Working Life

A common theme at Friday’s DNC meeting was the clear intention by the Democratic Party elite–principally, the chair of the party, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, to prevent much debate during the primaries. This is a pretty obvious tactic to prevent the “presumed front-runner” from having to answer many questions along the way and prevent the voters from […]

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This is a two-part observation about corruption in politics and two people I have deeply respected for many years–one of whom I think has gone off the deep end. A true testament of whether a person running for office is really about what he or she says or is just blowing smoke to get elected […]

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There’s been a lot of Joe Biden news–will he run?–and one of the things that has been clear to me is that a significant part of the conversation is being driven by elite, traditional media and the insiders of the Democratic Party who (a) are petrified–in the latter’s case–that the “presumed front-runner”, if she is the nominee, will lose the White House (and potentially open the door to 1-3 more right-wing Supreme Court nominees and (b) are petrified–in both cases–that Bernie’s movement is going to leave them outside the money trough they all suck off.

A question: would Biden drain Bernie’s support? Nah.

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Trillions of dollars lost, pensions ravaged, retired people who can’t pay to stay in retirement homes, peoples’ futures wrecked…that was so financial crisis days, huh?

But, if there is ever a moment to remember what a very stupid idea privatizing Social Security is, and why Bernie Sanders’ plan to expand and strengthen Social Security is so important, this is it. A teachable moment.

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It can’t be earned by top-heavy, message-controlled campaigns based in, say, Brooklyn…this is interesting and is a good lesson for anyone wanting to plug in or spread the word on plugging in

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Now, maybe The New York Times can catch up…

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I had heard, now leaking out to the media, that the AFL-CIO will not rush to endorse anyone in the Democratic primary. This is good news for Bernie Sanders, and not so good for those on the Chipotle-eating circuit. It gives Bernie more time to show a hard-edged practical reason–as opposed to the obvious “I’d actually take on Wall Street and be good for unions”–for the AFL-CIO to support him, and it also gives more time for the Chipotle-eating crowd to show that, hey, we’re actually like regular, working people (though probably not “dead broke” like real people).

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So true. The country where politicians run around talking about “family values” and never miss a chance to be photographed with a child–while too many of them cut health care for kids and vote for illegal, immoral wars that bankrupt the country and send kids to war (though their own kids never serve–they just give speeches for five-figures in which they say nothing).

Bernie pegs it. And wants to at least create 1 million jobs for young people over the next two years.

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Banks on the brink. Financial system close to collapse–or so said the experts. To the rescue rode the Federal Reserve Board, which authorized trillions of dollars for all sorts of financial institutions, domestic and foreign…even if said institutions didn’t need the money but were happy to take essentially free money.

That was back during the financial crisis.

Now, it’s Greece and its banks running short on cash, squeezed by the money lenders and, in particular, the European Central Bank. So, why not: the Federal Reserve Board should be directed by Congress to commit to providing liquidity to Greek banks so the people in Greece–millions of human beings–can pay their bills, get their pension payments and continue to have money to buy food–or cut off the ECB from its Fed-backed line of credit.

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This is a short post. But, an important one that says a lot.

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