by Leo Gerard | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Donald Trump likes to brag on the campaign trail that he’s the best at bribing politicians. He said, for example, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.” But then when he got caught giving and getting exactly what the hell he wanted, he...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Financial Reform
As the latest Wells Fargo scandal was breaking, the music world learned of the death of Prince Buster. He’s the Jamaican ska legend who made a record called “Al Capone” and sang “Enjoy yourself/it’s later than you think.” I wonder what he thought about Wall Street?...
by People's Action | Sep 13, 2016 | Breakfast
Pence Won't Call Duke Deplorable GOP VP nominee Mike Pence flinches at dubbing David Duke "deplorable." USA Today: "Pence said Trump has denounced Duke repeatedly. 'We don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him,' he said. 'So,...
by Sam Pizzigati | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Financial Reform, Jobs and Growth
Peter Drucker, the internationally acclaimed founder of modern management science, lived nearly a century. He died in 2006 at age 95. He died troubled. The Austrian-born Drucker had always considered management a noble calling, a profession essential to the common...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Climate
Bolstered by an extraordinary order from the Obama administration to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at a site considered sacred and environmentally vulnerable by Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota, thousands upon thousands of pipeline opponents will...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 12, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
"Outsourcing is the smoking gun of the rigged economy." — Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Companies extort tax breaks and subsidies by threatening to withhold jobs. After their demands are met, they instead outsource the promised jobs....
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 12, 2016 | Blog
As parents, students and teachers celebrate the start of a new school year, many communities across the country are facing the pain of having their schools permanently closed. Politicians and policy leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike—support dealing with schools...
by People's Action | Sep 12, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders, Warren Join Battle For Congress Sanders and Warren hit the trail for Senate candidates. The Hill: "Sanders and Warren are launching their efforts by stumping for Democrat Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania ... Warren and Sanders are also notably speaking at...
by Bill Moyers | Sep 12, 2016 | Progressive Vision
Sixty-six years ago this summer, on my 16th birthday, I went to work for the daily newspaper in the small East Texas town of Marshall where I grew up. It was a good place to be a cub reporter – small enough to navigate but big enough to keep me busy and learning...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 9, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
If Donald Trump wasn’t the Republican nominee, what would it take for his words and actions to be labeled treason? In fact, why does no one dare call it treason? It was bad enough when Trump invited Russia to engage in cyber-espionage against the United States, just...
by Robert Reich | Sep 9, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Health
What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up prices of critical drugs? To prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling? To nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term view? To restrain runaway CEO pay? Answer to all four: Fulfill Bill Clinton’s...
by Gail Ablow | Sep 9, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Over the past month, thousands of protesters, including Native Americans from more than 100 tribes across the country, have traveled to North Dakota to help the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe block the Dakota Access Pipeline from being built. Last week, the Standing Rock...
by People's Action | Sep 9, 2016 | Breakfast
Ruling Expected On Dakota Pipeline Dakota Access Pipeline ruling expected today. AP: "U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says he’ll rule by the end of Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request to block the $3.8 billion project, which will carry oil from North...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 8, 2016 | Climate, Democracy
KOTV reports Thursday night on the hundreds who gathered in Tulsa in support of the Standing Rock Sioux and others opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. The fight between Native Americans and the financial interests dead set on pushing an environmentally hazardous oil...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 8, 2016 | Blog, Economy
You're a small business. You struggle to compete against the giants like the Walmarts, the Caterpillars, the Apples... On top of the advantages they have with their economies of scale, their nearly unlimited financing and ability to attract the top talent, their size...
by Martha Burk | Sep 8, 2016 | Blog, Defense/Foreign Policy, Gender Justice
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton sparred separately on military matters with back-to-back appearances on NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum on Wednesday. Trump stuck with his usual empty bombast, assuring a meek Matt Lauer that he would fix things up...
by People's Action | Sep 8, 2016 | Breakfast
Fight To Block Dakota Access Pipeline Intensifies Bill McKibben presses Hillary Clinton to speak out against the Dakota Access Pipeline, in LAT oped: "The fight at Standing Rock is a big damned thing. It’s a Flint-in-the-making, and it’s also a chance to for once do...
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 8, 2016 | Blog, Education
As parents and students reenter public schools for a new year, they're hearing a lot about "school choice." Having "choice," they're told, lets parents send their kids to schools other than their assigned neighborhood school, such as a charter school, a magnet school,...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned Wednesday that the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS or "corporate court") provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will give big, multinational corporations "leverage" to "threaten and intimidate governments that...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
North Carolina Republican consultant Carter Wrenn plainly spelled it out: if African-Americans voted Republican, voter ID laws like his state's “monster law” wouldn’t have happened. “Look,” Wrenn told The Washington Post, “if African-Americans voted overwhelmingly...
