Hillary Clinton’s capture of the Democratic presidential nomination—an historic milestone for women—should not obscure the significant long-term opportunities created by democratic socialist Bernie Sanders’s sustained and scorching attack on a “rigged” economy and an increasingly undemocratic political system.

A January 2016 poll of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa found that 43 percent described themselves as “socialist.” Fully 56 percent of registered Democrats, including 52 percent of Clinton supporters, view socialism favorably according to a recent NY Times/CBS News poll. These poll results signal the emergence of democratic socialism as a mainstream idea—at least in the Democratic Party.

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The Democrats’ donor class remains overwhelmingly committed to the financialization of the economy and the “free-trade” deals that have led to the offshoring of jobs to nations like China and Mexico. Democratic officeholders remain cowed by the fear of alienating donors who wield enormous power. Bernie Sanders managed to surmount this system with an impressive base of small donors. But it is improbable that less visible Democratic candidates will be able to launch viable campaigns on $27 contributions.

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In the late 1970s socialist leader Michael Harrington tried mightily to build a strong socialist current within the Democratic Party. Ultimately, his efforts were blocked by the Democratic leadership’s dogged embrace of business as usual. But the dire conditions facing ordinary working people, who are or potentially could be Democratic voters, make this moment ripe for a powerful democratic socialist bloc. The Progressive Democrats have been trying to stoke the flames in recent times. As Harrington would put it, is the Democratic Party willing to seriously explore “the left edge of the possible”?

I'm joined by Jonathan H. Adler, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law & Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, to discuss the strange bedfellows who've joined forces in support of onerous new FDA regulations on life-saving vaping (e-cigarette) technology. We've discussed the topic on the show on a number of occasions in the past (most recently here), not only because half a million Americans still die each year, unnecessarily, from cigarette smoking, but because, bizarrely, it has largely been Democrats and other supposedly anti-tobacco crusaders who have been leading the deadly campaign against vaping, making it much harder for smokers to quit smoking in the bargain.

Why would Dems be fighting --- alongside Big Tobacco(!) --- to kill the vaping industry, despite scientific studies finding e-cigarettes to be at least 95% safer than smoking and the UK's Royal College of Physicians (the equivalent of the office of the Surgeon General in the U.S.) recent pronouncement: "in the interests of public health it is important to promote the use of e-cigarettes...as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking"?

In her recent article, "Democrats Work With Big Tobacco and Big Pharma to Choke the Vaping Industry," at the American Media Institute (and at the NY Observer), journalist Monica Showalter offers an answer. She details the "strange bedfellows against vaping," citing both Big Tobacco's support of the crippling new FDA regulations, along with massive donations given by Big Pharma to big name Democrats in the U.S. Senate, just as those politicians came out in favor of restrictions on vaping. The Big Pharma companies include those which control the multi-billion dollar smoking-cessation nicotine industry that produces products such as nicotine gums, patches and, yes, inhalers!

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Also, what should be similarly frightening to Democrats and others who claim to be against smoking, according to Adler, is that the Big Tobacco companies have been very supportive of the onerous FDA regulations no being applied to vaping products. Those are costly new rules that Big Tobacco can afford to comply with, but Mom and Pop vaping shops, currently leading the industry in the U.S., simply cannot. "The major tobacco companies asked [for] and supported the FDA's proposals to regulate e-cigarettes," Adler tells me. "Indeed, Phillip Morris is largely credited with helping to write the statute under which these regulations were adopted."

Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, the richest woman in Wisconsin and a vice chair of the Trump Victory fundraising committee, didn't pay a dime in state income tax from 2012 through 2014, records obtained by the Journal Sentinel show.

Hendricks, 69, has a net worth of nearly $5 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes Magazine, which this month named her "America's Richest Self-Made Woman" — edging out Oprah Winfrey, who the magazine said had a net worth of $3.1 billion. Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO at Epic Systems Corp., a Verona health care software company, came in third with an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion.

Hendricks, co-founder and owner of ABC Supply Co. — the nation's largest supplier of roofing — also owed no state taxes in 2010, meaning she paid no Wisconsin income taxes in four out of five years. The company, which she founded with her husband, Ken, in 1982, posts annual sales of about $6 billion. Ken Hendricks died in 2007.

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus in May named Hendricks to the leadership team for Trump Victory, a committee that will raise funds for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the RNC and 11 state GOP committees. She has been a major ally and contributor to Gov. Scott Walker, pouring $5 million into a super PAC that was formed to support the Republican governor's failed presidential bid. She also gave $500,000 to Walker's 2012 recall campaign.

"If the Democratic Party would fight as hard for the Working Class as the Republican Party fights for the Ruling Class, the Republicans would be a powerless minority party within a few election cycles.

The Democratic Party knows this, the Republican Party knows this, the Ruling Class knows this- and they've been astonishingly successful at making sure the Working Class never learns this." ~ Anonymous

May 29, 2016, 11:14 am
Sanders supporters up in arms over Puerto Rico polling locations

The commonwealth initially had 1,510 polling locations. But on Friday, it announced instead that there would be 455 for the June 5 primary.

Roberto Prats, president of the Democratic Party on the island, said the 455 locations are four times more than the number of polling locations open in the Republican primary in March, according to Elnuevodia.com.