The Jersey Shore, still reeling from Hurricane Sandy, is on the front lines as Republicans seek to toss people off Medicaid, jack up costs for people who are older and poorer, and rip up protections for people with preexisting conditions. Fortunately, Jody Stewart and her friends at the New Jersey Organizing Project are on the case. In shore towns, they’ve taken up the call to defend their families, friends, and neighbors from this heartless plan. In coming weeks, Our Future will be featuring hometown champions like Jody who are leading the fight for health care for all. Photo credit: New Jersey Organizing Project What’s my hometown like? That depends on whether you mean before Superstorm Sandy or after. Little Egg Harbor used to be about fishing tournaments and a place with that small hometown feel.

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America Rising, a billionaire-backed conservative group, is targeting Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as she tours the country in support of her new book, according to a memo obtained by Politico. “We view (the) book launch as the soft launch of her presidential campaign,” said executive director Colin Reed. “We’ll do the same to her as we did with Hillary Clinton in 2014,” Reed added. America Rising’s backers would stand to lose some cushy tax breaks and regulatory favors if the progressive policies advocated by Sen. Warren were enacted. For her part, Warren denies that she’s running for the presidency and notes that this is her 11th book. America Rising is tracking a number of potential contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sen.

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As he ran for office, Donald Trump repeatedly reminded audiences that he was “really, really rich,” but assured voters that as president he would be a working man’s champion, a blue-collar Superman. Photo credit: DonkeyHotey / Flickr He said he would stop corporations from offshoring manufacturing jobs with a border adjustment tax on imports. He would end trade cheating and declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. He would launch within his first 100 days a $1 trillion infrastructure improvement program to create millions of jobs fixing the nation’s airports, bridges and roads. Trump’s record of promise-keeping to America’s working men and women in his first 100 days is this: So far, no good. The tax plan, well, the one-page tax sketch that the administration released last week is symbolic.

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Nearly every cause at the center of the progressive movement has its roots, at least in part, at the schoolhouse door. That’s at least part of the message behind the “Build Schools, Not Walls” campaign that kicked off this week in unison with the massive May 1st actions for worker and immigrant rights that took place Monday. This effort to join the fight for education justice with worker and immigrant rights is being led by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, an alliance of parent, youth, community, and labor organizations from across the country representing over 7 million people. “Schools are the institutions that bring us together,” AROS Executive Director Keron Blair tells me in a phone call.

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  The Resistance needs to develop a memory of how past generations confronted reactionary threats to American democracy. FDR radio broadcast, 1933 Photo credit: Library of Congress Franklin Roosevelt’s first “Hundred Days” of 1933, in which the newly-elected president and a Democratic-controlled Congress confronted the ravages of the Great Depression by enacting an unprecedented roster of 15 major new laws, have haunted the egomaniacal Donald Trump – and his own first 100 days as president have fascinated the media. While Trump in his own inimical way has been both dismissing the significance of the first 100 days and hyping the greatness of his own presidential performance in the course of those days, journalists and pundits have been keeping scorecards on him. But no consensus has emerged.

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Congress has a spending plan. And it rejects most (but not all) of President Donald J. Trump’s priorities. It also includes more money for most federal Indian programs. Photo credit: Mark Trahant But remember: This is a short budget. It’s only enough money to fund government operations through the end of September. House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) said: “This package of the remaining Appropriations bills is the result of over a year’s worth of careful and dedicated efforts to closely examine federal programs to make the best possible use of every tax dollar. This legislation will fund critical federal government activities, including our national defense, and enact responsible funding decisions to target U.S. investments where they are needed the most.

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Colorful banners, puppets and hand-painted signs filled the streets of Washington, D.C. as an upbeat crowd of more than 200,000 made their way from from the Capitol Building up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, sending a strong message that climate change is a real and growing threat to local communities and the economy. “We must turn to solar, wind, water, and we must do it now!” said Judith Howell, a member of local 32BJ of the SEIU and a security officer, in a speech before the march. “It is time to put the health and welfare of our communities before polluters’ profits.“ Photo credit: Libero Della Piana SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, is one of the more than fifty environmental, economic, labor and racial justice organizations that joined together to support the march.

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Republicans are proposing a huge, huge cut in corporate tax rates. They are also proposing to let giant, multinational corporations keep much of the money they already owe on profits they have stashed in “offshore” tax havens. Lower tax rates mean higher after-tax profits, which increases the value of stock holdings. Who owns corporate stock, and therefore will receive the benefits of these tax cuts? Do We All Benefit From Corporate Stock? Lets look at just who owns corporate stock. Republicans like to pretend that we are all invested in the stock market, if not by directly owning stocks, then through “our” retirement plans. This is usually repeated and believed by comfortable people who actually do have 401k or other individual retirement accounts (IRAs) through their workplace. But 45 percent of Americans have no money for retirement at all.

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A new poll shows fully two-thirds of the American public agrees with this statement: “The Democratic Party is out of touch with the concerns of most people.” And scarcely more than one in four Democrats themselves think the party understands most people’s everyday concerns. It was also just announced that Barack Obama, following in the well-heeled footsteps of Bill and Hillary Clinton, will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for giving a speech on behalf of a Wall Street firm. Anyone who thinks these two facts aren’t connected isn’t paying attention. Obama’s payday reflects a longstanding pattern of behavior from Democratic leaders: Talk like liberals, govern from the center, and make a lot of money once you’re out of office.

