Category Archives: Medicare For All

House paid sick leave covers only 20% of workers, it’s a scam.

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Even in a pandemic, the long arm of big corporate interests drives legislation. Turns out the much heralded paid sick leave provision in the house bill doesn’t cover large companies with over 500 employees. That’s more than half the workforce. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday night celebrated the coronavirus legislation that passed early Saturday as providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the pandemic. She neglected to mention the fine print. In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any … Continue reading →

The paradigm shift we need for single-payer

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolution a book that changed the way we think about scientific progress. Kuhn posits that scientific progress is punctuated progress where major advances are made by what he called “paradigm shifts”. These paradigm shifts open unexpected areas of enquiry, and allow scientists to accumulate knowledge in more gradual steps. These revolutions were often initiated by unknown scientists presenting radical ideas outside the mainstream. This powerful idea of “paradigm shifts” has since entered the general lexicon, but its implications are not always fully appreciated. Though Kuhn applied his conception of revolutionary change … Continue reading →

11/30 The Gathering Weekend; CNN Contributor Fired Over Defense of Palestine and More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

The Sanders Institute’s “The Gathering” is underway. Jimmy and Roslyn Carter sent their best wishes to the group. Sister Turner is up on deck first.

https://www.facebook.com/sandersinstitute/videos/1974735109275476/

More news, tweets, and videos below in the comments section. TGIF.

Update: The FB link was for the first panel. Here’s a link to the Second Panel discussion.

Capitalism + Socialism = Democratic Socialism

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

I’m going to try and make this somewhat succinct so it can be shared as a primer if needed since the establishment is trying to confuse everyone by forcing a binary view between Capitalism and Socialism. In reality they are the two sides of the same spectrum and except in the extreme cases are always blended to some degree, so by trying to pick one or the other, the Overton Window is being pushed to the two endpoints and ignoring the entire spectrum between. The reason this is being done is because we aren’t choosing between the two end points, … Continue reading →

4/13 News Roundup – Sanders To Progressives: “Ignore Consultants, Follow Your Gut’; Single Payer Continues To Surge & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Bernie Sanders urges liberal candidates to ignore consultants, follow their guts

Speaking to a room packed with progressives running for state and local office, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., advised the first-time candidates to ignore the political establishment and trust their guts.

Crediting the movement catalyzed by his 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, Sanders said the policies of Medicare for all, free college tuition, a $15 dollar minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and legalizing marijuana are now “mainstream” among Democrats.

“What was once considered radical is now mainstream,” Sanders said Thursday to cheers at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington.

Sanders bashed the political establishment and the press repeatedly throughout his speech. The media, Sanders said, plays a “destructive” game by telling the “American people that politics is too complicated, you can’t get involved, you don’t know how to run for office.”

..

The former presidential contender encouraged the candidates, who are in Washington for four days of training, to embrace a progressive agenda even if they’re running in red or purple states.

“Let me give you a warning here: Watch out for consultants,” he said to laughs. “Often their advice is conservative and wrong. Trust your own guts, trust your own instincts.”

The training, put on by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Sanders’ Our Revolution, includes four days of helping candidates craft their public persona, how to pitch reporters, building field operations, do-it-yourself opposition research, and budgeting.

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

3/28 News Roundup – Pipeline Protestors ‘Not Guilty’ After Claiming ‘Legal Necessity”; Support For Medicare-For-All Surges & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Anti-pipeline campaigners found not guilty by judge because ‘protest against climate change crisis’ was legal ‘necessity’

More than a dozen protesters who clambered into holes dug for a high pressure gas pipeline said they had been found not responsible by a judge after hearing them argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal “necessity”.

Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was among more than 198 people who were arrested because of their 2015 actions protesting the pipeline in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Thirteen people were to go on trial this week, though prosecutors downgraded their original criminal charges to one of civil infraction.

On Tuesday, Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court, found all 13 defendants not responsible, the equivalent of not guilty in a criminal case. She did so after each of the defendants addressed the judge and explained why they were driven to try and halt the pipeline’s construction.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Ms Gore, 44, Director of the Centre for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, said the court’s decision was historic. “What happened today was really important,” she said.

“The people….were found not responsible by reason of necessity. The irony is that we are making ourselves responsible. We’re part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won’t let this go by on our watch. We won’t act like nothing’s wrong.”

..

The environmentalist and academic Bill McKibben, who was to appear as a defence witness for the defendants, said on Twitter: “Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America.”

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

3/16 Ants Marching

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Recently, there have been several strikes by our public school educators, most notably in West Virginia. It even grabbed the attention of a neoliberal publication such as The Atlantic, which more or less said the WV teacher strike was a shot across the bow. Last week, Alia Wong wrote: Even though the West Virginia walkout is over, however, observers suspect that it has jump-started a national movement that could have lasting implications for the country’s schools. Evidence that the success of West Virginia’s roughly 20,000 K-12 classroom teachers is intensifying educator unrest nationally can already by seen. In Oklahoma, where … Continue reading →

New Jersey church provides sanctuary from ICE for recent winner of 2018 MLK Award & Phil Murphy mobilizes

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

You may recall that I was * cough * less-than-enthusiastic about Phil Murphy winning the recent gubernatorial primary in New Jersey. I was, and still remain, skeptical about an ex-Goldman Sachs man who bought the loyalty of local Democrats with large donations and poured $16 million of his own dollars into the primary race. But, since winning the office last November, and replacing Chris Christie, Murphy has made some welcomed moves such as supporting a $15 minimum wage, the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, more funding for public schools, and help for those facing eviction or foreclosure, to name … Continue reading →