by Bill Scher | Jul 21, 2015 | Uncategorized
McConnell May Unveil Transportation Bill Today Senate Majority expresses confidence in bipartisan deal. The Hill: "...the Kentucky Republican is keeping the details close to his chest ... An initial list of offsets circulated among lawmakers and lobbyists included a...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 21, 2015 | Blog, Financial Reform
Today marks the fifth anniversary of Dodd-Frank, the complicated legislation designed to reform Wall Street after the financial crisis. Five years later, the debate still rages. Republicans denounce the reforms as a failure: “the big banks are bigger, the small banks...
by Thom Hartmann | Jul 20, 2015 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Scott Walker is the perfect example of how billionaires can purchase justice a la carte to protect their pet politicians. Now that’s not to say that Scott Walker himself is a billionaire. But he has a well-known relationship with billionaires like the Koch Brothers -...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 20, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
[fve]https://vimeo.com/132365752[/fve]Nick Hanauer discusses his worker "shared security" proposal in an interview with OurFuture.org. I have a love-hate relationship with ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. I love the convenience and level of service that...
by Robert Reich | Jul 20, 2015 | Blog, Economy, Financial Reform
The Greek debt crisis offers another illustration of Wall Street’s powers of persuasion and predation, although the Street is missing from most accounts. The crisis was exacerbated years ago by a deal with Goldman Sachs, engineered by Goldman’s current CEO, Lloyd...
by Bill Scher | Jul 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
Call To End Gerrymandering Hedrick Smith calls for grassroots movement to end gerrymandering: "...take heart – and take a cue – from the recent Supreme Court decision that casts a shadow on partisan gerrymandering ... the high Court declared that rank-and-file voters...
by Bill Scher | Jul 20, 2015 | Blog, Populist Majority
Last week I wrote that the GOP is on track to lose the Latino vote yet again. On the day Republicans face up to this problem, they at least know what they have to do: suck it up on immigration reform. But Republicans have a bigger demographic challenge looming over...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jul 17, 2015 | Health
Alaska’s Republican-turned-Independent Governor Bill Walker unilaterally moved today to accept federal funds for a Medicaid expansion. Alaska will become the 31st state, plus the District of Columbia, to accept money made available from the Affordable Care Act to...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 17, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
This week, wingnuts attacked Planned Parenthood, with deceptively edited video that would make James O’Keefe proud, got "trumped" again by presidential candidate and xenophobe Donald Trump, and freaked out over the Iran anti-nuke deal. The Sting Remember those heady...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 17, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
A Friday panel at Netroots Nation in Phoenix, "Unions as the Answer to the Defining Issue of our Time," made the point that empowering unions is about more than just the workers having a path to the middle class; it is about strengthening the entire economy. The panel...
by Bill Scher | Jul 17, 2015 | Blog
Ann Coulter is telling Republicans Latino voters are immovably Democratic, and so, there is no point trying to woo them with immigration reform. She argues the only swing voters are "working-class whites are the only swing voters" who, she implies, "detest"...
by Bill Scher | Jul 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hillary Fleshes Out Details Hillary pushes profit-sharing in NH town hall. NYT: "The 'rising incomes, sharing profits' tax credit Mrs. Clinton is proposing would give companies a two-year tax credit equivalent to 15 percent of profits distributed to employees, to be...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 16, 2015 | Blog, Education
The Thursday Netroots Nation panel, "Student Debt Crisis: How We Can Help Stop the Next Economic Bubble from Bursting," discussed ways to deal with the more than $1.2 trillion in student loan debt carried by 43 million Americans – and examined the implications for...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 16, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
Congress is finally giving due attention to task of forging a surface transportation authorization bill, but is still stymied on how to pay for it. Rushing into that vacuum is at least one good idea – but also a host of bad ones. Unless progressives amp up the...
by Emily Schwartz Greco | Jul 16, 2015 | Blog
Climate action is finally gaining ground in Washington. No, not that Washington. Following their victory in a Seattle court, eight children are pressing Washington State’s Department of Ecology to crack down on carbon pollution. The agency has until August 7 to reach...
by Bill Scher | Jul 16, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hillary, Bernie Tout Donor Bases Hillary Clinton leads in women donors. W. Post: "The $47.5 million Hillary Rodham Clinton raised during her first two and half months as a presidential candidate this year was boosted by a predominantly female donor base, her campaign...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 16, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016, This Is The GOP
When Republicans finally choose their nominee for president, he or she will be already bought and paid for by one or more of the GOP sugar daddies of the 2016 election. Never before have so many with little chance of — and even less interest in — being president,...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jul 16, 2015 | Democracy
President Obama will make history today when he becomes the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. The visit is the latest in a series of speeches and events this week aimed at drawing attention to the need for criminal justice reform. On Monday, Obama...
by Donald Kaul | Jul 15, 2015 | Current Issues, Economy
I’d like to apologize to the people of Greece. I’ve been pretty hard on them over the years. I’ve made fun of their freewheeling spendthrift habits, their unwillingness to pay their taxes, and their early retirement ethos. When they were given membership in the Euro...
