by Jeff Bryant | Dec 26, 2013 | Education
As 2013 closed out, the education world was roiled by yet another controversy over the calculation and interpretation of statistical data used to govern teachers and school services. This controversy, coming to us from the nation's capital, involved, according to the...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
Nurses, philosophers, and trade unions have over the past 12 months all shared some fascinating ideas on how we can make our societies more equal — and much better — places to live. Economic inequality, we suspect, may have crept into more conversations in 2013...
by Bill Scher | Dec 24, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today's Progressive Breakfast is a special Christmas Eve edition featuring Robert Borosage's vision and strategy for a new populist movement: "Populism Rising?". Progressive Breakfast will be on hiatus during the holiday season, returning on January 2, 2014. We wish...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 23, 2013 | The New Populism
The Beltway crowd has discovered populism. Senator Elizabeth Warren's surging popularity from her aggressive defense of Social Security and demand for Wall Street accountability has triggered talk of a populist challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Bill De Blasio...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 23, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Health, Minimum Wage, The Sequester, This Is The GOP
From the second inauguration of Barack Obama to the latest skirmish in the “War on Christmas,” a steady stream of outrageousness flowed from the American right this year. Here are the best of the worst of the right-wing in 2013. The Confederate Battle Flag In Front...
by Bill Scher | Dec 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
The pundit consensus is that 2013 has been President Obama's worst year. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza pegs the "scandals" and "self-inflicted wounds" for "squandering" his chance for "the passage of a broad gun-control measure, an immigration reform package,...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 23, 2013 | Unemployment Benefits
Republicans have so far blocked extending unemployment assistance for the long-term unemployed (over 26 weeks, even less in several states) and it ends on December 28. But there may be some hope. Polls show the Americans overwhelmingly support extending this...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 23, 2013 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
By now, everyone knows the story. Phil Robertson, star of A&E’s popular reality show “Duck Dynasty”, told a GQ reporter what he thinks of gay people: Out here in these woods, without any cameras around, Phil is free to say what he wants. Maybe a little too free....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 23, 2013 | Economy, Trans-Pacific Partnership
During the commemorations this month of the life of South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, only occasionally did the media touch on the unfulfilled dreams of economic equality for black South Africans. And when they did, they almost never explored the role...
by Bill Scher | Dec 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
Obamacare Deadline Today Deadline to enroll for coverage beginning Jan. 1. National Journal: "There are still another three months to buy coverage, but a lot of people need it on Jan. 1. It's an important deadline for people with pre-existing conditions who had been...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
One year ago a good argument could have been made for cynicism and despair, at least when it came to financial reform. More than four years after an epidemic of Wall Street fraud took down the economy, there had been no indictments of financial executives. Bank CEOs...
by Digby | Dec 20, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, The Jobs Challenge
Greg Sargent reports that the fight to extend Unemployment Insurance may not be quite done yet: Democrats and liberal groups are still not giving up. They are planning a concerted, multi-faceted push over the break designed to pressure Republicans — not Congress;...
by Thom Hartmann | Dec 20, 2013 | Economy, The Jobs Challenge, Unemployment Benefits
Three days after Christmas, 1.3 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits. And, another two million will stop receiving assistance if Congress doesn't extend long-term benefits by June. Our nation is barely pulling out of the worst recession since the...
by Lori Wallach | Dec 20, 2013 | Economy, The Jobs Challenge, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Hard work, smart planning and perseverance made 2013 a year of inspiring fair-trade activism. Vibrant grassroots activism and dogged D.C. advocacy resulted in a new level of public and congressional concern about the perils of Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific...
by Bill Scher | Dec 20, 2013 | Uncategorized
Healthcare Hardship Exemption Expanded HHS expands Obamacare hardship exemption. AP: "Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to a group of senators that she will use authorities in the law to issue a 'hardship exemption' from tax...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 20, 2013 | Uncategorized
At the beginning of November, the poor went over the "Hunger Cliff" as Food Stamps were cut. Now long-term unemployment assistance will run out at the end of December. Regular people think the government has given up on them. They have been hit by one blow after...
by Joshua Holland | Dec 19, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
How the Harshest Immigration Law in the US Ended in Disaster (via Moyers & Company) MSNBC reporter Benjy Sarlin traveled down to Alabama to see the impact of the most punitive law against unauthorized immigrants in the US firsthand. When it was enacted, the Alabama...
by Digby | Dec 19, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, The Jobs Challenge
AEI (yes, AEI) offers up some evidence that austerity policies are bunk. Not kidding: Earlier this year, as The New York Times reported, the North Carolina legislature cut unemployment benefits, reducing (a) the maximum payout by a third and (b) the number of weeks...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 19, 2013 | Climate
Now the Koch brothers are coming after my solar panels. I had solar panels installed on the roof of our Washington, D.C. home this year. My household took advantage of a generous tax incentive from the District government and a creative leasing deal offered by the...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 19, 2013 | Health
You have probably heard the right's (well-funded) messaging that people have "lost" their health insurance because of Obamacare. The thing is, people who had plans cancelled can go to the exchanges and get better insurance and almost always for a lot less money....
