Progressives (Liberals)

2020 Democratic Hopefuls Tackle Monopoly Power, Rural Issues In Iowa Forum
Daniel Marans, HuffPost, March 30, 2019

When former Secretary of Agriculture and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) offered introductory remarks at the start of HuffPost and the Open Markets Institute’s Heartland Forum for Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday, he admonished the candidates not to limit themselves to policy details. After all, Vilsack argued, rural Iowans were used to hearing bold promises that politicians often failed to deliver on.

“We don’t need plans. We need a vision that will drive and prioritize what an administration does,” he said.

Over the course of about two hours, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) did their best to present that vision.

The five Democrats, all of whom save Ryan are running for president, tackled an array of concerns that have particular resonance in rural America, from opiate addiction and suicide to climate change and trade policy.

But more than any other issue, the Democrats were united in their determination to combat corporate consolidation by beefing up antitrust policy, specifically in sectors like agribusiness that have an outsize impact on American farmers.

“I want to see enforcement of our antitrust laws. I’m calling for the breakup of these agribusinesses,” Warren said in her opening remarks. […]

Of course, the prominence of antitrust policy in the forum was not a coincidence. The Washington think tank Open Markets Institute, which co-sponsored the event with HuffPost, The Storm Lake Times and the Iowa Farmers Union, is devoted to studying antitrust policy.

Still, the crowd at Buena Vista University responded warmly every time the word “antitrust” came up, suggesting there is a real appetite for politicians who can actually ease the burden on rural Americans caused by growing monopolies.

The forum’s focus marks a major shift in the way Democrats talk about the problem of mergers and other forms of corporate consolidation.

For decades, Democrats generally put up little resistance to the corporate-friendly legal theories and policies championed by their more conservative colleagues. As long as there was no ironclad proof that mergers that ballooned the size of companies were not raising consumer prices, the thinking was, corporate consolidation was not a major concern.

But a group of new lawyers and policy experts, many of whom now hang their hats at the Open Markets Institute, argued that growing corporate consolidation had far-ranging negative effects well beyond the price of a product or service when it comes to market. Watered down antitrust laws and enforcement have created conditions that depress wages for workers and farmers, stifle innovation, distort politics and even endanger American supply chains, they argue.

Warren, who has used her perch in the Senate to tackle the effects of consolidation in the hearing aid industry, has likely put forward some of the most audacious ideas for toughening up antitrust regulations.

Earlier this month, she proposed breaking up Amazon and other major technology platforms. And on Wednesday, she rolled out a plan to apply similar standards to major agribusiness firms, as well as to bar foreign ownership of American farmland.

Indeed, farmers have been particularly hard hit by corporate consolidation ― on both ends of their production process. They must typically buy seeds from a small handful of agribusinesses that have the power to charge them high prices, and then sell their crops to another set of corporate players that have the power to pay lower prices.

As Warren is fond of mentioning, farmers now take home just 15 cents on every dollar a consumer spends on food ― the lowest amount since 1993.

“The problem right now in Washington is not only there is no help for farmers, it’s that Washington is on the side of making it worse day by day,” she said in her opening remarks.

Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was found in contempt of court after failing to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony, child support and other debts.

Court records in Virginia obtained by the Guardian show Moore, 59, was reprimanded by a judge in November 2012 for failing to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 in spousal support, child support and money owed under their divorce settlement.

Moore continued failing to pay, according to the court filings, prompting the judge to order the sale of his house to satisfy the debt in 2013. But this process was halted by his ex-wife after Moore paid her about two-thirds of what he owed, the filings say.

In a divorce filing in August 2010, Moore was accused of inflicting “emotional and psychological abuse” on his ex-wife during their 20-year marriage. Allison Moore said in the filing she had been forced to flee their home to protect herself. She was granted a divorce in May 2011.

Moore said in a court filing signed in April 2011 he admitted all the allegations in Allison Moore’s divorce complaint.

O’Rourke rails at ‘unprecedented concentration of wealth and power’ at kickoff rally
In his first formal stump speech, the former Texas congressman channels Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

We really do have to thank Sanders for helping push the Dems back towards a set of values that has inspired so many of us. I suspect Warren and others would have arrived there too but the big push has come from Bernie. That doesn't mean he's the best candidate or would make the best President but we do owe him for what he's done.

I agree with you, we do owe Sanders a lot for pushing democrats in the right direction and I hope he gets the acknowledgement. He may take it as condescending though.

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Pope Francis called to mend the “great and deep wound” opened by the migration crisis, as he spoke during a visit to Morocco on Saturday. “We do not want our response to be one of indifference and silence,” he said.

Mueller Report Apparently More Than 300 Pages

A little Popery coming from an unexpected source. Anything is possible!

Zuzana Čaputová campaigned on platform of ‘humanism, solidarity and truth’

The woman who has been elected Slovakia’s first female president said her victory showed “you can win without attacking your opponents”, after fighting a positive campaign based on progressive values and political reform, and providing a rare moment of hope for liberal politics in central Europe.

Zuzana Čaputová, a 45-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner, won 58.4% of the votes in Saturday’s poll and will take office in June.

A political outsider who was polling in single figures a few months before the vote, her campaign used the slogan “Stand up to evil”, but she eschewed personal attacks on her opponents and has spoken of the importance of the values of “humanism, solidarity and truth”.

“Let us look for what connects us. Let us promote cooperation above personal interests,” she told a crowd of supporters in Bratislava. “I am happy not just for the result, but mainly that it is possible not to succumb to populism, to tell the truth, to raise interest without aggressive vocabulary.”

Prior to her surprise entry into politics, Čaputová was a civil activist best known for blocking a planned landfill site in her home town in 2016. She also played a role in anti-government protests that broke out after the murder of the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová.

After topping the first round of voting two weeks ago, she comfortably won the run-off against Maroš Šefčovič, an EU energy commissioner backed by the governing party Smer, an ostensibly centre-left grouping that has increasingly used rightwing populist rhetoric over recent years.

Šefčovič said during the campaign that he wanted to appeal to voters “who insist that Slovakia remain a Christian country”, an attack on Čaputová’s liberal views on LGBT rights and abortion legislation.

Across central Europe, liberals have struggled to counter rightwing messaging from governments on migration and social issues. However, Čaputová’s message resonated, especially in Bratislava and other cities, tapping into a frustration with career politicians among a young, well-educated demographic.

highly positive posts about Francis since his sense of christian morality has become clear