2:00PM Water Cooler 4/23/15

2:00PM Water Cooler 4/22/15

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

TPP

Warren: “[T]he president says he wants the American people to judge this deal based on the facts, but to do that, he’s got to make the deal public. Otherwise the American people can’t judge it on the facts. He won’t put the facts out there” [Vox]. Warren may not be running, but I’ve never heard a Sherman statement from her. One can easily see her accepting a draft after the S.S. Clinton hits the berg.

Fast track clears Senate Finance Committee 20-6 [Wall Street Journal, “Senate Committee Approves ‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Needed for Pacific Agreement”].

Democrats traitors for: Ron Wyden (D-OR), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Tom Carper (D-DE), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Warner (D-VA); Democrats against: Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA) [Daily Kos] (fixed).

“A number of Democrats say their party’s front-runner should lay out her views and concerns with the so-called trade promotion authority bill that’s now dividing their party” [Politico]. Since Clinton has been for trade deals in the past, her thinking would need to evolve to give these Democrats cover.

“[Even if [TPP] works as advertised, it will be a minor accomplishment, while the side effects are likely to be large. [Clinton] might as well co-opt O’Malley’s message and come out against the deal” [The Week]. The whole piece is a nice takedown, too.

Jebbie: “I have no problem supporting TPP” [Medium]. Frames Clinton’s hedging as a flip-flop.

Gallup poll: Democratic views on trade rebounded by 25 percentage points since bottoming out during the recession in 2008. Then, just 36 percent of self-identified Democrats said they viewed foreign trade mainly as an opportunity for economic growth rather than a threat to the economy. In 2015, that number rose to 61 percent [Gallup].

Trade liberalization impact on consumers: The IMF paper shows that multilateral liberalization increases consumption perhaps 0.014 percent. This would be about 43 cents per person per month in the United States) [“The Gains from Trade in a New Model from The IMF: Still Very Small,” CEPR]. Even at Walmart, 43¢ isn’t very much.

“In a research paper about the TPP, [Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute] calculated that expanded trade overall has lowered wages for a non-college-educated worker by about $1,800 annually” [The Week]. Idea: Compensate workers for “lost wages” and retrain elites for useful work.

2016

“Chafee’s main motive seems to be that he just can’t stomach the idea of Clinton, his former colleague in the Senate, as an interventionist president in an unstable world. He sees very little difference, substantively, between her and her predecessor as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice” [Matt Bai, Yahoo News]. Beat sweetener, but who would have thought the Chaffee beat needed sweetening?

Sanders objected to a unanimous consent request from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to let the Finance Committee meet, forcing a delay in the consideration of the legislation [The Hill]. Moral victories aren’t victories,as Rahm’s opponents, for example, know or should know.

The S.S. Clinton

Schweitzer oppo: The headline: “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation as Russians Pressed for Control of Uranium Company.” The text: “Whether the donations played any role in the approval of the uranium deal is unknown. But the episode underscores the special ethical challenges presented by the Clinton Foundation” [New York Times]. Well, that’s the ol “appearance of impropriety,” also known as business as usual. But really, for the elites, that’s not a bug, but a feature; the perp is sending a message that they’ve got what it takes. It would be nice to see another candidate not sending the same signal: Warren, I would think, even if she is an Eisenhower Republican. And, in a prehensile sort of way, Huckabee, unless there’s a stinking buried body I’ve missed.

Republican Establishment

W. paid $250,000 to speak at Koch beauty contest for Presidential hopefuls [Daily Beast].

Republican Principled Insurgents

Walker quotes Lenin: “Lenin said you probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw” [Politico].

Clown Car

Oh, Ted, Ted [@AnnaHolmes]. Hey, come on. Where’s your sense of humor?

Stats Watch

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index, week of April 19, 2015: “Consumer confidence retreated for a second week after reaching an almost eight-year high as lower- and middle-income Americans’ views of their financial well-being dimmed” [Bloomberg]. C’mon, proles! Get with the program!

New home sales, March 2015: “[T]oday it’s bad news again as new home sales fell a very steep 11.4 percent” [Bloomberg]. “[D]ifficult to draw firm conclusions from this report because of the sample size which is often small and therefore increases volatility in the readings. But today’s report echoes last week.”