by Terrance Heath | Dec 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
Budget Deal Passes Senate passes Murray-Ryan budget deal. [Salon] "Congress has sent President Barack Obama bipartisan legislation scaling back across-the-board spending cuts on programs ranging from the Pentagon to the national park system. The final vote on the...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 18, 2013 | Financial Reform
This week Sen. Elizabeth Warren and six colleagues introduced the Equal Employment for All Act, which would make it illegal for employers to disqualify job applicants based on their credit scores. It's an admirable and important bill which deserves our support. It...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 18, 2013 | Economy
For many of us on the ground, this feels a bit like the people in the ivory towers finally beginning to figure out the obvious thing that's troubling the ant-like creatures they see far below. This "duh" moment is an Associated Press survey published today based on...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 18, 2013 | Economy, Trans-Pacific Partnership
There are numerous reports that the Obama administration is getting ready to push "Fast Track" legislation in Congress. It looks like there will be a major effort to get this through. We all need to understand what this means to our wages, jobs and economy. "Fast...
by Digby | Dec 18, 2013 | Economy, Financial Reform, Progressive Vision, The Jobs Challenge
... introduces a very useful piece of legislation: Much of America – hard-working, bill-paying America – has a damaged credit rating. There are a lot of different reasons, but a lot of people just caught a bad break. They got sick. Their husband left or their wife...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 18, 2013 | Uncategorized
The D.C. Fight for Low-Wage Workers Nation's capital raises its minimum wage to $11.50 by 2016. From local news blog DCist: "In a rather anticlimactic moment, the D.C. Council unanimously passed an increase in the minimum wage today to one of the highest levels in the...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 18, 2013 | Education
The good news coming from the U.S. Department of Education recently is the effort to put tougher restrictions on for-profit scam colleges that rip off students, families and the taxpayers. The bad news is that not all Democrats are behind this effort and pushing for...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 18, 2013 | Minimum Wage
The fight over raising the minimum wage will be one of the defining battles for the 2014 elections. As the floor – the minimum wage – falls out from under Americans, big majorities of voters in both parties want the minimum wage raised. President Obama and...
by Charles McMillion | Dec 17, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America
Twenty years ago global bankers and Republicans, then-President Clinton and a few economists insisted that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its unprecedented “free” trade model of radical property protection and trade deregulation would be an...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Please watch Rev. William Barber on All In With Chris Hayes, talking about voting rights. Voter Fraud? Republicans have been engaged in a strategy to convince (scare people into believing) people there is something called "voter fraud." They are doing this so they can...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 17, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy
It was a hard knock life at Christmas in 1933, and it’s a hard knock holiday 80 years later. In the musical “Annie,” set in 1933 during the Great Depression, the cast sings about it: “The children don’t grin; The Santas are thin. . . And all through the land folks are...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
Economic Populism Or What? The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky explains what President Obama can learn from Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "Is 2014 going to be the year that Barack Obama tacks—and stays—left? He’s given big economic populism speeches before, but he has tended...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 16, 2013 | Economy, Progressive Vision
It’s becoming increasingly clear that, at least politically, 2014 will be “The Year of Economic Populism.” Now the question is, who gets to decide what that really means? A couple of recent policy disagreements offered us glimpses of the debates that could shape...
by Sam Pizzigati | Dec 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. You won't find any of them in this latest annual list of America's most avaricious. You will find wheelers and dealers and even a candy store heiress. The headlines haven't been particularly kind to America's most relentlessly...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 16, 2013 | Financial Reform
You probably don't pay much attention to those stories about companies doing "stock buybacks" – that's when a company decides to buy shares of its own stock, taking those shares off the market with the hope that the remaining shares of stock will increase in price....
by Thom Hartmann | Dec 16, 2013 | Economy
Sixty-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed. The Declaration was drafted by the United Nations, and chaired by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The goal of the Declaration was to strive for “inherent dignity” and “equal and inalienable...
by Bill Moyers | Dec 16, 2013 | Conservatism
Gunpowder and Blood on Their Cold, Dead Hands (via Moyers & Company) This grim anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., killings, with 28 dead, reminded us of that moment back in 2000 when Charlton Heston made his defiant boast at the NRA convention that gun control...
by admin | Dec 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Budget Deal Faces Senate Test It's crunch time for the Senate this week. MSNBC's Meredith Clark: "The Senate is tasked with confirming several presidential nominees, including new heads of the Federal Reserve and the Department of Homeland Security. It is also...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
“Embrace the suck,” Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi advised her caucus,telling them to vote for the lousy budget deal to get it done so Democrats can focus on job creation, infrastructure funding, immigration reform and the minimum wage hike. With over 20 million...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 13, 2013 | Conservatism
So, this is Christmas. And Fox News host "Megyn" Kelly is determined to have a "White Christmas." Kelly set the internet ablaze when she insisted that the two biggest names of the season — Santa Claus and Jesus — are absolutely white. My fellow blogger, Bill Sher, has...
