Thom's blog

“Social welfare” organizations, or “Dark money” groups?

It’s not SuperPACs that are buying our elections, it's so-called “social welfare” organizations. According to IRS law – 501c4 and 501c6 groups – what are known as social welfare organizations or trade associations – are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections – and not disclose a single donor – just as long as they don’t explicitly call for the election or defeat of a particular politician.

The Fossil Fuel Industry - Predatory capitalism at its worst

In one day, Big Oil earns $342 million in profit, pays their CEOs $60,000 in salaries, spends more than $160,000 lobbying, and dumps a billion pounds of carbon pollution into our skies. All that in a single day. And what do we get out of it?

The US Postal Service's forced financial crisis

Congress went on recess this week leaving the United States Postal Service financial crisis, unresolved. At midnight tonight, the Postal Service will default on a $5.5 billion payment it owes to the Treasury Department. This default will not have any immediate effects on day-to-day operations at the Postal Service, but it highlights the financial troubles that the institution, which was created more than 200 years ago by Ben f

President Obama is forced to hold endless fundraisers

President Obama will likely become the first ever incumbent President to be outraised by his opponent in his re-election bid. And in a desperate attempt to even the playing field just slightly before November – the President has been forced to hold endless fundraisers. As the Center for American Progress reveals, President Obama has already held nearly 200 fundraisers during his first term in office. To put that in perspectiv

For-profit colleges are scamming American students

According to an investigation by Democratic Congressman Elijah Cumming – the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform – for-profit colleges are paying executives massive salaries – not based on student achievement – but instead based solely on profitability. Looking at 13 different for-profit schools – the investigation found, “the single most significant measure for determining executive compensation at t

Capital One Bank is having a bad week...

After it was the first bank to be hit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for defrauding consumers and ordered to pay $165 million to customers in refunds, Capital One was just hit with another fine. This time – the Department of Justice has ordered the bank to pay out $12 million to members of the military for denying them their legal right under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to avoid foreclosures and high interest rates.

It's been 500 days since the Fukushima nuclear crisis began in Japan

And one thing’s clear – it’s still an extremely dangerous situation. A Japanese newspaper is reporting that plant operators still face a number of hurdles before they can decommission the plant and officially close the book on the crisis – and it could take decades. Those hurdles include trying to determine why 8 million becquerels of radioactive cesium still continues to pour out of reactor number 2 every single hour.

Police violence sparks civil unrest in Anaheim

Civil unrest in America spread to Anaheim last night – where, for the fourth straight day, citizens took to the streets to protest police brutality and the killing the of an unarmed man by police over the weekend. As journalist Tim Pool reported, cops fired hundreds of less lethal rounds of rubber bullets and pepper balls into the crowds – wounding several demonstrators.

Big Brother is watching you!

In an interview with Current TV on Monday, former NSA senior official Thomas Drake revealed that the NSA is not just monitoring international phone calls and emails as its been given the authority to do, but also domestic calls and emails. As Drake said, “a key decision [was] made shortly after 9/11, which began to rapidly turn the United States of America into the equivalent of a foreign nation for dragnet blanket electronic surveillanc

Why does the US have such a high rate of gun murders?

The shooter in the Aurora theater massacre, James Holmes, purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition in the weeks leading up to the shooting, spending roughly $3,000 on his arsenal. He also purchased a bullet-proof vest and other tactical gear to mimic a SWAT team member, and high-capacity magazines that would have been illegal under the Assault Weapons Ban or any number of pieces of gun control legislation that have stalled out in C

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