This week Sarah is joined by guest co-host Laura Clawson, editor of Daily Kos Labor and a former Belabored guest. Sarah and Laura try to bring you some cheerful news before diving back into the subject du jour: the continuing government shutdown and with it the drive from the far right to destroy the last vestiges of the New Deal safety net. They also tackle the debt ceiling and the question of whether the right wing is still under the thumb of big business. But don’t despair—there really are a few things to be optimistic about. Really. We promise. (Just not, at the moment, coming from Washington.)

Links for Those Reading Along At Home

Laura Clawson on the shutdown: cutoff of WIC funding, furloughs at the Center for Disease Control, coal miners at risk, NLRB shutdown, food banks taking care of furloughed Grand Canyon workers, and more

Bangladesh garment factory fire kills 10

Teamster organizing victory for public workers in Georgia

Josh Eidelson and Doug Henwood discuss the debt ceiling

Sarah on Kirsten Gillibrand’s forward-thinking economic agenda

Bryce Covert on what Democrats should demand in the shutdown negotiations

The Pieces We Wish We’d Written:

Laura: Ken Ward Jr. at the Charleston Gazette‘s Coal Tattoo blog—on MSHA missing safety inspections, and why West Virginia’s coal mines aren’t safer

Sarah: Steven Greenhouse on the UAW’s battle to organize Nissan in the South