Jobless claims, week of April 18, 2015: “Initial claims were little changed in the April 18 week, up 1,000 to 295,000, but the comparison of the 4-week average, at 284,500, with the 4-week average one month ago shows an improvement of more than 20,000” [Bloomberg].

PMI Manufacturing index flash, April 2015: “Early indications on this month’s manufacturing activity are not encouraging” [Bloomberg]. Strong dollar, “soft foreign economies.”

Water

“The World Economic Forum’s 10th Global Risk Report ranked water crises as the top global risk in terms of impact, more than the spread of infectious diseases, weapons of mass destruction or interstate conflict” [The World Blank]. And no doubt the conflict investment community is salivating.

A report from the Congressional Research Service projects that 85 percent of the growth in domestic water consumption from 2005 to 2030 will come from the power sector [New York Times].

“The impact of the California drought nationally and internationally may not be noticeable given all the other variables that determine food prices” [UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences]. The key qualification: “[N]o one has yet carefully developed a timeline of consequences for water supply, food production and food prices should the drought continue for many more years.”

“The good news is that when researchers pencil out a 72-year drought, California still has an economy and fairly strong urban centers. But agriculture is cut in half and grey rocks become the new green grass” [Seattle Times].

China spends billions to transfer water from the wet south to the dry north, but many cities aren’t using the water. “A number are balking at the high cost of the transferred water, and they are struggling with figuring out how much to charge users” [Wall Street Journal].

Since 1966, the Aral Sea has lost about 90 percent of its volume since the two rivers that fed it were diverted for Soviet irrigation projects [CBS].

“How long before somebody proposes a much more serious project to build a 900-mile pipeline from Lake Superior to the Green River watershed in southwest Wyoming?” [Minnesota Public Radio]. What could go wrong?

California’s “lush, green lawns” account for 50 percent of residential water use [NBC]. Get rid of your lawn! You can xeriscape (and maybe get a tax break). Or sheet mulch in plant a garden. My kinda permaculture yard takes maybe a week to get going, and after that it runs itself with a few minutes a day. Let the plants do the work! No mowing the lawn! And as a bonus: No petroleum for the mower, no petroleum for fertilizer, no petroleum for insecticides!

Black Injustice Tipping Point

Brown family civil suit [International Business Times]. Quote from the filing on destroyed evidence; and quote on diction and racial bias.

Mike Brown memorial tree cut down, plaque stolen [KPLR].

Interview with Ferguson protester, the “iconic” photograph of whom won a Pulitzer [St Louis Today].

He’s 25, went to University City High School and works at a bistro on the Delmar Loop. He’s a waiter, a roller skater and a father of three.

[W]hat he found in Ferguson that night wasn’t violent, he said. It was electric. Alive.

At some point, he saw a guy with a bag of chips. Crawford asked for some. The guy gave him a whole bag of the spicy local favorites, Red Hot Riplets.

“It was cool,” Crawford said of the scene.

Local food is always good. But I would also argue this is the equivalent of the joy in Tahrir Square or Zucotti Park that comes from agency. If the left could bottle it and give it away, they’d be invincible.

Ferguson Alternative Spring Break: Empathy as a strategic value [Yahoo News].

[Charles] Wade, who came to Ferguson in August, has been in the trenches since arriving and is working with activists and local leaders to provide safe houses and meals and handle other logistics for residents needing assistance. Wade’s emphasis on community action is connecting local residents with new young faces. He says, “The reality is, most people don’t have empathy. They’re able to muster up sympathy, but empathy is very different. It requires you to do a little bit more work to see the commonality in our humanity.”

Very different from the marches continually proposed by the Black misleadership class.

Police State

Judge orders Oakland police to show progress by September [Inside Bay Area].

Imperial Collapse Watch

Big news: Obama whacked some people who aren’t colored brown and the wrong religion [USA Today]. White House shares sorrow while successfully avoiding the word “drone” [White House].

Class Warfare

Atlanta grading scandal vs. robosigning [David Dayen, Fiscal Times]. Dayen totally nails it. Bankers have impunity, teachers do not. And why? In each case reinforces power relations based on Net Present Value calculations.

