by Terrance Heath | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
On the eve of the Republican National Convention, thousands of progressive volunteers are going door-to-door to counter politics of hate, and build support for economic and racial justice. As Republicans gather to nominate their candidate for president, major...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog
Every teacher, to their disgust, has seen it. When the birthday piñata is broken, one greedy kid elbows his way forward and grabs more than half of the candy for himself. All of the other children share what remains. That’s exactly what is going on with income in the...
by Harvey J Kaye | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
The time has come. After 40 years of class war from above – of conservative political ascendance, neoliberal public policies and well-funded culture wars that together have subordinated the public good to private greed, made the rich grossly richer, and led so many of...
by People's Action | Jul 12, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Endorses Today Sanders, Clinton unite, though future relationship uncertain. W. Post: "While they have a common enemy in Republican Donald Trump, Clinton and Sanders don’t have much of a personal or professional relationship. And many of their supporters...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 12, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
The horrors we witnessed in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and Dallas are rooted in racism that has haunted our families for generations, and is perhaps at its deadliest when embodied in law enforcement and embedded in our communities. As I took my oldest son to summer...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog, Tax Reform
All of us suffer consequences when corporations cheat. Silicon Valley's tech companies make a lot of money, but many of them dodge paying taxes. San Francisco is going to try to do something about it. Three supervisors are proposing that the city tax tech companies to...
by People's Action | Jul 11, 2016 | Breakfast
Platform Done, Endorsement Tomorrow Sanders to endorse Clinton tomorrow. Politico: "Sanders will campaign with Clinton at a high school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 11 a.m. Tuesday ... the two former primary rivals will 'discuss their commitment to building an...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
The Democratic Party Platform Committee convened in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend. Once more, the Sanders delegates pushed hard for inclusion of fundamental reforms. Once more, they made progress on many issues and were rejected on several. The campaign hasn’t...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Bernie Sanders’ "political revolution" scored some impressive wins this weekend at the Democratic Party Platform Committee meeting in Orlando, adding to its victories last month in St. Louis. ABC News called the resulting document “exceptionally progressive.”...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Three shootings made national news this week. Most Americans were outraged by all three. However, conservatives were outraged by one, and silent about the other two. For the third time this week, Americans awoke Friday to news of yet another shooting. Still reeling...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Education, Election 2016
Although education policy has not been a prominent issue in the current presidential race, the Democratic Party's platform gives the subject some of its just due with a fairly extensive treatment. In the current draft, which will be finalized on June 8 and 9, there...
by People's Action | Jul 8, 2016 | Breakfast
Clinton, Trump React To Dallas Attack Clinton expected to address Baton Rouge and St. Paul shootings, and Dallas attack today. NBC: "Clinton has postponed a planned rally with Joe Biden but still plans to attend a convention of the AME Church Friday, where she had...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
The June jobs report – a cheery 287,000 new jobs, with unemployment ticking up to 4.9 percent – is cause for both relief and concern. The relief is that jobs creation picked up after the slowdown of April (revised upward to 144,000) and May (revised downward to...
by Burning Issues Video | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Burning Issues, Defense/Foreign Policy
[fve]https://youtu.be/RkpWT2vqykU[/fve] The United States' interventions in the Middle East over the past decades have been a clear failure by any measure, says Andrew Bacevich, an author on military matters and a retired Boston University history professor, in this...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 8, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Financial Reform
Here’s a sentence from the Democratic Party’s recently released draft platform: “We will reform the Federal Reserve so that it is more representative of America as a whole, and we will fight to make sure that executives at financial institutions are not allowed to...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 7, 2016 | Economy
You've likely seen these brands as you walked the aisles of an organic and natural foods supermarket: Silk. So Delicious. Horizon Organic. Wallaby Organic. Earthbound Farm. If you saw these brands, it probably did not occur to you that these brands were already under...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 7, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
It happened again this week, as it has happened more than 100 times so far this year. Police in Louisiana and Minnesota shot and killed two more black men. Police-involved shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minneapolis made headlines this week. But as People’s...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 7, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
[fve]https://youtu.be/YmLHwZkonwY[/fve]Video: Sen. Elizabeth Warren on why we need to stop the TPP. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is likely to come up for a vote in the "lame-duck" session of Congress that follows the November presidential election. Will the...
