Working Life

Three questions post-election are on the menu this week. First, how does Tom Perez, the chair of the DNC, still have a job? Perez has been incompetent for a very long time. He was the choice of the Democratic Party elites back in 2016—a guy who knows zippo about the mechanics of an election. And, […]

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As we enter into the final three weeks of the election, I’m updating my first set of predictions and musings—updates are partly adding new information (for example, actual turnout so far and a lot more on the Senate seats) and some new thoughts. Very little of the below, in its basics, has changed. I will […]

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Voting in America, compared to many other countries, is not easy. That’s always been true. Donald Trump’s relentless effort to undermine the vote in November, in this case by crippling the postal service and trying to make it impossible for ballots to be counted on time, is surely corrupt. But, the undermining of the vote […]

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Another day, another chapter in the new ways to screw workers. This time, the target is workers inside hog processing plants—who are already doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. I talk with expert Debbie Berkowitz about the Department of Agriculture’s new proposal to speed up the processing line–so that Big Ag […]

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Even Paul Ryan, the odious Speaker of the House, is in the electoral crosshairs and has a good shot at losing in the 2018 midterm elections. The man who is up to the task is Randy Bryce, better known in the Twitterverse as @ironstache. Randy joins me for a talk about politics, his campaign and […]

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Sure, there were shenanigans in the 2016 Democratic primary. But, we need to understand what is tough politics versus what is rotten in the system. I unwind this a bit in an Election Rigging 101 (and, hey, nice election results last night). I also dig into the battle for labor rights in South Korea with […]

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When a former Supreme Court Justice speaks out, essentially calling his former colleagues just short of dishonest, it’s worth taking note. Justice John Paul Stevens is angry at the Court’s Citizens United decision and the more recent decision in McCutcheon and is calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decisions.

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Yesterday, I wrote about the disastrous state of labor in the wake of the elections. Suffering from either a lack of sleep or simple brain lock, I neglected to include one of the most dangerous coming debacles: we have lost much of the ground built opposing so-called "free trade" agreements, which have played a central […]

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   I always thought this approach would be worth trying: Ballots cast throughout New Jersey on Tuesday will list hundreds of candidates, their parties and the offices they seek. But for 53 candidates, the ballots will not say one of the most important things they have in common: union-approved. These people running for town councilman, […]

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I get why people are angry. Not the anger espoused by the racists, birthers and anti-government people. Across the political spectrum, wherever people place themselves, there is a unifying point that keeps coming up: we’ve been robbed by corporate powers. And the foolish, failed so-called "free trade" policies–pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike–is a place […]

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