U.S. Senate cafeteria worker is sleeps nights at Metro MacPherson station [Catherine Rampell, WaPo Of course, privatization plays its lethal and ugly part:

[A]fter Congress privatized its dining services, [Charles] Gladden says, his new employer, Restaurant Associates, shrank the employee head count and worsened hours. Some days, when he got roped into special events, he says he clocked in at 10 a.m. and out at 3 a.m.

“Our lawmakers, they don’t even realize what’s going on right beneath their feet,” he says. “They don’t have a clue.”

If only the Czar knew. I just hope they don’t fire the guy.

News of the Wired

    “Puerto Rico’s top finance officials said the government of the US territory will most likely shut down in three months because of a looming liquidity crisis” [Business Insider (djrichard)]. Yikes! Readers, feel free to send me links as well as pictures.

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant, the fourth of “I Wish It Were Spring!” week six:

Camellia

I love random scatterings and chiaroscuro like this. A garden like this is like an impressionist painting, but living and changing every day!

It’s almost time for me — up here in Zone 5b — to think about planting, so show me your plantings and garden projects!

If you enjoy Water Cooler, please consider tipping and click the hat. It’s the heating season!

Talk amongst yourselves!

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

76 comments

  1. cwaltz

    You’ve got weasly Warner as for and against. He was a FOR vote and he’s safe for it since my idiotic state just reelected him.

      1. Chauncey Gardiner

        With their toxic nature to both legacy parties and incumbent pols, and the attendant need for corporate lobbyists to continually put more feed in the trough, I hope these committee meetings, discussions and negotiations in Congress about the highly secret TPP agreement in Congress drag on and on despite the Obama administration’s concerted efforts to manufacture a sense of urgency.

      2. Propertius

        Bennet’s support is hardly surprising – he’s just dancing with the one what brung him. He’d have lost to Romanoff in the primary without the rather heavy-handed intervention of the White House. He has always been the plutocrats’ sock puppet.

  2. cwaltz

    Someone should ask ol’ Ted what he thinks should have to grow back on the male half of the species since it’s just as likely that a man could breach trust in a relationship.

    Shorter GOP: relationships IZ hards.

    1. hunkerdown

      Can’t you recognize tr0llin’ when you see it? He’s not paid to “think” anything, just say the right things at the right times to give cover to the Democratic Party for acting corporate.

  3. ProNewerDeal

    Have any stats/estimates come in for calendar 2014, on

    1 deaths due to people not having health insurance? IIRC I read here it was 50K estimated deaths. Does the ACA even slightly decrease this death toll?

    2 Medical bankruptcies, which are the majority of Murican bankruptcies.

    Curious to see if any hard data has come in to see the reality, not the Hopium that the ACApologist Obots keep hyping.

    1. hunkerdown

      I’m curious. What happened to Aztec societies when they tore out the heart of a non-virgin?

    2. NotTimothyGeithner

      Do you mean the twin effects of high poverty in states ruled by U.S. puppets and the martyrdom effect? The rest of the discussion amounts to discussing angels dancing on the head of a pin.

      I do have a major gripe with this narrative of Obama taking responsibility. He isn’t paying the families of his victims out of his own pocket, resigning his fantasy camp membership (did he miss a round of golf), or facing prison time. At no point has he taken responsibility. My suspicion is a major media outlet was about to run with the story.

      1. sd

        Taking actual responsibility would mean submitting his resignation. Anything less is blah blah blah.

      2. Demeter

        I thought it was Israel, demanding that pound of flesh, closest to the heart, for Weinstein’s death.

    3. jgordon

      I had an acute moment of rage when I saw that the Obama regime head was about to give a press conference over his accidental slaughtering of a couple of non-brown hostages. Seriously, why aren’t such press conferences held every time the slaughterer in chief takes out a few Pakistani kids? Not newsworthy?

      Well that says something more about the “character” of the American people than the head lunatic in charge it seems to me. Ignorant, delusional hypocrites. Just out of curiosity here are there still a lot of people who want to preserve this wreck of a society? The powers that be are doing all they can to sink it. So help them. Call up your representatives and tell them you’re in favor of TPP today!

      1. Martin Finnucane

        Race is everything in the USA. And race makes light-skinned people into ignorant, delusional hypocrites.

