"Dave Johnson is a fantastic grandfather of the blogosphere." -- Mike Stark, BraveNewFilms.com


Dave Johnson is Founder and principal author at Seeing the Forest, and a blogger at Speak Out California. He is a frequent public speaker, talk-radio personality and a leading participant in the progressive blogging community.


Currently Dave is a freelance researcher and writer, and is a Fellow with Campaign for America's Future, a Fellow at the Commonweal Institute and a a Senior Fellow with the Institute for the Renewal of the California Dream.


Before starting Seeing the Forest, Dave had over over 20 years of technology industry experience. Recently he helped co-found Carbon Tracing, Inc., the company developing the desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.
He previously held senior industry positions including CEO and VP of Sales and Marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic, and he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. Send e-mail to Dave. Twitter: http://twitter.com/dcjohnson

Blog Entries by Dave Johnson

$140 Billion for Bonuses, Zero for America's Future

Posted November 11, 2009 | 10:48 AM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

Here is another story about Wall Street's war on the real economy.

US Steel was planning to...

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Wall Street's War Against the Real Economy and We, the People

4 Comments | Posted November 4, 2009 | 10:32 AM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

At a meeting with bloggers before last week's Building The New Economy conference, AFL-CIO President Rich...

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Corporate Money In Elections -- What To Expect

4 Comments | Posted November 2, 2009 | 01:26 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

The Supreme Court may decide as soon as tomorrow on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case involving a corporate-funded anti-Hillary smear ad. It is likely...

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Wall Street Pukes On Our Shoes

Posted November 2, 2009 | 10:15 AM (EST)


At last week's New Economy Conference, Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers said that deregulating Wall Street was like leaving a 3-year-old in a candy store unsupervised for a day. When you come back the kid is stuffed full of candy, belly all bloated, with candy falling...

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Palin vs. Krugman on the Dollar -- Who Is Right?

141 Comments | Posted October 23, 2009 | 12:14 PM (EST)


The other day I wrote about how the dollar is falling - but not against the Chinese Yuan. A falling, or "weak," dollar is great for American manufacturers and therefore American jobs, because it makes American goods cost less everywhere else. This means our exports should rise, reducing our...

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Caught In a Machine that Grinds Us Up

13 Comments | Posted October 21, 2009 | 05:11 PM (EST)


This is Part II of Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities. See Part I, Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities - Workers, Customers and Country As Costs.

In Part I I wrote about a pattern we see over and over again: buying up good companies, shedding and outsourcing the workers, cutting their...

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Companies As Buy-And-Sell Commodities - Workers, Customers and Country As Costs

3 Comments | Posted October 16, 2009 | 10:52 AM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

As we consider what we need to do to get our economy working again it is useful...

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Stopping Banks From Fleecing, Looting, Scamming, Robbing, Swindling, Tricking, Cheating, Conning, and Generally Ripping Us Off

4 Comments | Posted October 13, 2009 | 07:50 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

In the last several years we have all been fleeced, looted, robbed, swindled, thieved, tricked, cheated, scammed,...

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Modern Governoring

3 Comments | Posted October 9, 2009 | 03:42 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Speak Out California.

What does it mean to be a "governor?" What does it mean to "govern?"

In the news, California's Governor has threatened to veto 700 bills in an attempt to force the legislature to do his bidding on water policy.

Seven hundred...

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We Need A Jobs Program And Leadership That Will DO It This Time

2 Comments | Posted October 5, 2009 | 11:36 AM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

Friday's jobs report said 263,000 jobs were lost in September.

BUT that is after 571,000...

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A New Economy from Old Roots?

Posted September 30, 2009 | 07:12 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

How do we build a new economy out of the collapse of the old economy? How do...

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Is Obama Admin Enforcing Laws and Regs?

Posted September 28, 2009 | 12:29 PM (EST)


The hallmark of the Bush administration was lawlessness. Laws and regulations were ignored, enforcement was scoffed at. The powerful were always, always given a pass. Political opponents were prosecuted, or in the case of things like wearing anti-Bush t-shirts, were just harassed, removed, etc.

Question: Is the Obama administration now...

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Enforcing Trade Rules Shocks "The Village"

6 Comments | Posted September 23, 2009 | 02:09 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

The New York Times business section has this today, "With a Receptive White House, Labor Begins...

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Myths of Protectionism Are Spread to Exploit Workers and the Environment

55 Comments | Posted September 18, 2009 | 02:54 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

"Protectionism" is a very powerful word. In fact, simply evoking the word is capable of ending debate...

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Myths of Protectionism: Stories You Are Likely to Hear in the Wake of the China Tire Trade Tariff Case

7 Comments | Posted September 14, 2009 | 06:18 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

President Obama has decided to enforce our trade laws and imposed a three year tariff on...

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Drop This "Public Option" Crap - Just Let Me Buy Into Medicare!

22 Comments | Posted September 8, 2009 | 09:20 PM (EST)


I am sick and tired of all this "public option" crap. Please! I'm an informed person who follows the news and I still don't quite get it. It is too complicated.

Just let me buy into Medicare! Why is that so hard?

Why am I prevented by law from just...

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Who Else is Against American Manufacturing?

1 Comments | Posted September 8, 2009 | 10:35 AM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

A country's economic power comes from manufacturing. But while other countries have industrial policies, America has...
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Who Opposes American Manufacturing? II

51 Comments | Posted September 3, 2009 | 12:24 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

A country's economic power comes from manufacturing. But while other countries have industrial policies, America has a...

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Who Would Be Against American Manufacturing?

3 Comments | Posted September 1, 2009 | 04:13 PM (EST)


This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.

The definition of "anti-American" might be up for grabs after so many years of conservatives using the...

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Maybe We Really Do Want Government to Make the Decisions

51 Comments | Posted August 31, 2009 | 04:15 PM (EST)


This post was written for the Commonweal Institute Progressive Op-Ed Program. I am a Fellow with the Commonweal Institute.

Do we really want government making decisions? I hear the same question repeated a number of different ways: "Do we really want government making decisions about our health care?"...

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