by People's Action | Sep 7, 2016 | Breakfast
Clinton, Trump Face Off Tonight Clinton and Trump take part in prime-time TV forum tonight 8 PM ET. The Hill: "... Hillary Clinton will go first during Wednesday evening's Commander in Chief forum, hosted by the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) and...
by Miles Mogulescu | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Democracy, Election 2016
For this unenthusiastic Hillary Clinton voter—and I’m sure I’m not alone—there are two main reasons for voting for Hillary and urging others to do the same. The first is to keep Donald Trump’s tiny fingers away from the nuclear codes and to prevent a racist,...
by Bill Scher | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Much of the presidential race has centered on temperament and character, and understandably so as Donald Trump's racially divisive rhetoric casts a shadow over the entire campaign. But we are electing a president here, and what the candidates have to say about the...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 6, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Trade
Before "globalism," countries kept a lot of their problems to themselves. But now they can easily spread the pain. "Free trade" is letting China disrupt the world's steel industry. China was booming. Investment in infrastructure, housing and industry was going...
by Sam Pizzigati | Sep 6, 2016 | Health, Tax Reform
Millions of families live in constant dread of what an unexpected encounter — with a bee or a food additive or even a dye — could bring. One slip, and breathing could quickly become difficult, or a heartbeat dangerously low. Severe allergies, untreated, can kill. But...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 6, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, and the Consumer Federation of America, a coalition of 250 U.S. consumer organizations, both announced on Tuesday their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The organizations sent joint letters to...
by Leo Gerard | Sep 6, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
China is gorging itself on steelmaking. It is forging so much steel that the entire world doesn't need that much steel. Companies in the United States and Europe, and unions like mine, the United Steelworkers, have spent untold millions of dollars to secure tariffs on...
by People's Action | Sep 6, 2016 | Breakfast
Congress Returns, Clock Ticks Congress returns with hopes of avoiding government shutdown. W. Post: "Lawmakers have four weeks to hammer out a spending deal before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 ... Conservatives want to pass a six-month CR that would kick the larger...
by Janice "Jay" Johnson | Sep 6, 2016 | Blog
As this election season comes to full boil, we should remember the importance of civil disobedience to our history. It is one of the few tools ordinary people still have to organize for change. With corporations spending unlimited campaign cash, and states requiring...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 5, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Economic anxiety and inequality is contributing (as it always does) to the rise of right-wing, anti-immigrant, xenophobic and racist politics. Many of the people most hurt by the decline of unions are turning to the very politicians who want to kill unions off for...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Donald Trump reverted to type with his immigration speech, delivered shortly after his visit to Mexico. After flirting with “softening” his position, the old Trump-style xenophobia was a hit with some, not with others. Hispanic Advisors to Trump, We Quit! It may have...
by Jacob Swenson-Lengyel | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Climate, Progressive Vision
(Rae Breaux also contributed to reporting to this article.) The Wisconsin Uprising. Occupy Wall Street. Keystone XL. Black Lives Matter. Add Standing Rock to the list of social movements spreading across the country and reshaping the political landscape. Since April,...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The enormous, humongous US trade deficit continues to drain jobs, wages, and prosperity from our country's economy. We close factories and fire workers here, move factories and jobs there, and because the goods now cross a border our elites brag that they have...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Democracy, Economy, Election 2016
Just when you thought that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's "outreach" to African-American voters could not get more absurd, The New York Times on Thursday published the "draft script" of an interview Trump is scheduled to videorecord Saturday in...
by People's Action | Sep 2, 2016 | Breakfast
Limp August Job Report Job growth slowed in August. NYT: "[The pace of] hiring eased in August, with the government reporting on Friday that employers expanded their payrolls by 151,000 workers. The temperate performance is expected to bolster those within the Federal...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The decline of unions has probably cost you, or someone close to you, thousands of dollars since last Labor Day. A new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that income for nonunion workers fell substantially as union membership declined. And it hasn’t...
by Libero Della Piana | Sep 1, 2016 | Climate
A historic struggle is brewing in North Dakota, where hundreds of Native Americans have mobilized to oppose the construction of a major oil pipeline across the Missouri River. Local tribal members and their supporters have gathered near Cannonball, North Dakota in a...
by Martha Burk | Sep 1, 2016 | Blog, Democracy
Donald Trump made a phony photo-op trip to Mexico City on Wednesday, where his Mexican "rapists, murderers, and drug dealers" miraculously morphed into "amazing people" who are "beyond reproach." The Republican presidential candidate's joint appearance with Mexican...
by Burning Issues Video | Sep 1, 2016 | Burning Issues, Defense/Foreign Policy, Economy, Progressive Vision
[fve]https://youtu.be/iZYScovEivc[/fve] In the final segment of the Burning Issues video series, Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, presents a challenge to progressive leadership to continue the debate on foreign and domestic policy...
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 1, 2016 | Blog, Education
The nation's increasingly polarized political divide is often described as a clash between a right and a left, but in the education policy arena, it's increasingly clear the clash is between a bottom and a top. That's a conclusion you should come away with after...