by People's Action | Jul 7, 2016 | Breakfast
Endorsement Tuesday? AP reports Sanders, Clinton in talks about endorsement next week: "A Democrat familiar with the plans said Wednesday if the two sides continue to make progress, Clinton and Sanders would appear at the joint event Tuesday in New Hampshire." Shift...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 7, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Texas populist Jim Hightower will present the Democratic Party platform committee with a Bernie Sanders-sponsored amendment to the draft platform when it meets in Orlando this Friday and Saturday. It will read: It is the policy of the Democratic Party that the...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 6, 2016 | Blog, Education
This Friday, a crowd expected to reach into the thousands will throng the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to listen to prominent voices in the progressive movement, such as Rev. William Barber II, address the nation about an issue of critical concern for our...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2016 | Blog
A new The Economist/YouGov poll, showing Hillary Clinton with a five-point lead over Donald Trump, also asked: "Are you confident or uneasy about the following presidential candidates’ ability to deal wisely with international trade?" The numbers might surprise you:...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 6, 2016 | Blog, Trade
The U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday that the May trade deficit rose to $41.1 billion. This was a $3.8 billion increase from April's $37.4 billion. The increase included boosts in purchases of things we can't make here anymore, like cellphones and computers, as...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 6, 2016 | Education, Election 2016
The persistence of the political coalition around Bernie Sanders has nudged Hillary Clinton toward a more progressive position on ensuring that working-class students can attend college debt-free. Clinton announced on Wednesday changes to her college affordability...
by People's Action | Jul 6, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Presses On Platform Sanders steps up anti-TPP push before platform meeting. Bloomberg: "'The Democrats must go on record in opposition to holding a vote on the TPP,' Sanders said in one of several Twitter messages Tuesday aimed at derailing the Trans-Pacific...
by Richard Eskow | Jul 6, 2016 | Blog, Economy
On July 1, at the start of the Independence Day weekend, we learned that income inequality in this country became even worse last year. Economic inequality produces scars that last a lifetime – and even longer. That’s one reason why President Obama said in 2013 that...
by Rev. William Barber | Jul 5, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Dear Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, Your campaign, like the leadership of our Legislature and Governor, does not represent the politics of Lincoln, the call of justice, or the ethics of Biblical evangelicalism. Instead, your campaign presents an...
by Thomas Palley | Jul 5, 2016 | Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Voters of all stripes have recognized the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as another betrayal of working people, and they have resoundingly rejected it. Despite that, President Obama continues to push it, to the extent of possibly seeking passage in a “lame duck”...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 5, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Jobs and Growth, Trade
Donald Trump stomped into my backyard just days before July 4 and claimed to be a steelworker. That’s right. The billionaire, whose manicured little hands routinely slip into lambskin golf gloves but never once donned heavy-duty work mitts, actually claimed to...
by People's Action | Jul 5, 2016 | Breakfast
Trade Issue Roils Both Parties Trump message on trade threatens Clinton, reports W. Post: "... the risk is not necessarily losing support directly to Trump but rather not inspiring enough enthusiasm among rank-and-file union workers, whose turnout and ground-level...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 5, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Who will Hillary Clinton choose as her running mate? She enjoyed the biggest crowds of her campaign when she appeared with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, setting progressive hearts aflutter. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the insiders’ favorite, has begun...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 1, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
It took Republicans four years, over $7 million, eight congressional investigations, 11 hours grilling former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and 800 pages to admit that Clinton was not at fault in Benghazi attack. But that doesn’t mean it’s over. From the moment...
by George Goehl | Jul 1, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
When Bernie Sanders announced that he was running for president last year, people didn’t expect much from the Vermont senator. The political establishment wrote him off and the pundits berated him—“he’s a socialist for God’s sake.” Even die-hard progressives conceded...
by People's Action | Jul 1, 2016 | Breakfast
TPP Tops Sanders' List... "Sanders is itching for a convention fight" reports Politico: "...the draft document ... is headed to a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and 9 in Orlando ...'I know that on TPP, I know that on the issue of...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jul 1, 2016 | Blog, Economy
Later this summer, just a few weeks after this year’s Fourth of July celebrations, Democrats will be gathering in Philadelphia to make some presidential nomination history. Democrats — small-d variety — gathered in Philadelphia soon after the original Fourth of July,...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 1, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Donald Trump is selling himself as the champion of working-class voters. He says Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, are selling them out with trade deals. But Trump is just a fraud. Unfortunately, President Obama is pushing the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 30, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste," Rahm Emanuel infamously said when he was President Obama's White House chief of staff. So it is with the legislation that President Obama signs into law Thursday that offers Puerto Rico a process for managing its crushing...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 30, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Health, This Is The GOP
After six years, and more than 60 votes to repeal health care reform, Paul Ryan and House Republicans have come up with a GOP alternative to Obamacare that’s guaranteed to make millions of Americans sick. One week ago, Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans released...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 30, 2016 | Blog
A recent article in the New York Times looked at the “dire effects” when private equity firms gain some control over public services like emergency care and firefighting. The reporter should have added education to the list. As the article explains, most people don’t...
by Bill Scher | Jun 30, 2016 | Blog, Climate
The linchpin of the international Paris climate deal is the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries grapple with climate change. The Obama administration pledged to contribute $3 billion to the fund by 2020, but the Republicans have been pledging to...
