by Hannah Gelder | Mar 1, 2018 | Blog
Eureka! I truly believe that talking with neighbors makes real change happen. Why? Because the only way we can reach deep into our society to change racism, sexism, and economic injustice is to awaken ordinary people to the power of their voices and votes. But the...
by People's Action | Feb 28, 2018 | Breakfast
WV Teachers End Strike With Pay Deal West Virginia Teachers’ Strike Ends With a Promise to Raise Pay. NYT: "A teachers’ strike that ground public schools to a halt across West Virginia is set to end on Thursday, a week after it began, Gov. James C. Justice and...
by Miles Mogulescu | Feb 28, 2018 | Blog
The NRA and its politician servants have convinced much of the media, and with much of the public, that most gun control legislation - like banning civilian ownership of military-style assault weapons, or universal background checks - would violate the Second...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 28, 2018 | Blog
Newly installed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch uttered not a word during Monday’s oral arguments in the case of Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, but he didn’t need to. The widespread assumption is that he will provide the fifth vote in a 5-4 decision to scorn decades...
by People's Action | Feb 27, 2018 | Breakfast
WV Teachers In Statewide Strike West Virginia teachers continue strike for fourth day. WaPo: "A teacher strike in West Virginia stretched on Monday, with classes canceled across the state for a third day and demonstrators continuing to flock to the capital city. The...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 27, 2018 | Blog
Picture the United States without student debt. It’s a country with a larger, more vibrant economy than the one we have today. It’s a country where more than a million people, including many people who never went to college, have jobs they would not otherwise have. A...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 27, 2018 | Blog
Donald Trump’s chaotic menace has been met with a fierce resistance movement that has rallied to the defense of the Dreamers, Muslims, women, and the environment. This movement has lifted Democrats in special elections and could enable them to take back the House of...
by People's Action | Feb 26, 2018 | Breakfast
SCOTUS Opens Case To Curb Unions Case may enable U.S. Supreme Court to curb union power. Reuters: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will consider for the second time in two years whether to choke off a critical funding stream for public-employee unions, potentially...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 26, 2018 | Blog
If the devil wears Prada, what do America’s most destructive drug pushers wear? They wear smiles. The drug pushers we have in mind here have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, enough fatalities to decrease overall U.S. life expectancy at birth for the last two...
by Jacqueline Bediako | Feb 26, 2018 | Blog
Historically, Black children in the United States have been subject to a racist system, which not only exposes them to unspeakable violence, but also criminalization. In 1955, Emmett Till - 14 years old at the time - was abducted, tortured and lynched for allegedly...
by People's Action | Feb 23, 2018 | Breakfast
NRA Boycott Gathers Steam #BoycottNRA: Enterprise car rentals, Omaha bank sever gun lobby ties as boycott movement gains steam. WaPo: "Two major companies, Enterprise Holdings Inc. and First National Bank of Omaha ended co-branding partnerships with the National Rifle...
by Bernie Horn | Feb 23, 2018 | Blog
Every six months or so there is an especially horrific gun massacre. The cold-blooded slaughter in Las Vegas, the most deadly single-shooter incident in American history with 58 dead and more than 500 injured, was only last October. So, it’s just the appalling truth...
by George Goehl | Feb 23, 2018 | Blog
The revolution may not be televised, but in 2018, the resistance is being electoralized. This comes not a minute too soon: elections have already begun, with precinct caucuses in Iowa, special elections across the country and six months of rolling primaries starting...
by People's Action | Feb 22, 2018 | Breakfast
'Vote Them Out,' Say Students In Walkout Florida massacre survivors chant 'vote them out' as students nationwide walk out in solidarity. CNN: "From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 22, 2018 | Blog
This time is different. After the horrendous shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students are taking over the debate on gun control that politicians in both parties have so horribly botched for decades. The protests are not confined to the...
by People's Action | Feb 21, 2018 | Breakfast
Democrat Flips KY Statehouse Seat Dem wins Kentucky state House seat in district Trump won by 49 points. THe Hill: "Kentucky Democrats on Tuesday reclaimed a rural district in the state House of Representatives that went heavily for President Trump in 2016. Linda...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 21, 2018 | Blog
A popular narrative today is that we live in a country which is deeply divided. And the Democratic Party, we are told, is nearly as split as the nation itself. But chatter in the press and social media may overlook some fundamental points of agreement about changes we...
by People's Action | Feb 20, 2018 | Breakfast
PA Redraws Congressional Districts New PA Congressional map is a big win for Democrats. NYM: "Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court issued a new, redrawn map of the state’s congressional districts on Monday, and it looks very good for Democrats. The map, which the court had...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 20, 2018 | Blog
St. Paul teachers want to do "phenomenal things" for their students. At least that's what Nick Faber of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers tells me. But what's been holding back him and his fellow educators are the same obstacles to progress in many of our...
