Working Life

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?

Read the full story

It must be an interesting conversation to behold between the president and his people who are desperately trying to figure out how to prop up this piece of crap called the Trans Pacific Partnership. I really have some sympathy for these guys: how do you make something palatable without telling lies? There’s the list of ten lies/half-truths that just don’t hold water.

Then, there’s the bullshit about the deal not being negotiated in secret, leading one member of Congress to say “We know when we’re being suckered” and another to say, “My chief of staff who has a top secret security clearance can learn more about ISIS or Yemen than about this trade agreement”.

And, now, actual numbers–these are called FACTS–show that a cookie-cutter version of the TPP has cost the U.S. dearly in jobs.

Got it, solution, pesky facts notwithstanding: there’s always a last ditch claim…TPP will, in fact, end cancer and make everyone slim.

Read the full story

When it comes down to it, the president has a problem. No one doubts that he is wicked smart. And there’s the rub when it comes to the Trans Pacific Partnership: if he was, say, Sarah Palin-level intelligence, you’d say the whoppers coming out of the White House emanate from a dope. But, if whoppers keep coming from a wicked smart man running the show, you have to say he’s lying.

Secrecy is secrecy. No matter how they want to spin it. And it is having a corrosive effect on the ability of the White House to ram through the TPP because, basically, on the subject of TPP secrecy, the Democrats are calling the president a liar…in nice terms. Silver lining: this could end up killing the putrid deal.

Read the full story

Good for Elizabeth Warren. In a respectful but “I’m not backing down manner,” she’s firing back at the president’s nonsense about TPP. And in her own words on her blog. Take this truth: The Administration says I’m wrong – that there’s nothing to worry about. They say the deal is nearly done, and they are […]

Read the full story

The Trans Pacific Partnership is no laughing matter. It’s a fast track to lower wages, environmental disasters and the undermining of democracy. But, hell, I think maybe the president has a sense of humor on all this. Or, on a serious note, he’s unintentionally showing how weak support is for TPP and the odious “fast […]

Read the full story

Here it is, for the world to see.

Read the full story

Back in the day when I, reluctantly, took statistics (barely passing, is my recollection), the favorite cliche making the rounds was, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” (as an aside, there is some dispute about whether Mark Twain correctly attributed the saying to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli but whatever). […]

Read the full story

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.

Read the full story

Good to see Elizabeth Warren taking on the Trans Pacific Partnership. Aside from her terrific leadership opposing Wall Street, her views on some other issues (for example, her fairly mainstream blindly pro-Israel views) have been less clearly progressive. But kudos on this.

Read the full story

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.

Read the full story