by Jacob Woocher | Jul 15, 2015 | Conservatism, Economy
In a major speech Monday outlining her economic policy, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton effectively illustrated the contrast between progressive priorities and those of her conservative counterparts. In her address, Clinton focused not just on...
by Bill Scher | Jul 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
Global Day of Action Tomorrow Support United Flight Attendants OurFuture.org's Larry Cohen urges support for striking United Airlines workers: "Thursday’s global day of action and the battle for a fair contract are symbolic of the corporate profit and power grab that...
by Bill Scher | Jul 15, 2015 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Click here to sign our petition and tell Congress: No war with Iran. As Donald Rumsfeld might say, you can't start a war with the Republican Party you wish to have. Republicans in Congress may want to stop the international nuclear deal with Iran. They may prefer to...
by Larry Cohen | Jul 15, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
Beginning in Guam and moving with the sun to Frankfurt, London, Newark, Chicago, Denver and across to California and Hawaii, United Airlines flight attendants on Thursday will be putting management on notice that this is “Our Time” and “If not Now, When?” They will be...
by Cormac Close | Jul 14, 2015 | Financial Reform
For Djuan, it all began when he left his job at the Los Angeles Film School to go take care of his ailing mother in Wichita, Kansas. When she died last March, he had no job or income, and the bills were piling up. That’s when he turned to a payday lender for help. “I...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jul 14, 2015 | Climate
The Obama administration has taken an important step toward ensuring that America’s poorest residents – those who stand to gain the most from reductions in their energy costs – are no longer left out of the green energy boom. Last week’s announcement of a number of...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 14, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth, Tax Reform
Here comes the next big one. Now that the corporations have fast-track trade authority in the bag, they are trying to push a huge, huge tax giveaway through Congress. We have to get the word out so this doesn't just sneak through. We can't let them continue to rig the...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 14, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Jobs and Growth, This Is The GOP
Jeb! Bush, a boy born to wealth and privilege, whose family owns not a home but a compound of dwellings in Kennebunkport, Maine, and whose wife plunked down $25,600 for one pair of earrings, lectured last week that Americans should work longer hours. If Americans...
by Bill Scher | Jul 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
Iran Deal Forged Nuclear deal struck with Iran. NYT: "It will require Iran to reduce its current stockpile of low enriched uranium by 98 percent [and] extend to a year the amount of time it would take Iran to make enough material for a bomb should it abandon the...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 14, 2015 | Blog, Progressive Vision
Campaign aides billed Hillary Clinton’s economic address as a demonstration of her populist commitments. And as she trudged through her text, she assiduously touched virtually every base in the progressive economic agenda. Invest in infrastructure, check. Raise the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 13, 2015 | Conservatism, Education, Greek Crisis
There is a real sense that the deal that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has reached with European Union leaders is less a bailout of Greece's economy and more of a prelude to an overthrow of the leftist Syriza majority running the country – hence the popularity...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Election 2016, This Is The GOP
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has scored the biggest sugar daddies in the GOP presidential primary, but it may not be enough to get him the Republican presidential nomination, or the White House. Everyone knows Scott Walker has been running for president since...
by Cormac Close | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Financial Reform
Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee last Thursday celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by inviting a panel of handpicked experts to parrot the view that the act has been catastrophic for...
by Dave Johnson | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Retirement Security
The White House Conference on Aging opens today as more than 2.5 million petition signatures of people calling for Social Security expansion were delivered to the White House. This follows a Sunday letter to the White House from 70 Democratic senators and...
by Mary Bottari | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Scott Walker will announce for president today. After standing for 25 primary and general elections in 25 years, Walker has now set his eyes on the White House. As he officially hits the campaign trail this week, he will tout himself as a “fresh face” and a bold...
by Jeff Bryant | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Education
For some years now, the term "The Village" has circulated throughout the Internet blogosphere as a shorthand description of the insular life of the Washington, D.C. policy makers and media mavens. As Heather "Digby" Parton explained in 2009, the term is a metaphor for...
by Bill Scher | Jul 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hillary Lays Out Agenda Hillary Clinton to outline economic agenda at 10 AM ET. WSJ: "She will accuse [Republicans] of seeking growth without regard to whether the middle class thrives ... [She] will also draw implicit contrasts with Sen. Bernie Sanders ... Her...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 13, 2015 | Blog, Progressive Vision
It seems like overnight. Americans' attitudes are changing on social issues – like gay marriage and the flying of the Confederate flag at state capitols. But the changes seem fast only if you ignore the centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and repression, before that rapid...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 10, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
The Confederate battle flag at South Carolina’s capitol was finally lowered today, after flying for more than half a century. Many American’s cheered as the symbol of hatred and bigotry finally came down. Wingnuts, not so much. Both South Carolina’s state Senate and...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 10, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Progressive Vision
As of this morning, the Confederate battle flag no longer flies at South Carolina’s capitol. The work to remove this symbol of hatred from the capitol is finished. Now begins the work of exorcising the legacy of the past it represents....
by Dave Johnson | Jul 10, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
The fast-track authority legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership recently passed by Congress says we can't make "trade" agreements like TPP with countries that violate human rights. There is a report that to get around this rule the administration is going to...
