by Leo Gerard | Jan 26, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism
The people of Michigan hired themselves a GOP businessman to be governor in 2011. And what they got was children poisoned by public water in Flint. That is, what they got was a government run based on GOP business values. To line the pockets of CEOs and shareholders,...
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 26, 2016 | Blog, Education
How should public schools and classroom teachers address a student population increasingly traumatized by the effects of chronic poverty? A majority of children attending the nation’s public schools now come from low-income families, according to a study released a...
by People's Action | Jan 26, 2016 | Breakfast
Final Pitches At Town Hall Sanders and Clinton joust over judgment at CNN town fall forum. W. Post: "'Experience is important, but judgment is also important,' Sanders said. He noted that he had voted against the Iraq invasion [and] could be counted upon to buck the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 26, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
For those who have been closely watching the Democratic presidential contest between Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders, Tuesday night's Iowa town hall discussion on CNN did not reveal anything dramatically new about the candidates. But it perhaps...
by Digby | Jan 25, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism
We are one week ahead of the Iowa caucuses and all hell has broken loose in the Republican Party. What was once thought would be a simple two-lane race between an “establishment” candidate and an “outsider” candidate has given way to a free for all. And what it...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 25, 2016 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
A grassroots/labor/faith/community coalition called Silicon Valley Rising on Monday went to the San Jose, Calif. City Clerk’s office to submit the "Opportunity to Work" ballot initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to require employers to offer qualified...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 25, 2016 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will likely be back in the news at least for a brief moment next week, when the treaty comes up for a formal signing ceremony involving representatives of the 12 participating countries, including the United States. The agreement...
by People's Action | Jan 25, 2016 | Breakfast
Battle for the Soul of the Party Democratic candidate town hall on CNN tonight: "Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley will make their closing arguments Monday ... The event, moderated by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, will air from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET..."...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Just like a cold sore, Sarah Palin’s back, again. And just like every time before, it’s not pretty. Not pretty at all. She turned up in Ames, Iowa this week, dressed to draw attention to herself in a fringe-laden sweater that looked like something picked up at Dolly...
by Bill Scher | Jan 22, 2016 | Uncategorized
Sanders Touts Polls Sanders makes the case for electability. The Hill: "Speaking to supporters in Wolfeboro, N.H., on Thursday evening, Sanders cited a CNN/WMUR New Hampshire poll that showed that Sanders would fare better than Clinton against various Republican...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog
Panic now grips the Clinton campaign. Polls show Bernie Sanders surging to a dramatic lead in New Hampshire and closing in Iowa. The Washington Post reports that Hillary's national numbers are dropping faster now than they did in 2008. The Clinton campaign has started...
by Bill Scher | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
Rush Limbaugh made a startling admission on Wednesday, in the course of discussing the staying power of Donald Trump and the value of the Sarah Palin endorsement: "It's now out in the open that the Republican conservative base is not monolithically conservative ......
by Jim Hightower | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog, Populist Majority, Progressive Vision
The problem with applying conventional wisdom to political campaigns is that it can suddenly be upended by an unconventional campaign. National media pundits have been riveted by Donald Trump’s flagrantly narcissistic run for the Republican presidential nomination....
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog, Education
Earlier this month, news about a U.S. Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, raised concerns for progressives everywhere – and for good reason. As my colleague Dave Johnson writes, the case is about “making every state a ‘right-to-work’...
by Gloria Totten | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Gender Justice, Progressive Vision
The battle over abortion rights legislation is being fought almost entirely at the state level, with skirmishes in localities. This will most likely continue to be true for years to come. The anti-abortion forces understand this dynamic, have focused their resources...
by Bill Scher | Jan 21, 2016 | Uncategorized
Sanders Surge NYT explores the poll data underlying the "Sanders Surge": "... he shows signs of encroaching on her advantage among once-reliable demographic groups ... it is hard to predict how many of his supporters can be relied on to actually vote. But the latest...
by Bill Scher | Jan 21, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
On Wednesday, we learned two things. In 2014, the undocumented immigration population reached its lowest point since 2003. In 2015, the global temperature was at its highest point in recorded history. So what are Republicans talking about more? Immigration, of course....
by Terrance Heath | Jan 20, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Progressive Vision
The record $1.5 billion jackpot has been won, and Powerball mania has died down for now, but Americans are still stuck with a Powerball economy powered by the “lottery mentality.” A week ago, Americans were in the grip of Powerball mania. A record-making $1.5 billion...
by Robert Reich | Jan 20, 2016 | Blog, Economy, Jobs and Growth, Progressive Vision
Why did the white working class abandon the Democrats? The conventional answer is Republicans skillfully played the race card. In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, segregationists like Alabama Governor George C. Wallace led southern whites out of the Democratic Party....
