Working Life

I’ve previously written that the president is a coward, hiding behind Nike and a whole host of other corporate sponsors in his pitch to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership. Probably the lowest he’s gone is accusing people of “making stuff up”, specifically when it comes to the view that, oh, pshaw, the TPP and so-called “free trade” deals will not undermine American regulations.

So, Mr. President, what dismissive comments can you conjure up now, in light of YESTERDAY’S undermining of an important food safety regulation because of the very secretive and corporate-friendly trade deals that TPP is a bad seed of? When Americans eat tainted meat, fall sick and die, what will you say?

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From inside the belly of the beast on trade comes an illuminating view on the secrecy around the Trans Pacific Partnership. From an insider. Who knows. And he says: Sens. Warren and Sanders, and a whole host of others, are right on the mark about the secrecy.

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Now it boils down to this: can the White House and its corporate supporters find a sliver of votes in the House to pass fast track and, close on its heels, the Trans Pacific Partnership? To do that end, the president and his allies are going to rely on tried-and-true phony promises conjured up by Bill Clinton and Robert Reich when they squeezed NAFTA through by a handful of votes in 1993–the Clinton-Reich playbook is back on display again.

Today’s false promise: retraining.

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Yeah, so, this is decidedly NOT new. CEOs are raking in vast riches yet again, using the usual confidence schemes they’ve used for a few decades. While inequality grows, it’s still really, really good times in the CEO suite.

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The gloves have to come off when it comes to individual members of Congress who vote for “fast track” and the Trans Pacific Partnership. I’m talking seriously funded primaries in 2016. I’m going to start laying out the case for specific challenges (and a little plan is percolating in my brain) and I know there will be a debate about this.

BUT…a no-brainer has to be this: Debbie Wasserman Schultz cannot vote in favor of “fast track”–which she has declared her support for–and remain head of the Democratic National Committee. Impossible.

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I’m not here to give too much of a wet-kiss to Facebook, which, to my way of thinking, plays a misleading game about its “social networking” process (i.e., its algorithm requires that you basically have to buy ads to actually move content to your own “Friends”). That said, today, at least it gets credit for pushing at least some pay standards higher–and showing, yet again, how Democrats are pathetically behind the energy in the streets on pay.

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Let’s be clear: The Senate is not where the action ultimately is going to be when it comes to defeating “Fast Track” and the TPP. It will be in the House. Eventually, in my estimation, “fast track” and TPP will pass the Senate–the Senate has always been much more pro- so-called “free trade. But, today, […]

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It’s easy enough to have very carefully choreographed appearances, say in front of a controlled crowd at Nike, where you can attack opponents without having to actually engage in a debate. But, the president is a coward: if you want to tear down people and claim they are wrong on such a critical issue, come out and debate people directly.

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I remain in the camp of people who are entirely unimpressed by the economic figures raved about by most pundits, economists and The White House. We all know that pay is not growing. But, there’s another thing to be concerned about: the missing 3.1 million workers.

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At the end of the day, it doesn’t hurt for voters to ask politicians the family question: would you ask your children, your spouses, or your parents to face the consequences of a policy decision and put themselves in the very world you advocate for? If you are going to vote for war, would you ask your kids to drop what they are doing (even if they had, in the immortal words of a war criminal Dick Cheney “other priorities” when their number came up) and sign up for the battlefield?

And when it comes to the TPP, and recruiting Nike to pimp for you to pass this pile of crap, one can ask the President: would you ask your daughters to work in a Nike factory in Vietnam?

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