Bernie Sanders just said he’s proposing everyone who loses their job as a result of the coronavirus crisis should immediately receive unemployment benefits at 100% of their regular paycheck with an annual cap of $75,000. His opponents will fight it, but that's hard to argue with.
News: Bernie Sanders will vote NO on defense spending bill. "Isn’t it strange how even as we end the longest war in our nation’s history concerns about the deficit and national debt seem to melt away under the influence of the powerful Military Industrial Complex?" Full statement
Out canvassing for Bernie, a guy walked past and said “I’m supporting Mayor Pete.” I asked what he liked about him and he responded, “Ah, I’m just joking, that kid’s a turd.” Then he took my Bernie lit.
So an anonymous bloc of Democratic Party donors is launching a PAC specifically designed to stop Bernie Sanders and saying it won’t release its funding sources because Sanders supporters are too mean online? Looks like the establishment has officially entered full freakout mode.
Bernie Sanders is introducing a bill in Congress to establish a 4-day work week for the first time in US history, and it's backed by major unions including the AFL-CIO, UAW, SEIU, AFA-CWA and UFCW. People want to work less, and now there's federal legislation to make it happen.
Ocasio-Cortez has a pretty incredible explanation of socialism: "There is no other force, there is no other party, there is no other real ideology out there right now that is asserting the minimum elements necessary to lead a dignified American life."
Rahm Emanuel will no doubt be remembered, as Karen Lewis so incisively put it, as "the murder mayor." He oversaw the murder of public schooling, of public housing, of mental health clinics, of jobs in low-income communities and the literal murder of the city's poor.
I talked to multiple Bernie supporters in IL on the phone yesterday who support him but aren't going to vote Tues out of fear of the virus. The CDC says avoid groups of 50+ but my polling place is consistently packed with more than that. How have the elections not been postponed?
Early reports are that over 10,000 people were out in the streets of Chicago today demanding an end to the brutal attacks by Israeli forces on civilians in Gaza and for a free Palestine.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lighfoot has written off the demand to defund the police as “a nice hashtag.” Now, a city-sponsored survey shows that 87% of respondents want to reallocate the budget of police services to fund other programs.
Cool that Bernie has silenced the haters who were mad at him about having an expensive coat by wearing it literally every day, and now using what is essentially a potato sack as a hat. Strong move.
BREAKING: Chicago has become the largest city in the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Mayor Brandon Johnson broke a 23-23 tie by supporting the resolution calling for an end to violence, release of hostages and supplying of humanitarian aid—making the final vote 24-23.
The fact Biden isn't wrapping his arm around striking auto workers, standing with them on the picket line & voicing his support at every opportunity is inexplicable for a 'pro-union president' and cedes ground to Trump to cynically benefit by doing stunts like this—major self-own
A city-owned grocery store is not some radical, pie-in-the-sky idea. Erie, Kansas recently set one up, as did Baldwin, Florida where a Republican mayor established the communal project that gave residents access to fresh produce. Food deserts are also a public policy choice.
NEWS: Mayor Brandon Johnson has started a group to explore the possibility of a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago, a city with vast stretches on South and West Side without good shopping options.
I’ve observed Chicago politics and policing for a long time and have never seen such a swift propaganda campaign from CPD to change the public narrative from cops attacking protesters as in the past 24 hours. Leaked & manipulative footage released, false statements, the whole bag
Hearing the NLRB has ruled that Colectivo coffee workers have officially won their union after challenged ballots were counted (!) This will make Colectivo the largest unionized cafe chain in the country, and will likely open to door to more organizing efforts at bigger chains ✊
Umm, the entirety of this attempt to “infiltrate and exploit”
@inthesetimesmag
by Russian trolls consists of a single email sent from a random address to our general submission email that was never responded to. Just so everyone is clear on what’s actually going on here.
The fact that for the 1st time in US history, a sitting president is on a picket line supporting an active strike is a testament to both the popularity of UAW's work stoppage & the growing power of the labor movement in shifting the national dialogue to supporting workers' rights
First time in nearly a decade of living in Logan Square that I’ve seen Milwaukee Ave abandoned on a Saturday night, but also some new street art has popped up.
Chicago police are clearing out people at the lakefront north of Montrose beach, where groups have been spaced out. The cop just told this couple that he didn’t want to be doing it, but “the mayor says go to the bar.” Seems like a not great policy approach to an airborne pandemic
Bernie Sanders is introducing a resolution in the Senate to block the US’s $735 million weapons sale to Israel amid recent aggression toward Palestinians, following a similar proposal by AOC in the House. The terms of political debate over Israel in Congress is starting to shift.
Today in Chicago's mayor's race: Paul Vallas was endorsed by millionaire businessman Willie Wilson and right-wing billionaire Ken Griffin while Brandon Johnson got the backing of SEIU Local 1, a union representing 45,000 healthcare workers, custodians and food service providers.
