by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 10, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
Advocates for workers have declared today "Minimum Wage Day," as the 10th day of the 10th month calls attention to the demand for an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, from the current $7.25. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi marked the day by calling...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
The Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court boosted the number of gay marriage states to somewhere between 30 and 35. Needless to say, the floodgates of wingnuttery opened wide. On Monday, the Supreme Court let stand lower court rulings striking down same-sex...
by Bill Scher | Oct 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
White House vs. Washington Post on Deficits WH aide John Podesta takes on deficit hysteric Fred Hiatt in W. Post oped: "The problem with Hiatt’s fixation on what’s going to happen to the budget in 2039 isn’t that high debt-to-GDP ratios don’t have consequences — it’s...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog, Education
Americans have become accustomed to seeing the figureheads of big-money interests distort reality to suit their needs and get a lot of well-meaning folks to agree with them in turn. Recall, if you will, as Jonathan Chait recently did in New York magazine, how Wall...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Politicians who make a case for regular people get regular people to come out out to vote for them. Unfortunately, very few are making a case for regular people, with the result that many regular people ask, "Why bother to vote?" There is an American populist revival...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Oct 9, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Did you notice that all that fuss over those Central American kids who were crossing the U.S. border alone suddenly died down? As recently as June, more than 10,000 children fleeing unchecked gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala made it here over the...
by Joshua Holland | Oct 9, 2014 | Blog
Washington greeted the latest jobs numbers with enthusiasm. In September, the unemployment rate fell below six percent for the first time since July, 2008. We’ve netted 2.64 million jobs over the past 12 months, and are on pace to add more jobs in 2014 than in any...
by Bill Scher | Oct 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
Populist Backlash Against Right-Wing State Government Republican education cuts upend several races. The Nation: "Conservatives are on the defensive in Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin over their records on education. The...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 9, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will receive the Progressive Champion Award at the Campaign for America's Future 2014 Awards Gala on Tuesday, October 14. See the awards gala page for information and tickets. Progressives who are elected to executive office have a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 8, 2014 | Jobs and Growth
The deficit scolds are getting what they wanted: Today the Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal deficit for this fiscal year is the lowest it has been for any year in the Obama presidency – $486 billion, or 2.8 percent of the nation's gross domestic...
by Jim Hightower | Oct 8, 2014 | Financial Reform, Progressive Vision
Some people have a recurring nightmare of rising to give a speech, but realizing they know nothing about the topic — and then discovering they’re naked. It turns out that corporations also have such nightmares. OK, corporations aren’t people, no matter what the...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 8, 2014 | Conservatism
In advertising they say, "If you don't have anything to say about a product, sing about it." In this election, Republicans are singing a song of fear. In this ad the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) says Arizona's Ann Kirkpatrick wants to let...
by Bill Scher | Oct 8, 2014 | Blog
Nine years ago, textile CEO David Perdue probably didn't think he'd ever run for office. Which would explain why in a deposition he bluntly answered a question on outsourcing by saying, "Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that." But after it was uncovered last...
by Bill Scher | Oct 8, 2014 | Uncategorized
Geithner Takes Stand Geithner defends, but recharacterizes, AIG bailout on the stand. Bloomberg: "Geithner attempted to take back a statement he’d made earlier about AIG shareholders being 'effectively wiped out' by the bailout. 'It’s true I used the phrase,' Geithner...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 8, 2014 | Blog, Financial Reform
A lawsuit currently being tried in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims argues that AIG shouldn’t have been treated any more harshly than Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, or any of the other institutions the government rescued. There’s merit to that argument. It goes on to...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 7, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Last week's report that the unemployment rate had fallen below 6 percent for the first time since July 2008 sparked a wave of optimistic talk about the job market regaining its health. Today comes the reality check: The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report on...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 7, 2014 | Progressive Vision
Yesterday, the Supreme Court made history, by deciding not to make history. The Court rejected appeals in the marriage equality cases set to appear before it, and left intact appeals court rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans in Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, and...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 7, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Amazon has passed along the following response to Monday's post, "Amazon Wage Theft Case Comes Before The Supreme Court": I saw your story mentioning Amazon today. I wanted you to have our statement. We have a longstanding practice of not commenting on pending...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 7, 2014 | Blog
The kindest word one can apply to Attorney General Eric Holder’s record is “undistinguished.” Now that his time in office is drawing to a close, it’s clear that his failure to pursue criminal bankers will always overshadow his other accomplishments in public memory....
by Harvey J Kaye | Oct 7, 2014 | Progressive Vision
American history education is once again a political and cultural battleground. Dominated by conservatives, the Jefferson County Colorado School Board decided to revise the teaching of Advanced Placement U.S. History to not only “promote patriotism and ... the...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 7, 2014 | Education, Jobs and Growth
When Mary Grace Gainer anxiously told her master’s and doctoral advisors that she’d noticed want ads for college professors diminishing, they assured her, “Good people get good jobs.” So she focused on being very, very good. She earned straight A’s. She presented...
