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Dear Friend, This week I urged folks to send a petition calling for an investigation and hearing into soon-to-be acting Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella. He will indeed be acting Secretary very soon. But given Trump’s announcement that he will be nominating Eugene Scalia to be the next Secretary of Labor – as satisfying as a hearing on Pizzella’s role in the cruel exploitation of women garment workers in the Northern Mariana Islands would be – the issue is now moot. We don’t know whether the petition and the thousands of responses from you had anything to do with Trump’s … Read More…

Last week Donald Trump announced Deputy Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella to be Acting Secretary of Labor. Pizzella has no business being in charge of protecting the rights of American workers, and I urge you to sign our petition.

Single payer vs. private insurance is a false choice. Every other developed nation has universal coverage and does it for approximately half the cost with as good or better results as the U.S. And every one of them have some form of private insurance available. Canada has “single payer,” and 75% of Canadians also have some form of supplemental private insurance mostly paid by their employers. This is the second most important election in our nation’s history. The most important? The last one. We have to beat Trump. We win this election if it is a referendum on Donald Trump. And … Read More…

Happy Father’s Day, Dads! Of course, I like to think every day is Father’s Day! That’s because, even though over 70% of women with children under 18 work outside the home, they still do most of the work inside the home, including parenting. We dads mainly get the better of the deal. Playing golf with our buddies. Watching twelve hours of football every weekend.  And we get to be heroes if we do the slightest little thing like coach Little League. That was not my dad, Joe Franken. To my dad, my brother, Owen, and I were the most important part of … Read More…

ANNCR. V.O.:  Earlier today former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders testified before the House Special Committee on Impeachment.  Ms. Sanders was questioned by Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York about various statements she has made to the media that she later acknowledged were not true.

This past weekend, I gave a speech to benefit Jewish Family Services of St. Paul.  I told the crowd that I was very happy to support Jewish Family Services of St. Paul, because, frankly, the people over at Jewish Family Services of Minneapolis are a bunch of schmucks. They have this attitude: “Oh, we’re Minneapolis Jews,” they’ll say.  “We’re responsible for Tom Friedman and the Coen Brothers, and Al Franken.” And I say, “No, that’s St. Louis Park.” And they say, “St. Louis Park is the Jewish suburb of Minneapolis, you schmegege.” And I say, “I’m one of the three … Read More…

Memorial Day is a solemn day. A day that marks young lives cut short. Ronald Reagan spoke of the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for our country. “Most of them were boys when they died,” Reagan said, “and they gave up two lives – the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men.They gave up everything for our country, for us. All we can do is remember.” Since Reagan spoke … Read More…

Monday, May 27 at 9 pm ET/PT on AETV, is the premiere of “Chris Farley – Anything For a Laugh.”    There is no such thing as THE funniest sketch in the 44-year history of Saturday Night Live. But if I absolutely had to pick one – it would be the Chippendale’s audition.  Open on the daytime exterior of a Chippendale’s nightclub.  Dissolve inside the club, where Kevin Nealon, a middle-management Chippendales exec, sits at an audition table, flanked by two subordinates, Jan Hooks and Mike Myers.  The three quickly lay out the premise.    “This is impossible,” Mike agonizes. “Can’t we just hire them both?” “No. … Read More…

I was in Los Angeles recently and my old pal Kevin Nealon suggested I take a hike. I took offense, told Kevin that he should take a hike, and stormed off – ending our thirty-three-year friendship. Fortunately, Dana Carvey called me later and explained Kevin was asking me to be his guest on his popular YouTube show, “Hiking with Kevin.” The two of us took a delightful hike together at Will Rogers Park in the Pacific Palisades. Warning: In the show, I look kind of short, but that’s because Kevin is freakishly tall. Enjoy! 

Edited May 22, 2019 at 6:45 EDT From the beginning, a lot of people around Donald Trump have said that he resented the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election because it would undermine the legitimacy of his election. Well, yeah! We’ll never know for sure. But there’s a very strong case to be made that, without Russian interference, Trump loses Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which Trump won by a margin of just over 100,000 votes, and Hillary Clinton is our president. According to the Mueller Report, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort periodically shared internal polling data on the races … Read More…

This is about my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Molin. I try to share this every National Teachers Day but I am choosing to post today on the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week because, let’s be honest, teachers like Mrs. Molin should be thanked all week! Heck, all month! When I first started running for the Senate back in 2007, I got a letter from my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Molin. It started this way: Dear Mr. Franken, If you’re the Alan Franken who I taught in the fourth grade at Cedar Manor, then it doesn’t surprise me that you are … Read More…

CHAIRMAN GRAHAM: Mr. Attorney General, we are going to wrap up here with a quick lightening-round of very short follow-up questions. You, sir, have been extremely forthcoming and direct and we so appreciate that. So, I guess no one on our side is going to take any more time, because you have addressed our most important question – when do the new investigations of Hillary and on the FBI spying on the President begin? And we liked the answers – which is, of course, that they’ve already started under Mr. Whitaker. And we thank him for his service. Now, to my Democratic colleagues. Just make … Read More…