Guns and money (the lawyers distribute the latter, making a completed Zevon story).

Politico. Linking here. The homepage?

https://www.opensecrets.org/

The lead story there, today, selling hate by financing it. Strib, a local Minnesota slant.

More guns and money.

Stormy weather:

In fact, in-kind contributions, which the Federal Election Commission (FEC) defines as “gifts of goods or services,” are more commonly associated with event catering, website design and travel expenses.

Less than two weeks before the 2016 election, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in what some watchdog groups and campaign finance experts have deemed was a political gift to the Trump campaign aimed at covering up an alleged affair Daniels and the candidate had in 2006.

Adav Noti, who spent 10 years working for the FEC, is now senior director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center. He said the payment, which kept potentially damaging information about Trump from the public, amounted to an in-kind contribution.

“It was a payment made to influence the election,” Noti said.

The FEC regulates in-kind donations the same way as monetary contributions, and they can violate campaign finance laws in a number of ways.

“It becomes an issue when they either exceed the limits on contributions that can be made to candidates or political parties or PACs, or when they are not properly disclosed,” he said. “The Michael Cohen situation involved both.”

What is there to not like about that website?

_______________UPDATE_______________
A chart showing a history, spending in the red.

Related links: here, here and here.
[FURTHER: Two more, here and here.]

TPM. WaPo.

Robert Mercer's yacht. His dog.

Don't go hungry tonight. Don't get foreclosed.

Time tests the best of bloviators.

A link. Were a new dawn anticipation NOT met with same old, it still would be over-long commentary. Not that I should be one to make such a complaint . . .

Same old, flavored with an overdose of bluster, has proven itself to still be same old.

Boy have I got a joke for you - - -

Hi ya, JJ.
How's the delegate count?

_______________UPDATE______________
Bankers befriend their friends. While considering that, don't go hungry tonight, don't get foreclosed.

A shout about MN Progressive Project's newer posts.

Jeff Strake mentions CD8 candidacy of North Branch Mayor Kirsten Hagen Kennedy. Will she abide by the DFL endorsement?

Dan Burns on education - good news - the VA, and more.

Check the site.

http://mnprogressiveproject.com/

Uncertainties remain at present, but Mr. Emmer may feel a party-wide pinch. One more immediate than east coast or west coast trade war pinching, and when the snow's gone and warmth hits heartland, what about soybeans? Said another way, Emmer in November faces Ian Todd for the CD6 seat, and trade war rhetoric if reduced to action may have one good outcome . . .

The expectation is the Macmillan heirs with Cargill in their hearts may be counseling Emmer that loyalty up and down the ranks to the chief's whims and tweets may be less than wise, and the "decent lawyer" quote might be quietly voiced but given personalities, not heard.

HOWEVER, the heart of the post is not about Emmer's experiencing a hot seat with divided loyalties - Cargill interests vs Commander in Chief's trade rumblings.

The post is about Ian Todd.

And soybeans.

Beyond Emmer faults and Stanley Hubbard faults to boot, Ian Todd is working hard to upgrade the representation of the District. He needs contributions. Without the cash to run he is doomed, beyond any demographics of past elections where a pure fool sat many terms in Congress. Pay so the seat is in play:

https://www.iantoddforcongress.com/theissues/

https://www.iantoddforcongress.com/

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/iantodd

(320) 247-6432 --- iantoddforcongress@gmail.com

Send a check for a twenty-seven buck multiple by snailmail? If the website is puzzling that way, the FEC has an address:

IAN TODD FOR CONGRESS
715 BIRCH ST
ANOKA, Minnesota 55303


My check will be in the mail. Yours? Or will you just ActBlue?

Hunger games? In our fine beacon nation, young people are getting screwed and hopefully will grow onward into wanting to get even.

WaPo reports, and if the one-third number is off, still, it is rephensible:

Researchers blame ballooning college costs, inadequate aid packages and growing enrollment among low-income students — as well as some colleges’ unwillingness to admit they have a hunger problem. College hunger is not a new issue, researchers caution. But it appears to be growing worse, and not merely because college is getting more expensive.

"Prices have gone up over time," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy at Temple and the lead author of the report. "But the rising price is just a piece. This is a systemic problem."

Goldrick-Rab's report is based on data from 43,000 students at 66 schools and used the Department of Agriculture's assessment for measuring hunger. That means the thousands of students it classifies as having "low food security" aren't merely avoiding the dining hall or saving lunch money for beer: They're skipping meals, or eating smaller meals, because they don't have enough money for food.

On top of that, the report found, 46 percent of community college students and 36 percent of university students struggle to pay for housing and utilities. In the past year, 12 percent of community college students and 9 percent of university students have slept in shelters or in places not intended as housing, or did not know from one day to the next where they would sleep.

Measuring college hunger and homelessness is difficult. Researchers depend on universities to distribute the surveys and on a self-selecting group of students to fill them out.

Goldrick-Rab says those constraints make it likely that college hunger is actually more prevalent than her data show.

And that is why the Occupy efforts were tamped down so brutally, quickly and so universally. Big money felt a threat. There was none, and Occupy was suppressed without its Kent State - Jackson State unprosecuted murders being a repeat "need."

A hope is that feeling the hunger leads to feeling the Bern. That we are a nation under a thumb is apparent from Trump, Pence, and the opportunistic climber types such as Ryan and Marco Rubio. Biden serves. Cory Booker. The deplorables Trump has picked and exchanged in his working circle are picked for a reason. And a torture camp dragon lady to run CIA? Who are we in allowing a two party imposition of the Trump-Clinton insane example? This IS a systemic problem. It needs fixing.

In the mood of the Day, a question.

Given how Trump has recycled Bolton, why has Trump not recycled Karl Rove? Trump and Rove seem as kindred in spirit as Trump and Pence. Rove is much like Pence except he feigns less.

And as to mood and spirit of the day; the Rove thought is not one of resurrection, but curbside recycling; and, indeed, the day in view with regard to Bolton and Rove is not Easter but All Fools Day; which this year coincide.

It also seems to be a resonant idea that Karl Rove belongs at Cambridge Analytica. For all we know, he may be there. By merger. More.

___________UPDATE___________
A decade ago, "contempt" was a word of joinder for the two. I use it differently, toward the two. An evaluation of them now, vs a status of them then.

_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Little known fact, weasels hibernate.