by Bill Scher | Oct 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
SCOTUS Expands Gay Marriage Supreme Court establishes equal marriage rights for majority of America. HuffPost: "The court declined to hear appeals from five states that were challenging lower-court rulings legalizing same-sex marriage ... It also set the stage for...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 7, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Minimum Wage
When restaurant workers around the country this year mounted strikes and demonstrations to push for higher wages, Saru Jayaraman and the organization she helped to create, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, were at the front lines with them, highlighting their...
by Robert Reich | Oct 6, 2014 | Health
According to a new federal database put online last week, pharmaceutical companies and device makers paid doctors some $380 million in speaking and consulting fees over a five-month period in 2013. Some doctors received over half a million dollars each, and others got...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 6, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Picture this: You are supposedly "off work" but every day after the end of your shift you have to wait in a line for up to 25 minutes to get "checked" to see if you are stealing things. The Supreme Court is going to decide if you should be paid for your time. This is...
by Bill Scher | Oct 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
Senate Control On Knife's Edge With One Month To Go Battle for Senate tight. HuffPost: "The battle to control the Senate remains deeply competitive, according to new data from CBS/New York Times/YouGov polling conducted nationwide and NBC/Marist surveys in three key...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 6, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
When Lee Saunders talks about his mission as the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, he often refers to the fateful 1968 showdown between sanitation workers and the city of Memphis – the strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 5, 2014 | Blog
Imagine yourself part of the typical American family. Your household would have, the Federal Reserve reported last month, a net worth of $81,200. Not much. But 50 percent of America’s households would actually have less wealth than you do. The other half would have...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog, Trade
The public is finally "getting it" about these one-way trade agreements. They were sold to us as "job creators," but the record is the reverse. They have cost jobs and increased the trade deficit (which is a metric for jobs) in every instance. This is because these...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 3, 2014 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Given their longstanding loathing for him, it was touching to see so many right-wingers express concern for President Obama’s safety this week. A knife-carrying intruder jumped the White House fence, got past the front door, breached at least six Secret Service...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 3, 2014 | Conservatism
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt made news on Monday when he told NPR’s Diane Rehm that Google was dropping its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) because of the organization’s environmental policies — especially its climate...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog, Trade
Another $40 billion leaked out of our economy in August, taking jobs, factories and living standards with it. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that America's monthly goods trade deficit in August was $40.1 billion, down from $40.3 billion (revised from $40.5...
by Bill Scher | Oct 3, 2014 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE EXTRA - September Jobs Report: The Old Economy Strikes Back OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage breaks down the September jobs report: Today’s September jobs report provides a sober corrective to President Obama’s forceful speech on the economy yesterday....
by Robert Borosage | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Today’s September jobs report provides a sober corrective to President Obama’s forceful speech on the economy yesterday. The president claims a “new foundation” for growth has been put in place. The jobs numbers report a continued recovery – 248,00 new jobs, with the...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog, Trade
October 3 is Manufacturing Day! "MFG DAY addresses common misperceptions about manufacturing by giving manufacturers an opportunity to open their doors and show, in a coordinated effort, what manufacturing is — and what it isn’t. By working together during and after...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog, Progressive Vision
In the summer of 2013 Bill de Blasio was a long-shot contender in the New York mayor’s race. Less than two months before the crucial Democratic primary, de Blasio was in fourth place. To make the odds even worse, the city’s power brokers were lined up behind another...
by Lynne Stuart Parramore | Oct 2, 2014 | Blog
Suppressing votes by sending out confusing and intimidating mailers is an old-school GOP tactic in North Carolina, one that has been used to keep poor and minority folks away from the polls for decades. Yet never before in the state’s history, or the history of any...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 2, 2014 | Blog, Education
When hundreds of high school students across a suburban school district outside of Denver, Colo. recently walked out of classes to protest a history curriculum, it quickly became national news. According to a local reporter, the students took to the streets multiple...
by Jim Hightower | Oct 2, 2014 | Economy
We know from the childhood song that Old MacDonald had a farm. But e-i-e-i-o — look who’s got his farm now. It’s outfits like American Farmland, Farmland Partners, and BlackRock. These aren’t dirt farmers wearing overalls and muddy boots. They’re Wall Street hucksters...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 2, 2014 | Blog, Conservatism
Republicans "saved money" by cutting the government's budget for various health agencies ... because "government spending" is always bad. The February 2011 Food Safety News reported, "FDA, FSIS, CDC Face Cuts in House GOP Budget": House Republicans Thursday released a...
