by People's Action | Oct 28, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump Outspent Trump short on cash as GOP tries to save Congress. NYT: "Disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday revealed tens of millions of dollars in late donations and transfers to Republican 'super PACs' focused on down-ballot races ......
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 28, 2016 | Blog
Education may have been mostly left out of this year's heated presidential election, but that hasn't stopped the current, outgoing president from shining a spotlight on his education record. "We've made a lot of progress" on education, President Obama recently...
by Bill Scher | Oct 27, 2016 | Blog
Republicans, resigned to losing the White House for the third time in a row, and for the fifth time in the last seven elections, are already planning to launch yet another round of partisan investigative witch hunts designed to hobble a Hillary Clinton presidency. NBC...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 27, 2016 | Blog
Given Donald Trump's shady business practices I'd be afraid to do business with him, let alone let him run the country. - Kelly Conklin of Foley-Waite LLC [fve]https://youtu.be/rlONxdiPpUM[/fve] The Main Street Alliance, a national network of state-based small...
by People's Action | Oct 27, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump Campaign Brags About Voter Suppression “We have three major voter suppression operations under way,” Trump official tells Bloomberg: "Instead of expanding the electorate, [campaign cheif Steve Bannon and his team are trying to shrink it ... Trump’s invocation at...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 27, 2016 | Blog
Millions of Americans can't get bank accounts, so they can't even cash a check. Many millions more might have an account but can't get even a small loan. The numbers (below) are just outrageous. These millions are forced to turn to predators like the payday loan and...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 26, 2016 | Blog
The following was originally published in The Nation The “Blob”—the epithet Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes used to scorn Washington’s inbred, vainglorious, bipartisan foreign-policy elite—is striking back. In a series of foreign policy reports designed to influence the...
by Pascal Brixel | Oct 26, 2016 | Blog
Picture a state with a government so dysfunctional that it goes for an entire year without a full operating budget. How can we possibly make progress in a state like Illinois? Answer: Begin by organizing the counties, and aim audaciously yet strategically high. The...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 26, 2016 | Blog
Trade agreements can be used to boost prosperity on all sides of trade borders by increasing business opportunities, raising wages and increasing choices. Or they can be used to concentrate corporate power, cutting wages and choices. Guess which model our country's...
by People's Action | Oct 26, 2016 | Breakfast
Living Wage Report Shakes Up Economic Debate Marketwatch covers People's Action Institute "Waiting For The Payoff" report: "A single adult needs to earn $17.28 an hour on average, or nearly $36,000 a year, to make ends meet, according to a report released Tuesday by...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 26, 2016 | Blog
How much does it take to get by where you live? A new report concludes that current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour doesn’t come close, anywhere in the United States. It takes more than $15 per hour to earn a living wage in most states. When you throw in the...
by Miles Mogulescu | Oct 25, 2016 | Blog
Last spring I visited with progressive lion Tom Hayden for the last time at his comfortable, but modest, west Los Angeles home. We chatted about the elections and the future of the progressive and anti-war movements, even as he was recovering from a stroke. As a...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 25, 2016 | Blog
"An order that creates a culture of legal compliance could have a transformative impact on American industry." George Faraday, Legal and Policy Director at Good Jobs Nation Truck drivers and warehouse workers working for federal contractors at the Port of Los Angeles...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 25, 2016 | Blog
“Make me.” That’s how Donald Trump responded during the last debate when Hillary Clinton pointed out that he failed to use American steel to construct the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Trump used Chinese steel. So he created jobs for Chinese workers. Not American...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 25, 2016 | Blog
There is a push underway for a huge corporate tax break from the next administration. Multinational corporations owe more than $720 billion in taxes on profits stashed in tax havens. They are proposing to bring those profits back if the government lets them pay only a...
by People's Action | Oct 25, 2016 | Breakfast
GOP Candidates On Their Own Republican candidates ditch Trump. Politico: "It’s an approach that hasn’t gone into use since 1996, when Republicans, confronting an inevitable loss in the presidential race, aired blank check ads warning of the perils of handing...
by Julie Chinitz | Oct 25, 2016 | Education, Jobs and Growth
Fifteen dollars shouldn’t be too much to ask – or demand. In almost every state, a worker needs more than $15 an hour to make ends meet. Add in student debt, and the minimum living wage shoots up to $18.67 an hour nationally. A family with children needs significantly...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 24, 2016 | Blog
“Join us, join us,” a police-battered Tom Hayden shouted to passing delegates from the 1968 Democratic Convention. Hayden’s life was a test of character. He saw his colleagues and heroes gunned down, assassinated, or shunned. He endured the privations of jail and the...
by O.J. Semans | Oct 24, 2016 | Blog
Many of the over 1 million Native Americans living on reservations do not have reasonable voting access. Some have to travel tens of miles, sometimes more than 100 miles, to vote, when most people live a few miles from a polling station. Add to that longstanding...
