Posted on 19 February 2020. Tags: Dean Baker, Federal Reserve Board, Financial Transactions Tax, Indiana, Jim Harper, Progressives
It’s easy to get dragged into a negative head space if you do any kind of politics or movement building work—it’s hard out there and too often we have a tendency to focus on the really bad stuff, like “the planet is burning up and imploding” or a few people own more wealth in the […]
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Posted in Audio, Economy, Podcast, Politics
Posted on 12 February 2020. Tags: Family Leave, FMLA, Lauren Ashcraft, New York, Progressives
Hypocrisy is pretty much a given when you are in politics. I’ve pointed out the particular hypocrisy of all those flag-waving politicians who shout a full-throated “I support our men and women in uniform” but, then, cut benefits for vets and cut funds for the VA. Today, I hone in on another hypocrisy: politicians who […]
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Posted in Audio, Economy, Podcast, Politics
Posted on 05 February 2020. Tags: Debbie Berkowitz, Montana, Poultry, Safety and Health, Tom Winter
It’s pretty likely that when you cut into a nice juicy roast chicken at home or in a restaurant a worker in some poultry processing plant was injured cutting up that chicken into commercial pieces. And in some cases, it’s even worse: in January, two workers in poultry plants were killed in the space of […]
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Posted in Audio, Economy, Labor, Podcast, Politics
Posted on 29 January 2020. Tags: Kathy Ellis, Missouri, Morgan Harper, Ohio, Oregon, Paige Kreisman
With the Iowa caucuses just a few days away, I thought this would be a good time to devote the entire episode to progressive candidates who I’ve been talking to over the course of a number of weeks, with many more to come throughout the year. Today, you’ll hear from three women candidates—two are running […]
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Posted in Audio, General Interest, Podcast, Politics
Posted on 21 January 2020. Tags: Care Work, Domestic Workers, Eric Gottwald, Inequality, NAFTA, Oxfam, Paul O'Brien, Trade
“Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people.” Those two sentences lead off Oxfam’s annual look at inequality. This year, Oxfam looks at unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. I speak with Paul O’Brien, Vice President of Policy […]
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Posted in Audio, Economy, Labor, Podcast
Posted on 15 January 2020. Tags: "Free Trade", Bernie Sanders, NAFTA, USMCA
WASHINGTON, January 15—Today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-V.t.) spoke in opposition to the United States, Mexico, Canada Free Trade Agreement (USMCA) in the U.S. Senate. The following are the Senator’s prepared floor remarks: “Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the NAFTA 2.0 trade agreement negotiated by Trump. “This agreement is opposed by labor unions like […]
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Posted in Economy, Labor, Politics
Posted on 15 January 2020. Tags: Jon Hoadley, Michigan, National COSH, OSHA, Peter Dooley, Safety and Health
Most people, when they walk out the door to go to work, don’t think, “damn, I’m going to get killed today or seriously ill with a chronic disease”. Yes, if you work in a mine or on a construction site, you are more aware of the dangers. But, most people just assume work is a […]
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Posted in Audio, Labor, Podcast, Politics, Workers
Posted on 08 January 2020. Tags: Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, GOP Tax Robbery, ITEP, Matt Gardner, Taxes, Texas, U.S. Senate
The GOP Tax Robbery Bill, the tax cuts that shoveled hundreds of billions of dollars into the hands of the very rich and corporations, was built on a complex set of lies. And, now with the close of 2019 and the numbers in on a full year of corporate 2018 tax returns, we have the […]
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Posted in General Interest
Posted on 25 December 2019. Tags: Fight for 15, Kara Eastman, Minimum Wage, Nebraska, Yannet Lathrop
As the New Year beckons, there’s good news and bad news on wages. The good news is something I’ve been able to talk about for the past few years at the end of each year—come January 1st, a whole lot of people are going to see their paychecks increase because of some state and local […]
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Posted in Audio, Economy, Labor, Podcast, Politics
Posted on 18 December 2019. Tags: California, Hard Rock Hotel, ICE, Jose Ramirez Palma, Liam O'Mara, Mary Yanik, Mike Siegel, New Orleans, OSHA, Texas, Workplace Safety and Health
Shut your damn mouth or be deported. That’s basically the upshot of what happened to Delmer Joel Ramirez Palma, who wanted to tell the truth about the collapse of the under-construction Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans but, two days after he was hurt in the disaster, Joel found himself dragged off by ICE into […]
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Posted in Audio, Labor, Podcast, Politics