Working Life

You could find many instances like these if you do a little comparison between rich donors: there is virtually no shame, nor any hesitancy, by wealthy donors who fund just about every presidential candidate–with the exception of Bernie Sanders (though, by all means, prove me wrong on Sanders)–to put their hands in the pockets of taxpayers for their own wealth and enrichment.

Follow the bouncing ball…

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The differences between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on economic policy, foreign policy and basic morality are many. But, in the wake of confirmation about the most revolting, despicable, debasing of whatever moral principles this country claims to adhere to, the differences are stark. Torture. The differences between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on economic […]

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It is either ironic or karmic that just as Iraq is interrupting into yet another spasm of civil war, Hillary Clinton steps into the public arena to promote her book–and her presidential campaign (be my guest if you want to believe that she is really deeply weighing this or not). A lot of attention has been paid to her interview yesterday on NPR, mostly because of her (dissembling) explanation of her views on gay marriage. But, far less attention is being paid to an entirely dishonest attempt to wash away the blood she helped spill in Iraq–a tragedy generations will pay for in many ways.

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I don’t mind disagreeing with opponents on the merits of one proposal versus another. But, I have very little tolerance for just lying about the facts or, at best, muddling the truth about the reality. And, so, it is with healthcare: the continuing myth, promoted by both the political and media jabbering low-minds, that the president and his former Secretary of State both made the same mistake on health care–they opted for something too “complex” “inflexible”, “secretive” or “socialistic”, or a combination of all of the aforementioned descriptions.

It’s utter nonsense. They did make the same mistake–but it had nothing to do with complexity. It was entirely their immoral unwillingness to confront two powerful industries that have relentlessly killed hundreds of thousands of people, either by bankrupting those people or literally denying them care.

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   A few months ago, I spent 5-6 hours interviewing Paul Krugman for Playboy magazine. It’s now on-line here. He speaks candidly–surprise–about the economic misdeeds of Wall Street, the foolishness of the current austerity obsession and focus on the non-existent debt crisis, and a whole range of topics including his view that the Obama Administration […]

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I almost broke my pledge of sanity not to blog on the weekends when I read Roger Lowenstein’s monumentally stupid article on trade in the Sunday Times Magazine. The piece was so moronic as to…well, let’s go to the text.   Lowenstein starts out by setting the terms of debate thus: According to Political Science […]

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   Over the never-ending primary season (I recently picked up a not-so-old old New Yorker issue that had a New Hampshire primary and realized that wasn’t so long ago and it seems like ancient history), I’ve pointed numerous times that on the question of so-called "free trade" I wasn’t entirely sure that there would be a […]

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    I’m a little surprised that this story has become more than it should be. Apparently, yesterday’s story in The Wall Street Journal that related Barack Obama’s pledge that he would work to end the government control over the Teamsters has caused a bit of a hoo-hah. It elicited this story today in The New […]

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  I’ve said before that I believe that the Democratic nomination fight is over, though the hype may drag on for a bit. But, a nice chunk of super delegates–perhaps as many as a dozen or more–may make their choice based on where the candidates stand on trade. And that’s a good sign for people […]

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When I read yesterday’s account of the debate over what to do about rising gasoline prices, I really was astounded by the pandering–though I sometimes wonder why one would be astounded in this era where getting elected is far more important than taking a principled position. On this issue, the scorecard is clear: Sens. Clinton […]

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