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Why workers are up in arms over the rail strike intervention
The rail industry can thank Congress and the president for helping it secure $321 million in annual profits at the expense of workers.
The United States Senate acted in a show of rare unity recently in voting 80 to 15 to pass a bill forcing rail workers to accept their employers’ contract offer without a strike. There was no such unity to pass an amendment introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have given rail workers seven paid sick leave days. That bill did not pass even though 52 senators voted for it, as it failed the requisite 60-vote threshold. Continue reading
Biden playing the long game by moving South Carolina up to first primary state
Joe Biden may be 80 years old but only Republicans and a few wobbly Democrats who think the president is out grazing in a pasture are underestimating someone who is, first and foremost, a politician of the old school. Biden’s decision to have the Democratic Party hold its first primary in 2024 in South Carolina, thus edging out traditional first primary state New Hampshire, as well as the first nominating process—caucus—state Iowa, is a political master stroke of genius. As it now stands, South Carolina will lead the Democratic primary calendar on Saturday, February 3. Having the primary election on a Saturday will likely increase voter participation among two Democratic strongholds, African-Americans and college students. Continue reading
Will democracies be polarized out of existence?
From the United States and Brazil to Israel and Hungary, liberals approach the widening gap in political perceptions with incredulity while Illiberals see polarization as a political opportunity to destroy democracy.
Every election these days seems more consequential than the last. Continue reading
Corporate CEOs gone wild: Raking in inflation profits and busting unions
Democratic politicians who don’t call out powerful corporations and their CEO’s as the driving force behind inflation risk allowing the GOP, the party with no plan to combat the skyrocketing costs to consumers of almost everything, to take power in the elections next week. Continue reading
Critics warn GOP midterm victory would be disaster for working class, democracy, and planet
Progressive leaders and Democratic Party supporters are raising last-minute alarms over the unparalleled catastrophe that would result if the Republican Party—an organization many see as a creeping fascist force in the United States and on the world stage—manages to win control of one or both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm election. Continue reading
Electoral denialism cuts across party lines: Despite What the corporate media would have us believe, both parties engage in the ‘big lie,’ and the rest of lose because of it
Speaking to the January 6th Committee on September 29, 2022, Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stood by her contention that the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was stolen. Thomas and others who doubt the legitimacy of the election results have been convinced to believe “the big lie.” The big lie refers to an incomprehensible distortion or misrepresentation of the truth as a form of propaganda. It is often attributed to the Nazis’ big lie about the Jews after World War I, which served to justify the holocaust for sympathizers. Germany’s Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels explained, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Continue reading
Thirty progressive Democrats break rank, calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine
In a dramatic break with the Biden administration on the eve of the midterm elections, 30 House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden urging him to engage in direct talks with Russian President Vladmir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. In addition to bilateral talks, signatories to the letter, initiated by Progressive Caucus Chair Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, urge the White House to support a mutual ceasefire and diplomatic efforts to avoid a protracted war that threatens more human suffering and spiraling global inflation, as well as nuclear war through intention or miscalculation. Continue reading
What could Donald Trump be thinking about the Democratic Party?
Imagine Donald Trump dining with two of his supposed political advisers. Being an advisor to Donald means you soak up Donald’s political comments and feed them back to him. At this dinner, Donald was spouting off about the Democratic Party. Continue reading
Republican ‘solutions’ will make inflation worse
If cutting corporate tax rates and making billionaires wealthier actually fixed inflation, it would have been fixed ages ago.
