The Right-Wing Firestorm That Rages On | Dissent Magazine

The Right-Wing Firestorm That Rages On | Dissent Magazine



How the Right-Wing manufactured the Trump victory with Fake News, and polarizing politics.

Military budget - $674 Billion for 2019

Military Spending 2019

Update:  8/15/2018

SENATE TACKLES SPENDING PACKAGE: The Senate on Wednesday began debate on its largest appropriations package of the year, setting spending levels for the departments of defense, education, labor, and health, POLITICO's Sarah Ferris reports. 

If it passes, it would be a big deal. The Senate hasn't approved a spending bill for DOL, HHS, or Education (except as part of an omnibus) since 2007. Dozens, if not hundreds, of amendments are likely to be filed next week on everything from family migration to abortion, though only a select few will get floor time.

When will it pass? Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, anticipates the package could be approved by Labor Day — or even sooner. 

The White House on Wednesday praised the $675 billion Defense bill, S. 3159 (115), but called some parts of the Labor-HHS-Education bill, S. 3158 (115) , "wasteful." The administration objected to a lack of increased funding for the Office of Labor-Management Standards, which monitors federal standards for private-sector labor unions. In addition, it opposed $274 million devoted to the NLRB, which exceeded the president's budget request. Read more from Ferris here.

June 6 (UPI) -- The House Appropriations Committee unveiled a $674.6 billion defense spending bill Wednesday.

While the committee scheduled a markup session for Thursday and debate with the Senate's version of the budget will likely take months, the House version provides $605 billion in base discretionary funding. That figure is less than President Donald Trump's administration requested, but more than the 2018 level.

The proposed funding would pay for more than 15,000 additional troops and pay raises for those already in military service -- as well as 93 F-35 Lightning II and two dozen F/A-18 E/F fighter jets. The House version also calls for a dozen new Navy ships.

The procurement budget includes more F-35s and littoral combat ships than the military requested, but Congress supports buying the equipment to keep factories and shipyards working and available for future orders, The Hill reported.

Credit-Card Wars Today;s War-Financing Strategies Will Only Increase Inequality | Portside

Credit-Card Wars Todays War-Financing Strategies Will Only Increase Inequality | Portside

A long spell of very low unemployment would raise wages;even in the face of employers’ monopsony power | Economic Policy Institute

A long spell of very low unemployment would raise wages ;even in the face of employers monopsony power | Economic Policy Institute

Congressional Progressive Caucus : The People's Budget: A Roadmap For The Resistance FY 2018

Congressional Progressive Caucus : The People's Budget: A Roadmap For The Resistance FY 2018

Ocasio-Cortez Challenge to the Democratic Party

U.S. and Europe Outline Deal to Ease Trade Feud - The New York Times

U.S. and Europe Outline Deal to Ease Trade Feud - The New York Times

Election Interference

Election interference:

Did Russia attempt to influence the election? Undoubtedly. This is what governments do. The United States interfered in 81 elections from 1945 to 2000, according to professor Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University. His statistics do not include the numerous coups we orchestrated in countries such as Greece, Iran, Guatemala and Chile or the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. We indirectly bankrolled the re-election campaign of Russia’s buffoonish Boris Yeltsin to the tune of $2.5 billion.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-war-on-assange-is-a-war-on-press-freedom/

Chris Hedges 2018.

How Trumps Trade War Went From 18 Products to 10,000 - The New York Times

How Trump;s Trade War Went From 18 Products to 10,000 - The New York Times



Graphic illustrations.

Tim Geithner Exploits Poor People

Geithner’s Grift, Paydays and Democratic Drift

What does it mean when Tim Geithner, who President Obama chose to guide the nation out of the 2008 economic crisis, becomes president of a company that hoodwinks the victims of the financial system he helped rescue? If you care about economic justice - and if you want the Democratic Party to win more elections - the answer is: More than you think. It demonstrates that many of the supposed good guys, and the party that claims to stand up for working people, are deeply embedded in, and beholden to, the exploitative culture of American finance.

Opinion | Liberal Blind Spots Are Hiding the Truth About Trump Country’ - The New York Times

Opinion | Liberal Blind Spots Are Hiding the Truth About Trump Country - The New York Times

Robert Reich: 7 Truths About Immigration

Why Real Wages are Not Rising

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/opinion/wage-stagnation-unemployment-economic-growth.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Opinion | Why Real Wages Still Aren’t Rising Unemployment is remarkably low. Yet in the struggle between labor and companies, workers are losing, and that ke...

What;s Behind the Trade War? | Portside

Whats Behind the Trade War? | Portside

Employment and Unions

OECD Employment Outlook 2018 AFSCME July 4, 2018 AFSCME Information Highway In particular, the report shows the United States’s unemployed and at-risk workers are getting very little support from the government, and their employed peers are set back by a particularly weak collective-bargaining system. ,  Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, July 4, 2018 The 2018 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook reviews labour market trends and prospects in OECD countries. Chapter 1 presents recent labour market developments. Wage growth remains sluggish due to low inflation expectations, weak productivity growth and adverse trends in low-pay jobs. Chapter 2 looks at the decline of the labour share and shows that this is partially related to the emergence of “superstar” firms, which invest massively in capital-intensive technologies. Chapter 3 investigates the role of collective bargaining institutions for labour market performance. Systems that co-ordinate wages across sectors are associated with better employment outcomes, but firm-level adjustments of sector-level agreements are sometimes required to avoid adverse effects on productivity. Chapter 4 examines the role of policy to facilitate the transition towards new jobs of workers who were dismissed for economic reasons, underlying the need of early interventions in the unemployment spell. Chapter 5 analyses jobseekers’ access to unemployment benefits and shows that most jobseekers do not receive unemployment benefits and coverage has often been falling since the Great Recession. Chapter 6 investigates the reason why the gender gap in labour income increases over the working life, stressing the role of the lower professional mobility of women around childbirth. Related: Press release

House plan benefits top 1%

The Corporate Tax Cut

The Senate just passed (by two votes) a budget that clears the way for $6 trillion in cuts from critical services and $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. Their arguments for the tax plan they have proposed center around one core argument: That lowering the corporate tax rate will somehow benefit working families. This has been proven by independent analyses and history to be patently FALSE. We call the whole thing magic math. This video breaks it down.

The tax plan they are proposing is a massive giveaway for corporations and the wealthiest 1%, paid for by working and middle class families. But that’s not what you’ll hear Trump and GOP leaders say publicly. Their public spin centers around what we like to call MAGIC MATH. This concept (that somehow cutting the corporate tax rate will give working people better jobs) has been proven by independent analyses (not to mention history) FALSE. And we’re not fooled by their tricks.

This video breaks that “magic math” down. Enjoy! 

Read more at Citizens for Tax Justice