Issue #313

McDonald’s ruling could open door for unions The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that McDonald’s could be held jointly liable for labor and wage violations by its franchise operators—a decision that, if upheld, would disrupt longtime practices in the fast-food industry and ease the way for unionizing nationwide. Business groups called…

Issue #311

State Senate races: Republicans are dishing dirt through the mails Republicans have signaled early, in two key State Senate races, that they are ready to go negative with crude attack mailings with November’s election day still 99 days away. The stakes, in what’s expected to be a multimillion-dollar battle, are big scale.  Voters in Bellingham and…

Issue #310

Obama campaign vets: Pay us $5,000 to learn—and work on a campaign Two top veterans of President Obama’s campaigns are asking political campaigners to pay $5,000 per person for the chance to learn their secrets and then work for five weeks in an unpaid campaign job somewhere in America. Democratic operatives and progressive activists are questioning…

Issue #309

People could be cut off from health insurance, and Republicans are cheering openly about it If you’re high-fiving over things getting worse for working-class families, you’re doing it wrong. But that’s exactly the position Republican operatives and pundits found themselves in this week. On Tuesday, a D.C. Circuit Court panel ruled in the case of Halbig v. Burwell that…

Issue #308

‘Republicans aren’t good at ground games in Alaska. That’s their weakness’ Art Hackney has more than three decades of strategizing for Republican election campaigns in Alaska under his belt. And he’s rarely been so frustrated. From an office lined with awards for punchy political campaigns on behalf of senators, congressmen, and governors, Hackney has watched the…

Issue #307

Clueless rich kids on the rise: How millennial aristocrats will destroy our future Prevailing neoliberal ideology, which perverts capitalism as an economic system into capitalism as an unyielding political ideology, lurks in the shadows of almost every major issue in America, though nowhere is its influence more obvious or profound than in the spiraling rise of income and wealth inequality today. And…

Issue #306

Hobby Lobby: A new tool for crushing workplace unionization? A little-known religious exemption to United States labor law may have just become extremely important, thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hobby Lobby. By declaring that “closely held” corporations may hold religious beliefs, the court may have provided businesses with a new tool for crushing workplace unionization drives. In…

Issue #305

With her call to action, Warren cuts sharp contrast to Clinton   As the 2016 presidential race approaches, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) may be entering a different phase of her career—one in which she’s beating back lots of unwanted attention. On Friday morning in Detroit, a crowd of liberal activists roared, “Run, Liz, run! Run, Liz, run!”…

Issue #304

GOP voters in Maryland face dilemma as theocrats win primaries Something unusual is happening in the politics of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Michael Peroutka, one-time presidential candidate of the Constitution Party, won the Republican primary for a seat on the County Council and GOP Central Committee. His pastor, and partner in the Christian historical revisionist…

Issue #303

The coming Democratic schism There is a striking generational split in the Democratic electorate. This deepening division is apparent in a June Pew Research Center survey of more than 10,000 people, “Beyond Red vs. Blue.” The Pew survey points up the emergence of a cohort of younger voters who are loyal to the Democratic Party, but much…