by Bill Scher | Jan 20, 2016 | Uncategorized
Huge Bernie Lead In NH Sanders up 2-1 on Clinton in NH poll. CNN: "...the Vermont senator [is] leading the former secretary of state by 27 points, 60% to 33% ... But the Vermont senator's support rests heavily on groups whose participation in New Hampshire primaries...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 20, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism
"If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water, we would have done something about it." – Hillary Clinton “There are no excuses. The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint's water. He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, Economy
Every winter the world’s political and business elite retreat to the Swiss mountain resort of Davos to think deep thoughts and sup at five-star eateries. The corporate execs, bankers, and finance ministers who frequent this annual Davos World Economic Forum have of...
by Hedrick Smith | Jan 19, 2016 | Democracy, Progressive Vision
Back in the 1960s, when I was covering Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and other civil rights activists for The New York Times, I remember die-hard segregationists hurling an accusation at Dr. King that he was an “outside agitator.” “You’re comin’ into our town,”...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, Economy
You're going to be hearing a lot of whining and moaning in the coming days about the budget deficit going up. Well, guess what: the same people who will be whining and moaning about deficits and "government spending" pushed through massive tax cuts last year, which...
by Fred Redmond | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Progressive Vision, This Is The GOP
The GOP debate last week featured more immigrant bashing with the party’s front-runner, Donald Trump, reasserting his plan to construct a wall – this one a religious barrier preventing Muslims from getting into the country. Trump has mocked a disabled journalist and...
by Bill Scher | Jan 19, 2016 | Uncategorized
Dem Primary May Not End Quickly Clinton campaign needs to retool for extended campaign season. NYT: "Even though the Clinton team has sought to convey that it has built a national operation, the campaign has invested much of its resources in the Feb. 1 caucuses in...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016, Progressive Vision
Ten million people watched the Democratic debate on Sunday despite Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s best efforts to bury it on a holiday weekend night after the NFL playoffs. All three candidates had strong moments in a generally...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 15, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley easily gave the most successful GOP State of the Union response in years. So, why do so many in her own party seem to hate her for it? There’s no denying it. The GOP responses to the State of the Union address during Barack Obama’s...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 15, 2016 | Blog, Election 2016
The Clinton campaign is accusing the Sanders campaign of "going negative." It's all over the news today. Did Sanders really "go negative"? Or is this Clinton accusation just an attempt to "muddy the waters" as Clinton's attacks on Sanders' health care plans backfire?...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 15, 2016 | Conservatism, Election 2016
If you thought Thursday night's Fox Business Republican presidential debate left a lot of questions unanswered, and even more unasked, that are central to the national debate about jobs, the economy and the challenges working people face, you would be right. We...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
GOP's Hot, Dark Debate "GOP Candidates Try to Scare the Hell Out of America." The National Journal's Ron Fournier. "Taking advantage of laissez-faire moderators in their sixth debate, the GOP’s top seven presidential candidates spouted talking points...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 15, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016
Seven contenders lined up in the main Republican debate Thursday night in Charleston, South Carolina. Donald Trump, still leading in national polls, may not have won the night, but he has surely dictated its terms. The candidates were trumped-up, the vitriol hot, the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 14, 2016 | Election 2016, Progressive Vision
A new, deeply researched book to be published next month takes direct aim at much of the Democratic and progressive establishment, asserting that it is missing opportunities to build a durable political majority by not being fully engaged with the people of color at...
by Michael Winship | Jan 14, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
On May 21, 1946, less than a year after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, physicist Louis Slotin performed a dangerous experiment his colleagues at Los Alamos called “tickling the dragon’s tail.” He took two half-spheres of beryllium, each...
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 14, 2016 | Blog, Education
When President Barack Obama recently made an impassioned plea to do something about the proliferation of gun violence in America, he drew upon the images of elementary school children gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut to engage our emotions. "First graders," he...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 14, 2016 | Uncategorized
SOTU Post-game Action Obama Engages Americans on Vision for America. Voice of America: “President Barack Obama is on the road, meeting face-to-face with Americans following a lofty State of the Union address that painted an optimistic vision for America in the years...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 14, 2016 | Blog, Health, Progressive Vision
As the Iowa caucuses draw near and as Bernie Sanders closes in on Hillary Clinton in the polls, Clinton has started "attacking" (media word) Sanders' proposals for providing universal health care through a Medicare-for-All plan. The corporate media largely covers the...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2016 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Crybabies. That’s the perfect word to describe conservatives' reaction to President Obama’s final State of the Union address — as well as the official GOP response by South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. It started even before the president even delivered his address....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 13, 2016 | Climate
Judy Treichel was just trying to do the right thing for herself and for the planet – and for that she's being penalized as a result of efforts by the Koch brothers and other right-wingers working to protect the state's fossil-fuel monopoly. A couple of years ago, she...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2016 | Uncategorized
State of the Union Redux President Obama Scolds Donald Trump for Focus on Muslims. Time: “President Obama had some strong words for Republican candidates—especially party frontrunner Donald Trump—who have been warning that Muslims pose a threat in the United States....
