by Bill Scher | Oct 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Pence v. Truth Politico fact checks the debate: "[Pence] said 'Iraq has been overrun by ISIS' when in fact the terrorist group is losing ground ... While Pence countered that the Republican never said that, Kaine was indeed spot on declaring Trump has called for...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 5, 2016 | Conservatism, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
The vice-presidential debate Tuesday night was rated by some commentators as generating more heat than light. At times, that certainly seemed true when watching Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence hurl charges at each other, insert practiced digs and cut each...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog, Tax Reform
"Multinational corporations’ use of tax havens allows them to avoid an estimated $100 billion in federal income taxes each year," says a new report just released by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and U.S. Public...
by Bill Scher | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog
Buried in a recent a column from Politico's Glenn Thrush is this nugget about the Clinton campaign's strategy for wooing "higher-income and higher-education Republicans" away from Trump: Clinton’s focus groups (they seem to be running around-the-clock these days) show...
by Sam Pizzigati | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog
One of the more telling moments in last Monday’s Presidential debate has gone relatively unnoticed. That moment came after GOP nominee Donald Trump, during an exchange over taxes, made no move to dispute the charge that he hasn’t paid any federal income tax over...
by Leo Gerard | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog
Donald Trump likes to say he has a very, very good relationship with unions. “I have great relationships with unions,” he told Newsweek last year. And the press is in love with saying blue-collar workers are in love with Trump. Real reporters and even fake...
by People's Action | Oct 4, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump's Taxes In Spotlight Clinton rips Trump's tax returns. NYT: "[She said] he pretended to help working Americans even as he personified 'the same rigged system he claims he will change.' ... Mrs. Clinton wove her attack on Mr. Trump into an address in which she...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 4, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Election 2016
Hillary Clinton gave a speech on the economy in Toledo, Ohio on Monday. Her primary topics, corporate predation and a broken economy, leaned left. Some of the speech's most important ideas were hidden in plain sight but could have long-lasting significance. The speech...
by Dean Baker | Oct 3, 2016 | Health
Most people would consider it pretty bad luck if they had three inches of rain dumped on their city in a 24-hour period. That is, unless they had just missed being hit by a hurricane. That analogy captures how we should feel about Obamacare. There are still tens of...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 3, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The notorious Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) corporate-rights agreement is opposed by the Democratic candidate for President, the Republican candidate for President, the Democratic Party platform, all labor unions, thousands of citizen groups like faith, human...
by People's Action | Oct 3, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump Epitomizes Rigged Rules Fine print of Trump tax return particularly shocking, says W. Post's Allan Sloan: "... he would have been tax-free because of a $15,818,562 loss reported on Line 11 of the return under 'Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 3, 2016 | Blog
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08OxXF_mbqg#t=80s] William K. Black Jr. speaks with Richard Eskow on "The Zero Hour." Big-bank CEOs have presided over a cornucopia of criminality in recent years. Their misdeeds are so varied and numerous that Wall Street...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 30, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
It’s 3:00am. Do you know what your presidential candidate is doing? Apparently, Donald Trump was up at 3:00am on Twitter, directing his supporters to check out an alleged sex tape. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Donald Trump, candidate for slut shame and smut peddler in...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 30, 2016 | Blog
"Gig economy" corporations depend on a low-wage economy in which lots of people are looking for ways to get by. Their business model requires disposable people willing to take low-wage jobs with long hours and no benefits so they can pay the rent, doing things for...
by Bill Scher | Sep 30, 2016 | Uncategorized
Note to Progressive Breakfast Subscribers The Campaign for America’s Future is combining its operations with People’s Action. This partnership connects our work as a strategy and communications center for the progressive movement with the nation’s largest and most...
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 30, 2016 | Blog, Education
Are charter schools a "progressive" idea for education? Some progressive sources would have you think so, but other progressives have challenged that framing. This week, Massachusetts news outlets reported that the state's most prominent politician and one of the...
by Alan Jenkins | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog
I’m tired of news outlets saying again and again that Donald Trump is courting African-American voters. It’s quite clear that Trump is communicating about African Americans in order to court suburban and college-educated white voters who frequently vote Republican but...
by Sarah Jaffe | Sep 29, 2016 | Climate, Democracy
The first sign that not everything is normal as you drive down Highway 1806 toward the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota is a checkpoint manned by camouflage-clad National Guard troops. The inspection on Sept. 13 was perfunctory; they simply asked if we knew...
by Miles Mogulescu | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog
According to the polls, Hillary Clinton won the first Presidential Debate. 52% of Respondents to the NBC/New Monkey Poll thought Clinton won, 21% thought Trump won, and 26% thought neither won. But winning a debate isn't the same as winning an election. According to...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
I listened to this on a walk, and it is a must, must, must listen podcast. You will be informed and entertained. Robert Reich, speaking Tuesday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco: "The Oddest Presidential Election in Living Memory"...
