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  • What We Should be Talking About: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisers

    John Kennedy used to say, “Domestic policy can hurt us; foreign policy can kill us.”

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  • Dying to Live in Mexico

    In 2011, some 12,000 people were murdered in situations presumably related to the drug trafficking industry in Mexico. In 2010, the number was more than 15,000 killed. Between December 2006, when Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) took office and declared a “war on drug traffickers” and January 2012, depending on the…

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  • THE PAYROLL TAX CUT: Talk about a Ponzi Scheme!

    By Gwendolyn Mink Is President Obama trying to kill Social Security without explicitly saying so? He put Social Security “on the table” for consideration by his Deficit Commission — even though Social Security has not contributed to creating or sustaining the deficit/debt in the first place. He kept Social Security on the table when he…

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  • Stop the Cuts to the Social Safety Net!

    Medicaid cuts will injure communities of color disproportionately. 11 percent of Asian Americans, 14 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 27 percent of Latinos, and 27 percent of African Americans gain access to health care through Medicaid. Medicaid cuts will injure women disproportionately. Women account for 70 percent of Medicaid participants. Social Security is…

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  • Fires Near Los Alamos Nuclear Facility

    The forests surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory have burned and are certain to burn again with some regularity, whether from lightning or human causes.  If too many trees are allowed to remain near laboratory facilities, those too will sooner or later burn, despite everyone’s best efforts. We are not as yet very concerned about radioactive…

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  • Case Against Cutting Social Security

    The case against cutting Social Security is strong. · Social Security benefits are modest by any measure and are already being cut – by raising the age of eligibility for full benefits and by deducting ever-rising Medicare premiums from benefit checks. · The cuts already in law add up to a19 percent reduction for people…

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  • Samantha Power, Libya, and Selective Memory of Genocide

    It might seem a bit surprising to see Samantha Power on the National Security Council and working with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Power famously called a “monster” during the 2008 presidential campaign. But this was a heat-of-battle bit of name-calling, not a designation based on any difference in outlook. Both women are hardliners,…

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  • Low-Income Women Pushed to the Sidelines

    Low-income women have been invisible in budget deliberations thus far – yet they will be injured disproportionately by cuts to income programs like Social Security and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF], as well by cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Food Stamps. Despite the prolonged recession, income assistance to low-income families has shriveled over the past decade, providing…

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  • Trumka Questioned on Wisconsin, Two-Party System, Journalism and Obama

    Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, stopped by the National Press Club this afternoon. Trumka underlined the need for economic equality in a 30 minute address before fielding questions submitted by the audience and selected by NPC President Mark Hamrick. Hamrick asked variations of three questions submitted by IPA. Here’s a transcript of those exchanges:…

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  • Herman: U.S., NATO Hypocrisy on Libya Precludes Their Action

    I’m surprised that Phyllis Bennis doesn’t recognize the problems of what we may call “clean hands” — and hypocrisy — in her call for Security Council action on Libya. Do the United States, UK, France and Germany have clean hands that would justify antiwar, anti-imperialist and humanitarians calling upon them to act against Libya? They…

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  • Will Clinton Cut Social Security?

    “Secretary Clinton has not been clear about where she stands. She has talked about expanding benefits for those who are most vulnerable, but has been silent about whether she would support cuts. She has actually hinted in some statements that she might be open to them.”

  • Party Bosses Rigging Debate Process

    “To accomplish their goals, the major parties took exceptional steps to assert control over the primary debates for the 2016 election. Both parties adopted the same radical, anti-democratic policy: if a candidate participates in a debate that is not sanctioned by the party, that candidate will be summarily excluded from the debates approved by the…

  • Clinton: Still Falsifying on Iraq War Vote

    “Hillary Clinton did not vote to authorize the Iraq war in order to bring UN inspectors back in, as she claimed in last night’s [CNN] “Town Hall” meeting. She voted against the Levin Amendment, which would have authorized the use of force if Iraq refused to fully cooperate with UN inspectors. Instead, she voted for…

  • TPP Deal Signing Today

    “The TPP also threatens U.S. sovereignty and democracy by adding 9,000 corporations who can sue the United States if laws are passed in the public interest that undermine their profits. We recently saw the denial of permits for the KXL pipeline resulting in a $15 billion lawsuit under NAFTA. We also recently saw that U.S.…

  • Obama in a Mosque After 7 Years in Office

    “Beyond statements from the right, Kundnani also notes that Obama has spent years distancing himself from Muslims and Kundnani criticizes a brand of Islamophobia when political figures — like Obama and Hillary Clinton — call for Muslims to accept their special responsibility to denounce terrorism.”

  • Will the Next President Go After Corporate Criminals?

    “As Warren reports, street criminals are locked up for long stretches for crimes that involve thousands — or even hundreds — of dollars while corporate criminals game the system, cheat families, rip off taxpayers, and even take actions that result in the death of innocent victims — all with no serious consequences.”

  • Democratic Party “Insurrection”

    “Election campaigns are distinct from movements even if they converge for a while, no matter what pundits and campaign spinners say. Candidates often want to harness social movements for their campaigns. But our best approach is to view electoral campaigns as — at best — subsets of movements, not the other way around.”

  • The Billionaire’s Election, The Sanders Exception

    “Hillary and Bill Clinton earned a phenomenal $139 million for themselves between 2007 and 2014, chiefly from writing books and speaking to various high-paying Wall Street and international corporations. Between 2013 and 2015, Hillary Clinton gave 12 speeches to Wall Street banks, private equity firms, and other financial corporations, pocketing a whopping $2,935,000. And she’s…

  • Gates Foundation: Pushing “Values of Corporate America”

    “The Gates Foundation has rapidly become the most influential actor in the world of global health and agricultural policies, but there’s no oversight or accountability in how that influence is managed. This concentration of power and influence is even more problematic when you consider that the philanthropic vision of the Gates Foundation seems to be…

  • Understanding Scandinavian Socialism

    “In the U.S., full-time salaried workers supposedly laboring 40 hours a week actually average 49, with almost 20 percent clocking more than 60. These people, on the other hand, worked only about 37 hours a week, when they weren’t away on long paid vacations. At the end of the work day, about four in the…

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