Daily Clips: July 29th, 2016

July 29, 2016 Nick Cassella

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CONGRATULATIONS HILLARY CLINTON! HOW PROGRESSIVE WAS HILLARY CLINTON’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH? I was impressed with Hillary’s speech last night. Sure, there was some empty rhetoric, but for the most part I thought it was a very inspiring speech that was littered with progressive policy choices. Perhaps one of Clinton’s most powerful lines used themes Nick Hanauer has outlined in his “ parasite economy ” argument: “It’s wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other.” HILLARY CLINTON WILL DOMINATE THE FEMALE VOTE: EXPECT MORE WAR: Sigh. Perhaps the least emphasized fact of this presidential election is that whoever wins, American foreign policy is going to get more belligerent, more inclined to the use of military force to solve problems, less accepting of the limits of American power to resolve conflicts. BEST SPEECH OF THE NIGHT: TWEET OF THE DAY: Stunning photo by @benlowy . #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/sIi2S7MmjH — Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) July 29, 2016

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Daily Clips: July 28th, 2016

July 28, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Imagine how different last night would’ve been if Clinton had got the nomination instead of Obama. It’s quite a thought experiment. The Democratic Party would be far different, in my opinion and Dylan Matthew’s. Here’s the latter’s take: The sequence was supposed to go in reverse. Clinton would get the nomination after Obama put up a respectable showing. She might pick him as a running mate, or pick a fairly boring, well-qualified white dude like Biden or Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland or Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh or former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack , who would then run against a more seasoned Obama in the 2016 primary. That would have resulted in a very different Democratic Party in 2016. It would be a party inextricably, personally linked to the Clinton family, whose only qualified public servants and potential Cabinet appointees are people personally loyal to the Clintons. It would be a considerably more militarily hawkish party. BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH: You must watch this seminal piece of public speaking. THE DIVERSE LEFT AND WHITE WORKING-CLASS RIGHT: Those voters haven’t been the party’s center for years: except for Bill Clinton in 1996, no Democrat has won more than 40 percent of white voters without a college education since 1980, according to media exit polls. On a national basis, Democrats have largely replaced them with increased support from Millennials, minorities, and college-educated whites—while running just enough above their national numbers among working-class whites in the key Midwestern battlegrounds to retain the advantage in those pivotal states. TWEET OF THE DAY: Tim Kaine represents the middle class. Trump doesn't know what it is. pic.twitter.com/innwNURL3c — Chuck (@JoltedToad) July 28, 2016

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Donald Trump Is Right, for Once—Let’s Raise the Minimum Wage

July 27, 2016 Paul Constant

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2016, Donald Trump, Minimum Wage

This morning’s press conference was full of what you’d expect from Donald Trump Trump: a few points where he seemed scarily misinformed (he called John Hinkley Jr. “David Hinkley” and he seemed to confuse Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine with former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, a republican) and one point where he seemed to violate the law (when he called for Russia, “if you are listening,” to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email server. That last bit, naturally, got all the press—we have never before seen a presidential candidate publicly beg a foreign power to commit an act of espionage against the United States, so it’s big news. (As Ezra Klein argues convincingly at Vox , Trump has long since blown past any standards of normalcy or decency.) But Trump also made news in another way this morning; in fact, if he hadn’t made history with his incredibly irresponsible Russia comments, perhaps he’d be leading the headlines with some good news for a change: he endorsed a $10 minimum wage. As CNN reports , Trump originally told Bill O’Reilly last night on Fox News that “You need to help people. I know it’s not very Republican to say.” When O’Reilly asked to what level he’d raise the minimum wage, Trump finally settled on ten: “’I would say 10. I would say 10,’ Trump agreed.” And at this morning’s press conference, he doubled down: “Trump said once again that the federal minimum wage should be raised to ‘at least $10’ but that ‘states should really call the shots.’” Let’s be clear that the above quote makes no sense. You can’t raise the minimum wage to at least $10 and then vaguely insinuate that states could make the minimum wage lower than $10, because that flies in the face of what a federal minimum wage is. And in the recent
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Daily Clips: July 27th, 2016

July 27, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

HILLARY CLINTON BECOMES THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR POTUS : An incredible moment in American history took place yesterday afternoon. Although our country is often embarrassing, we should be proud of this achievement. TRUMP HAS NO IDEA WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT THE MINIMUM WAGE TRUMP ASKS PUTIN TO HELP HIM WIN ELECTION: The Don is clearly trying to grab the media’s attention during the DNC. And it’s working, as per usual. BILL O’REILLY VOUCHES FOR SLAVES’ LIVING CONDITIONS: Horrific, but unsurprising. BILL CLINTON BECOMES FIRST MAN TO GIVE FIRST LADY SPEECH: It’s ironic that, in politics and other male-dominated public spheres, one of the roadblocks for women is objectification and sexualization, but when it comes to Hillary Clinton, whose ambition and brains have long rendered her bloodless in the American imagination, hearing her described as an object of desire could feel corrective and bizarrely just.

