by People's Action | Feb 29, 2016 | Breakfast
Democracy Awakening on March 1st Sign-up to join the Democracy Awakening Tele-Town-Hall March 1 from 8 to 8:30 p.m. ET featuring Robert Reich, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, Sierra Club ED Michael Brune, Greenpeace USA’s Annie Leonard – to hear why thousands are...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 29, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Boosted by overwhelming African-American support – particularly that of older African-American women – Hillary Clinton won a commanding victory Saturday in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary. Sanders and Clinton have essentially split two states – Iowa...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 26, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Thursday night’s tenth GOP presidential debate was, ironically, best summed up by CNN’s closed captioner for the hearing impaired. Last night’s Republican presidential debate was many things, but you only need to watch about 30 seconds to get the gist of it....
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 26, 2016 | Blog, Education
Anyone who feels that America’s public schools need a better conversation about education policy should have been in a room in the basement of the nation’s capitol earlier this week. The occasion that brought people together on an early, rain-soaked morning was a...
by People's Action | Feb 26, 2016 | Breakfast
Democracy Awakening on March 1st Sign-up to join the Democracy Awakening Tele-Town-Hall March 1 from 8 to 8:30 p.m. ET featuring Robert Reich, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, Sierra Club ED Michael Brune, Greenpeace USA’s Annie Leonard – to hear why thousands are...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 26, 2016 | Election 2016, Financial Reform
Four people who have been at the center of some of the nation's biggest Wall Street scandals have come together to send a message to the 2016 presidential candidates: Pledge to stand against Wall Street fraud and corruption – not just with words, but with the kind of...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Feb 25, 2016 | Blog, Climate
What if an extra hour somehow slipped into your day? Aside from most Arizonans and all Hawaiians, Americans get to ponder this question in early November as Daylight Savings Time gets underway. I usually fill this gap with some combination of reading, cooking, and...
by People's Action | Feb 25, 2016 | Breakfast
Bernie Looks For Super Super Tuesday Sanders sets sights on five Super Tuesday states. Politico: "He’s certain to win his home state of Vermont ... Other recent surveys show Sanders with a slight lead in Massachusetts and within a few points of Clinton in Oklahoma ......
by Bill Scher | Feb 25, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
A Donald Trump nomination means several elements of the Republican Party will sit out the election, vote third-party or even vote Democrat. The seams of the GOP coalition are tearing apart in front of our eyes. After Donald Trump's South Carolina victory, conservative...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 25, 2016 | Blog, Populist Majority, Progressive Vision
In the 2016 presidential primary, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders can't afford to take African-American votes for granted. With the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary behind them, both Clinton and Sanders are vying for the...
by Sam Pizzigati | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog
Modern-day American conservatives typically see government regulation as an outright assault on freedom. They also see inequality as inevitable in any “free” society. Any government that moves against inequality, they go on to assume and argue, will have to threaten...
by Robert Reich | Feb 24, 2016 | Current Issues, Progressive Vision
Step back from the campaign fray for just a moment and consider the enormity of what’s already occurred. A 74-year-old Jew from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, who wasn’t even a Democrat until recently, has come within a whisker of beating...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Last November the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released to the public on the website of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). On January 26, a slightly different "scrubbed" version was put on the website of the official host of the agreement, New...
by People's Action | Feb 24, 2016 | Breakfast
Can GOP Survive Trump? "Trump shatters the Republican Party" says Politico: "Suddenly, there are three strands of the Republicanism ... Ted Cruz is the leader of the traditional conservative purists. Marco Rubio [leads] the once-dominant, now diminished, mainstream...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Donald Trump barged to victory in the Nevada caucuses Tuesday night. He won big – pluralities of voters of every age, every level of education, both genders, every racial and ethnic group, evangelicals. He now has won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. He holds...
by Leo Gerard | Feb 23, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Making it in America, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
In the week before Valentine’s Day, United Technologies expressed its love for its devoted Indiana employees, workers whose labor had kept the corporation profitable, by informing 2,100 of them at two facilities that it was shipping their factories, their jobs, their...
by Bill Scher | Feb 23, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
After three presidential contests, there is a striking trend in the Democratic entrance and exit polls: Far more Democrats call themselves "liberal" than eight years ago. In Iowa, the percentage of voters identifying as "very" or "somewhat" liberal jumped from 54...
by People's Action | Feb 23, 2016 | Breakfast
Sign Up For "Democracy Awakening" Tele-Town Hall March 1 Sign-up to join the Democracy Awakening Tele-Town-Hall March 1 from 8 to 8:30 p.m. ET featuring Robert Reich, NAACP President Cornell Brooks, Sierra Club ED Michael Brune, Greenpeace USA’s Annie Leonard – to...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 23, 2016 | Blog, Education
[Today's guest post comes from Elaine Weiss, Executive Director, Broader Bolder Approach to Education] Signs continue to indicate momentum for a new emerging education policy narrative. The replacement of No Child Left Behind with the Every Student Succeeds Act is...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 23, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Election 2016, Jobs and Growth
"When you dare to do big things, big results should be expected. The Sanders program is big, and when you run it through a standard model, you get a big result."– James K. Galbraith Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says he wants the American people to...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 22, 2016 | Election 2016, Jobs and Growth
As both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seek to win African-American voters in South Carolina ahead of the Democratic primary, one issue demands their attention: double-digit unemployment in the African-American community in South Carolina and nationally. As we...
