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John Oliver: Debt Buyers

Companies that purchase debt cheaply then collect it aggressively are shockingly easy to start. We can prove it!

Bernie Cranks Up the Heat in DC

Ben Jealous gives a fiery introduction to Bernie Sanders at a rally at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC before the final primary on Tuesday.

Friday Nite Videos -- June 10, 2016

Portside
Elizabeth Warren on Trump and Republicans' Attempt to Bludgeon the Judiciary Into Submission. Bernie Cranks Up the Heat in DC. John Oliver: Debt Buyers. Bernie on Talk With Obama and Where Next. Hobbit Histories: The Origins of Homo Floresiensis.

"We Will Not Sit on the Sidelines": John Legend’s Proposal for Ending Mass Incarceration

John Legend Vox
In the past, unions sometimes shied away from knocking down systematic injustices, especially with regard to race. Not anymore. This is not the labor movement from last century. We will not sit on the sidelines. #FREEAMERICA is committed to joining others who are on the ground, doing the work to fix our broken criminal justice system. We are committed to standing with workers who are already in our schools standing between young people and the criminal justice system.

Tidbits - June 9, 2016 - Reader Comments: Social Security and Primary Activism; Muhammad Ali; Fascism??; Voter Repression; New York Labor Activism; Dixie Chicks; and more....

Portside
Reader Comments: Obama changes course on Social Security due to primary campaign and sharp debates - thank you Bernie; Muhammad Ali remembered; Voter Repression; Reason right is on the rise - is it beginnings of fascism?; New York labor activism - teachers, taxi drivers, B&H workers solitary June 14; radical leisure and denial of summer vacations; opposition to Gov. Coumo anti-BDS executive orders - smacks of McCarthyism; Dixie Chicks new tour hits out on Trump; more...

Sixty Years Ago: Congressional Red-Hunters Set Their Sights on Bridgeport

Andy Piascik Portside
Passed into law in 1940, the Smith Act made it illegal to "teach, advocate or encourage the overthrow" of the government and extended to any member of an organization that allegedly did so. The notion that in 1956 the Communist Party was interested in, let alone capable of, overthrowing anything was patently absurd. From a 1940's peak of around 80,000, the CP's national membership had dwindled to perhaps 10,000 by the time of the hearings in Connecticut.

Who Is Responsible for Puerto Rico's Debt?

Ed Morales The Nation
There's evidence some of it is illegal - and activists agree that Washington's colonial control over the island's economy helped create the crisis. We are urging members of Congress to put the people of Puerto Rico first and oppose H.R. 5278 as currently written, said SEIU 32BJ President Hector Figueroa. We need a real solution and Congress must get back to work immediately to provide a path forward that allows Puerto Rico to negotiate a feasible debt restructuring plan.

Another Reading of Milanovic: Worlds of Inequality - Globalization's Winners and Losers

Miles Corak The American Prospect
Branko Milanovic offers us not just a plethora of facts about income inequality but brings them into a sound and rigorous global perspective, showing that what are too often treated as isolated national issues are on a world scale income massively maldistributed. While some nations saw the growth of a middle strata (China, for one) the real increase in world income is owned by the unprecedented 50-percent rise in incomes for the top 1 percent globally.

With BDS Order, Cuomo Imports Anti-Democratic Spirit, from Israel and France

Jonathan Ofir Mondoweiss
Executive orders are meant to avert imminent or existential crises that cannot await legislation. It's as if we are being asked to believe that BDS is some deplorable enemy endangering our very existence as a free society, and that only those who really care, take action on behalf of the rest of us, who have not yet awoken to the grim reality. For Cuomo, fighting this fight on behalf of Israel is all about "freedom, liberty and democracy".