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A Good Start: REI Announces Employee Pay Raise of Five to Fifteen Percent

July 26, 2016 Paul Constant

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Minimum Wage, Scheduling

Last week, I told you I was cutting up my REI card because the giant retailer wasn’t supporting its retail employees with adequate pay and humane scheduling practices. Yesterday, Daniel DeMay at the Seattle P-I had some good news: In an announcement said to be shared with employees Sunday, REI announced pay hikes for employees at stores in Seattle, Portland, Boston, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and Washington D.C., the company said in a statement. Stores will see between “pay investments” between 5 and 15 percent…In Sunday’s announcement, REI also said it planned to announce an update to scheduling in October of this year. This is obviously good news. But does it mean I’m becoming an REI member again? Nope. At least, not yet. I want to make sure the retail employees have an opportunity to freely discuss unionization, because that’s the easiest way to make sure employees have a voice in the negotiation for wages and humane scheduling practices. Also, I’m very curious to hear about REI’s “update to scheduling.” Lots of large chains have made big promises, but few have succeeded. Starbucks, most notably, announced that it was going to improve “stability and consistency” by getting rid of clopening shifts back in 2014. Individual stores are still failing to meet that standard . A little over a year after the New York Times announced the new Starbucks scheduling initiative, the New York Times published a story headlines “ Starbucks Falls Short After Pledging Better Labor Practices .” These corporate edicts, while often made with the best of intentions, frequently fail when they’re put to the test around the country, because there are simply no repercussions for violating company policy. This is why we need laws: they reinforce our values and make it possible for employees to defend their rights. By passing a secure scheduling law in Seattle, we would be making a statement that we do not reward exploitative and/or demeaning employment practices. But when will I know it’s okay to return to REI as a customer, if ever? When the employees say so. I
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Daily Clips: July 26th, 2016

July 26, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

WHY THE NEWS SEEMS SO DIRE: There is a difference between feeling safe and being safe, and the media understands this all too well. They manipulate our primal minds to make us feel like the world is spinning out of control, because that’s best for their ratings. As the futurist Ray Kurzweil put it , it’s not that violence is getting so much more common in the U.S., but rather that the information about it is more accurate. DAVID BROOKS CANNOT SELF-REFLECT: With no irony at all, David Brooks lectures Clinton on her candidacy, telling her: “You’re going to have to show you understand the way members of your class have slighted people who are less educated and less cosmopolitan.” This coming from a New York elite who didn’t see Trump coming and couldn’t understand why people were so angry at the state of politics…less than six months ago. And he has the self-righteousness to lecture Clinton. Good grief. MICHELLE OBAMA’S DNC SPEECH TRANSCRIPT: Truly beautiful piece of work. She delivered it with excellent pacing and emotion, as well. TWEET OF THE DAY: Robby Mook said that Clinton is gonna turn heavily to economic message post convention https://t.co/p5v66u8gri — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) July 26, 2016

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Damn You, $15 an Hour Minimum Wage!

July 25, 2016 Goldy

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$15, Economics, Minimum Wage, Seattle

Anybody who actually lives, works, or eats in Seattle knows firsthand that our local restaurant industry is booming. But for those of you on a raw data diet, the Federal Reserve of St. Louis serves up the above bland-if-nourishing graph that confirms the intuition of our eyes and tastebuds: Seattle’s restaurant industry is booming. In fact, despite the doom and gloom predictions of minimum wage opponents, food service industry employment in the greater Seattle metropolitan area has actually accelerated since adopting our phased in $15 ordinance. Damn you, $15 an hour minimum wage! Of course, the graph above represents all of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties, so what about Seattle proper? That’s not as easily discernible from the Fed data, but as Paul pointed out last week , a new report from the University of Washington finds wages, jobs, and hours up for Seattle’s low-wage workers over the first year of phase-in, without any observable negative impact on businesses: The data are coming in, and they prove that contrary to the empty threats we’ve been hearing from conservatives, the sky has not fallen. Our job market is strong. Our workers are working more hours and making more money, which they are then spending locally, which allows employers to hire more people to meet with increased demand. Seattle’s march to the $15 minimum wage is right on track. Yeah, I know, it’ll take years to tease out the full impact of the $15 ordinance, and even the analysis will be somewhat speculative and subjective. But so far, predictions of job losses remain theoretical while workers’ wage gains are very, very real.

