February 13, 2020

Quote of the Day: Crackpot Having a Hard Time Getting Confirmed to Fed

Stefani Reynolds/CNP via ZUMA

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From Sen. John Kennedy, after a confirmation hearing this morning for Judy Shelton:

Nobody wants anybody on the Federal Reserve that has a fatal attraction to nutty ideas.

I’m not so sure about that. Shelton is a crackpot and a partisan hack, but there are still plenty of Republicans who are apparently unconcerned about giving her a Fed seat.

But that’s business as usual. What’s not usual is that there are actually a few Republican senators who are uncomfortable with Shelton and may block her confirmation. If that happens, she’d be the fifth Trump Fed nomination to fail even though Republicans control the Senate.

What this means is that Republicans are willing to confirm practically anyone Trump nominates for anything except for seats on the Fed. For some reason, a few of them still take that seriously. Why?

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DECEMBER IS MAKE OR BREAK

A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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