More than 100,000 Americans died last year from diabetes as insulin costs have gone through the roof in the US, which charges 800% more than other developed countries for the life-saving medication. Removing a cap on insulin costs is cruel and will lead to more preventable deaths
LOL so Schumer and Manchin reached agreement on drug price reform, and because Manchin lurvs bipartisanship, they took out the insulin co-pay cap (and Medicare price negotiation), which was previously in there but which is the subject of a Collins-Shaheen bill.
This photo of
@kksteffany
next to two giant towers of pizzas outside the capitol building in Oklahoma City while supporting striking teachers with the
@DemSocialists
flag flying in the background should go down as archival content of class struggle in 2018.
There's a clear solution to the ongoing US rail crisis: public ownership. Taking the profit motive out of the movement of goods and people would help protect workers & communities while fighting climate change. Glad to have worked on this ITT cover story:
Just listened into the Bernie Sanders rally in Montpelier, Vermont and the speaker is boasting about how Bernie came to a farm to milk a cow and didn't leave until all 130 cows had been milked. Among Democratic presidential candidates in history, can even Jimmy Carter claim that?
I hope that everyone traveling to Chicago this weekend for the Socialism conference brings an open mind to all the varied political tendencies embodied in the city.
New report commissioned by Bernie Sanders from the CBO finds "the richest 1% is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes." (!!) The estimated amount of unpaid taxes was ~$381 billion annually from 2011-2013. Just think of what could be done with that money.
The Iowa results debacle can't obscure one clear takeaway: By claiming the most votes in the first contest of 2020, Bernie Sanders is showing that democratic socialism can, in fact, win. Voters like what Bernie is running on, so get ready for more wins.
I wrote for
@thenation
about the left-wing earthquake that hit Chicago this week, including this quote from now two-term democratic socialist alderman
@CDRosa
: “The political revolution is alive and thriving.”
Rahm Emanuel's rebranding as a Serious Pundit shows, yet again, that the rich and powerful can only fail upward. But that doesn't change the fact that his political career of pushing centrism has been an abject failure for working people. Wrote on it here.
Bernie Sanders and other senators are pressuring Biden admin to support a patent waiver for Covid vaccines to increase the global supply—an attempt to ramp up the current rate, at which the world’s poorest nations will have to wait until at least 2024 to reach “mass immunization”
Maybe the best spokesperson to take on Trump and make the case he's an anti-working class candidate in 2024 is UAW president Shawn Fain. Sounds like he's already on the campaign trail, and Biden is extremely lucky
Bernie Sanders proposes immediately expanding Medicare to cover the cost of all deductibles, copays, and other payments for all uninsured and underinsured people in America, including the undocumented, through the course of the pandemic.
A new 100% affordable housing development in Logan Square, Chicago—which was supported by democratic socialist alderman
@CDRosa
—has officially opened & is named after Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, a radical socialist feminist & labor organizer who helped found the IWW. Pretty incredible
The continued rehabilitation of war criminal George W. Bush as a hero and patriot by liberals including Joe Biden has got to be one of the most disturbing and dangerous developments of the Trump era. It’s clearly intentional and the implications are terrifying.
Before becoming head of the AFL-CIO, in 1989, as president of United Mine Workers of America, Richard Trumka led a successful 9-month strike against the Pittston Coal Company that resulted in mine workers getting better job security, pensions and benefits. Rest in power.
I have been to 6 Walgreens and 5 CVS locations across Chicago today and every one is out of at-home Covid tests and say they won’t be restocked until after new years, and aren’t scheduling more rapid tests until after Christmas. Great system we’ve got here, lessons learned, etc.
BREAKING: Hollywood writers are striking.
They’re fighting for their livelihoods against billion-dollar studios and streaming companies who have been squeezing writers to eke out more profits.
Writers didn’t shut down Hollywood — the studios did.
Graciela Guzmán was outspent more than 8:1 by corporate Democrats who wasted $2.5 million to defeat her & still won a resounding victory for the Illinois State Senate 20th District, meaning Chicago’s northwest side has progressive leadership at every level of state and local govt
Cops are currently enforcing a 9pm curfew in Chicago when protesters are still kettled downtown with the bridges and expressways sealed and public transit cut off. This order by the mayor seems like recipe for mass arrests, people need a way to get home!
Trump supporters on The Donald are already making claims about this video that range from it being a "deep fake" that's not actually the president, to him being "held hostage" by the military, to it being a "warning to ANTIFA and BLM" to stop another "false flag operation"...
With all votes counted in the 33rd ward, Rossana Rodriguez—a lifelong movement organizer and open democratic socialist—has defeated Deb Mell, the machine incumbent & member of one of the most powerful political families in Chicago. This is what a political revolution looks like.