      2. RUKidding

        Exactly! As usual, I had to *immediately* turn off my radio when that empty suit started on his blather about how it was “his responsibility” (AS IF, like: perp walk or it doesn’t count) and blah de blah so sorry terrible thing horrible wring my hands….

        WHY? Because some WHITE GUYS died?

        Where was the hand-wringing and apologizing for the 100s of thousands of dark-skinned INNOCENTS that have been droned going to weddings, funerals, grocery stores, etc???

        What a bunch of unmitigated hypocritical bullsh*t. Loathsome.

        1. barrisj

          Wait, Herr Dr Dronemeister made lemonade out of…well, you know, as he “praised the transparency of disclosure”, or whatever. So, flawed intel, dead innocents, never mind…he admits the cockup, which is now the new posture for destroyed wedding parties, dead women and children, the lot. Don’t deny, just ‘fess up, and get on with it. No change in targeting policy – accept “collateral damage”, but just ‘fess up afterwards. This is what makes Murka great.

  4. Elizabeth

    Lambert, thank you for all the great links on water/drought issues. I ditched my lawn in favor of drought tolerant plants. I have Cali. poppies on one side and a variety of plants on the other – lavender, alyssum, rosemary. The bumblebees love the lavender, and even if water were not an issue, I would never have a lawn again – anywhere.

    1. frosty zoom

      thank you.

      i live where hay mucha agua. and the waste is relentless.

      so many externalizations of cost thrust around like 17,353,498 hot potatoes at daphne’s eighth birthday party.

    2. sd

      We have bark chip mulch in a side yard with a succulent ground cover. Gets a little water to sustain it but there’s no need for a sprinkler system.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        Watch out for bark mulch, which can have chemicals (and also IMNSHO doesn’t rot real well, and that’s what you want to improve your soil). If you adhere to the principle “Let no organic matter leave the property,” depending on what you’ve got, you can make a lot of mulch yourself. Leaves, twigs, weeds,,,,

        1. optimader

          papers, egg cartons, boxes.. shred it and chuck it all in a 30gal garbage drum with veg waste/weeds. Add the occasional worms,a bit of clayey soil and a bit of lime …. twice a year when composted down, and the drum is full, dig a shallow trench somewhere in the gardens and bury it . Plants love it, stays moist. SImple. I have neighbors with rows and rows of “recycle” bags, looks like a lot of work Don’t get it.

    3. bluefoot

      I was asking a friend why he didn’t get rid of his front lawn even though he’d like to. His answer: it turns out that if you convert your front lawn you lose a lot in property value. I’ve asked other homeowners and realtors and they all say that it’s true. That seems….insane.

      1. Lambert Strether Post author

        Yep, I was wondering if somebody would bring that up. Remember the Democrat yesterday who gave property values as the reason to put your kids through the standardized test meat grinder?

        So, that’s two insane things you have to do to keep “property values” up. I think I’m sensing a pattern. Of course, if you plan to live in your house, matters could be different…..

      2. RUKidding

        I think it depends on where you live, perhaps? Albeit, I’ll bet this perception of “curb appeal” changes.

        We replaced our front lawn with drought tolerant mostly desert plants at our home in San Diego. Quite honestly, I think it raised our home’s value. And nearly ALL of our nearby neighbors came by to say how great it looked and ask us how we did it.

        I think drought tolerant is going to become the hot ticket over time (pun sort of intended).

      3. hunkerdown

        Well, yes, in the sense that their home is no longer as good at conspicuously consuming others’ lifeblood for its own sake, and therefore is a less capable symbol of the sorts of status that the status-conscious value.

      4. Ivy

        My kids had a lawn so that they could play at home instead of being chastised by locals for being free-range children.

        1. LifelongLib

          I’m glad I’m not a kid now. 50 years ago “free range” was the norm where I lived. Rode my bike a mile or so to town when I was 7. In good weather walked home from school with my friends. Played anywhere in the neighborhood without supervision all day in summer. Never got hassled by police or any other adults. Everybody’s kids were doing the same things.

      5. Mark Alexander

        When I was living in the SF Bay Area, I had some friends who lived in one of those typical suburbs of San Jose, where every house had a big-ass lawn out front. When my friends let the lawn dry up to save water, they got nasty notes from neighbors taped to their door. Property values are king when you’re betting on a housing bubble to get rich.

