Rebecca Solnit – Standing Rock Protests: This Is Only the Beginning

 pioneer monument and a lot of state troopers with batons and riot helmets stood between the mostly young native activists and the North Dakota state capitol on Friday afternoon. Many of the activists arriving at the capitol’s vast green lawn hadn’t heard that the Washington DC judge had decided against the Standing Rock reservation Sioux lawsuit. That was the lawsuit …

How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy

Something is out of balance in Washington. Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures—more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). It’s a gap that has been widening since corporate lobbying began to regularly exceed the combined House-Senate budget in the early 2000s. Today, the biggest …

The Gary Null Show – 01.15.16

Alexis Baden-Mayer is a Washington-based lawyer and activist serving as the Political Director of the Organic Consumers Organization and its Fund. She is the co-editor with the Organic Consumers Organization’s director Ronnie Cummins of its newsletter Organic Bytes, which reaches nearly 300,000 subscribers. Alexis has organized many grassroots campaigns, including Millions Against Monsanto, Coming Clean (to remove false “organic” claims from cosmetics), Safeguard Organic Standards (to keep USDA organic standards high), USDA Watch (to close the revolving door between federal regulatory agencies and the biotech lobby), and Organic Transitions (to shift from climate-destabilizing industrial food production to carbon-sequestering sustainable agriculture). Before joining OCA, Alexis was the Government Relations Director for Vote Hemp, the National Field Director for the Marijuana Policy Project, and a lobbyist for a coalition to restore federal loan access to students with drug convictions. Her organization’s main website is OrganicConsumers.org

Lee Fang – Private Prison Lobbyists Are Raising Cash for Hillary Clinton

As immigration and incarceration issues become central to the 2016 presidential campaign, lobbyists for two major prison companies are serving as top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton. Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group could both see their fortunes turning if there are fewer people to lock up in the future. Last week, Clinton and other candidates revealed a number of lobbyists who …