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If you’re worried about the negative impact U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will have on K-12 public schools, you should also pay attention to what she’s doing to higher education. Student Action staff and members at Rise Up 2017 convention Fortunately, people who have the most at stake – students who aspire to attend college or who have attended at least some higher education and have incurred loan burdens because of that – already have a wary eye on DeVos, and they’re planning to counter whatever she and President Trump do with a renewed push for free higher education. But unlike efforts by the Obama Administration to take action at the federal level, some student activists are targeting states too.

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Donald Trump’s 100th day as president is upon us, and the early reviews aren’t good. Although he now calls it a “ridiculous standard,” Trump once touted his 100-day plan on the campaign trail. This flip-flop can be explained by his unimpressive record of accomplishment to date. Trump has reversed himself on campaign promises that range from job creation to “draining the swamp,” and has already reached record levels of unpopularity. Thankfully, Trump even seems to do bad things badly, as evidenced by his initial failure to ban Muslims (his second attempt also faces stiff legal challenges) or repeal the Affordable Care Act. He’s not even able to perform some of the basic functions of his office, like filling staff positions. Trump’s opposition has performed considerably better.

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Donald Trump’s totemic first 100 days in office have been greeted with brutal reviews. Ironically, the most positive comments involve the neck-snapping series of flip-flops Trump has sprung on signature populist issues. The chattering classes have greeted these with deep sighs of relief. In their view, the “axis of adults,” as neo-conservative Max Boot puts it, has taken control. The marauding Rasputin, Steve Bannon, has been rebuked. The “corrupt political establishment” that Trump railed against has taken hold. Rather than relief, this should worry anyone concerned about the future of the country. And Trump’s casual shedding of his agenda makes a fundamental reassessment among Democrats all the more imperative. Let’s quickly review the promises Trump abandoned.

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Every 12 days, a member of my union, the United Steelworkers (USW), or one of their non-union co-workers, is killed on the job. Every 12 days. And it’s been that way for years. These are horrible deaths. Workers are crushed by massive machinery. They drown in vats of chemicals. They’re poisoned by toxic gas, burned by molten metal. The company pays a meaningless fine. Nothing changes. And another worker is killed 11 days later. Of course, it’s not just members of the USW. Nationally, at all workplaces, one employee is killed on the job every other hour. Twelve a day. These are not all accidents. Too many are foreseeable, preventable, avoidable tragedies. With the approach of April 28, Workers Memorial Day 2017, the USW is seeking in America what workers in Canada have to prevent these deaths.

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Wall Street’s business model is fraud. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to fight fraud. So naturally, Wall Street and Republicans in Congress are trying to kill the CFPB as fast as they can. The CFPB came into existence after the public learned about the Wall Street frauds that led to the near-collapse of the financial system in 2008. Financial firms were found to have been scamming, lying, defrauding, manipulating and generally tricking people into signing up for things that did little more than drain their funds. And making Wall Street types really, really rich. In some cases, financial firms were draining people’s funds even though they hadn’t signed up for it. A recent example of the work of the CFPB was nailing Wells Fargo for fraudulently opening accounts for customers, then charging them fees for the accounts.

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They came from communities across the country to Washington, D.C. to share stories, find inspirations, and plan for the future – together. Members of People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER) in Los Angeles, CA These are the more than twelve hundred who gathered for “Rise Up!” – the founding convention of People’s Action and the People’s Action Institute, held this week in Washington, D.C. They are a truly inspiring group, of every age and background. We’ll share many of their stories in coming weeks, and wanted to start by introducing a few of these rising leaders. People’s Action was created through the fusion of five organizations to create a national network of more than a million people in 30 states, all working to address key concerns in their local communities.

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The following platform was introduced at the Rise Up: From Protest to Power founding convention of People’s Action held in Washington DC, April 23-25, 2017. At the event, seventy-two grassroots activists pledged to run for office guided by the principles in the platform and committed to be held accountable to their communities and people’s organizations. In this time of crisis, we rise up. We rise up for people and planet. For a government that protects the right of all people to thrive. For a society where every person has a say in our collective future. We are under attack – as poor and working people, as immigrants and refugees, as women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, as indigenous nations, and as people of color. We are under attack by growing corporate power that takes from our families and communities. But we refuse to be defined by these attacks.

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After eight years of complaining about “Obama deficits,” Republicans are proposing huge, dramatic, unprecedented tax cuts, especially for corporations. President Trump wants the corporate tax rate cut from 35 percent down to 15, denying the government $2 trillion of revenue over the next decade. He is also proposing dramatic cuts to personal income tax cuts that will especially benefit billionaires like him. Republicans call corporate tax cuts “pro-growth,” saying they will give the economy a boost.

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Watch the People’s Action Hometown Rising Town Hall, as Rep. Keith Ellison and other champions tell our stories and share our strategy for taking on new dangers to our health care from GOP budget and tax proposals. People’s Action, our affiliates and allies helped light a firestorm in our hometowns to save our health care. Your stories, actions and relentless pressure deep in districts, drove a wedge in the Republican party and delivered a major blow to the new administration. Our Hometown Rising Town Hall with congressional champions celebrates our leaders, tell our stories and share our strategy for taking on new dangers to our health care from GOP budget and tax proposals.

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