Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Iowa”
“Why don’t candidates talk about food?” That’s a question asked by the Des Moines Register‘s editorial board this weekend, who also pointed out that the “first-in-the nation caucuses are held in one of the world’s great agricultural centers.” It should be a major issue for presidential candidates, the Register says, because What we eat and how it’s produced are not jokes. These questions involve many …
Starting in Iowa: It’s Open Season, and Hapless Voters Are the Quarry
All eyes are on Iowa, where voting in the 2016 presidential race gets off to a high-pitched start, and by night’s end will be fodder for political analysts’ predictions about who the next occupant of the White House might be. No run-of-the-mill runoff, it’s a history-making contest—though not for the reasons most often cited. For, behind the media-manufactured excitement is a sordid truth, says Leid Stories: Voters are merely the quarry in a well-organized, big-money hunt for power among self-appointed guardians of America’s Old World Order.
Closing out her Iowa campaign, Hillary Clinton on Friday declared that the Medicare-for-all proposal pushed by her Democratic primary opponent and many liberal groups will “never, ever come to pass.” The statement came weeks after a new poll showed most Americans support the idea. Her declaration was a reversal of her position two decades ago — which came before she received millions of dollars of campaign cash from …
Perhaps spurred by palpable momentum around Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton took aim this week at a centerpiece of her chief rival’s platform—and political career—a Medicare-for-All program that he says would save the average U.S. family thousands of dollars a year in healthcare costs. At campaign stops in Iowa and New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday, both Hillary and …
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– What may be remembered as an historic conference on the Black Radical Tradition was held at Temple University, in Philadelphia, this past weekend, from January 8 through the 10th. Many hundreds of activists from all across the country gathered to review the experiences of the current grassroots mobilization against police violence, and to put it in perspective with past Black movements in the United States and the fight against predatory capitalism, worldwide. The conference was titled “Reclaiming Our Future: The Black Radical Tradition in Our Time.” It was put together, largely, by students, activists and organizers from Philadelphia, and keynoted by speakers including Angela Davis, Cornel West, and Anthony Monteiro.
– An extraordinary panel discussion unfolded under the title, “Challenging White Supremacy: The Black Radical View.” Umi Saleh, formerly known as Phillip Agnew, of the Florida-based Dream Defenders presented a devastating critique of those whose claim to leadership is based on the size of their Twitter followings, most notably DeRay McKesson, of Campaign Zero. Saleh called Social Media an “asylum for neoliberal values” and described McKesson’s political leanings as “counter-revolutionary and anti-movement.”
– Jamala Rogers is a veteran organizer based in Missouri, and author of the new book, “Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion.”
– Robin DG Kelly rounded out the panel on Challenging White Supremacy at the conference on the Black Radical Tradition. Kelly is a veteran activist and public intellectual, who teaches history at UCLA.
One of the questions vexing the mediocre punditry of American discourse is how Donald Trump—a former star of the tabloids with a track record of scandal and little history of religious affiliation—is polling so well with evangelical Christians. Poll results vary, but Trump consistently has 20 to 30 percent support among Christian conservatives. The numbers are impressive considering his opponents include Ben …
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton announced during a campaign stop in Iowa that she would shut down nearly 50,000 public schools if elected president. Her comments at the event were broadcast by NBC. “This school district, and these schools throughout Iowa, are doing a better than average job,” Hillary Clinton said during a campaign event at a school in Keota, Iowa, on Tuesday. “Now, I …
‘Terrorism’ Bolsters Republican ‘Debate’ and CNN’s Bid for Campaign Ad Dollars
The fifth—and, gratefully, last—Republican big-media Q&A (it’s not a debate) for 2015 airs tonight. Staged at The Venetian, the resort hotel and casino in Las Vegas, the Q&A is actually a two-parter—an undercard of four candidates who didn’t quite make the cut in the polls, and the main event featuring nine others who did. It shouldn’t surprise that “terrorism” and related issues—immigration, homeland security, ISIS and, of course, the “good” Muslims/”bad” Muslims racist canard—will dominate the discussion; it’s the kind of political hash that presidential hopefuls would feast upon and willingly share out to voters. But big media is after big money, and CNN gets to make the point tonight to all pols and parties concerned why it deserves the lion’s share of the $5 billion in campaign advertising industry analysts say is up for grabs in the 2016 election cycle, the costliest in U.S. history.
We’re close to an international climate agreement that most agree will be both a major step forward and insufficient to avert a catastrophe. Energy will quickly turn to what should be our next steps. The rival Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns lay out two possible paths: continued incremental advancement versus ambitious goals and sweeping agendas. The pragmatic vs. idealistic …
This weekend, America’s right wing—from the 2016 GOP candidates to its media echo chambers on cable TV, online and talk radio—have unleashed what may be their most hate-filled, fear-based, war-mongering fusillade since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The attacks—from a former GOP congressman taunting [3] the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to arrest him after threatening American Muslims on air, …