by Robert Reich | Feb 22, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
[fve]https://youtu.be/6W5e7AwqksU[/fve] 1. Cruz is more fanatical. Sure, Trump is a bully and bigot, but he doesn’t hew to any sharp ideological line. Cruz is a fierce ideologue: He denies the existence of man-made climate change, rejects same-sex marriage, wants to...
by People's Action | Feb 22, 2016 | Breakfast
Sanders Pushes On After Nevada Sanders faces daunting delegate math. NYT: "She is likely to win a delegate jackpot from the overwhelmingly black and Hispanic areas in the Southern-dominated Super Tuesday primaries on March 1, when 11 states will vote and about 880...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 22, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Here are five takeaways from the Republican primary in South Carolina and the Democratic caucuses in Nevada. 1. Populism Is Still Rising The populist revolt in both parties continues to build. In South Carolina, Donald Trump scorned George W. Bush, who is immensely...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 19, 2016 | Economy, Election 2016
Since the seventh anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – the "stimulus" – was this week, it was a good time to ask, "Who Do You Want In The White House When The Next Recession Comes?" On Friday, Ed Dolan, writing in Nouriel Roubini's...
by Terrance Heath | Feb 19, 2016 | Blog
That didn’t take long. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead on Saturday morning, after expiring in his sleep on Friday night. The conspiracy theories started late Sunday, and the GOP presidential frontrunner was spouting them. At the time of his death,...
by People's Action | Feb 19, 2016 | Breakfast
Dems Duel In Nevada Town Hall Sanders knocks Bill Clinton's welfare reform record at MSNBC/Telemundo town hall. W. Post: "Sanders said among the differences he had with Clinton during the 1990s was 'so-called welfare reform,' which Sanders said had the effect of...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 19, 2016 | Conservatism, Democracy
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death has detonated a political furor over the nomination of his successor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared total obstruction, announcing that the nomination of a new justice should await election...
by Bill Scher | Feb 19, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
For a moment, after he underperformed his poll numbers in Iowa, it seemed like our Donald Trump nightmare was over. But then Trump sightly overperformed in New Hampshire, despite lacking a traditional get-out-the-vote effort. And Trump's poll numbers in South Carolina...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Feb 18, 2016 | Blog, Climate, Progressive Vision
Bleak news for fossil fuels is piling up higher than an icy Washington snowbank in the capital’s most precipitation-challenged state. Peabody Energy, the nation’s biggest coal company, is limping toward bankruptcy after its shares sank 99 percent over the past two...
by Dave Johnson | Feb 18, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman went to California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and aquarium to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Froman claimed that TPP would be good for the environment, and Monterey's local economy. A trade...
by Jeff Bryant | Feb 18, 2016 | Blog
There's a dangerous myth being perpetrated that the American public has given up on publican education. Those making this claim point to the swelling enrollments of charter schools and the spread of school vouchers that allow parents to transfer their children out of...
by People's Action | Feb 18, 2016 | Breakfast
Bernie Boom Prompts AFL-CIO Pause AFL-CIO holds off on endorsement, buoying Sanders. WSJ: "What’s not clear, however, is if that means the group hasn’t reached the level of support it needs to give a candidate a nod, or if it has but is choosing to delay an...
by Robert Borosage | Feb 18, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Election 2016
Listening to the presidential debates would suggest that the only foreign policy challenges that the U.S. faces are ISIS, Syria and a touch of Ukraine. Accelerating catastrophic climate changes – already costing hundreds of billions in damage and destabilizing...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Feb 17, 2016 | Jobs and Growth
Wednesday marked the seventh anniversary of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – the "stimulus bill" – and Vice President Joe Biden marked the anniversary with a visit to New Orleans to tout the legislation's success. The trip was also a...
by Bill Scher | Feb 17, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
In the Democratic presidential nomination race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are in a tight race for Nevada, but Clinton is far ahead in South Carolina and 10 of the early March contests. A Sanders win in Nevada could change those numbers, but the likelihood...
by Mary Bottari | Feb 17, 2016 | Trade
A stunning show is wrapping up at the Royal Museum in Brussels called 2050: Brief History of the Future. Near the entrance, a poster is emblazoned with "Let the Future Tell the Truth, Another World Is Possible." The slogan "Another World Is Possible" was popularized...
by People's Action | Feb 17, 2016 | Breakfast
Polls Tight Clinton up 1 in CNN Nevada poll: "Overall, 48% of likely caucus attendees say they support Clinton, 47% Sanders ... with Clinton holding an edge among women, while Sanders tops the former secretary of state among voters under age 55 ... both white and...
by Bill Scher | Feb 17, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
Conventional wisdom states that Republicans have every political reason to block anyone President Obama nominates for the Supreme Court. Any Republican who voted for an Obama nominee could face a primary challenge. The people who care most about judicial battles are...
by Robert Reich | Feb 16, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization. It died in 2016. RIP. It has been replaced by warring tribes: Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science. Libertarians...
