Progressive Politics

Thousands of people took to the streets in France on Saturday to protest against Emmanuel Macron’s appointment of the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister, with leftwing parties accusing the president of stealing legislative elections.

Macron named Barnier, a conservative and the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-month-long search after his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered a hung parliament divided in three blocs.

Barnier, in his first interview in office, said on Friday night that his government, which lacked a clear majority, would include conservatives, members of Macron’s camp and, he hoped, some from the left.

In response to the appointment of Barnier, whose centre-right Les Républicains party is only the fourth largest bloc in parliament, with fewer than 50 lawmakers, leftwing party leaders, unions and student bodies called for mass protests on Saturday before new action, including possible strikes on 1 October.

The LFI said 130 protests would take place across the country.

Barnier was continuing consultations on Saturday as he sought to form a government, a tricky job given he faces a potential vote of no confidence, especially with an urgent draft budget for 2025 due to be discussed in parliament at the start of October.

Why Socialism?

At their annual meeting, Nike investors will decide on proposals about the company’s approach to climate change, gender equity and labor rights. If history is any guide, none of them will pass.

WASHINGTON (TND) — Multiple pro-Palestine protesters on Thursday crashed a book tour event thrown by Jewish CNN anchor Dana Bashin Washington, D.C.

Bash was at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., to promote her new book “America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History.” Video shared by her co-anchor, Jake Tapper, shows a masked protester berating Bash over her coverage of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“You belong behind bars,” the demonstrator called. “We know who you are, we know what you’re saying. It’s not a war, it’s never been a war, it is ethnic cleansing.”

The protester continued shouting despite event organizers asking them to calm down.

After the first protester left the building, another one took their place, again screaming at Bash over her coverage of the war.

You call yourself a good journalist?” the second protester called. “Report the truth. But instead you want millions from Zionists, you want millions from AIPAC.”

"Harris seems to be making a policy choice based on the disproven, failed ideology of trickle-down economics, and giving petulant billionaires a gift in the process," said one progressive advocacy group.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris broke with President Joe Biden on Wednesday by proposing a smaller capital gains tax increase for wealthy Americans, a decision that one progressive advocacy group decried as a "baffling capitulation to Wall Street billionaires" who have vocally complained about the vice president's embrace of higher taxes on the ultra-rich.

Harris said at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday that "if you earn a million dollars a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28% under my plan," broadly confirming earlier reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

A 28% top tax rate on long-term capital gains—profits from the sale of an asset held for more than a year—would be significantly lower than the 39.6% rate that Biden proposed in his most recent budget.

Jacobin.com

Publishers prevail despite lack of proof of market harm.

Axios.com

Unpacking the dangerous ‘bromance’ between Trump and Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

BBC.com

Good Discussion on the Majority Report About Voting Third-Party

CNN

Breaking Points

How concerned should we be about tactics to impair voting? And what should be done to resist?

alt-text for thumbnail: text saying “apolitical friends don’t exist” next to the progress flag on a 2d digital art wooden background

"The facts are clear: Democrats are the party of labor, and the Biden-Harris administration has been the most pro-labor administration in our lifetime," said a pair of supporters.

"We refuse to accept wages that can't support our families. It's insulting. And it ends now."

APnews.com