For over a year a group of passionate, committed people have been working to build the infrastructure, grassroots support, and fundraising network to support serious, credible independent candidates for statewide office. We knew there were big barriers for independent candidates but we believed the time was right for America and the numbers were telling that story more and more every day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEb_vAzYlQ8

US Sen. Rand Paul objected to an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring a bipartisan spending bill to the floor of the Senate. He says that neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party cares about the debt.

https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/961738621685510144

What do you think? Do we need to avoid a government shutdown now and pass the spending deal or do we need more debate on federal spending?

Here's one aspect of the independent ethos that guides how I think about politics, and what I think about:

Whatever I'm not allowed to talk about, that's what I want to talk about. Whatever topic is off limits, that's the topic I want to discuss. Whatever I'm not allowed to say, I'm not necessarily going to spit it, but I am going to chew on it long and hard and think about why I'm not allowed to say it.

The flowing tide of income inequality has been garnering attention in most every country on earth.

President Trump and the GOP love to position themselves as champions of the common man. They frequently appeal to rural Americans, framing this demographic as a critical part of the Republican base.

It’s true that many rural Americans harken to conservative philosophies, but with campaign season over, much of what they were promised hasn’t arrived. Case-in-point: health care.

There are few demographics with so much to gain from a single-payer system than those living in the countryside, but party-line politics are keeping them from subscribing.

Tuesday in Maryland."

That’s how POLITICO’s Isaac Dovere’s reported on businessman Neal Simon’s official announcement to run for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate yesterday.

As Neal told the Baltimore Sun, “I do not believe that having another party-line Republican or party-line Democrat go to Capitol Hill is going to change anything.”

Josh Silver is the founder and director of Represent.us, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to ending political corruption in America. He was also the man in charge of the Unrig the System Summit in New Orleans, La.

If you’ve ever filled out a ballot, you already know how difficult it can be to find accurate information. Thoroughly researching the candidates and measures for even one election can take days. The internet is a vast source of information you can tap for this purpose, but sifting through it is far from easy. VoteMatrix arose to combat this problem.

Friday, the White House released a controversial memo meant to provide some context to the whole Trump/Russia investigation.

The Nunes memo is four pages long, and it explains many of what seem to be very questionable actions by the Department of Justice and the FBI in how they got their hands on FISA warrants on Trump campaign officials.

But more than just this case, this memo backs up what civil libertarians have been screaming about for years. And begs the question—can the FISA court system actually be trusted?

Remember 2017? I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the country was in somewhat of a challenging place. People were angry, sad, frustrated. Those on the left were upset either because they felt they had lost all political power nationally, or because they felt their own party had played a part in losing that power.

Those on the right were angry that those on the left often lumped them all together in unflattering terms. It often felt that we were too divided to recover from whatever was ailing the country.