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Rob Hager is a public-interest litigator who filed a Supreme Court amicus brief n the 2012 Montana sequel to the Citizens United case, American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, and has worked as an international consultant on legal development and anti-corruption issues.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 16, 2017 The Trump in Comey's China Shop
Irrespective of the "Russian thing" and the good cause for firing Comey, Trump's pointlessly self-inculpatory explanation of some other motive unnecessarily places him at the mercy of Comey's own testimony. Comey can now define Trump's conversations as attempted bribery of a public official, and therefore as racketeering. Most disturbing about Trump's self-inflicted wound is the question it poses about his mental capacity
(17 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 11, 2017 The Comey Non-Crisis
Contrary to Democrat mouthpieces, Comey's firing is no crisis. Not firing Comey for the same reasons the DOJ gave would have been a crisis because those reasons define how Comey improperly played politics with his powerful position. Those reasons suggest that the new director should resume the Servergate investigation of Clinton.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 4, 2017 Swamping the Supremes: "Qualifications," New Confirmation Politics, and the Gorsuch Restoration of Judicial Plutocracy
The Gorsuch-nomination battle may restore some legitimacy to the Democrats as an opposition party to plutocracy, confront Republicans with the prospect of shooting their own foot by eliminating the filibuster as the cost of restoring the plutocratic Court majority, and set the stage for a 2018 referendum on the Roberts Court's corrupting "money is speech" jurisprudence, for which Gorsuch would restore the essential fifth vote.
SHARE Tuesday, March 7, 2017 No Cloture for Gorsuch
Amidst all the smoke-blowing trivia and other effluvia emitted from the Trump White House, it is important that progressives keep their eye on the paramount importance of the Gorsuch nomination, and of the Democrats' necessary filibuster to stop it. Stopping Gorsuch or anyone else like him represents the difference between a chance for democracy and resumed unrelenting descent even deeper into authoritarian plutocracy.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 8, 2017 The State of Massachusetts Should Protest the Warren Gag Rule
Massachusetts politicians should step up to defend their U.S. Senator against partisan censorship in violation of the Constitution. The citizens of their state were entitled to be represented on the important question of appointing the nation's chief law-enforcement official.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 31, 2017 Inaugural Demagoguery versus Trump's Supreme Court Choices
On the day of Trump's historic nomination for the empty seat on the Supreme Court which will shift the Court from its current ideological deadlock it is useful to compare the politics of his choice with the politics of his inaugural address. The contrast indicates that Trump will be foreclosing one of the best strategies for keeping his promise to restore democracy from the country's current corrupt plutocracy.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 26, 2016 Breaking Down the Big Speech
Bernie Sanders' Convention speech omitted the essential policy reform that could make his capitulation excuse even relevant, according to the central demand of his own campaign. In this article Rob Hager dissects the speech and what it failed to say.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 23, 2016 Cornel West and Jill Stein: Campaign Against Clinton and Trump
These two voices need to be heard now to let the vacillating Sanders supporters know what the consequences will be from trusting that Bernie Sanders knows what he is doing and make it clear to Democrats that they will be deciding whether or not they will be electing Trump at their Convention.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 14, 2016 My Reply to BS
Rob Kall has encouraged discussion about Bernie Sanders' capitulation to the corrupt plutocrat who will be the 2016 Democratic Party nominee. This is my public reply, reporting the message I sent in response to the email that BS sent to his mailing list(which was published on OEN yesterday)to justify his betrayal of his supporters. His reasons are unpersuasive.
(10 comments) SHARE Friday, July 8, 2016 Unraveling Comey's Political Fix
House Tea Party does a credible job of piercing many flaws in Comey's pretext for the two tiered justice system applied to exonerate Hillary Clinton. Comey overlooked the plentiful evidence of criminal intent and also exaggerated the quantum of evidence needed to prove intent by confusing intent with motive. The FBI legislates to turn the unprecedented nature of Clinton corrupt motivation into a Clinton "no precedent" defense.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Supreme Court Legalizes Influence Peddling: McDonnell v. United States
The latest SCOTUS pro-corruption decision is worse than Citizens United though it has better PR, due largely to the propagandist media's free pass for John Roberts' dishonest opinion. Understand this opinion and you will understand why the Supreme Court must be the priority target of progressive reform.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, June 27, 2016 Warning -- the sheepdog sellout begins: Sanders seeks company for his party-platform capitulation dance; don't join him.
Sanders has now finally unveiled his plan to entice supporters to support his party platform diversion from effective strategy. It appears that this is the dead-end where he intends to lead his supporters. It is time to part from what would most charitably be described as Sanders' strategic incompetence, if it is not fraud, and take the revolution to restore democracy in another direction.
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 18, 2016 State Convention: Another Lesson in Strategic Failure by the Sanders Revolution, and How to Recover
A close look at the Minnesota State Convention provides another example of strategic failure by the Sanders campaign in organizing for reform of the entrenched state and national Democratic Party apparatus. But it is not too late to use Sanders' considerable political leverage to obtain strategic concessions from Clinton, Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Senate Democratic leader.
(16 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Sanders Wins another Purple State, But Is Still Lost in a Haze of Bad Strategy and Rigged Delegate Math
Sanders' fairly narrow victory in another purple state, Indiana, continued the pattern that was established in Nevada and Iowa. Barring the unexpected, the future math is predictable. Sanders needs to get real about his convention strategy to change delegate rules concerning closed and corrupt elections such as New York, and applying conflict of interest recusal to superdelegates
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 23, 2016 The Ides of March Primaries
On another Tuesday primary day, an unbiased appraisal of Sanders' returns near the half-way point. Yes, he can win but he needs to wage a winning campaign.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 17, 2016 The SCOTUS QUANDARY
Obama Nominates a Conservative to Court: Sanders Still Missing Strategic Opportunity
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 11, 2016 Michigan and Mississippi: Should Red-state Delegates Vote on the Nomination of a Blue-state Candidate?
Maybe Michigan will get people to tune out the insistent mass-media megaphone that keeps sounding the falsehood that Sanders can't win. The media treats Mississippi and Michigan as offsetting primary victories. They are not. The first is irrelevant, or should be; the second is game-changing.
SHARE Sunday, March 6, 2016 Blue-state Bernie and the DNC's Plutocratic "Victory" Rules
The Clinton "victory" is a congeries of "rotten boroughs," conflicted Superdelegates, exclusionary primaries, and disinformation. If the run-off process were conducted in a democratic manner, these devices would all be barred by Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 10, 2016 Is JEB Defecting from the Plutocracy?
Don't get Bushwhacked by Citizens United hype that Jeb exploited to get his bump in New Hampshire.