My wife and I recently had the tremendous misfortune of needing to buy a car. Car prices, you may know, reached an all-time high between this year and last. Continue reading
Sanders says Biden admin ‘must reject’ merger of Kroger and Albertsons
"At a time when food prices are soaring as a result of corporate greed, it would be an absolute disaster to allow Kroger... to merge with Albertsons," said the Vermont progressive.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is among those calling on the Biden administration to block the proposed merger between erstwhile rival grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, which was formally announced Friday morning. Continue reading
Peace activists hit the streets from D.C. to San Francisco
On September 18, President Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t” use nuclear weapons in retaliation for severe battlefield losses in Ukraine. While Putin dismissed Biden’s worries as unfounded, the specter of nuclear Armageddon drove U.S. antiwar activists to the streets days before in a September Week of Action organized by the Peace in Ukraine Coalition. Continue reading
Barbara Ehrenreich helped make inequality visible—her legacy lives on in a reinvigorated labor movement
Have you heard of Jaz Brisack, Liz Fong-Jones and Chris Smalls? Continue reading
Will America see a 2nd major renewal of the middle class?
It’s easy to get lost in despair and outrage over the state of affairs in America. Women and queer people are being forced back into the kitchen and closet, climate change is killing scores of Americans every week, our schools and public areas are under constant assault by armed Republican gangs and GOP-sanctioned mass shooters. Over the past decade more than a million American lives have been lost to “deaths of despair” as a result of our 40-year experiment with Reagan’s neoliberalism. Continue reading
GOP attacks on Social Security makes popular program key midterm issue
Social Security advocates on Wednesday applauded Democrats including U.S. President Joe Biden for their defense of the popular program as Republicans recycle false claims that the nation will soon be unable to pay for the program’s benefits, making the monthly payments that help support more than 65 million Americans a key issue ahead of the midterm elections. Continue reading
Cheney’s loss predicated by Trumpist death threats
Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the co-chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection, faced constant death threats from supporters of Donald Trump and his hand-picked opponent to Cheney, Harriet Hageman. In a state like Wyoming, where handshaking retail campaigning is a key to electoral success, being forced to host small political events in living rooms proved to be an electoral disaster for Ms. Cheney. Death threats against other Republican and Democratic opponents of Trump have been reported from around the country, a fact that led some Republicans in the House to decide not to seek re-election. Continue reading
Progressives slam Senate passage of $76 billion ‘corporate giveaway’
"Rather than give aid to needy American families," said one progressive group, "the Senate decided to rise to the occasion to cut taxes for already-profitable technology companies like Intel."
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed sweeping bipartisan legislation that Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressive advocacy groups decried as a massive giveaway to corporations such as Intel, whose CEO has been lobbying aggressively in support of the bill’s subsidies for the profitable microchip industry. Continue reading
Sanders, Jayapal slam Manchin’s ‘sabotage’ of progressive agenda
WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., have finally had it with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s “sabotage”—Sanders’ word—of the party’s progressive agenda on Capitol Hill. Continue reading
Senate urged to block Biden’s pro-privatization nominee for Social Security Advisory Board
"The Senate can, and must, block this terrible nomination," Social Security Works said of the administration's choice of Andrew Biggs.
Defenders of Social Security on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to block President Joe Biden’s little-noticed nomination of Andrew Biggs—an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow with a history of supporting Social Security privatization—to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board. Continue reading
Trumpite Postmaster General DeJoy sued over huge gas guzzler buy
NEW YORK—Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has caught flak ever since former Republican Oval Office occupant Donald Trump forced the U.S. Postal Service to accept the GOP big giver into its top job, has put his foot in it again. Continue reading
In ‘crisis moment’ for abortion rights, Biden weighs declaring public health emergency
"This is a five-alarm fire," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, "and we cannot wait to respond."
With the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court expected to overturn Roe v. Wade as soon as this month, President Joe Biden is reportedly weighing a number of executive orders to protect abortion rights at the federal level—including declaration of a national public health emergency—as progressive lawmakers and rights groups push him to act. Continue reading
Warren, Murray lead call for Biden to defend abortion rights via executive order
"With an extremist Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, now is the time to act," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
With the U.S. Supreme Court expected to issue a ruling later this month that could overturn Roe v. Wade and imperil abortion rights nationwide, a group of 25 senators on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to do all he can through executive action to protect reproductive freedoms at the federal level. Continue reading
Court’s draft ruling a part of a bigger right-wing strategy
WASHINGTON—A draft U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion eliminating abortion rights angered women and pro-choice advocates and sparked a political war on both sides of what anti-abortionists have made their cultural issue keystone for 49 years. Continue reading
How young workers are unionizing Starbucks
Starbucks Workers United is racking up victorious union votes in one branch after another of the iconic American coffee chain. A young California-based worker-organizer explains why this organizing campaign is different.
