Clinton Ally Stands Between Sanders and Chairmanship Dream The Hill

Senator Brass Balls Sanders wants to unseat Sen Patty Murray (D-Wash) as chair of the Health Committee if Dems retake the Senate. Yesiree! The Vermont Independent who won't endorse Hillary Clinton and has nothing but vile words for his Senate colleagues thinks Murray should roll over and play dead because Senator Brass Balls wants her chair . . . you know the one she's worked for.

What Bernie wants, Bernie thinks he should get.

1) Given that Bernie totally screwed Hillary on single-payer health care when she was First Lady and he in the House; and 2) Sanders couldn't be bothered to consult with Planned Parenthood or NARAL in ALL the years he submitted his health care proposal to Congress - we don't trust Sanders on women's health care. As a result of his isolationist way of working in Congress, Senator Brass Balls defunded critical health services for ALL women in his single-payer health care plan that never had ONE co-sponsor. And he did it for over a decade. Middle class and up women would have had to pay for these services -- including much birth control -- out of our pockets, along with abortion or morning after pills. And poor women would just have babies because Bernie's male-centric brain doesn't give a damn about women's reproductive health care. Senator Brass Balls doesn't get pregnant.

Thankfully, Sen. Patty Murray has no intention of rolling over and playing dead for Sir Brass Balls.

"Murray says she loves the Health panel. The alternative, taking over the Appropriations Committee, is not as enticing as it used to be given today's fierce battles over spending and the abolishment of earmarks.

Murray is signaling to colleagues that she’s very happy in her current role and would relish the chance to work with Clinton on major issues.

“She loves the work she is doing on the [Health] Committee to fight for policies that help women, students, families, seniors, workers and the economy — and there is a whole lot more that she’d like to get done,” said her spokesman, Eli Zupnick."

Why Hillary Clinton's Student Debt Idea Is Smart TIME

"One of the most interesting economic solutions proposed by Hillary Clinton recently on the campaign trail is that the financial burden of education be eased for future entrepreneurs. Under her proposal, college graduates who start a business may end up being able to get their student loans deferred, interest-free, for up to three years as they launch new ventures. Those who locate in “distressed communities” or start a social enterprise also could ask the government to forgive as much as $17,500 in loans after five years in business.

{ . . . }

Start-ups are a key driver of productivity. But the birthrate of startups has been in decline since the 1970s. Since then, it has dovetailed with a shift in how the financial sector business model works — it no longer invests primarily in new business, but rather buys up and trades existing assets, and funding for small and mid-sized start ups is still scarce (while increasing monopoly power on the part of large firms squashes new ones, as Robert Reich and others have recently written.)

{. . . }

This is a big deal in a country in which labor mobility has traditionally given us a leg up economically over Europe and other nations. I think Clinton’s idea to tie together entrepreneurship and student debt forgiveness is a great one, and a good way to make some of Bernie Sanders’ most popular ideas more doable. I hope to hear more about portable benefits, another key idea that could help bolster entrepreneurship, from her soon."

Note: Rana Foroohar is an assistant managing editor at TIME and the magazine’s economics columnist. She’s the author of Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton Met Amid Email Investigation NPR

What were they thinking!!!

"The former president, who was waiting to depart the state, boarded Loretta Lynch's government aircraft shortly after she landed in Arizona for a community policing event. Lynch later told reporters there the conversation centered on "his grandchildren."

"It was primarily social and about our travels," including golf he played, Lynch said.

The attorney general insisted, "There was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body."

The Justice Department and FBI are investigating the security of Hillary Clinton's private email server, which she used to conduct official business as secretary of state. There's no public sign Hillary Clinton has been interviewed by federal agents, but the matter is growing ever more sensitive, as she prepares to secure the Democratic presidential nomination at her party's convention next month."

Most American Christians Believe They're Being Persecuted The Atlantic

Large numbers of American Christians believe they are subject to religious discrimination in their own country. A new report from the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings confirms that almost half of Americans say discrimination against Christians is as big of a problem as discrimination against blacks, gays and other groups. Three-quarters of Republicans and Trump supporters hold this view, shared also by nearly eight out of 10 white evangelical Protestants. Among white evangelical Protestants, six in 10 believe that America is no longer a Christian nation -- a huge increase from 2012.