Tag Archives: Ronald Reagan

Appeals Court Tells Texas to Remove Rio Grande Buoy ‘Death Traps’

“Despite this small victory, the razor buoys are only a fraction of Gov. Abbott’s racist and murderous Operation Lone Star,” one group noted.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 12-1-2023 by Common Dreams

A federal appellate court panel on Friday delivered a blow to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s anti-migrant regime, ruling 2-1 that the state must remove from the Rio Grande a buoy barrier intended to block people from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Texas and Abbott over the buoys, which are part of the governor’s Operation Lone Star, in July. U.S. Judge David A. Ezra of the Western District of Texas, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, ordered the state to remove the barrier and prohibited new or additional blockades in September.

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Civil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that’s still shaping American politics

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*A group of voters lining up outside the polling station, a small Sugar Shack store, on May 3, 1966, in Peachtree, Ala., after the Voting Rights Act was passed the previous year.*
*MPI/Getty Images*

Julian Maxwell Hayter, University of Richmond

For nearly 60 years, conservatives have been trying to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. As a scholar of American voting rights, I believe their long game is finally bearing fruit.

The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder seemed to be the death knell for the Voting Rights Act. Continue reading →

How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s words enables more, not less, racial division within American society

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*The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a cheering crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 27, 1965.*
*Bettmann/Getty Images*

Hajar Yazdiha, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is just the latest conservative lawmaker to misuse the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to judge a person on character and not race.

In the protracted battle to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, Roy, a Republican, nominated a Black man, Byron Donalds, a two-term representative from Florida who had little chance of winning the seat. Considered a rising star in the GOP, Donalds has opposed the very things that King fought for and ultimately was assassinated for – nonviolent demonstrations and voting rights protections. Continue reading →

Biden FTC Applauded for Moving to Crack Down on ‘Predatory Pricing,’ Other Corporate Abuses

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FTC Chair Lina Khan is “charting a path toward a new era of refined antitrust enforcement that prioritizes working families and small businesses,” said one advocate.

By Kenny Stancil Published 11-10-2022 by Common Dreams

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Screenshot: CNBC

Progressives cheered Thursday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-1 to issue a new policy statement restoring the agency’s commitment to “rigorously enforcing the federal ban on unfair methods of competition.”

While Section 5 of the FTC Act—passed in the early 20th century by congressional lawmakers unsatisfied with the Sherman Act, the original antitrust statute—prohibits “unfair methods of competition” and instructs the commission to identify and rein in such practices, the agency has refused for decades to exercise its full legal authority to do so. Continue reading →

The IRS already has all your income tax data – so why do Americans still have to file their taxes?

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*The government could toss the 1040 in the trash.*
*Kameleon007iStock via Getty Images*

Beverly Moran, Vanderbilt University

Doing taxes in the U.S. is notoriously complicated and costly. And it gets even worse when there are delays and backlogs, making it especially hard to reach the Internal Revenue Service for assistance.

But to me this raises an important question: Why should taxpayers have to navigate the tedious, costly tax filing system at all? Continue reading →

Despite Housing Crisis, Mississippi May Return Up to Millions in Federal Rent Aid to DC

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“For them to suggest people like me aren’t working? It’s a slap in the face,” said one woman affected by the end of the pandemic assistance program. “It’s very insulting and degrading.”

By Brett Wilkins Published 8-15-2022 by Common Dreams

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves.
Photo: Tate Reeves/Facebook

Tate Reeves, Mississippi’s Republican governor, faced intense criticism Monday as the poorest U.S. state ended participation in a federal rent assistance program that helped shield tens of thousands of people facing eviction during the economic upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Invoking former U.S. President Ronald Reagan—whose administration eviscerated the social safety net and turbocharged economic inequality—Reeves tweeted that “today in Mississippi, we are ending RAMP, a federal program that incentivizes people not to work by using taxpayer dollars to pay for up to 15 months of free rent and utilities.” Continue reading →

Our global economic system is broken. Are we headed for a mass revolt?

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How long can billionaires continue to amass wealth while the world’s poorest struggle to buy food?

By Paul Rogers Published 5-28-2022 by openDemocracy

Screenshot: The Today Show

While it has long been blatantly obvious that the global economic model is not working for all, the rate of accumulation of wealth by a small minority is now breathtaking – if not totally obscene.

With the situation only being worsened by the economic impact of the Ukraine War – which has come on top of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – could we be headed for mass revolts sparked by a desperate need for change? Continue reading →

After Amazon and Starbucks, what’s next for revamped US labor movement?

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Workers across the country are beginning to reverse a 40-year decline of labor organising. But deeper problems remain

By Aaron White Published 4-29-2022 by openDemocracy

Starbucks employees protesting outside the Magnolia Dr. location in Tallahassee, FL. Photo: Ethan B./Wikimedia Commons/CC

“Starbucks has this image of being a progressive company that takes care of its employees. But really that hasn’t been the case,” Will Westlake, a barista at a Starbucks in Buffalo, tells openDemocracy.

Will got a job at Starbucks nearly a year ago, and was one of nearly 50 people from the Buffalo New York region – as part of Starbucks Workers United – to sign a letter in August asking then-CEO Kevin Johnson to support a fair union election. Continue reading →

106 years and 44 days of the Armenian Genocide

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The US decision to recognise the Armenian Genocide has urgent relevance for the country in the wake of last year’s war in Nagorno Karabakh

By Avetis Harutyunyan Published 5-7-2021 by openDemocracy

A view of Yerevan, the capital city of the Republic of Armenia, with the backdrop of Mount Ararat (locally known as Masis). Photo: Serouj Ourishian/Wikimedia Commons

“You have not seen Mount Ararat how I saw it growing up. I promise, one day I will take you back home.”

Since childhood, my grandfather grew up listening to these words of his great-grandfather, Baghdasar, who fled to Armenia with his family during the 1915 genocide.

My grandfather recollects how Baghdasar would tell stories of their home in Bayazet, or Doğubeyazıt in modern Turkey, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, and promise his grandchildren that one day they would return to their home. In 1915, to save his family from the massacres, Baghdasar closed the doors of his house, crossed the Araks River, which flows along the borders of Armenia and Turkey, and ended up in the Armenian city of Gavar. According to my grandfather, when Baghdasar died, he still had the key to his old house in his pocket. Continue reading →

Applause as Biden Withdraws ‘Horrific’ Trump Rule Attacking Social Security Disability Recipients

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“Wonderful news,” said one activist.

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-28-2021

Congress should address our nation’s looming retirement income crisis by increasing Social Security’s modest benefits. (Photo: Courtesy of AFGE, Flickr | CC 2.0)

Social Security defenders on Thursday celebrated news that the Biden White House has withdrawn a regulation pushed by the Trump administration that, if finalized, could have stripped disability insurance benefits from hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.

One of several attacks on Social Security the Trump administration attempted to complete during its final days in power, the proposed rule would have subjected some disability insurance recipients to more frequent eligibility reviews—a move that would have added another layer of difficulty to an already strenuous process aimed at determining whether beneficiaries still qualify for the program. Continue reading →

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The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Ronald Reagan

The IRS already has all your income tax data – so why do Americans still have to file their taxes?