ISDS is not the only problem with the TPP and the TTIP, but it certainly is a big one. What’s particularly interesting in this piece by Glenn Moody is it puts some numbers on how much the winners and losers, well…, win and lose and who they are. It’s not pretty. My emphasis throughout. TPP’s …
Tag: ek Politics
Jun 15 2016
Exceptional
It is with a certain grim disgust I have avoided U.S. Media, particulary cable TV, over the past few days. It certainly is not surprising to me that political reaction is pretty evenly divided between Islamophobes, Homophobes, and those who are willing to make small, ineffectual, symbolic gestures of sympathy before re-embracing the NRA’s cult …
Jun 08 2016
Themistocles
Now I understand that most of you think Ian Welsh is one ‘O’ short of a Marx brother (Ianno?) but so am I (ekko, definitely). What I like about him is he’s not afraid to tackle the big issues, for instance the ‘Great Man’ theory of history. For those unfamiliar it goes something like this, …
May 29 2016
No Passes
On issues of foreign policy, war and peace, all the candidates are equally terrible. Either one will lead to war: Hawkish Hillary and reckless Trump could both lead to prolonged new wars by Paul Rosenberg, Salon Saturday, May 28, 2016 09:30 AM EST we’ve been on a downward spiral since losing the Vietnam War and …
May 28 2016
Kissinger’s Legacy
Lest anyone forget Hillary’s dear friend and mentor Henry orchestrated a series of military coups in South America during the 70s including Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina and was complicit in “a campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of opponents” called Operation Condor. Still Selling Neoliberal Unicorns: The US …
May 27 2016
Good for Teaching Swimming, Blood Donations, Not Much Else
The Red Cross is its own disaster: Relief agency stumbles again after Mississippi flood by Sarah Smith, ProPublica Saturday, May 21, 2016 11:00 AM EST Internal emails exchanged among state officials as the devastation unfolded document a profound lack of confidence in the charity’s ability to respond to disasters as well as problems that have …
May 27 2016
Oblivious to Irony
Pent-up fury beneath the Bernie and Trump phenomena by Jim Hightower, Salon Friday, May 27, 2016 05:58 AM EST The political cognoscenti have not understood the massive public rage from today’s “unAmerica” of glaring inequality and mass downward mobility that is the direct product of their wrenching the system with such power tools as: “free” …
May 25 2016
Solving Puerto Rico’s Financial Problems
Bernie says bail out Puerto Rico: Sanders details how the feds should rescue the territory as they did big banks by David Dayen, Salon Tuesday, May 24, 2016 05:59 AM EST Puerto Rico has been reeling from a decade of recession, and successive governments papered over those problems with excessive borrowing. Last year, Gov. Alejandro …
May 25 2016
How Influential Will Sanders’ Picks For The Platform Committee Be?
We’ll see, but the answer is likely to be, “Not very.” There are a couple of problems, the primary one (not a pun) is that nobody pays a damn bit of attention to platforms anyway, except of course your opponent, who will thoroughly analyse every piece of punctuation to see if any out of context …
May 23 2016
The End Of The World
Allow me to briefly recapitulate. The London Interbank Offer Rate, or Libor as it’s commonly called, is supposed to be the interest rate international banks charge their most credit worthy customers, other banks. It is primer than prime and the basis for most other calculations of interest rates, the amount charged to purchase money, throughout …
May 23 2016
Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Real Enemies
Depression. Anxiety. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I have those, diagnosed by actual doctors. I’m not paranoid beyond what would be expected, yet I have people who hate me. Funny story, not hah hah funny, strange funny. I’m in the local Hospital because I’m 120+ years old and I get sick beyond the power of chicken soup …