by People's Action | May 27, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders, Trump Inch Toward Debate Trump offers Bernie debate if $10-15 million raised for charity. W. Post quotes Sanders' response: "I think we're going to have to rent out the largest stadium you have here in California. I can't wait for that, because we're going to...
by Bill Scher | May 27, 2016 | Blog, Climate
Donald Trump is so consistently inconsistent, the challenge is to remind folks that what he says one minute that may seem appealing is often contradicted in the next minute. When it comes to the climate, we don't have that problem. Trump has made it crystal clear he...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 26, 2016 | Blog, Education
The false god of school vouchers has been unmasked once again, this time by a Brookings Institution study that says students in Louisiana and Indiana using vouchers to attend private and religious schools ended up doing worse on reading and math scores than their...
by Jeff Bryant | May 26, 2016 | Blog, Education
Last year a breakthrough policy brief from the National Education Policy Center exposed some of the financial machinations charter schools engage in to further the interests of profit-seeking entrepreneurs. But what about the political machinations? The politics of...
by Terrance Heath | May 26, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
In an apparent about-face, the House approved a measure barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees, but that doesn’t mean House Republicans have learned anything. House Republican leaders did on Wednesday what they should have done last...
by Bill Scher | May 26, 2016 | Blog
Last week, CNN uncovered Donald Trump's 2006 remarks about how he wanted to profit off of a housing bubble: I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy. You know if you’re in a good cash position, which I’m in a good cash position...
by People's Action | May 26, 2016 | Breakfast
Burning Issues: The U.S. Role In The Israel-Palestine Conflict Raed Jarrar, government relations manager at the American Friends Service Committee, in this Burning Issues video segment says that the Israel-Palestine conflict should not be viewed as a millennia-old...
by Burning Issues Video | May 26, 2016 | Burning Issues, Defense/Foreign Policy
[fve]https://youtu.be/4wAcfAHHD3E[/fve] The Israel-Palestine conflict should not be viewed as a millennia-old intractable conflict, but a recent crisis in which the United States has been a key instigator through its "blank check" support of Israel, says Raed Jarrar,...
by Robert Borosage | May 26, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has vowed to drive his bold policies ideas – from a $15 minimum wage and reviving union rights to tuition-free college and Medicare for All – into the Democratic Party platform to write the "strongest progressive agenda that any...
by Courtney Freudenthal | May 25, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
As a Class of 2015 graduate from the University of Chicago, Brianna Tong considers herself fortunate. She has a job that she loves that makes her degree worth attaining – as a lead organizer with the IIRON Student Network. But her work puts her in contact with plenty...
by People's Action | May 25, 2016 | Breakfast
Burning Issues: Our Failure in Afghanistan Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who has done two tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan explains in this Burning Issues video his view of what the United States has gotten wrong in Afghanistan. Warren Launches "Take On Wall...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 25, 2016 | Blog, Financial Reform
[fve]https://youtu.be/ff8GZXOuWIs[/fve] Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped kick off the "Take On Wall Street" campaign on Tuesday by detailing the work that remains undone by the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that were signed into law six years ago. "The rules that...
by Burning Issues Video | May 25, 2016 | Burning Issues, Defense/Foreign Policy
[fve]https://youtu.be/wXNHZ6umip8[/fve] Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who has done two tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and who has since written articles critical of the way the United States has conducted the wars there, explains in this Burning Issues video his...
by Dave Johnson | May 24, 2016 | Blog, Financial Reform
[fve]https://youtu.be/VEZeUTTJgCI[/fve]Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) explains how Wall Street financial interests contributed to the economic crisis in Puerto Rico at the "Take On Wall Street" campaign event Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol. In 2008 Wall Street got...
by Terrance Heath | May 24, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Three years after the Senate passed ENDA, and president Obama signed executive orders protecting LGBT employees of federal contractors from discrimination, House Republicans voted to write anti-LGBT discrimination in law. The floor of the House of Representatives...
by Frank Clemente | May 24, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
It is critical that candidates for the highest office in the land release their income tax returns for multiple years, especially you Mr. Trump. After all, you are running for president based on your wealth and business ability. And every other presidential candidate...
by Dave Johnson | May 24, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
More than 1,500 environmental, labor, faith, consumer, LGBT, health, peace, business, social justice and other public interest organizations representing trade and democracy "stakeholders" sent a joint letter to Congress urging them to reject the Trans-Pacific...
by Bill Scher | May 24, 2016 | Blog
Donald Trump was riffing on trade, sounding very populists by shrugging off concerns about sparking a "trade war" with China, when he said: "My trade deal is very simple, I am going to make great deals for our country. It might be free, it might not be free." Well,...
by People's Action | May 24, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Strengthens Convention Position DNC concedes more platform committee slots to Sanders. W. Post: "The senator from Vermont was allowed to choose nearly as many members of the Democratic Party platform-writing body as Clinton ... Sanders’s slate includes James...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 24, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Financial Reform
More than 20 progressive organizations representing millions of voters are putting their weight behind a five-point agenda for the next stage of Wall Street reform. What these groups will formally announce Tuesday, in an event featuring Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth...