      6. different clue

        One could try experimenting with small very orderly very rectangular raised beds placed in a visually balanced way in the front yard. Keep it looking Midwestern orderly. And see if the neighbors mind it or not. If the neighbors don’t mind, “property values” might not mind either.

        Once gas reaches $10.00 a gallon, and everything else costs equally much besides, then the concept of “property value” will change. A house-and-yard’s ability to enable neo-peasant semi-subsistence will become the new standard of value in a property. But only if gas reaches $10.00 a gallon. (What can we do to drive the price of gas up to $10.00 a gallon?)

  5. Oregoncharles

    “after the S.S. Clinton hits the berg”
    You see a berg waiting for her?
    Personally, I think it’s the Republicans’ turn, but you’re talking about the nomination. I’m not an insider with the Dems, but it sure looks locked up to me.

    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      No, but that’s the nature of bergs, isn’t it? And if I were whoever’s running Schweitzer, I’d be thinking “twisting, twisting, slowly in the wind” and saving the best for last.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      Start at the ground level.

      We need more polychrome sheriffs and police chiefs, to start with (though there are those who believe that power corrupts all).

      One person, whether on the throne or department chair, can’t bring real change.

      When all newly minted money goes freely, and equally, to the people, immediately and directly, bypassing the usual suspects, everyone – monochrome or polychrome – is empowered.

    2. bob

      Her nomination and “vetting” matches up pretty well with the anouncment of the TW/Comcast merger.

      Her getting confirmed, on the same day that they announce they are killing the deal, is also part of this now.

      Why wasn’t she confirmed during the lame duck session last fall?

      I don’t have an idea what really happened, or even a theory, just pointing out the time lines match up pretty well.

        1. bob

          No idea if she fits at all.

          According to long standing rumors, charter will now try and buy TW.

          Schumer’s brother was due a big pay day on closing the merger. His firm was the bookrunner on wall st. I’m sure he still did well.

      1. Kim Kaufman

        Killing TW and Comcast had more to do with FCC than DOJ. Comcast did not – does not – want to be regulated. I expect some other deal will pop up somewhere else soon, however.

    1. RUKidding

      All depends on who you know? Or is it: it all depends on what you “got” on those whom you know?

  6. PQS

    Re: DDay’s “Biggest Outrage”:

    The money quote:
    “We send messages to teachers. We send bailouts to bankers.”

    I hope those teachers and administrators all appeal and all get their sentences reduced or the entire thing is thrown out. It’s just beyond the pale that a cheating scandal involves jail time – and on the order of two decades? We used to give that to murderers. (Now, of course, we execute murderers – guilty or not – but that’s another thread.)

  7. The Infamous Oregon Lawhobbit

    Never fear. Sen. Wyden votes Lefty on enough other issues that Portland isn’t about to de-elect him any time soon.

  8. DJG

    “I would also argue this is the equivalent of the joy in Tahrir Square or Zucotti Park that comes from agency. If the left could bottle it and give it away, they’d be invincible.”

    Although I’ve witnessed any number of liberal-oid blogs where the purpose and meaning of demonstrating has been debated into mush. But that is liberal-landia, where changes in public policy are supposed to arrive before five o’clock and the adjournment to the micro-brewery for something hoppy.

    Yet: There’s nothing better than demonstrating down Michigan Avenue in Chicago (which I’ve done three times), especially after the city loses lawsuits against its attempts to withhold permits and is acting all churlish. The only drawback is that I’ve been photographed several thousand times. I’m a star of the police-state archives.

  9. Martin Finnucane

    But I would also argue this is the equivalent of the joy in Tahrir Square or Zucotti Park that comes from agency. If the left could bottle it and give it away, they’d be invincible.

    Well said. I’ve felt that in my occasional attempts at activism/protest in the past, but it’s hard to convey to others. The feeling effervesces soon enough, but that’s not to say it isn’t real.

    By way of contrast: last weekend my wife and I went to an outdoor music festival. The sponsors reenacted some of the outward signs and rituals of solidarity, but ultimately it was fake and commercialized, no matter the indie creds of the bands involved. While crafted to convey a “Woodstocky vibe,” the thing involved no more agency than ordering fast food.

