Just a few days ago, North Dakota’s governor forced the Water Protectors to leave their camp at Standing Rock. Forty-six Protectors remained peacefully and were arrested - peacefully - while more than 200 police officers showed up. Then, the camp was demolished. 

The sad news is that if Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison is elected as DNC Chair he has pledged to leave the US House of Representatives. The good news is, if he wins, he will be dedicating all of his time to launching a county-focused, grassroots effort to re-build the Democratic Party from the bottom up.

As Trump continues his assault on the press, some have suggested that there might be a silver lining: maybe the mainstream corporate media will work harder, do real reporting and as a result become a better resource for citizens. Maybe...

As we heard Professor Richard Wolff explain in Edition #1079 ("If you're not at the table, you're on the menu"), President Obama’s Fiduciary Rule - which aims to protect people with investments from self-serving financial advisors - is under threat.

The reality is that we are playing defense now and that means that as activists we must adapt in the moment, much faster than we can alert you to what's going on. It's not the way we would want it but there's no choice but to practice fast-paced "react-ivism" as the Trump administration drops unconstitutional bombshells and blatant lies multiple times a day, every day.

Edition #1074, "The corruption of Donald Trump," focuses on executive and federal level corruption -  and the lawyers are already hard at work filing lawsuits as we speak. But as you’ve probably been hearing: more than ever, our activism efforts need to shift to the state level in order to make progress. 

It’s time for a refresher. 

In Best of the left Edition #1072, we talked about a new vision for our economic future and we even heard some policy proposals to help make this vision a reality - but we still need more than that. We need people like you to get organized and make it happen.

Jeff Sessions has been around for a long time. In the 1980s, Reagan tapped Sessions for a judgeship, but the Republican Congress at the time rejected him due to his long history of racist comments and questions surrounding his unfounded prosecution of a black civil rights activist for voter fraud. Yea, he was too racist for 1980s Republicans. 

Episode #1066: "The economics of the greater good" is about getting a new perspective on multiple levels: the personal, one step up to your immediate surroundings like where you work, and all the way up to the societal and political level. But it’s important to always remember that these levels are all connected. As the student and feminist movement of the 1960’s taught us, the personal IS political.

We are not here to give you false hope. It is, by all accounts, very unlikely that enough electoral college electors will change their vote and keep Trump from becoming our next president. However, just because something is unlikely or unprecedented doesn’t mean it can’t happen….Just look at the results of our election.