Yesterday, the Associated Press published former FBI director James Comey’s memos from his meetings with President Trump. The memos reveal things we either know or have assumed about Trump: he’s petty, vindictive, obsessed with loyalty, and has an attention span that makes fleas ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

The Washington Post continues to justify Donald Trump's absolute loathing of it with another humiliating scoop, this time undermining Trump's "tough on Russia" narrative. In an uncharacteristically bold move, the Trump administration expelled a massive 60 Russian diplomats ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Nina Turner, the former Ohio State Senator and head of the SuperPAC Our Revolution, has managed to offend almost every reasonable center-left Democrat in the last two years. One of the only prominent African-American women to endorse Bernie Sanders in the primary, she refused to ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Not that this will make much of a difference to the screeching fanatics on the far left and right, but we can now safely say that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Reported the Guardian:  The international chemical ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 12, 2018

Back in the 1960's the Republican Party went all in on "ratfucking", the practice of winning elections by any means necessary. They tricked people into voting on the wrong day. They fooled people into thinking a Democratic candidate was gay (this was the 60s) or a criminal or ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Having satirized British politics (The Thick of It/In the Loop) and American politics (the multiple Emmy-award-winning Veep), Armando Iannucci has now brought his hammer - and sickle - down on Mother Russia in The Death of Stalin, a farce that not only lives up to his previous ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Dec 20, 2018

Early Thursday morning, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin bragged that Russia had developed new "invincible" nuclear weapons that couldn't be stopped by missile defense systems. In the name of peace, of course. In his annual state of the nation address on Thursday, Putin claimed ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Mar 1, 2018

Last night, I saw this tweet, and variations of it, explode across my social media feeds: To be honest, I blew it off because it sounded like something taken out of context. For most of 2017, there was a very healthy media cottage industry built around keeping the ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Jill Stein, Susan Sarandon's candidate, isn't having a good weekend. This Friday, Mueller revealed in his indictments that Russians interfered on behalf of her campaign, posting on the Instagram account Blacktivist, "Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it's not a ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Dec 20, 2018

With all the news this week over the Nunes Memo and the resignation of Andrew McCabe, it's easy to forget that the Trump Administration isn't America's only enemy. The Russians, who aided and abetted him in stealing our election, have not been duly punished, and show no signs of ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Shortly after the inaugural last January, acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned Donald Trump that his National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, had been less than forthcoming regarding his conversations with Russians. Trump's immediate response was to fire Mrs. Yates... To ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

According to details released by Mother Jones magazine last weekend, Donald Trump asked porn star Stormy Daniels to spank him with a copy of Forbes Magazine. Adding to the story's ridiculousness, she claims that she spanked him with an issue of Forbes that featured him and his ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Note: Bryan Fogel's documentary Icarus, about Russia's abuse of Performance Enhancing Drugs in sports, was nominated today for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Since its release on Netflix last August, Russia has been banned from the upcoming Winter Olympics, and ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

It's telling that this comparison to Stalin was laughed off by commentators on both the far right and far left, once again proving the usefulness of Jean-Pierre Faye's horseshoe theory that political extremists on both sides tend to resemble one another. After the comparison was ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

The Senate race in Alabama to fill the seat once occupied by Jeff Sessions is a microcosm of last year's presidential race. On one side we have Doug Jones, a sane, good-natured liberal; on the other we have Roy Moore, a rightier-than-right-wing Republican who believes, among ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

In an eerie echo of Donald Trump, Republican candidate Roy Moore chose violent Russian dictator Vladimir Putin over his own country, calling the United States "evil" and finding common cause with the murderous strongman: In an interview with the Guardian’s Anywhere But ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

I woke up this morning with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, because I knew that as soon as I turned on my phone, I'd get a notification of the Republican's "accomplishment." Late last night, the Republican Party displayed their true colors by passing their tax bill ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

(WARNING: SATIRE!) Sources reported to the LA Times that Robert Mueller once left a nasty comment card at an Applebee’s restaurant. The card in question was recreated through a second hand retelling from an anonymous source who reportedly had lunch with Mueller, along with ...read more

• By Frederic Poag
  Nov 9, 2018

Last night's elections in Virginia were a stunning victory for the Democrats. As I reported on Monday, voters in the commonwealth didn't care about Donna Brazile and DNC fundraising squabbles: they were too busy organizing to usher into power their new governor, Ralph Northam, ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Syria finally agreed to sign the historic 2015 Paris Climate Accords, making the United States the one major nation to not participate in deal, which would ask governments to limit temperature rises as a way to combat the devastating effects of climate change.  The Sierra Club ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

The Banter Long Read: Evidence is coming out that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to cheat his way to the presidency, and his attorney general finds himself caught in the lies. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have been indicted; George Papadopoulos has pled guilty; and ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

After a day spent in seclusion watching news reports, binging on fast food and mass produced, cream filled, diabetes inducing snacks, President Trump stumbled, wide eyed and manic, into the Tuesday morning White House Press Briefing. Absentmindedly handing over a half eaten box ...read more

