizzie. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” 

And more...

“Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ”

Chuck Schumer resurrects a tried-and-true-(and-tired) catchphrase to drive Democrats economic agenda.

Americans are clamoring for bold changes to our politics and our economy. They feel, rightfully, that both systems are rigged against them, and they made that clear in last year’s election. American families deserve a better deal so that this country works for everyone again, not just the elites and special interests. Today, Democrats will start presenting that better deal to the American people.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not usually one for doomed gestures or abstract ideals.

So why on earth is he scheduling a sure-loser vote on Obamacare "repeal today; replacement later?” Yes, President Trump has requested it—but McConnell has long since learned how to manage Trump’s fleeting mental vagaries. If this vote is held, it’s because McConnell wants it, fully aware that it will lose.

Again: why?

After his much-publicized, two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Trump chatted informally with the Russian leader for up to an additional hour later the same day.

The second meeting, undisclosed at the time, took place at a dinner for G-20 leaders, a senior administration official said. At some point during the meal, Trump left his own seat to occupy a chair next to Putin. Trump approached alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

And page 4, the most incriminating:

A nice analysis of the methods behind Trump's madness:

Why do reporters keep asking President Trump whether he accepts that Russia interfered in the 2016 election? The shortest answer is that he keeps giving interesting answers. During a press conference in Warsaw Thursday, NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked the question once more.

If “monopoly” sounds like a word from another era, that’s because, until recently, it was. Throughout the middle of the 20th century, the term was frequently used in newspaper headlines, campaign speeches, and State of the Union addresses delivered by Republican and Democratic presidents alike. Breaking up too-powerful companies was a bipartisan goal and on the minds of many voters. But, starting in the 1970s, the word retreated from the public consciousness. Not coincidentally, at the same time, the enforcement of anti-monopoly policy grew increasingly toothless.

On a spring morning last year, two men from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum met at a Manhattan diner for brunch and, somewhat to their own surprise, discovered they agreed on a way to address that problem. One was Eli Lehrer, who co-founded and runs the R Street Institute, a free-market-oriented, Republican-leaning think tank in Washington. Lehrer believes the time has come for the American right to reconsider its decades-long war on unions.

This piece by a former Clinton strategist argues for the opposite of the Sanders' strategy. Instead of focusing on WWC Democrats who crossed over to Trump, he urges Democrats to pursue Romney Republicans who crossed over to Clinton. In short, he advocates growing the party by appealing to socially progressive, fiscally conservative suburbanites.

Part of me suspects that this trend is inevitable, but as a fiscal progressive, it saddens and disturbs me. Anyway, it's worth the read even if you disagree with him.

What you’ve got are prominent media figures, political operatives, scholars, and even US senators being taken in by this stuff — in addition to the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of ordinary people consuming it on Twitter and Facebook. These people, too, are letting their biases trump interest in factual accuracy.

This is the key danger: that this sort of thing becomes routine, repeated over and over again in left-leaning media outlets, to the point where accepting the Russiasphere’s fact-free claims becomes a core and important part of what Democrats believe.

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Democrats need a comeback strategy, and the American working class needs an ally. The solution to both problems can be the same: a muscular agenda to lift up people without four-year college degrees."

We've heard this message before, but he makes a nice point about appealing to working class voters with a bold progressive agenda rather than "mushy moderation."

Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in money and personnel for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election, according to three officials with knowledge of his request.