by Tim Wilkins | Feb 19, 2018 | Uncategorized
Student Survivors Demand Action On Gun Control Students seize control of gun debate, plan walkouts and march. NBC: "Students are taking hold of the gun debate in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, by organizing a series of school walkouts across the...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 19, 2018 | Blog
"America's Harvest Box." That's what the Trump administration called its plan to substitute prepackaged, low-quality processed foods for some of the food assistance currently being received by an estimated 46 million people (based on numbers for 2015, the last year...
by People's Action | Feb 16, 2018 | Breakfast
WH Crushes Immigration Reform In Senate Senators fume after immigration bill failure. CNN: It was supposed to be a raucous, week-long, open floor debate on immigration - the President's signature issue and such a contentious topic that Democrats shut the government...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 16, 2018 | Blog
A favorite media tactic of right-wing policymakers is to claim they are the victims whenever those who've had their civil rights or their political voices stifled by their policies make grievances known, and advocate for change. It's a clever way to turn blatant...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 16, 2018 | Blog
The administration’s infrastructure proposal, released this week, bears no resemblance to Candidate Trump’s campaign pledges. It shamelessly shirks the funding burden, and stops government construction projects that serve the public good. Candidate Trump boasted that...
by Miles Mogulescu | Feb 15, 2018 | Blog
If peace diplomacy were an Olympic sport, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, won the Gold Medal hands down, while Vice President Mike Pence crashed and burned. And that’s a good thing for the possibility of world peace. It increases the...
by People's Action | Feb 15, 2018 | Breakfast
Mass Arrests Of Immigrants In Los Angeles ICE launches new immigration sweep in L.A. area; at least 100 detained so far. LA Times: "Federal officials are in the midst of an immigration enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area and have so far detained more than...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 15, 2018 | Blog
“Childhood,” said the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, “is the kingdom where nobody dies.” In this country, childhood is something we no longer value. As of this writing, 17 people are dead at a high school in Broward County, Florida. The shooter used an AR-15...
by Bernie Horn | Feb 14, 2018 | Blog
School “reformers” have, for decades, promoted the idea of extending the number of school days per year, from the current norm of 180 days to 190 or 200. Yet for all their talk, there has been extremely little evidence that two or four additional weeks of school would...
by People's Action | Feb 14, 2018 | Breakfast
Trump Wants Deep Cuts To Social Safety Net Trump wants to overhaul America’s safety net with giant cuts to housing, food stamps and health care. WaPo: "The budget that President Trump proposed Monday takes a hard whack at the poorest Americans, slashing billions of...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 14, 2018 | Blog
Valentine’s Day must be former billionaire Tim Blixseth’s least favorite day of the year. The 67-year-old timber baron turned real estate developer has not exactly been, you might say, lucky in love. A first wife came and went. Ditto a second. Wife number three did...
by People's Action | Feb 13, 2018 | Breakfast
Trump Budget Grows Deficit, Cuts Aid Trump's budget balloons deficits, cuts social safety net. AP: "President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan Monday that envisions steep cuts to America's social safety net but mounting spending on the military,...
by Richard Eskow | Feb 13, 2018 | Blog
It's Political Messaging 101: You can't beat Trump by talking about him all the time. We should be talking about our economic future, but all we're talking about our 45th president. Look at this chart, which shows the top story on social media accounts by social...
by People's Action | Feb 12, 2018 | Breakfast
Trump To Demand Big Domestic Budget Cuts Trump to demand tough budget cuts for domestic programs. Politico: "President Donald Trump is expected to renew his call for drastic reductions to nondefense programs in rolling out his budget request Monday, even with hundreds...
by Tim Wilkins | Feb 12, 2018 | Blog
Is this what a return to regular order looks like? Really? Many recall the dramatic moment last July when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), with fresh scars from cancer surgery on his brow, scuppered his own party’s efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act with a late-night...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 9, 2018 | Blog
Wages have been stagnant through two official “recoveries” in this century, under both Democratic and Republican presidents. This week, beneath the stock-market gyrations, the mechanics that shackle the average worker’s wages were exposed once more—not in Donald...
by Celi Tamayo-Lee | Feb 9, 2018 | Blog
San Francisco is a city of contrasts. Historically, it has been a haven for many seeking a better and more creative life – including immigrants, queers, artists and activists of all stripes. But it is increasingly becoming a playground for the rich; our...
by People's Action | Feb 9, 2018 | Breakfast
Congress Votes To End Government Shutdown Congress votes to end government shutdown. Politico: "After five and a half hours of a government shutdown, Congress passed a sweeping budget deal early Friday morning that will keep the doors open at federal agencies and lift...
by Sharon Austin | Feb 9, 2018 | Blog
On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while assisting striking sanitation workers. That was almost 50 years ago. Back then, the wholesale racial integration required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act was just beginning to chip...
by Jen Herrick | Feb 9, 2018 | Blog
When President Trump created the “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” last spring — and put notorious vote suppressor Kris Kobach at the helm — voting rights advocates had decades of good reasons to be concerned. The panel seemed destined to back...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 9, 2018 | Blog
Early this past December, Virginia state officials opened up their latest “dynamically priced” toll superhighway, a 10-mile stretch of interstate that runs from Northern Virginia into Washington, D.C. Ten days later, commuter Chris Kane looked up at the signage that...
