by Bill Scher | Jun 20, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism
Speaker Paul Ryan's has been rolling out an ambitious legislative agenda, titled "A Better Way," designed to show that the Republican Party – irrespective of Donald Trump – is brimming with exciting policy ideas and is ready to govern. But The Atlantic finds it akin...
by People's Action | Jun 20, 2016 | Breakfast
The Bern Still Burns "People’s Summit Attendees Leave Determined To Keep 'The Bern' Alive" reports OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "After an intense weekend of speeches and discussion about the future of the progressive 'political revolution' sparked by the Bernie...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 20, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Some politicians and commentators say that Bernie Sanders is losing leverage because he hasn’t conceded the Democratic primary to front-runner Hillary Clinton. To believe that is to misunderstand both the candidate and his supporters. Sanders received a mandate in...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2016 | Progressive Vision
After an intense weekend of speeches and discussion about the future of the progressive “political revolution” sparked by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, the People’s Summit ended Sunday with a charge to continue to keep “the Bern” blazing through a myriad...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 17, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
While the rest of the country, and the rest of the world stood with Orlando in grief and solidarity, right-wingers tried to outdo each other with awful reactions. In the late hours of Saturday night, a gunman, who allegiance to ISIS, walked in to The Pulse — a popular...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 17, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
If you actually read Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speech to his supporters Thursday – rather than the news coverage of it – you will immediately grasp the importance of this weekend's gathering in Chicago of about 3,000 progressive leaders and...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 17, 2016 | Blog, Education
Scott Gilpin works in advertising, so he's used to dealing with people in the promotions business. He's just not used to seeing them operating a local public school. Gilpin lives in Denver, where he grew up, graduated from high school and now has two children enrolled...
by People's Action | Jun 17, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Eyes Platform Bernie Sanders address brings attention to party platform: "...we must take [our] energy into the Democratic National Convention ... the Democratic Party must support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour ... We must defeat the...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 17, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
We live on. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, we live on. We live on in the memories of those we leave behind. We live on in words, in gestures, in glances, in anything that changes the heart of another person forever. We live on in loved ones and in...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 16, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Nearly one year after the Charleston massacre, we are reminded again that hatred is deadly. Now we must affirm that no one who "returns hate for hate" is qualified to lead. On Friday, it will have been one year since a 21-year-old racist walked in to Emanuel African...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 16, 2016 | Blog, Education
It's obvious 2016 is an election year when Democratic candidates need to draw a bright line to differentiate themselves from Republican opponents. With Donald Trump leading the GOP ticket, and most leaders of his party getting in line behind him, it's doubtful...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 16, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
When voters investigate a candidate, they traditionally want to know what policies that candidate proposes to pursue. What will that person try to achieve in office? What will our lives be like if we elect that person? Most importantly, how do they plan to achieve...
by People's Action | Jun 16, 2016 | Breakfast
Clinton Takes Airwaves Now Clinton on the air in swing states. W. Post: "Clinton has purchased advertising time on television stations in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado and Nevada ... She is expected to follow her pattern from...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 16, 2016 | Blog, Retirement Security
Years ago a political scientist said that the mass media can't influence what people think, but it can influence what people think about. Today it does both. If you’re a billionaire who wants to manipulate public opinion, that means you’ll keep feeding it stories that...
by Bill Scher | Jun 15, 2016 | Blog
Speaker Paul Ryan deserves a modicum of credit for calling out Donald Trump on his racist statements. But there's a reason why Ryan still plans to vote for Trump: the huge overlap they have on policy. Their approach to the environment is Exhibit A. Trump believes that...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 15, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
“Working people everywhere have had enough. The TPP is nothing short of a corporate takeover of our democracy. That’s why people are rising up to stop it. Corporate lobbyists want to sneak the TPP through Congress quietly; that means it’s time for us to get loud.” --...
by People's Action | Jun 15, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders, Clinton Meet No formal agreement after meeting. Bloomberg: "He left without making any remarks and headed back to Vermont. The two campaigns released similar statements saying they talked about their common goals ... Sanders hasn’t yet worked out the details...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 15, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
There is a clause in many "free-trade" agreements allowing corporations to sue governments in corporate courts for passing laws, regulating and other things that might limit their profits. Never mind if the people of a country want to do something to make their own...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 15, 2016 | Blog
The last Democratic primary – the District of Columbia – took place on Tuesday. Bernie Sanders met with Hillary Clinton that night. He announced he would address his supporters online on Thursday. The chattering class is abuzz with speculation on what Bernie will do....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 14, 2016 | Jobs and Growth
When the Department of Labor released new rules that would require millions of lower-wage workers to be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours a week, a number of prominent nonprofit organizations – including some allies on the left – protested. That split gave...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 14, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum when labeled a small-hands man because he believes everything about him is huge: big wealth, big wall, big mouth. There's some evidence he thinks expansively about business because he built a billion-dollar empire out of what he...