by People's Action | Oct 24, 2016 | Breakfast
TPP 2.0? Tim Kaine discusses possibility of a TPP alternative, in NBC "Meet The Press" interview: "Hillary and I haven't talked about that question directly, Chuck. But look, we aren't against trade. We want to find export markets for American businesses because...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 24, 2016 | Blog
Michael Hiltzik and Richard Eskow discuss bank fraud on The Zero Hour The Better Business Bureau pulled Wells Fargo’s accreditation last week, which is what it's supposed to do when businesses cheat their customers. What took so long? If we judged big banks by the...
by Martha Burk | Oct 23, 2016 | Blog
Seemed like only seconds after Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” in the final debate that women retaliated. In what Glamour magazine dubbed a “bad-ass backlash” hashtags like #NastyWomenVote and jokes about Nasty Woman being Trump’s favorite...
by Bill Scher | Oct 21, 2016 | Blog
Members of the Main Street Alliance, the coalition of socially responsible small business owners, have been speaking out against Donald Trump in the letters pages of their area newspapers. Here are two recent letters published in the New York Times and New Jersey's...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 21, 2016 | Blog
Do we need to cut Donald Trump some slack? The man, yes, may be as narcissistic as they come. And he certainly appears to be a serial sexual predator. Mix in racism and xenophobia and you have a distinctly unsavory character. But did Donald Trump actually choose this...
by People's Action | Oct 21, 2016 | Breakfast
Hillary Faces New Tensions With Left "WikiLeaks poisons Hillary’s relationship with left" reports Politico: "Liberal groups and activists are assembling opposition research-style dossiers of the most dismissive comments in the WikiLeaks emails about icons of their...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 21, 2016 | Blog
One of the biggest fights coming up in the newly elected Congress next year will be "corporate tax reform." If you follow policy news you've been hearing that Congress wants to "reform" corporate taxes (again). When you hear talk of "reform" from our...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
One (more) of the way this country is split is a sharp divide between what small businesses need and what the giant, multinational corporations want (and usually get.) According to a coalition representing small businesses, Donald Trump's policies would widen this...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Nicole Sandler is back on the air! Sandler is one of the best progressive media people out there and has been doing her show daily for years. Wednesday she interviewed Mike Lux, in her first regular broadcast since her battle with lung cancer. Mike Lux is a...
by Bill Scher | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
The following is my contribution to Politico Magazine's post-debate pundit roundup, answering the questions "is it all over?" and "what we will remember years from now?" This cake is baked. Any hope that Donald Trump could deliver a game-changing last-ditch final...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
The following was originally published in The Nation Game over. Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. The last presidential debate—fear and loathing in Las Vegas redux—was a beatdown. Clinton didn’t win on points. She pummeled Trump...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
People have figured out that our country's "trade" deals haven't been working our so well for "our country." A visit to Flint, Detroit or almost any town, city, state or region that was built around manufacturing make it clear what we have done. Shifting jobs and...
by People's Action | Oct 20, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump Undermines Democracy at Final Debate GOP senators rip Trump for refusing to accept Election Day results. The Hill: "'.@realDonaldTrump saying that he might not accept election results is beyond the pale,' tweeted [Sen. Jeff] Flake. And [Sen. Lindsey] Graham...
by Jeff Bryant | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
Marking a 25th anniversary, charter schools and the industry that's become synonymous with these schools expected big things in 2016, with the help of continued growth and funding, recent legislation lifting regulations and opening up new markets, and a mostly...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 20, 2016 | Blog
“No, you’re the puppet!” Well, that was grueling. How did the third and final debate manage to be so sensationalistic and yet at the same time so boring? It seemed to go on forever. The media declared that Donald Trump lost the debate the moment he refused to promise...
by Steve Rouzer | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
Just three weeks before the election, the Trump Campaign forms a Small Business Advisory Council. On Sunday, a mere three weeks ahead of the November election, the Trump Campaign announced it’s formation of a small business advisory council tasked with providing...
by Ladelle McWhorter | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
Ladelle McWhorter is the chairperson of the statewide grassroots network Virginia Organizing, an affiliate of People’s Action This week, Terrence M. Cunningham, the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, spoke out about the need to build...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in America, has always been a bit of a traitor to his class. The super rich, Buffett holds, ought to pay income taxes at a higher rate than average Americans because they have the capacity — and good fortune — to contribute...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
Much of Congress is captured by corporate money. So literally nothing gets through Congress if it interferes with the corporate/1% -boosting agenda. Many in the federal regulatory agencies are captured by promises of corporate payoffs after leaving government, so...
by People's Action | Oct 19, 2016 | Breakfast
Final Debate Time previews Trump's "last stand": "Trump faces a important tactical decision on Wednesday night: use his largest remaining audience before Nov. 8 to amplify this 'rigged election' argument, or seize the moment to make a sober case that he is prepared to...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog
What's worse than a political debate that fails to give voters the information they need? One that misinforms them, while at the same time demeaning the democratic process. The final 2016 presidential debate takes place Wednesday night, and expectations are low....