by People's Action | Sep 29, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Praises Clinton Sanders touts Clinton's college affordability plan in joint NH appearance. The Hill: "Sanders promised that in his role on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he’d do everything possible to help ferry Clinton's legislation...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The candidates discussed "trade" for a few minutes during the first presidential debate on Monday. Once again the opportunity for a meaningful dialogue on an important issue slipped away. Where do we go from here? That was the subject of a teleconference Wednesday...
by Martha Burk | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog
Congress is set to blow town this week or early next until after the election – without taking up the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- a giant twelve-nation trade agreement between the U.S. and Pacific Rim nations. Even though the TPP appears dead in the water,...
by Ben Ishibashi | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog, Climate
Activists assemble outside the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday as the court began hearings on the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan. Eighty People’s Action leaders from seven states took to the steps of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and to...
by Bill Scher | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog
Donald Trump revels in making offensive comments. "I don't have time to be politically correct," is practically his slogan. Accused at the debate of insulting a Miss Universe winner for gaining weight, afterwards he made no apologies: "She was the worst we ever had...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
Little Zianna Oliphant, speaking through her tears at a city council meeting in Charlotte, said more about what’s really happening with policing in black communities than Donald Trump did in 90 minutes at Monday nights debate. The candidates had a lot to say, at last...
by Frank Clemente | Sep 28, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Tax Reform, This Is The GOP
As usual, Donald Trump stretched, distorted and outright denied the truth in the debate Monday night. Some of his biggest whoppers were about taxes: both his own and his plans for everyone else’s. Here are the five most wrong-headed things Trump said about taxes:...
by People's Action | Sep 28, 2016 | Breakfast
Hopeful Signs At Clean Power Plan Hearing Tougher questions for conservative challengers at federal appellate court. USA Today: "The lengthy debate, while technical and at times inscrutable, pointed slightly in the government's favor for several reasons: Six of the 10...
by LeeAnn Hall | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog
The Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s effort to cap carbon emissions from dirty power plants, came before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The panel of 10 judges asked tough questions of both defenders and challengers of the EPA program....
by Michael Winship | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
And so, after all the anticipation, the rampant sports metaphors and the breathless, sensationalized buildup (MSNBC’s headline in the minutes before the event was “Clinton/Trump Showdown”), the first debate is over. Scorecards may be odious, but overall, it has to be...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog
The following was originally published in The Nation Marketed for days like the Super Bowl, last night’s first presidential debate inevitably failed to live up to the hype. The favorite, Hillary Clinton, won as expected, coming off as prepared, experienced, and tough....
by Leo Gerard | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog
Donald Trump puts on a show of being rich. There’s that private jet stamped Trump. He assures everyone, ad nauseam, that he’s really, really rich. But apparently it’s all a sham. The Washington Post revealed last week that Trump is a charity case. Over the past...
by People's Action | Sep 27, 2016 | Breakfast
Trump Trumped All indicators suggest Clinton wins debate. Bloomberg: "Snap polls conducted after the debate similarly favored Clinton, including 62 percent of respondents in a CNN poll and 51 percent in a survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. Even the...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
This was undoubtedly the first presidential debate in history to include a mention of Rosie O’Donnell. Even grading on a curve – something the press tends to do with Donald Trump – the Republican fared poorly. Democrat Hillary Clinton took him down on one character...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 26, 2016 | Blog, Climate, Progressive Vision
Until recently, most of the voices raised in protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline have been those of adults and elders. That’s starting to change, as Native American youth make their voices heard in opposition to the pipeline. That’s no coincidence, according to...
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 26, 2016 | Blog, Education
During tonight's much anticipated debate between presidential candidates Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, education may not get much attention, but outside the debate hall, throngs of public education advocates will urge the contestants to address what they see as a...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 26, 2016 | Blog, Financial Reform
You saw what happened recently with Wells Fargo. They scammed some of their customers some of the time. Payday lending is about scamming all of the customers all of the time. At Ourfuture.org, we have long been warning about and exposing the payday lending debt-trap...
by People's Action | Sep 26, 2016 | Breakfast
Pre-Debate Jockeying and Jitters Hours before the first presidential debate, here's "Donald Trump’s economic strategy in detail." The Washington Post: "A new, 30-page analysis of Trump's economic proposals, penned by two of his senior policy advisers and issued Sunday...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 26, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
We’re told that Monday night’s confrontation between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could draw 100 million viewers and “rank among television benchmarks like the finales of ‘MASH’ and ‘Cheers.’” We’re not being told that it will be a debate on the issues of greatest...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 23, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
This week, a Donald Trump supporter managed to somehow surpass even Donald Trump himself in sheer, unadulterated ignorance of our nation’s history regarding race. Meet Kathy Miller. She is — or was, until this week — Donald Trump’s campaign chair for Ohio’s northeast...
