Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The Triple Trade Treaty Threat: TPP, TTIP and TISA

Via Popular Resistance: This week, hidden amidst the news of the massacre in Charleston and the Supreme Court decisions on the health law, fair housing and marriage equality, the Senate passed Fast Track legislation and sent it to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

Monday, June 29, 2015

If U.S. becomes Greece, it's because of the GOP

And because of Obama...

Joseph Stiglitz interview at TIME: He says of the so-called "troika" of financial institutions that bailed out the Greek economy in 2010, namely the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank: “They have criminal responsibility. It’s a kind of criminal responsibility for causing a major recession”.

Obama and GOP will be Blamed for Future Offshoring

Congress has already admitted that jobs will be lost in future trade deals....

Politicos in the News

Joe Biden (Wall Street Journal) Before he recently died of brain cancer, Beau Biden encouraged his father to run for president.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Social Security Overpayments only 0.13% of Total Budget

Sensational media known as HEADLINE NEWS is sometimes just "yellow journalism" (like tabloid news magazines) to get readers, to sell advertising. Wiki: "A type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers."

Friday, June 26, 2015

Why Corporate Democrats and the Media Fear Bernie Sanders

The Ready for Warren group has endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders because he has more in common with Elizabeth Warren than any other presidential contender — by far.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Congress Admits Jobs will be Lost in Trade Deals

Obama promised the TPP trade agreement would create 650,000 new jobs, not destroy jobs. Big lie.

A Great Day for Obama and Corporate America

But a day which will live in infamy for American workers and the labor movement.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Stock Buybacks Hurt the Economy — Nick Hanauer

Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer is a very wealthy man and a part of the top 0.01%. But even though he is very rich, he's much different than the plutocrats that dominate America today.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Hillary Clinton supports TPP and TPA with TAA

* Editor's Note: Directly below is a key to the acronyms mentioned in this post on the trade debate:

  • TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) A huge secret trade deal with Asia (like TTIP for Europe and TiSA globally).
  • TPA (Trade Promotion Authority) Fast track authority for presidents to negotiate these horrific trade deals without any Congressional changes.
  • TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) A program to re-train workers who are displaced by bad trade deals when their jobs are offshored.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Democrats Wall of Shame (fast track, TPP, trade)

Key to acronyms mentioned in the trade debate:

  • TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) A huge secret trade deal with Asia (like TTIP for Europe and TiSA globally).
  • TPA (Trade Promotion Authority) Fast track authority for presidents to negotiate these horrific trade deals without any Congressional changes.
  • TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) A program to re-train workers who are displaced by bad trade deals when their jobs are offshored.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Hillary Clinton Supports Offshoring Jobs

When asked if she would vote for fast-track authority on the TPP trade deal, Hillary Clinton told Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston in a recent TV interview:

Friday, June 19, 2015

Spending Cuts for the 99% = Tax Cuts for the 1%

Rand Paul has a tax plan: Blow Up the Tax Code and Start Over

  • It cuts $2 trillion in taxes.
  • It repeals the entire IRS tax code.
  • It introduces a broad-based tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses.
  • It eliminates payroll taxes on workers. [meaning Security and Medicare taxes]
  • It eliminates the gift and estate tax on rich people.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

28 Democrats vote to Offshore more Jobs...

... and to raise drug prices for seniors — and without funding the re-training of workers who are displaced by trade deals.

Hillary Clinton: From Promises to Policies

* Below are some of the promises Hillary Clinton made, followed by a few policy suggestions by the New York Times editorial board:

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Should Americans Sacrifice more to Save the World?

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a determined opponent of the TPP trade agreement, called on House Democrats to vote against TAA (a fund to re-train workers displaced by trade agreements) knowing that a negative vote would derail TPA (fast track for Obama) and possibly shut down TPP (the Asian trade deal). Richard Trumka and others probably believed that the damage that can be done by TPP outweighs any remedial offsets to that damage that are offered by the TAA extension.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Hillary Clinton: The Economic Populist (and TPP)

The House voted last Friday to kill "fast-track" to give Obama authorization to pass a major and secretive trade agreement. Now the presidential contender Hillary Clinton may have another opportunity to give the American people her open and honest opinion on the TPP trade agreement. Or

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Is Labor just another Commodity (Millennials)

First, some excerpts from "Falling Job Tenure: It's Not Just about Millennials" (posted June 2015 by Julie L. Hotchkiss and Christopher J. Macpherson at the Atlanta Fed, discussing labor as a commodity.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Marco Rubio: "Don't spend as I do; spend as I say."

Paul Krugman (June 2015) "One of the greatest confidence tricks ever pulled in American politics was the way Republicans managed, for a while anyway, to convince centrists that they were apostles of fiscal responsibility."

Monday, June 8, 2015

How will the rich spend any new tax cuts?

Will the mega-wealthy in America (billionaire investors and the executives of major U.S. multi-national corporations) use any new tax breaks to fix our crumbling infrastructure, give their non-executive employees fair wage hikes, fund a strong national defense and shore up our Social Security trust funds?

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Quick, Nero, get out the fiddle!

Four Major Economic Concerns America is Currently Facing:

Friday, June 5, 2015

The News that's NOT on Cable News — June 2015 Edition

* EDITOR'S NOTE: A wealthy man's public debut as a woman on the cover of Vanity Fair is being praised as bravery, while also being criticized by others — and this "news" has dominated much of the cable news. So here are a few headlines (some, with short blurbs) that you might have missed while being fixated on Caitlyn Jenners well-publicized transformation...

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton on Social Security

What Millennials and younger voters should know.

Sanders and Clinton

During the 1960's, activists such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman (among many) seized on a quote by Jack Weinberg (UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement) "We don't trust anyone over thirty" — and they used it as a catch phrase for an attack on the American establishment ("The Man" — the rich and the powerful) such as "the old white guys" in Congress and those in the boardrooms of multinational corporations.

But now is the time when the younger generation should trust one of those old folks — Senator Bernie Sanders

America likes George W. more than Hillary or Obama?

That, according to a new "poll"...

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

America's Two Party Political System is Rigged

A cycle of "lesser-evil" voting in the U.S. has been well established.

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. In a prepared statement, a campaign spokesperson said: "Throughout her career, Hillary Clinton has been inspired by FDR’s belief that America is stronger when we summon the work and talents of all Americans and has long admired Eleanor Roosevelt as a role model.”

I knew FDR (not). And Hillary Clinton is no FDR.