by People's Action | Jun 14, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders-Clinton Summit Today Sanders, Clinton meet today. NYT: "Several people close to the senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions, say he will try to get assurances from Mrs. Clinton that she will fight for many of his...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 14, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy, Election 2016
Donald Trump touts his business "success" as a major qualification for running the country. So how does Trump run his businesses and what does this mean for the country? And what about this idea that government should be run like a business, anyway? The Republican...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 13, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Let's hope that a story published by Politico on Monday about the kind of campaigns Democrats plan to run to retake the Senate proves inaccurate. "Democrats' surprising strategy to win the Senate: Be boring," is the headline for the story, which describes the overall...
by Robert Reich | Jun 13, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
[fve]https://youtu.be/r1tSgUtBfOc[/fve] The Republican Party still has time to change its mind. Right now it’s supporting for President of the United States a man 1. who divides us by race and ethnicity and religion. He says undocumented Americans “bring drugs,...
by Bernie Horn | Jun 13, 2016 | Blog, Progressive Vision
The murderer in Orlando on Sunday used a Sig Sauer version of the AR-15 assault weapon. The story is so awfully familiar. The mass murderers in San Bernardino who killed 14 and wounded 21 used AR-15 assault rifles. In Aurora, Colorado, a man with an AR-15 killed 12...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 13, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
My phone started buzzing almost as soon as the lights went down. I was in Baltimore with my family to watch Cirque du Soleil’s “Toruk” when the alerts started coming in about another mass shooting, this time at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We’d just found our...
by People's Action | Jun 13, 2016 | Breakfast
Orlando Massacre Reverberates Orlando massacre shapes presidential debate. The Hill: "Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is citing the mass shooting to advance his argument that legal and illegal immigration are endangering U.S. security...
by Bill Scher | Jun 13, 2016 | Blog
A recent Gallup poll exploring issue priorities of Democrats and Republicans found that the "sharpest issue-priority disagreements," by far, were regarding climate change. While 72 percent of Democrats deem climate an "extremely or very important issue to their vote...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 10, 2016 | Conservatism, Economy
[fve]https://youtu.be/DO1FR4a0H-o[/fve] When House Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled his repackaged conservative ideas this week about reducing and refocusing government anti=poverty programs, there was one element missing: What about low-income people in Ryan's own...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 10, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Republicans now face an impossible task: denouncing racism while supporting a racist. They have no one but themselves to blame. On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned Donald Trump’s remarks about a federal judge as “textbook” racism, just days after dismissing...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 10, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
After having stated she is against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and opposes a lame-duck vote on that agreement after the election, President Obama on Thursday endorsed his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in her bid for the presidency. Then the...
by Harvey J Kaye | Jun 10, 2016 | Conservatism, Progressive Vision
Newt Gingrich – the leader of the 1994 “Gingrich Revolution” that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years, Former Speaker of the House, occasional Republican presidential candidate, and, quite possibly, Donald Trump’s running...
by People's Action | Jun 10, 2016 | Breakfast
Party Leaders Rally Around Clinton Endorsement for Clinton by President and Vice-President sends signal to Sanders. W. Post: "Shortly after Sanders emerged from his meeting with Obama, word got out that the president was going to trumpet an endorsement of his former...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 10, 2016 | Blog, Education
High school graduation season is in full bloom in many communities around the nation, but in some places, parents with children still in schools have to be worried about the conditions of the schools they'll return to in the fall – or even if the schools will open at...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 9, 2016 | Blog, Democracy
[fve]https://youtu.be/oUW7n6X5krM[/fve] Senate Democrats are planning to roll out a package of moderately incremental campaign finance proposals they call the "We the People" plan. They hope to take this plan to the public during campaign season this Fall. The New...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 9, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
This week more than 450 organizations joined to ask Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because of provisions that would allow corporations to sue governments over laws and regulations that might restrict their profits. The groups are concerned that...
by Burning Issues Video | Jun 9, 2016 | Burning Issues, Tax Reform
[fve]https://youtu.be/Ir6q1swyqaw[/fve] Corporations that have stashed more than $2 trillion in profits offshore to avoid taxes have been angling for legislation that will enable them to pay only a sliver of the taxes they owe on that money, says Frank Clemente,...
by People's Action | Jun 9, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Meets With Obama Today Obama hopes to move Sanders towards endorsement. NYT: "President Obama will use an Oval Office meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Thursday morning to delicately nudge the losing Democratic presidential hopeful toward a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 9, 2016 | Election 2016, Jobs and Growth
[fve]https://youtu.be/Y93WutGCyf4[/fve]Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Good Jobs Nation, discusses the effort to get a $15 minimum wage plank written into the Democratic Party platform. As members of the Democratic Party platform committee entered the...