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Daily Clips: July 25th, 2016

July 25, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

TWEET OF THE DAY: So, all HRC wants to do is to put the word “email” on the back burner. So, much for that… — amy walter (@amyewalter) July 25, 2016 FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON’T FREAK OUT OVER NATIONAL POLLS: In fact, polling during the conventions is even less likely to be predictive of the final outcome of the election than polling at both earlier and later times of the year, says Princeton election guru Sam Wang. DAY 1 OF DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: Bernie Sanders will take the stage tonight and “get one last chance to push his agenda in front of an audience of millions.” And oh yeah, he’ll also endorse Hillary Clinton. HOW ROUSSEAU PREDICTED TRUMP: The political philosopher, Rousseau, was an anti-elitist and many of his warnings about concentration of power are coming true today. His take on human nature is…honest and runs against liberalism’s reliance on the individual: Rousseau refused to believe that the interplay of individual interests, meant to advance the new civilization, could produce any natural harmony. The obstacle, as he defined it, existed in the souls of sociable men or wannabe bourgeois: it was the insatiable craving to secure recognition for one’s person from others, which leads ‘each individual to make more of himself than of any other.’

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Daily Clips: July 22nd, 2016

July 22, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Daily Clips

WHY DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS SPEAK DIFFERENTLY: Beautiful work from the Atlantic. They take an analytical look at the use of language of both parties over the past decades, noting how it has changed dramatically as partisanship has increased. SOLAR ECLIPSE: Fantastic and detailed article on the state of US solar movement. TRUMP SAYS “I ALONE CAN FIX” AMERICA: The rest of the speech is best dealt with elsewhere, but this entire week was powered by the vigorous applause of people begging to be led, to be directed, to be ruled. A wise old friend once told me that the most basic paradox in American history can be summed up in the question, “Do you govern or are you governed?” FLURRY OF ACTIVITY ON TIM KAINE’S WIKIPEDIA PAGE: Could this mean he’s the VP choice for Hillary? My gut says so. DAVID BROOKS THINKS GOP HAS LOST ITS WAY: Well, obviously it has. But his memory of the pre-Trump GOP seems slightly different than mine: The G.O.P. used to be a party that aspired to a biblical ethic of private charity, graciousness, humility and faithfulness. Mitt Romney’s convention was lifted by stories of his kindness and personal mentorship. TWEET OF THE DAY: It’s Demagoguery 101: When you don’t have actual answers, exaggerate the problems with fear & hatred in order to blind people with emotion. — Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 22, 2016 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/why-democrats-and-republicans-literally-speak-different-languages/492539/

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Democrats Need to Decide: Is College a Right or a Commodity?

July 21, 2016 Nick Cassella

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Economics

The US economy isn’t exactly working for most Americans. Wages for most of us are stubbornly stagnant, while college (the “ surest ticket ” to the middle class, according to our sitting president) has increased twelvefold over the past thirty years . This is a reason why a majority of our citizens still think we are in an economic recession. That’s a problem, especially when our president’s entire theory of economic growth relies on expenditure from a robust middle class. I can attest that I’d be doing much more for the American economy if I didn’t have to siphon off student loan payments each month. That money would be much better served going into local businesses or my savings account. I hope we can all agree that, in a more perfect union, it is not in the US government’s best interest to suck so much money out of the economy -especially when transactions occurring between individuals in our economy are at 40-year lows . WHY IS OBAMA DEFENDING STUDENT LOANS, THEN? The Obama administration seems to disagree. Recently, they released a report which concluded that the “$1.3 trillion in student debt is helping, not hurting, the US economy.” Talk about putting lipstick on a pig. The report states , “It is education, not student debt, that drives the persistent differences in homeownership.” Ok. So if indeed it is the case that education “drives the persistent differences in homeownership,” then why would the US government want to make higher education incrediblyfinancially burdensome for Americans to attain? Am I missing something here? According to the Wall Street Journal, the report also claims that “dropouts” who accumulate student debt but didn’t graduate with a degree “would still be suffering financially even without student debt, suggesting other factors are holding them down.” Talk about washing your hands of any responsibility. “Look, even if we didn’t put a ten-pound anchor around their neck, they’d still have drowned.” This reasoning is,
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