‘The Union List’

John Fullerton: Can Financial Reform Fight Climate Change?

by , posted on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 10:23 pm

from GRITtv with Laura Flanders

Former managing director at JP Morgan John Fullerton wants to see a complete re-imagining of the world of investments. If we don’t, Fullerton argues in this conversation with Laura Flanders, our grandchildren will ask us, “What were you thinking?”

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Bain, Romney and Obama Support Offshoring/Outsourcing of U.S. Jobs

by , posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2012 at 5:55 pm

In an attempt to differentiate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign is working hard to draw attention to Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s agenda to offshore and outsource jobs.

While not necessarily connected to the Obama campaign, there is a new push inside labor circles to draw attention to a small company based in Freeport, IL named Sensata. The company is owned by Bain Capital and is preparing to move 170 Illinois jobs to China. Factory workers are calling on Mitt Romney to step in and stop the plant closure.

I support the move to target Romney on this issue and I hope that national pressure causes Bain Capital to keep those jobs in Illinois and sign a union contract with the workers.

At the same time, I can’t help but call out the hypocrisy of the Obama Administration for blasting Romney in public while secretly (and I mean very secretly) holding closed-door meetings with 600 corporate advisors to write another free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that will result in more off shoring and outsourcing of U.S. jobs. TPP is expected to be the largest and worst free trade agreement in global history.

In a recent RT article titled, “TPP secrets: Obama covertly granting more power to multinational corporations,” a doctor chastizes the president.

“Bush was better than Obama on this,” Judit Rius of Doctors Without Borders Access to Medicines Campaign tells HuffPo. “It’s pathetic, but it is what it is. The world’s upside-down.”

So, who do we blame?

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Bill McKibben of 350.org on Colorado Wildfires, Debby, Keystone XL, and Failure of Rio+20

by , posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at 10:23 am

from Democracy Now!

With extreme weather fueling wildfires in Colorado and record rainfall in Florida, the Obama administration has moved closer to approving construction of the southern section of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. We’re joined by environmentalist, educator and author Bill McKibben, founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org. “Today is one of those days when you understand what the early parts of the global warming era are going to look like,” McKibben says. “For the first time in history, we managed to get the fourth tropical storm of the year before July … These are the most destructive fires in Colorado history and they come after the warmest weather ever recorded there … This is what it looks like as the planet begins to warm. Nothing that happened [at the United Nations Rio+20 summit] will even begin to slow down that trajectory.”

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Margaret Flowers: Obamacare Doesn’t Go Far Enough

by , posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at 10:15 am

from GRITtv with Laura Flanders

Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program sees one major flaw in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act: It did not go far enough. The only solution, Flowers argues in this conversation with Laura Flanders, is to push for universal healthcare by expanding medicare so that it covers all Americans.

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What the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Arizona’s Immigration Law Means

by , posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 9:27 am

from the Center for American Progress

Angela Kelley and Marshall Fitz of the Center for American Progress’s Immigration Policy team, discuss what the Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, S.B. 1070, means for Arizonans, other states and Latino voters.

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Van Jones: “Re-electing Obama won’t solve all of our problems”

by , posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 9:12 am

from Current TV’s The War Room

Van talks about the importance of having two forms of power: a President willing to be moved, and a movement in the streets willing to do the moving.

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Amber Hollibaugh: How Far Has the LGBTQ Movement Come?

by , posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2012 at 11:00 am

from GRITtv with Laura Flanders

Amber Hollibaugh of Queers for Economic Justice argues that though there’s plenty to be proud of this Pride weekend, there’s still a long way to go for the LGBTQ movement.

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Rep Gutierrez: In Obama Deportation Move, Long-Term Immigration Activism “Has Been Rewarded”

by , posted on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 8:20 pm

from Democracy Now!

In a major policy move, President Obama has issued an executive order that will stop the deportations of some undocumented youth. Under the administration’s plan, immigrants who meet certain requirements will not be deported if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30. We speak with one of the key lawmakers dealing with immigration reform today: Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ Immigration Task Force.

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The Carbon Pollution Rule and Global Warming

by , posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2012 at 4:47 pm

from the Center for American Progress

Center for American Progress Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy Daniel J. Weiss explains why the Carbon Pollution Rule is important for the environment.

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Ralph Nader: 30 Million Workers Would Benefit From Raising Minimum Wage to 1968 Level

by , posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 at 6:50 pm

from Democracy Now!

In 2008, Barack Obama pledged to raise the minimum wage every year once elected, but the hourly rate of $7.25 hasn’t increased since 2007. Low-wage workers now make far less than they did four decades ago. Last week Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. introduced The Catching Up to 1968 Act of 2012. It draws its name from the idea that the federal minimum wage would be $10.55 an hour now if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years. While the bill has about 20 co-sponsors so far President Obama has yet to endorse it. We speak to longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

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