He may not like grizzly bears, but Dan has become a serious pander bear, trying to get back into the good graces of the Republican base after breaking with Trump.
Author Archives: Joel Connelly
Joel Connelly is a Northwest Progressive Institute contributor who has reported on multiple presidential campaigns and from many national political conventions. During his career at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush. He has covered Canada from Trudeau to Trudeau, written about the fiscal meltdown of the nuclear energy obsessed WPPSS consortium (pronounced "Whoops") and public lands battles dating back to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Deb Haaland recommends that Joe Biden restore national monuments gutted by Trump
The Interior Secretary is making a cultural and conservation case to President Biden: Restore national monuments in Utah and New England that were brutally and unilaterally cut by the Trump regime.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Biden reverses Trump again: Old growth trees in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest slated to be reprotected under Roadless Rule
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will “repeal or replace” a decision that removed the Tongass from a Clinton-era Roadless Rule that had protected more than nine million acres of the 16.9 million-acre national forest.
Posted inElections
Donald Trump erects a tower of lies for the midterms and a bid to regain power in 2024
Trump is back. Expect a summer full of rallies, camp followers spouting Q‑Anon nonsense, and Trump leaving the stage to ovations that would send Hitler to bed happy.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Biden administration halts scheme to drill in Arctic Refuge while backing ConocoPhillips’ planned expansion on Alaska’s North Slope
One of America’s greatest treasures appears to have won an eleventh hour reprieve from being despoiled by oil driving. But a large nearby oil drilling project continues to enjoy the support of the federal government.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy, National Defense, Policy Topics
In seeking to block a commission to probe the attack on the U.S. Capitol, top Republicans in Congress remind us their work is never done
The leadership of Republicans in Congress, prompted by Donald Trump, spent Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 hanging out to dry those House Republicans who want a September 11th style commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Power-obsessed Mitch McConnell wants to decide what does not get done in America
The Kentucky Republican cares not for governing. He evinces no interest in taking the hand dealt by America’s voters and trying to solve or get a jump on the nation’s problems. He is instead about power, hanging onto his position as a top Republican.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Joe Biden’s primetime address adeptly sought to relink U.S. to the idea of E Pluribus Unum
America’s forty-sixth president is commendably seeking to restore faith in government, showing that the people of the United States can enable each other to realize their hopes and dreams.
Posted inMedia & Culture
Book Review: John Boehner laments his party’s mutation into a cult in new memoir
Read Joel Connelly’s review of ex-Speaker John Boehner’s memoir of his time in U.S. politics. Boehner resigned from the House in October of 2015, five years after assuming power.
Posted inAppreciations & Remembrances
Walter Mondale: 1928–2021
Read NPI’s appreciation of the late Vice President Walter Mondale, a stalwart progressive leader from Minnesota, authored by Joel Connelly.
Posted inPolicy Topics
The American Rescue Plan: An opportunity to scrap Reaganomics and government bashing
It’s time to show the country that governments works, while keeping Republicans from gobbling up credit for what they voted against.
Posted inElections
A reckoning for ticket-splitters: Can you vote for any Republican who sticks with Trump?
The Republican Party has become a cult that adores an unaccountable sociopath. Perhaps the time has come for a new center-right political party rooted in conservative values.
Posted inPolicy Topics
U.S. House passes sweeping wilderness protection bill that includes PNW’s Olympics
The Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act designates approximately 1.5 million acres of public land as wilderness and incorporates more than 1,200 river miles into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Posted inPolicy Topics
The Texas-sized politics of calamity: Disasters put a spotlight on elected officials’ negligence
Will the country wake up to the need for infrastructure modernization following the horrors in Texas, or will we see right-wing politicians escape responsibility and go on demonizing clean renewable energy?