Working Life

Courage and truth. Courage is what Bernie shows when, in the face of a candidate who is so desperate to win that she lies about Bernie’s relationship with Barack Obama (specifically, about Bernie’s views on Obamacare and how single-payer would actually build on the ACA), he still is resolute enough to say, yup, I disagree […]

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Well, a tip of the hat to some people in labor for reaching down and remembering they have a few cojones left–or maybe it was reaching deep into their pockets and remembering that they have the money, and there are a lot of people (read: politicians) who will do just about anything to get a check. Like vote against fast-track and the Trans Pacific Partnership.

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From talking to people here and there, I think there is a pretty strong chance that “fast track”–and, perhaps, even TPP–will be defeated in the House thanks to a left-right alliance. That alliance is nothing new, however. Even if The New York Times has just discovered it.

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Sometimes, it’s hard to connect the dots between things that happened twenty years ago–because we don’t teach real history in schools and Crazy Birds is more popular than reading a book. So, people who are correctly suspicious/opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership don’t necessarily get the connection to the phrase “fast track” and don’t remember NAFTA which passed, thanks to Bill Clinton, back in 1993 (it came into force January 1994). So, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch lends a hand today with a really great piece of analysis.

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Tom Daschle wasn’t the worst Democrat you could have in the Senate–yes, a back-handed compliment. Kind of populist on some issues. But, since he was defeated for re-election, he’s turned into a real corporate hack mouthpiece. Especially on trade.

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C’mon, seriously, has it gotten to the point of such desperation to pass middle-class crushing, poverty-enhancing trade deals that drive inequality that the White House treats its allies, members of Congress and activists as if they are idiots? That’s a rhetorical question.

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Excuse me while we interrupt the hocus-pocus exercise of throwing a meager bone to a few workers on the minimum wage (a proposal, by the way, that is pathetic at $10.10 an hour) to point out: the few cents you think you are putting into a person’s left pocket by hiking a smidgen the minimum wage you are, then, yanking out of that person’s right pocket a whole lot more by promoting the horrendous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its malignant so-called “free trade” predecessors.

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Time flies when you’ve been screwed. I’m going to write some more about this but, for the time being, let’s not forget that it’s been 20 years since NAFTA was passed…and it was bad shit then and bad shit now.

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I certainly plead guilty to being in the large group of people who bang the traditional media for irresponsibility, ignorance, bad reporting and just plain laziness. So, it’s nice to point out outstanding work in the traditional media — and there is a piece in The New York Times magazine posted now that is really […]

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It is a waste of time to jump up and down and scream about the ludicrous nature of the Republicans “ideas” about the economy, and, specifically, the proposal put forth by John Boehner regarding the phony debt and deficit “crisis”. These people are nuts and, worse, they either lie or are ignorant about the facts when it comes to the economy. So, it’s more important, in my humble opinion, to ponder the proposals floated out there by people who claim to be representing the “left” or “center” and, even more astonishing, “the last good economy”.

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