by Robert Reich | May 23, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Economy, This Is The GOP
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday finds Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie, with Trump leading Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. That’s an 11 percent swing against Clinton since March. A new NBC News/Wall...
by Dave Johnson | May 23, 2016 | Blog, Trans-Pacific Partnership
President Obama is in Vietnam promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Vietnam? Really? A year ago the post "Obama To Visit Nike To Promote the TPP. Wait, NIKE? Really?," noted how Nike pioneered moving jobs out of the country to take advantage of low wages and...
by People's Action | May 23, 2016 | Breakfast
California, Here We Come Clinton and Sanders have heavy California schedules. NYT: "...Clinton will head West for almost four days of fund-raisers and campaign events in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, Salinas, San Jose and other parts ... 'You’re going to see...
by Robert Borosage | May 23, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
The Democratic establishment and liberal commentariat lathered itself into a fine hysteria last week. What began as a Hillary Clinton surrogate meme – (Bernie has done his job, but now he’s hurting Clinton and should get out of the race) - became a maddened chorus....
by Jeff Bryant | May 23, 2016 | Blog, Education
It didn't take long for conservatives to turn their attack on the rights of transgender students into an attack on another favorite target of theirs: public schools. In the pages of the conservative journal National Review, the latest screed declares, "The Obama...
by Terrance Heath | May 20, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any weirder, it turns out Donald Trump likely masqueraded as his own publicist, during phone calls with reporters — proving he probably belongs in a shrink’s office, instead of the Oval Office. It sounds like the kind of thing a...
by Dave Johnson | May 20, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Here we are in "Infrastructure Week" and here we are with a new argument for a massive infrastructure investment project – worldwide. Last week Peter Coy wrote at Bloomberg, in "How to Pull the World Economy Out of Its Rut," about economist Larry Summers' argument...
by People's Action | May 20, 2016 | Breakfast
Ways Bernie Sanders Will Be A Force At The Democratic Convention In Reuters, OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage explains why the Democratic convention matters: "...Sanders can assert that pressing her to embrace more of his ideas will strengthen rather than weaken the...
by Larry Cohen | May 19, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
In late July, delegates to the Democratic National Convention will gather in Philadelphia, not only to nominate a president and vice president but to debate a reform agenda for the party itself. Bernie Sanders’ call for a political revolution is centered on...
by Robert Borosage | May 19, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July seems set to continue the fierce nomination battle – and launch a major debate about what the party stands for.Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, won the Oregon primary handily on Tuesday and was...
by Dave Johnson | May 19, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has released a report predicting the effect the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will have on the U.S. economy. In the past these reports have been skewed to promote trade agreements, with numbers that turned out to be much...
by Bill Scher | May 19, 2016 | Blog
In an interview with Reuters, Donald Trump pledge to take apart President Obama's Wall Street reform: The New York billionaire said he planned to release a detailed policy platform in two weeks that would propose dismantling nearly all of Dodd-Frank, a package of...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 19, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
[fve]https://youtu.be/q2WUaVGTZu8[/fve] The one major achievement that has eluded Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign was winning the majority of the African-American vote in a primary. In fact, Sanders has never registered more than a third of the...
by People's Action | May 19, 2016 | Breakfast
Bernie Fights On Sanders campaign will run hard in last leg. NYT: "Advisers to Mr. Sanders said on Wednesday that he was newly resolved to remain in the race, seeing an aggressive campaign as his only chance to pressure Democrats into making fundamental changes to how...
by Jeff Bryant | May 19, 2016 | Blog, Education
You've probably heard about the fierce battle over school bathrooms raging across the country. It's an important story for sure because transgender students should not be blocked from entering facilities of their gender identity. But the current fight over gender...
by Terrance Heath | May 18, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson is often credited with saying, “The government closest to the people serves them best.” Republicans in North Carolina — and elsewhere — think they know better. In Charlotte, North Carolina, “the government closest to the people”...
by Dave Johnson | May 18, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
[fve]https://youtu.be/UFJaDm720FU[/fve] Overtime pay for working more than 40 hours a week is a right that had been taken away from many workers, but now they are getting the right back, thanks to a new rule the Obama administration issued Wednesday. This is a big,...
by People's Action | May 18, 2016 | Breakfast
Dem Divide Deepens Clinton, Sanders each win one. NYT: "...winning Kentucky would give her a symbolic triumph that could blunt the effect of her loss in Oregon ... Clinton won in a landslide against Barack Obama in the 2008 primary. Mr. Sanders noted that landslide on...
by Robert Borosage | May 18, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Bernie Sanders won the Oregon primary big last night – 54 percent to 45 percent for Hillary Clinton – while ending in a virtual tie in Kentucky (Clinton, 46.8 percent vs. Sanders, 46.3 percent). Both states were closed primaries, with independents barred from voting....
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 17, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth
[fve]https://youtu.be/6QHVgfIGync[/fve] Donna Mossman remembers the day, back in the 1970s living with her parents in an apartment in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., that water cascaded through the living room wall. Looking back, that was a...
