New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman believes in the value of public employee unions. That's why he is leading a coalition of more than 20 states and getting them to add their support for the "fair share" fees that keep those unions operating.

Schneiderman and the other AGs have signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of Friedrichs vs. the California Teachers Association. That's the latest anti-union case to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, and it poses a serious threat to our public unions.

As we've explained during previous legal challenges, those fair-share fees allow unions to collect partial dues from non-members who work in a union shop, to cover the cost of negotiations that the unions are legally required to do on their behalf.

Attorney General Schneiderman said, "The right to organize is a fundamental right for American workers. Unions go hand-in-hand with a strong middle class." And, he's exactly right. Hopefully, the Supreme Court Justices are listening.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

  

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The High Cost of Runaway Inequality (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Friday's Daily Stack 

Quote: "Every once in a while, I get mad. 'The Lorax' came out of my being angry. The ecology books I'd read were dull... In 'The Lorax,' I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might." -- Dr. Seuss.

 

Article: "Mali Hotel Attack Leaves Dozens Dead; Siege Appears Near End" by Dionne Searcey and Adam Nossiter.

Video: Bernie Sanders Talks Socialism at Georgetown University (11-19-15) .

Article: "Sanders Delivers Speech on Democratic Socialism" by Common Dreams.

Article: "Transcript: Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Fighting ISIS" by Ryan Teague Beckwith.

Article: "1944 State of the Union Address: FDR's Second Bill of Rights or Economic Bill of Rights Speech " (video).

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Irish twin" by Wiktionary.

Site: Free Speech TV

Article: "Original 1989 document where Heritage Foundation created Obamacare's individual mandate" by John Aravosis.

Article: "Will Congress Approve The 9/11 First Responders Health Care Bill?" by Coburn Pamer.

Article: "Ryan Touts Progress on Regular Order" by House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Article: "Why is a Health Bill for 9/11 First Responders Stuck in Congress?" by Luke Russert.

Article: "Eleanor Roosevelt Biography" by Biography.com.

Book: The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great by Harvey J. Kaye.

Article: "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" by United Nations.

Quote: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win". attributed to Gandhi.

Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.

Law: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Law: "Telecommunications Act of 1996" by Wikipedia.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "US Congress Says Yes To Space Mining: What Humanity Should Worry About" by Ted Ranosa.

Article: "Human Activities in Space: Issues and Framework of the United States Law Concerning Outer Space" by David Liechty.

Article: "Overton window" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trump crosses new line, endorses database for Muslim Americans" by Steve Benen.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones 

Article: "Gunmen Take Hotel In Mali" by TRNS.

Article: "Massacre in Mali: Bodies lie piled up in pools of blood in gore-spattered corridors of hotel where at least 27 hostages were slaughtered by gunmen as one-eyed 'Marlboro Man' jihadist is blamed for attack" by Flora Drury, Tom Wyke, Jay Akbar.

Article: "Two Paris suicide bombers came through Greece - prosecutor" by RT.

Article: "'Prayer for the Nation': Hundreds of British mosques plan prayer to show solidarity against Islamic extremism" by Oliver Wright .

Article: "Small boy who donated his savings to vandalised mosque receives a generous thank you" by Adam Boult.

Article: "Princeton may scrub U.S. President Wilson's name over racist ties" by Victoria Cavaliere, Katie Reilly, Angela Moon, Barbara Goldberg.

Article: "Trump rivals decry his call for registering US Muslims" by Julie Pace and Jill Colvin.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 11/20" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 11/19" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "An email I just got from our Governor. Regarding refugees" (Jay Inslee, Washington) by Tierra_y_Libertad.

Article: "Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to ask feds not to send more Syrian refugees" by Josh Hicks.

Article: "Book of Revelation" by Wikipedia.

Video: John Fugelsang: Jesus, Republicans And The Bible .

Site: John Fugelsang.

Faacebook: "IATSE Members For Bernie Sanders".

Site: "Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch" (incl. Lori Wallach).

Law: "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA).

Bill: "PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA)".

Book: "The Fourth Turning" by William Strauss, Neil Howe.

    

Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

I'll be talking with Osprey Orielle Lake, Climate Justice Activist / Founder & Executive Director-Women's Earth & Climate Action Network, International (WECAN)

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

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