teleSur (7/6/17) A man who was recruited by Venezuela’s right-wing opposition told teleSUR in a recent interview that anti-government lawmakers provided illicit drugs and money for them to continue violent protests that began almost three months ago, which have since claimed at least 95 lives. His voice and his name were undisclosed to protect his integrity. “Well, the majority of those who went to fight consumed drugs, all of them used drugs, they destroyed anything in their path, lots of ugly things. Like when at one point they cut some guy’s throat because he was a Chavista I think,” the…

  Love the piece about the Viroqua Co-op employees becoming part of UFCW (Viroqua Food Co-op Workers Unionize).  Years back, when the La Crosse co-op employees did the same, I coached one of the organizers.  Can’t tell you how many people questioned why someone working in an environment like a co-op would “need a Union”.  The interesting thing for me about that organizing effort was that the president of the co-op board at the time was a manager at the County that had a history of violating contract all the time.  Don’t remember how many grievances I won on behalf…

  By Theo Anderson In These Times (6/30/17) Last week, the speaker of the California State Assembly, Anthony Rendon, shelved a bill that would have created a single-payer healthcare system. Progressives have looked to New York and California as the best hope for creating a single-payer, universal healthcare system at the state level, and potentially transforming the national debate. Rendon’s decision dealt a serious blow to that hope. It is a particularly painful setback because Democrats, with a supermajority in the legislature, can pass any bill they choose to. We have to understand that, in a system where money determines…

Who’s Your Vlady? *****   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (7/10/17) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump Played The Fool And Was Played The Fool By Putin Everything about Trump’s G20 side show meeting with Putin was wrong and damaging to the the United States. I watched the lead-up to the meeting, the choices for the conduct of the meeting, the post-meeting announcements, the analysis; it was all disheartening. I am writing this two days after the meeting and find little to feel better about the entirety of the event or even the broader landscape of US participation – or more…

It’s time to awake. Time to shake off the death rattle and clammy death grip of the corporate state. Time to awake, indeed… Link to 7-Minute Video (Commoner Call photo, 2017. Open source and free to use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )

  United Food & Commercial WorkersInternational Union (6/31/17) We’re excited to announce some new additions to our UFCW family! Earlier this month, over 45 hardworking men and women of the Viroqua Food Co-op in Viroqua, Wis., joined UFCW Local 1473. Looking for ways to build a better workplace for everyone, co-op staff were eager to work together to improve scheduling, job postings, and wages. They approached UFCW Local 1473 a few months ago about these issues and their interest in joining our union family. We’re proud of our new members and the initiative they’ve shown to really make a positive change. “We welcome the opportunity…

  Democracy Now! (7/7/17) Last week, there was an attempted assassination on the life of Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, the daughter of murdered Honduran indigenous and environmental leader Berta Cáceres. Bertita Zúniga Cáceres was driving back with two colleagues from a community visit in central Honduras when a black pickup truck blocked their path. Three assailants jumped out of the truck and attempted an attack, but Zúniga and her colleagues narrowly escaped. The incident comes just weeks after Zúniga was named the new leader of the indigenous rights group Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She recently…

By Bryce Covert Think Progress (7/16/17) Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she’s introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer. Her “Top 1% Accountability Act” would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test. If a filer doesn’t submit a clean test within three months of filing, he won’t be able to take advantage of tax deductions like the mortgage interest deduction or health insurance tax breaks. Instead he…

  By Dorothy Finnigan & Django Zeaman TakeBackTheCoop.com What’s a Big Corporation to Do? Let’s try a little thought experiment. Imagine 10% of car owners refused to buy from big car manufacturers. Instead, they create car cooperatives. These car co-ops purchase from small, local car-makers. They care deeply about quality, ethics, and the total impact of production (fair wages, pollution, etc.). Members love the quality of co-op cars and love supporting the larger ecosystem of craftspeople. Members are incredibly loyal to car co-ops and join one whenever they move to a new town. Would the big car manufacturers sit back…

  By Abby Zimet Common Dreams (7/3/17) Talk about your profanely perfect metaphor: This hot and sunny weekend, big-time New Jersey cretin and governor Chris Christie closed down the state’s parks and beaches due to a budget stalemate. Then he hopped into his State Police helicopter and took his entire family to the 10-mile, now blissfully pristine Island Beach State Park, which thanks to the closing they had to themselves. All day, meanwhile, police posted at the park’s gates turned away the hot and frustrated peasants who pay Christie’s salary as a, lest we forget, so-called public servant. Later, the family and their friends hunkered…

  By Heidi Hess, Senior Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets (7/3/17) Donald Trump’s voter suppression commission is “laying the groundwork for voter suppression, plain & simple.”1 The commission has not even had its first meeting but its vice chair – one of the worst perpetrators of voter suppression in the country, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – just made a dangerous, unprecedented demand to state election officials: give me your voter rolls, now.2 Election integrity advocates immediately raised alarms about Kobach’s massive data request. Our friends at the Brennan Center said the request could be used to “justify regressive…

  By Kathleen Brewer Freak Out & Carry One (6/29/17) This week on Freak Out And Carry On, Ron Suskind and Heather Cox Richardson speak with Morris Vogel, president of the Tenement Museum, about the Supreme Court’s partial reinstatement of President Trump’s travel ban and the history of xenophobia in the United States, from the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s to Japanese internment during World War II. Excerpts Ron Suskind: My thoughts are many. First, I think of the phrase “a nation of immigrants.” I grew up with that. It was a thing of pride. For Cornelia, my wife, it was an…