    1. jrs

      agency AND cooperation and idealism. Oh they say a lot of things, that competition is better than cooperation, dubious for enough reasons (competition in externalities you mean?), but also: that’s not the way it feels.

  10. Jill

    Just for reference, here is the Green Party along with a release about the TPP along with information from wikileaks. The date is 2013:

    http://www.gp.org/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/details/4/656.html

    There are so many things wrong with this treaty it’s hard to list them. Yes, Warren wants to be president and no, we should not vote for her or any other Democrat/Republican. Warren could use that information provided to her quite some time ago. Why isn’t she? If we keep falling for those morally/intellectually degenerate party clowns who have been working against us for so long…when do we the people wake up?

    1. frosty zoom

      isn’t it awesome that the greens have to use wikileaks?

      holy crap, theys is terrorrrists!

    2. sd

      TPP goes back to 2008 under GWB. I’m not sure why you are pushing the Green Party regarding this issue. I find it distracting from the bigger picture.

      1. Jill

        sd,

        The context is this: the green party has been speaking out about the TPP for a long time. Wikileaks revealed important information about the real agenda of the TPP. I’m not sure why you find either of those ideas a distraction. What the green party has been saying about TPP is completely relevant to the problems it will cause in the present. Why is what Warren says a valid point of interest but what the greens have been writing about for years of no value? That doesn’t really make sense.
        Wikileaks leaked information which is completely relevant to what the TPP will do should it pass.

        If you have links from 2008 which point out the problems of the TPP, I’d like to see them. I think it’s interesting to see what happened in the past because this can inform the present.

  11. Ed S.

    Warren wants to be president and…….could use that information provided to her quite some time ago. Why isn’t she?

    I don’t know if Warren wants to be president or not. Time will tell.

    Senator Warren is the junior Senator from Massachusetts. She’s been in office (her first elective office) for 28 months. She’s taking on Wall Street. If you’re a regular at NC, you can read about what she’s accomplished so far. From my perspective, she’s done more to help ordinary people in 2 years than my two senators (Boxer and Feinstein) have in their nearly 50 (!) combined years in the Senate.

    It’s a cliche, but true nonetheless: don’t make the perfect be the enemy of the good.

    1. Jill

      Ed S.,

      Warren is Obama all over again. I don’t understand how people can’t see the similarity in their marketing to the people. How many times did I hear your cliche applied to Obama, a person who commits torture and murder? More than I can count! So no, I’m not falling for that cliche or for Warren.

      I’m not supporting the lesser of any evil. I am going to support the good. We don’t need another well marketed candidate for president. We have the chance to vote for the good in alternative parties. More importantly, we have opportunity to be the good ourselves. We can be the real thing in our work as citizens on each others behalf.

      The Green Party has been consistently speaking out against the TPP for many years. That is the good.

      1. sd

        I just don’t see that at all. Obama was clearly running for the White House the day he ran for the Senate. Frankly, my impression is that someone wanted Warren out of the way and the quickest way to do that was to shove her upstairs and away from the consumer bureau.

        1. Jill

          Really? That’s not what Obama said he was doing and that’s not what Warren says she is doing! They were/are both fully committed to the job as Senator and plan to finish their term!!! It’s almost word for word.

          Warren stepped aside and praised the Consumer Bureau when she knew full well there was a lot of fraud within it. That’s not the person I would trust. a person who went public exposing all the bad deals and shenanigans after resigning? Now that’s a person I might trust!

          Look at the Obama propaganda and compare it to the Warren works. They are nearly identical. That’s not an accident.

  12. C

    Thank you for the links. I read the piece in The Week and this caught my eye:

    That’s where the corporate oligarchs come in. Those people have the money and lobbying muscle needed to get something through our jalopy legislature. So the administration slanted the deal heavily towards some key sectors, even allowing some corporate representatives access to the documents that were denied to members of Congress. And now the thing has built up so much momentum that Obama is invested in passing it if only so he doesn’t look like he lost something big.

    That is no accident or side point. As the Intercept reported here the office of the Trade Representative is staffed with former lobbyists for those same companies. Who are, in effect, being given the chance to lobby the world for their actual bosses on our dime.

  13. frosty zoom

    all this blitherblather about ms. warren..

    she’s a senator in the democratic party, forchrissakes. one does not obtain such peerageness in niceyland.

Comments are closed.