I interviewed
@BernieSanders
about how the labor movement can respond to Janus, the popularity of Medicare for All, the success of democratic socialists like Ocasio-Cortez, and why the Democrats still have a ways to go to become the party of working people
Just canvassed a public housing building in Uptown and a young woman answered the door holding her daughter. She said she hasn’t voted in years, but is voting for Bernie this time because he’s the only person she’s seen who’s actually fighting for her.
It's time for Americans to follow in the footsteps of our European counterparts and take August vacations to soak up the summer sun. We work crushing hours, and after enduring a hellish pandemic year, Americans deserve a long break from the job.
.
@Ocasio2018
just said on Instagram live that crispy potatoes are her favorite food and I feel more seen than I ever have by a major US representative.
Anyone else think the NY board of elections unilaterally deciding to cancel the state's presidential primary due to the pandemic sets an incredibly dangerous precedent that Trump could easily point to in order to stop an election from taking place in November? Or is it just me?
First speaker at Bernie Sanders event in Chicago is Destiny, an 18-year old with the
#NoCopAcademy
movement speaking out against school closings and police violence under Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
What it looks like when a 26-year-old democratic socialist is about to win an election for Cook County commissioner against an entrenched incumbent and 3 other challengers. Congrats
@AnthonyJQuezada
PSA: In this house we oppose taxpayer-subsidized corporate mega developments that fuel displacement of longtime working class residents to make way for high-end real estate and commercial corridors that are meant to appeal to all of the worst people in America.
For any Taylor Swift fans wondering what the artist can do in response to this fiasco: in 1994 Pearl Jam filed an antitrust complaint against Ticketmaster prompting a federal investigation into the monopoly and band members spoke at a congressional hearing
Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.
Chicago city council's democratic socialist caucus is showing real leadership including calling for 15 days of paid leave, emergency housing, end to ICE check ins, weekly $750 payouts to all impacted workers & moratoriums on evictions and utility shut offs
In Davenport, Iowa, just talked to someone who has never been to a caucus before but is so inspired by Bernie’s consistency and independence that they’re filling their car on Feb. 3rd to go get him elected. Big
#NotMeUs
energy.
Chicago teachers have officially voted to strike starting tomorrow! 🚨🚨🚨
For the record—presidential candidates standing with the teachers:
✅Bernie Sanders
✅Elizabeth Warren
✅Kamala Harris
✅Julian Castro
✅Joe Biden
Candidates standing with the mayor & school board:
?
With his executive order, Trump just single-handedly cut unemployment benefits for tens of millions of workers and effectively defunded Social Security and Medicare, imperiling the foundation of the US social safety net. Would be a great time for an opposition party to raise hell
Pres says reducing enhanced unemployment benefits from $600 to $400 won't be "a hardship" for workers. "This gives them a great incentive to go back to work." He says $600 was "a disincentive."
4/ But those of us who lived in Chicago while he was mayor will remember him for the public mental health clinics he shut down, the 50 public schools he closed predominantly in neighborhoods of color...
Members of the Chicago City Council have announced the official formation of the Democratic Socialist Caucus, pledging "to organize
collectively" in their legislative efforts. This marks the first formal socialist caucus in Chicago history & appropriately enough falls on May Day.
A whole lot going on here, but "Teach American Exceptionalism" as 1 of only 2 planks under the entire Education agenda is some truly mask off jingoistic shit.
5/ the tax breaks he lavished on corporate giants while raising regressive taxes and fees on the city's poorest residents, the video of Laquan McDonald's execution by Chicago police his office helped cover up, the segregated violence that continued unabated during his reign...
The Empty Bottle
Cafe Mustache
Metro
Cole’s
Reggie’s
The Hideout
All are among the 90% of Chicago independent venues set to permanently close due to loss of revenue from the pandemic shutdown—unless Congress acts to provide support. The city will be a worse place without them.
90 percent of Chicago's independent music venues will close because of coronavirus, desperate owners are saying.
A haunting new video is highlighting the plight of independent music venues as owners call on Congress to save them:
Rahm Emanuel is reportedly being considered for a top spot in Joe Biden's cabinet. I wrote about why that idea needs to be immediately thrown in the trash—where it belongs.
2/ Emanuel's departure caps 8 years of governance that treated Chicago's working-class residents and communities of color as roadblocks in his plan to build a glitzy "world-class city."
97% of nurses at University of Chicago Medicine have voted to authorize a strike 🚨 —the latest in a string of walk outs and labor actions by nurses in the US
As a delegate from IL to the Democratic National Convention, I was proud to cast my ballot for Bernie Sanders—a democratic socialist who has long fought for the working class. I voted against the Democratic platform which didn't endorse Medicare for All, a serious disappointment.