Politics

 It’s time for Ranked Choice Voting for presidential elections

Robert Reich - In 1971, Lewis Powell urged the leaders of American corporations to devote a portion of their profits to politics.  Since then, America has witnessed the largest and most entrenched system of legalized bribery in its history. Big corporations and the super-wealthy have rigged the “free market” for their own benefit. The Supreme Court opened the floodgates to all this by deciding that money is speech and corporations are people. There is nothing in the history of the First Amendment to the Constitution supporting these decisions.

Throughout the 1980s, corporate PAC spending on congressional races increased nearly fivefold. Labor union PAC spending rose only about half as fast. By the 2016 campaign cycle, corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 for every $1 donated by labor unions and all public interest organizations combined. In 1980, the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans provided 10 percent of all donations to federal elections. By 2012, they provided 40 percent.

AP News -  President Joe Biden begins an intense period of private preparations Friday at Camp David for what may be the most consequential presidential debate in decades. The 81-year-old Democrat’s team is aware he cannot afford an underwhelming performance when he faces Republican rival Donald Trump for 90 minutes on live television June 27. Biden’s team expects aggressive attacks on his physical and mental strength, his record on the economy and immigration and even his family.

Trump, 78 and ever confident, will stay on the campaign trail before going to his Florida estate next week for two days of private meetings as part of an informal prep process.The ex-president’s allies are pushing him to stay focused on his governing plans but expect him to be tested by pointed questions about his unrelenting focus on election fraud, his role in the erosion of abortion rights and his unprecedented legal baggage.The CNN debate will be full of firsts, with the potential to reshape the presidential race. Never before in the modern era have two presumptive nominees met on the debate stage so early in the general election season. Never before have two White House contenders faced off at such advanced ages, with widespread questions about their readiness.