After 17 US sailors died when two Navy destroyers collided with civilian cargo ships in the Pacific Ocean, voices within the military and Republican Party placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of service members and warned Americans to stop cutting the Pentagon’s budget. A new report in ProPublica calls this narrative into question, while a more critical examination of what really caused the accidents forces us to reconsider why we have so many ships and personnel deployed around the world in the first place.
How to Revitalize Local Democratic Parties
The Scholars Strategy Network (SSN) has presented us with a useful blueprint for saving democratic norms and institutions by reinvesting in state and local Democratic parties. While their report is by no means a comprehensive plan, it provides some useful first steps and serves as a reminder that the fight for equity and democracy is won and lost at the local level.
Everything You Know About Identity Politics is Wrong
Many conservatives and liberals don’t understand what identity politics is really about. In a recent article, Stacy Abrams argues that it’s really about taking “the identities that dominant groups have used to oppress them and convert them into tools of democratic justice.” Understanding this often misunderstood political agenda in this light can help reunite an ancient multiracial coalition and overturn centuries of oppression and injustice.
Wisconsin Republicans Got Golden-Goosed by Foxconn
After promising Foxconn $4 billion in subsidies and paying millions on infrastructure the company demanded, Wisconsin now faces the hard reality that the Taiwan-based corporation isn’t going to build a factory in their state. This is yet another example of the hollowness of Republican economic policy, as well as their willful ignorance about why global companies build factories where they do—i.e. gigantic taxpayer subsidies on the U.S. will never be a stronger incentive than a cheap and powerless labor pool elsewhere.
Startup Disrupts the Loan Sharking Industry
Thanks to skyrocketing housing cost, stagnant wages, and decreasing access to affordable credit, more and more Americans are struggling to afford rental costs and large deposits. As many localities and states refuse to enact rent control and zoning reforms, predatory capitalists step into the void with easy loans with exorbitant interests rates. This is yet another example of why the Democratic Party needs to support comprehensive housing reform, and why tenants should organize to carry out direct action against predatory rental and lending practices.
What LA’s Teachers Taught America During Their Strike
The success of the recent LA Teacher’s strike reminds us what happens when the marginalized majority comprehends our power to dictate the terms of the conversation and push back with the reality we insist on.
The Man In the Billionaire Tower
The elite can’t comprehend that many (if not most) Americans believe the promise that “if you work hard and play by the rules, then the sky’s the limit” has been broken by greed and corruption. And for some, that promise was never really felt true. The party that can tap give voice to that frustration will win in 2020 and beyond.
J.D. Vance Is Terrible and Now He’s Coming to Netflix
JD Vance’s terrible and frankly harmful book about poor white people is going to be made into a movie on Netflix.
I’ll Believe It When I See It
What a shitty deal maker that guy is. I’m also hesitant to put much weight in this story, since Trump has proven to be an unreliable source regarding what Trump will actually do and what bills he’d actually sign. We probably won’t know until the junta at Fox News gets to weigh in on the bill.
Stab, Taser, Redline, Tweet
Mark Zuckerberg slaughtering goats in his yard for Jack Dorsey isn’t just about tech bros being weird. It’s about shitty housing policies designed by shitty elites to protect their bastions of privilege. Democrats should go whole hog (no pun intended) on supporting CASA and zoning reform.
Episode 55: The Shutdown and the Road to 2020
Back after the long holiday break, Agreeing Loudly’s podcast returns to the digital airwaves! In Episode 55, Jered, Pat, and Troy discuss the Federal Government Shutdown and it’s effects, their thoughts about the growing slate of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates (including an accurate prediction that Senator Kamala Harris would enter the race by air time),…
The Shutdown of Broken Dreams
Day 32 of the Government Shutdown and the Terrible Outcomes and Worse Outcomes to come are still rolling in. Today, The New York Times exposes the glaring negligence of the Trump administration’s housing, homelessness, and anti-poverty programs. Currently, 95% of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) federal workers are not working, which means a loss in…
Can Beto O’Rourke Win the Democratic Nomination in 2020?
Some people are comparing Beto O’Rourke to Jimmy Carter. Does the Texas Congressman have a path to victory? Or is his message of affirmation and unity outdated in an era of populist grievances?
American Kakistocracy: Day 728
Congressional Republicans increasingly blame Trump for a potentially deadly government shutdown, but is it enough for them to oppose him? More importantly, will they be able to send some relief to Walmart?
Thanos Is A Republican
Like Republicans, Thanos unleashes unmitigated horrors on the world and retreats to his peaceful country estate. He is comforted and ennobled by the belief that the pain and sacrifices he made inflicting his ideology on the less power ennobles him.
