Eric Boehlert

Senior Fellow, Media Matters for America

Increasingly reliant on bad fringe actors like Nugent to connect with their far, far-right audience, the conservative media have built up Obama-bashing personalities who no longer occupy any corner of the American mainstream. Yet Nugent enjoys deep ties with Republican campaigns all across the country. When those ties receive media scrutiny, they cannot be defended.

Chris Weigant

Political writer and blogger at ChrisWeigant.com

We have a running theme this week: the utter and complete failure of the Republican Party's vaunted "outreach" to certain groups of Americans who have been voting against them in droves.

Allen Frances

Professor Emeritus, Duke University

The basic pitch is 'do nothing' until we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are irrevocably ruining our environment. Of course, this is brutal and ruthless cynicism -- by then it will be too late to save ourselves and prevent the environmental catastrophes, famine, war, and pestilence that will inevitably follow.

Robert Reich

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, Beyond Outrage

The winners here are truly big winners. WhatsApp's fifty-five employees are now enormously rich. Its two founders are now billionaires. And the partners of the venture capital firm that financed it have also reaped a fortune. And the rest of us?

TEDTalks

"Ideas Worth Spreading"

It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. Psychologist Paul Piff shares research showing that people who feel wealthy tend to behave badly. Why is that? And what does it mean for America?

Robert Naiman

Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy

Some people are under the impression that cutting unnecessary Pentagon spending is a non-starter with all Republicans, or almost all of them. But in the recent past, there has been a substantial group of Republicans in the House who were willing to vote to cut the Pentagon budget.

Anthony W. Orlando

Lecturer in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Los Angeles

Critics don't want to admit that they've run out of criticisms of Obamacare. The website is working, enrollments are surging, and millions of Americans are getting affordable, high-quality health insurance.

Randy Shaw

Attorney, activist, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, editor of Beyond Chron, author of three books on activism.

It's as if Pete Peterson and his anti-entitlement crowd got control of Netflix and used its streaming power to create a fictional universe where elite interests not only win, but are widely popular.

Sen. Claire McCaskill

U.S. Senator from Missouri

I was proud to work to require insurance plans under the ACA to cover services vital to new mothers, which include access to breast pumps, as well as lactation support and counseling. Unfortunately, TRICARE, the health insurance provided to members of the military and their families, does not cover some of these same critical services.

Jeff Faux

Founder and now Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute

It is no accident that as union strength declined, the social contract in America was systematically shredded. Yes, globalization and technology have changed the economy. But as labor weakened, both politically and on the job, business interests have been able to wring the benefits from these changes and shift the costs to workers.

Terry O'Neill

President, National Organization for Women

The White House has confirmed that President Obama won't include the "chained CPI" (a formula for reducing cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security benefits) in his 2015 budget. It's clear that it was a political calculus that prompted this step today -- but we have to be vigilant and prepared for a renewed battle over the chained CPI in the near future.

National Council of La Raza

The largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States

We are tired of excuses. We want solutions. And we are not willing to wait another year.

Alan Robock

Distinguished Professor of Climatology, Rutgers University; director, Rutgers Undergraduate Meteorology Program

The scary thing is that this could still happen today.

Roger Hickey

Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future

We have truly reached a tipping point. Recurrently Americans have joined together in a populist movement to advance the interests of "the people" against "the elite." Today, after many years of struggle, that new populist movement is rising to defend and expand Social Security. And the politicians had better lead or get out of the way.

Lisa Bloom

legal analyst for NBC News and Avvo.com, attorney and bestselling author

Sure, he'll be locked up (at least 60 years for Michael Dunn), but true justice requires a conviction for murder. This did not happen. The reason? Stand Your Ground.

Robert K. Lifton

Fmr. President, The American Jewish Congress and Israel Policy Forum and co-Chair of The Middle East Project of the Council on Foreign Relations

The concern expressed by Secretary Kerry is real. If the present effort to find a resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict fails there is little doubt that the Palestinians and their supporters will make a massive attempt to push the BDS program against Israel.

Andrey Tolokonnikov

Father of Pussy Riot Band Member

What do our American friends need to understand about all of the events of the Sochi Olympics? That behind the Iron Curtain, things are very bad.