• By Frederic Poag
  Nov 9, 2018

Don't hold your breath. There won't be any apologies or mea culpas from the "Nothingburger" crowd in the wake of the indictments of Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, and the unsealing of George Papadopoulos's guilty plea from earlier in the year. Remember the nothingburger talking ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Today, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his parliament declared independence from Spain, nearly a month after the historic referendum, and in response, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the parliament in his central government voted to enact Article 155 by a vote ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Over the weekend, Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore received a Twitter bounty many can only dream of - he nearly doubled his number of followers. 20,000 more people than before hit the "follow" button to read the thoughts of a man who lost his first judgeship in 2003 when he ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Where there's liberal democracy, Julian Assange will be there to undermine it. Last year he supported Brexit, and he has taken meetings with one of its strongest advocates, Nigel Farage. Then he took stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee and weaponized them ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Rex Tillerson is destroying the State Department. This is indisputable. He is leaving key positions unfilled. He is refusing to consult with the hundreds of experts at his disposal with decades of experience. He is eliminating entire sections within the State Department, forcing ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Oct 5, 2017

As we piece together what Russian media did to manipulate our presidential election, utilizing social media to spread fake news and hacking state voter rolls, it is of the gravest importance that we not let them get away with this again. This past week, Russian media and ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Paul Manafort is well and truly screwed and we might be, too. The FBI had such damning evidence against him that even during the 2016 election, a judge signed off on a warrant to wiretap Manafort's communications and that surveillance continued after Trump was sworn in as ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

The Banter Long Read: A few months ago, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was caught on tape joking, "There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump." Although McCarthy apologized for the remarks later on, he wasn't entirely wrong.... (Word Count: 1592) To ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

The Banter Long Read: Icarus, Bryan Fogel's new documentary out on Netflix, is a compelling look inside an aspect of Putin's Russia that's gotten a bit lost in the shuffle amidst all the news coming out about their election meddling: their history of using Performance Enhancing ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Aug 11, 2017

You have to wonder whether Donald Trump is actively trying to get himself impeached. He clearly desperately wants out of the job he hates, and is doing everything in his power to isolate himself from his party and the entire US government. In response to a question about ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Benjamin Zuskin couldn't sleep. The year was 1952, and as a former member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in Moscow, he knew that Stalin could come for him at any moment... To continue reading this article, please go here. A Banter Membership gets you access to the magazine ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Aug 3, 2017

Earlier this year, political activist Alexei Navalny was found guilty by a Russian court of embezzling 16 million rubles worth of timber. The charges were clearly fabricated and the verdict a sham. But, coincidentally, the guilty verdict makes Navalny ineligible to run against ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

On Wednesday, Donald Trump openly threatened special counsel Robert Mueller during an interview with The New York Times, bringing us to death's door as a country of laws: When asked if Robert Mueller would be crossing a “red line” by investigating Trump’s personal finances, the ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

On Tuesday, word came down that Christopher Painter was pushed out of his job at the State Department. You'd be forgiven for not knowing who Painter is since his job, while critically important, was a bit too abstract for the general public to care about: Painter, the ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Jul 19, 2017

Why are you even reading this? I already told you: I am not going to write about the latest tinfoil hat nonsense from Fox News, AM Hate Radio and The Drudge Report/Breitbart. I absolutely refuse to talk about the conspiracy theory the right has latched onto that Obama allowed ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

You. Yes, you over there with the anti-Trump t-shirt: Put down the champagne and turn off the celebration music. I know you're excited that Donald Trump Jr. was stupid enough to save an email explicitly detailing criminal activity. I know this proves the Trump campaign did, in ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

Take a few minutes to look over Jill Stein's Facebook wall and Twitter feed. If this was your primary source of information, you would literally have no idea that Republicans are on the brink of taking healthcare away from 24 million Americans to pay for a one Trillion dollar ...read more

• By Justin Rosario
  Nov 9, 2018

I think about Mike Pence a lot. Mostly because I think a lot about how the hell this gelatinous, orange death train of an administration will come to a stop. Will it catastrophically derail? Find itself dragged back to the station? Non-ceremoniously switch conductors and then ...read more

• By Mike Redmond
  Nov 9, 2018

In theory, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee thanks to allegations made by former FBI Director James Comey while recalling his experience being fired, admittedly by Trump, in an effort to end the ...read more

• By Mike Redmond
  Nov 9, 2018

As we plummet even further into the hellscape known as Donald Trump's America - where Nazis feel emboldened enough to say, "Hey! Quit picking on us just because we're Nazis!" - we've already watched as Republican senators sharpened their knives right in front of former FBI ...read more

• By Mike Redmond
  Nov 9, 2018

I don't have much to add to the Comey hearing. It's become clear that depending on your political affiliation, you either saw a former FBI director call Trump a liar and lay the groundwork for an obstruction of justice case (while not so subtly hinting that Attorney General Jeff ...read more

• By Mike Redmond
  Nov 9, 2018

The Trump administration has taken it’s first step in retaliating against leakers, showing that the President’s tirades on twitter are more than just rhetorical threats. Charges have been brought under the Espionage Act against a 25 year-old NSA contractor for allegedly ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Dec 20, 2018

With Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accords, the revelation that Jared Kushner created a secret line of communication to talk with the Kremlin, and the disastrous repercussions of the NATO conference, the Purity Left only wants to talk about one thing – the ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

Tough luck for anyone who was hoping to feel satisfied after watching Megyn Kelly’s much anticipated interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The roughly 10 minute discussion was featured on the debut episode of NBC’s new program, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. While she ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Jun 5, 2017

Unless you religiously watch the Sunday news shows, then like me, you probably just read about them online. Highlights are clipped and headline making statements are written up by most media organizations. But every now and then, you hear about something down the line that ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Dec 20, 2018

If there’s one thing you can always rely on Senator John McCain for, it’s doing his best to scare the American public. The Arizona Republican’s penchant for supporting aggressive military action against a variety of menacing actors overseas, or at the very least, consistently ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Nov 9, 2018