By Robert Reich – Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it. They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs. 1. Berate the media. Last week, Trump summoned two-dozen TV news anchors and executives to the twenty-fifth floor of Trump Tower to berate…
Drum and song from the Yakama Nation’s arrival at Standing Rock By Neil Young – Tales of a feast on Plymouth plantation in the Autumn of 1621, where of pilgrims from the Mayflower, celebrated the harvest, shared and broke bread with the first Americans are false. They are still used as inspiration and shared with…
The media must not excuse the racism, misogyny, nativism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia because we think Trump voters have legitimate gripes. By Neal Gabler – It didn’t take a clairvoyant to predict that President-elect Donald Trump would be almost instantly normalized by the press since he had already been normalized by them when he was a…
By Juan Cole – Informed Comment – I argued that President Obama’s carbon-reduction plan wasn’t anything to write home about. He want to reduce our annual emissions from 5.4 billion metric tons of CO2 annually from the US to 4.7 billion metric tons by 2030. It isn’t an insignificant reduction, but it doesn’t at all…
By Robert Reich – As a first step, I believe it necessary for the members and leadership of the Democratic National Committee to step down and be replaced by people who are determined to create a party that represents America – including all those who feel powerless and disenfranchised, and who have been left out…
By John L. Micek – So who’s winning the Commander-in-Chief Election? In their first proximate — but not joint –appearance of the fall campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump each made the case for their foreign policy chops this week. Their backdrop: The retired aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Intrepid, in New York City.…
Bar corporations from deducting all executive pay in excess of $1 million – By Robert Reich – What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up prices of critical drugs? To prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling? To nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term view? To restrain runaway CEO pay? Answer to…
By Robert Reich – I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s history.” I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.” Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view. Think Mitt Romney or Michael…
By Peter Funt – November’s biggest loser might not be Donald Trump — even if he gets clobbered at the polls. The person with the most to lose is Sean Hannity, the Fox News Channel host from Alabama, who isn’t just hitching his wagon to Trump’s campaign, he’s almost single-handily building the wagon on his…
By Robert Reich – The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans. Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and by Humana, another one…
By Dick Polman – If you read Superman comics as a kid, you’re probably familiar with Bizarro World —- the planet where everything is the opposite of life on Earth. I bring this up because it’s clear Donald Trump is running for president of Bizarro World. Trump is on track to lose female voters like…
EDITOR’S NOTE – For info about a free roundtrip bus on Saturday from Mobile to this demonstration go to the Facebook event page for Gulf Coast Interdependence Day. You can sign up as a volunteer and RSVP to attend and find out details about the bus and other matters. The free bus will leave from…
By Robert Reich – It looks increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton, a self-described “progressive who likes to get things done,” will have her chance starting next January. But how much that’s progressive will she actually be able to get done? The Senate may flip to the Democrats but there’s almost no way Democrats will get…
By Yotam Moram – A BRIEF NOTE TO THE READER FROM THE AUTHOR: I’ve been writing this piece for a year and a half. I’ve thought a lot about how complicated it is to share something like this in a time of such upheaval  —  in a country where an unarmed Black person is murdered…
A Conservative View – By Christine Flowers – I’m morbidly fascinated by the rhetorical mud being slung between Democrats and Republicans these days. How exhilarating to hear Hillary Clinton labeled “unstable” by Donald Trump, who is himself called “bat(bleep)-crazy” by a fellow billionaire and Hillaryite, Mark Cuban. This week, though, I actually do need to…
By Robert Reich – One of Bernie Sanders’s most important proposals didn’t receive enough attention and should become a law even without a president Sanders. Hillary Clinton should adopt it for her campaign. It’s a tax on financial transactions. Putting a small tax on financial transactions would: 1. Reduce incentives for high speed trading, insider…
By John L. Micek – Donald Trump knew what he was doing Tuesday afternoon. Make no mistake. “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment,” a smiling Trump said of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a rally in Wilmington, N.C. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can…
By Robert Reich – “Without a border, we just don’t have a country,“ Donald Trump says repeatedly. For him, the biggest threats to American sovereignty are three-dimensional items that cross our borders, such as unwanted imports and undocumented immigrants. He’s wrong. The biggest threats to American sovereignty are invisible digital dollars wired into U.S. election…
By Hank Sanders – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — What will this looming special legislative session bring? Will it bring fiscal solutions for Medicaid? Will it bring solutions for the hemorrhaging General Fund? Will it bring expansion of Medicaid? Will it bring long lurking gambling efforts to a head? Will it bring better or worse public education?…
By John L. Micek – There are two sets of numbers, both related and intertwined, that should keep Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania awake at night. The first one: 49-38 percent. That’s Democrat Hillary Clinton’s current advantage over Donald Trump among likely voters in Pennsylvania in a new Franklin-Marshall College poll. The second one:…
