John Oliver delivers strong rebuttal to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and business record

Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders sent out this tweet in response to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump refusing to condemn former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Grand Wizard and failed 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke, who has publicly praised Trump:

America's first black president cannot and will not be succeeded by a hatemonger who refuses to condemn the KKK.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 28, 2016

Bernie’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, had absolutely nothing to add, so, in an extremely rare move, she retweeted Bernie’s tweet.

On the other hand, John Oliver, the host of the HBO comedy show Last Week Tonight and not a politician, had a lot to add. Oliver devoted nearly an entire episode of his show to Donald Trump’s record of bigotry, mocking people, failed business ventures, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and being a total jerk. I encourage everyone to watch the entire Oliver segment on Trump here:

I have absolutely nothing else to add.

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Hillary Clinton raises $18 million for Democratic victory fund that is promoting Hillary, not downballot Democrats

In the last three months of 2015, Hillary Clinton raised $18 million for a Democratic victory fund that is supposed to go towards supporting and promoting Democratic candidates running for, among other offices, seats in both houses of Congress.

Recently, I saw a web ad for Hillary’s victory fund for the first time, and it certainly didn’t promote those downballot Democrats (screengrab below):

Not exactly a downballot candidate (web ad courtesy of Hillary Victory Fund, screengrab by the author)

Even worse, the web ad, paid for by a group that is promising to support Democrats running in non-presidential races, asks people to “join the official Clinton campaign”. Hillary has used her fundraising haul for her victory fund to claim that she’s supporting Democrats up and down the ballot, when, in reality, her victory fund is promoting her own presidential campaign, and, therefore, her claim is total bullshit.

PRE-ENDORSEMENT: Daniel Biss for Comptroller of Illinois

Daniel Biss, a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate from Evanston, is currently planning to run in next year’s special election for Comptroller of Illinois. I proudly pre-endorse Biss for the Democratic nomination in the comptroller’s race.

Biss is a mathematician, not a politician. Prior to being elected to the Illinois Senate, Biss was a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago, one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the entire country. Given that the Illinois Comptroller’s office is responsible for maintaining the state’s financial accounts, this means that Biss has a skills set that fit very well with the duties of the comptroller’s office, which is something we haven’t seen out of a major-party candidate for comptroller here in Illinois in a very long time, if ever.

Biss has at least one primary opponent, Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza, and it’s possible that others may run for the Democratic nomination. Mendoza is a political crony of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; in fact, Mendoza was a campaign co-chair for Rahm’s most recent mayoral campaign, which was supported by far-right Republicans like Mark Kirk and Ken Griffin. Illinois cannot afford more of Rahm’s corrupt, corporate, privatization-supporting, and progressive-bashing cronies in office. Regarding Mendoza herself, she has a habit of claiming endorsements that she hasn’t actually received, which is what I consider to be a form of blatant dishonesty.

I encourage Illinois voters to vote in the Democratic primary for Daniel Biss for comptroller.