Elizabeth Warren Keynotes Netroots Nation

Elizabeth Warren calls for a comprehensive progressive agenda and challenges all presidential candidates to support legislation that would curb the revolving door between Wall Street and government.

Slandero Gigante

The statement by Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump that Mexican immigrants are rapists is getting lots of notice. Former business partners are fleeing, he's getting a big bounce in the primary polls, and lots of defenders on Fox.

Inside the Mind of Bernie Sanders: Unbowed, Unchanged, and Unafraid of a Good Fight

Paul Lewis The Guardian
He is the rising star of the battle to be the Democratic nominee for president. But who is the real Bernie Sanders? His close friends and family shed new light on what is motivating the 73-year-old senator, while never-before-seen documents from his first foray into politics – as a Vermont mayor – reveal activist roots that were 30 years ahead of their time

This Is Your Victory: Fast Track for a Bad Trade Deal Is Derailed

Isaiah J. Poole Campaign for America's Future
The “allegedly unstoppable momentum” of the pro-fast-track forces just hit the immovable object called transpartisan grassroots democracy. Now the focus will be on “permanently retiring” the fast-track trade promotion authority process, borne out of the Nixon presidency, and replace it with a more inclusive, transparent process that instead of more job-offshoring can deliver trade deals that create American jobs and raise our wages.

Piety and Politics in America

Susan Jacoby The American Prospect
The tension between religiosity and secular government goes back to the nation’s founding.

Obama’s Twitter Debut, @POTUS, Attracts Hate-Filled Posts

Julie Hirschfeld Davis The New York Times
It took only a few minutes for Mr. Obama’s account to attract racist, hate-filled posts and replies. They addressed him with racial slurs and called him a monkey. One had an image of the president with his neck in a noose. But they appeared to be a small number in what was an otherwise social-media-fueled show of love for Mr. Obama, who was drawing followers at a rapid pace — nearly 2.3 million by Thursday afternoon.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 8, 2015

Portside
Key & Peele - Negrotown. 2016 Could Dramatically Alter Social Security. Tracy Chapman - Stand By Me. What Energy Democracy Looks Like. Bill Withers: Grandma's Hands (Live at Carnegie Hall).

The Political Roots of Widening Inequality

Robert Reich The American Prospect
The key to understanding the rise in inequality is not technology or globalization. It is the power of the moneyed interests to shape the underlying rules of the market.

books

Court-Sanctioned Corruption and Plutocracy in America

Michael Hirsch The Indypendent
Successive High Court decisions have done more than enfranchise corporations at the expense of the rest of us. The same logic in the same cases now defines public corruption down: that a direct and palpable quid pro quo must be seen to operate. Absent that smoking gun, the financial elite has no limits on bankrolling campaigns whose candidates then vote their interests. To the nation's founders, that untrammeled influence was the essence of public corruption.

books

Empowering Words

Steven B. Smith The New York Times
Last week, Our Declaration, by Danielle Allen, made PEN/America Center's shortlist for the Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The prize goes to "an author of a distinguished book of general nonfiction" "notable literary merit and critical perspective" that highlights "important contemporary issues." Allen's book was published last year to a host of lively reviews. Here is one of the earliest, by Steven B. Smith. Also included below is a link to Allen's homepage.
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