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…
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…
Informed Comment – By Juan Cole – In his daily free association exercise, Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama of creating ISIL in Iraq by withdrawing troops from that country in 2011. It is an accusation he has also made against Hillary Clinton. But President Obama did not withdraw troops from Iraq in 2011 all…
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 Glynn Wilson – Voting day for the presidential election of 2016 is less than three months down the road now, Tuesday, November 8, and there’s still no clear front runner. People have their opinions, but to what source should people pay attention in such matters? I was just out in the yard talking to…
By Glynn Wilson – The Cable News Network formerly owned by Ted Turner has a long history of getting stories wrong since Time Inc. took over and ran Turner off. In the latest incident, CNN reporters and anchors have been reporting that the U.S. Secret Service had met with and questioned Republican presidential candidate Donald…
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 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:…
By Glynn Wilson – Public opinion survey results in the wake of the national political party conventions over the past two weeks back up what knowledgeable commentators said at the time. The convention shows still matter in swaying public opinion at the margins, and the Democratic Party’s convention show and Hillary Clinton’s speech won over…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – The Democratic National Convention was a HUGE success, to borrow a term from Bernie Sanders. Compared to Trump’s D-list convention, the show in Philedelphia was a star studded Hollywood affair complete with fireworks, red, white and blue balloons with stars on them, and with Sanders himself placing…
Will the American public buy Bill Clinton’s version of reality or Donald Trump’s Idiocracy? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It was a historic moment on Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia when Senator Bernie Sanders stood up with the Vermont delegation to place Hillary Clinton’s name into nomination…
By John L. Micek – PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – After four days of doom and gloom in Donald Trump’s America, Democrats have a deceptively simple task to accomplish with their convention this week: Namely, convincing broad swaths of voters that Hillary Clinton and her new running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, possess the right mix…
By Alan Minsky – This is madness. Fully predictable madness. One archetype of the American experience is now realized. We’ve always had our carnival hucksters and itinerant preachers and snake oil thieves. P.T. Barnum put on a good show. All sought wealth and power. But never before has one risen so high as Donald J.…
It was a doozy of a speech, full of iffy facts and false promises. But they loved it… By Glynn Wilson – While many of my liberal and progressive Democrat friends say on Facebook they could not watch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention Thursday night, or if they did, they called it…
By Tom Purcell – This presidential campaign is the nuttiest in my lifetime but at least America is maintaining its sense of humor. Late-night comics have found a treasure trove of material in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He’s been mocked three times as often as any other candidate throughout the campaign. Many of the…
By Glynn Wilson – ORLANDO, Fla. – Democrats agreed to the most aggressive plan to combat climate change in the history of the party Saturday night by approving an accord that commits Democrats to fight for a price on carbon, methane and other greenhouse gases and for massive investment in renewable energy sources like wind…
By Glynn Wilson – FBI Director James Comey issued a statement Tuesday morning saying the agency will not recommend criminal charges against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. But he called Clinton and her staff “extremely careless†in handling sensitive information. “Although…
Raging Moderate – By Will Durst – Every four years our nation’s electoral eccentricities escalate exponentially and people throw up their hands and shout, “you know, every election cycle is wacky, but especially this one.” But especially this one! With this one, the narrative changes faster than the score of a Wiffle Ball game played…
By Robert Reich – This morning I heard from an old friend here in California who said “I’m for Bernie, but he doesn’t really have a chance anymore. So isn’t my vote for him in the California primary just prolonging the agony, and indirectly helping Trump?” I told him: 1. True, the electoral numbers are…
