The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday narrowly passed a $612 billion war spending bill, relying on a back-door slush fund to dodge the austerity cuts that are gutting domestic programs from education to health care. The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 269 to 151, largely along party lines. The roll call can be viewed here. The budget circumvents …
Converting the Fossil-Fuel Fundamentalists – Emily Schwartz Greco
Kicking humanity’s addiction to oil, gas, and coal before those industries render the planet uninhabitable may take a miracle. So it’s a good thing that the climate movement found a patron saint. I’m talking about Pope Francis, of course. Before an upcoming encyclical makes the Vatican’s stance official, he’s already spreading the gospel of a fossil-free future. In case, like …
Top Ten Arguments for Raising the Minimum Wage
One.   Seven Nobel Laureates in Economics Endorse the higher minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, saying it does not lead to lower fewer jobs. Two.   Job losses from raising the minimum wage are negligible. Minimum wage has already been raised 23 times. Every time it was raised it was opposed by some few who said “it is going to lose jobs and …
Still Leading Pack, US Arms Exporters Extract Increasing Profits From Foreign Conflict Zones
As the number-one exporter of major arms world-wide, the United States is extracting ever-increasing profits from the global rise in war and military escalation, a new study by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) finds. Between 2010 and 2014, global conventional weapons transfers jumped 16 percent as compared to 2005-2009, the researchers found. The U.S. alone accounted for 31 percent of international …