At only 19 years old, Joe Thompson is one of the youngest lead organizers with Starbucks Workers United (SWU), the umbrella organization at the forefront of one of the most exciting labor successes of the last few years. Thompson, who started working at the coffee chain at age 16, told me in a recent interview, “Starbucks likes to claim it’s super-progressive, and a lot of workers there are, but we’re the ones actually holding Starbucks accountable to that standard.” Continue reading
Pressure mounts on Biden to take action on student loan debt
Less than 24 hours after news broke that President Biden is seriously considering canceling tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, organizers mobilized. Continue reading
When the Left is Right…Far Right
How is it possible that so many left voters in France are willing to choose a far-right candidate in the second round of the presidential elections?
In the twentieth century, the left defined itself as anti-fascist. It was against Franco in Spain, Hitler in Germany, and Mussolini in Italy. During the Cold War, progressives opposed far-right dictators like Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. It mobilized against neo-Nazis in Germany, right-wing militias in the United States, and fascist formations elsewhere in the world. Continue reading
Are Iowa’s days as the nation’s first presidential nominating contest numbered?
The jockeying has begun over which mix of states might take part in a series of coordinated opening primaries for 2024’s Democratic nominee.
In the past half-century since the Iowa caucuses have led off the presidential nominating season, only one Democratic candidate who was not already president—a U.S. senator from the neighboring state of Illinois, Barack Obama—went on to win the White House. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden all lost in Iowa in their first bid for the presidency, even though they went on to win the nomination and the election. Continue reading
The Tom Paine tax plan
Over two centuries ago, Tom Paine urged our new republic to tax extreme wealth. This tax season, President Biden is picking up the call.
The great pamphleteer of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, had much more on his mind than independence from the British. Continue reading
Corporate media ignores Senate hearing on corporate greed and inflation
It is exceedingly rare for a major congressional committee to hold hearings on “corporate greed” leading to corporate profiteering and surging prices on consumer goods. On April 5, 2022, Senate Budget Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chartered uncensored territory on corporate avarice with a lead witness, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Continue reading
Biden’s real challenge is not Russia or China, but poverty in America
Mainstream US media continues to celebrate the supposed strength of the US economy. Almost daily, headlines speak of hopeful numbers, sustainable growth, positive trends and constant gains. The reality on the ground, however, tells of something entirely different, which raises the questions: Are Americans being lied to? And for what purpose? Continue reading
‘Is Pelosi insane?’ Dems rebuked over $500 million in military aid to Ukraine
"Fast-tracking massive weapons transfers to Ukraine and ginning up a new war with a nuclear-armed Russia" is a terrible idea, warns leading peace advocate.
Despite warnings that a dangerous war with Russia could soon be unleashed if diplomatic efforts fail, House Democrats are reportedly looking to bypass typical procedures and fast-track a vote on legislation that would send $500 million in military aid to Ukraine—a move that critics say only adds fuel to the fire. Continue reading
Senate Republicans, after stormy debate, sink voting rights bill
Democratic lawmakers and people’s movements continue the fight nevertheless.
WASHINGTON—Catering to their white nationalist Donald Trump constituents and the corporate contributors who fund GOP campaigns, the Senate’s 50 Republicans sent the two big voting rights bills down the drain again. Continue reading
The Yemen yes-men ride again
Posted on December 19, 2022 by Thomas L. Knapp
“Today,” US Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Masquerading-as-I-VT) said in a December 13 statement, “I withdrew from consideration by the U.S. Senate my War Powers Resolution after the Biden administration agreed to continue working with my office on ending the war in Yemen. Let me be clear. If we do not reach agreement, I will, along with my colleagues, bring this resolution back for a vote in the near future and do everything possible to end this horrific conflict.” Continue reading →