Year: 2015

From a Salon interview. Please note what your Delaware Congressional delegation is pushing for:

I’ve talked to the health negotiators around the world. I’ve talked to people who’ve been involved in the arbitration process as part of the investment agreements. Even people who are arbitrators say the whole system is corrupt, that it’s a very expensive system, that therefore creates an un-even playing field with big corporations with big, deep pockets can get access to have recourse, whereas smaller firms can’t. That American firms can re-locate or do their investments in the United States as a subsidiary sue the U.S. government in ways that they could not if we didn’t have that trade agreement.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, presenting a liberal challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“National Guard troops fanned out through Baltimore, shield-bearing police officers blocked the streets and firefighters doused still-simmering blazes early Tuesday after riots, looting and violent unrest engulfed swaths of the city Monday,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The unrest came just hours after thousands of people attended a funeral for Freddie Gray , a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody earlier this month. Fifteen officers were injured, and at least 27 people were arrested as Baltimore became the latest national flash point for race relations and law enforcement.” The Baltimore Sun, of course, has the best coverage, as local news always does. And yes, the "Purge" rumor was/is real. And in case you are confused over my stance on this issue: I believe the riots are justified. The Baltimore Police Department is a thug operation with a long history of past crimes and abuses perpetrated on the community it is supposed to protect, and it should be cleaned out:

Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations [by the Baltimore police department]. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.

That is the backdrop and the spark. Riots don't start in a vacuum by bad people. If that were the case, there would be riots everyday. No, you need community involvement to start it. You need a community that is fed up and that has had enough. This has been building up for a long, long time in Baltimore and around the country. There have been decades of systemic inequality, bad policing, a war on drugs and a biased criminal justice system. This country is damned lucky we don't have more riots in more cities. But if we don't fix this country now, that is where we are headed.

The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership is a well known steaming pile of shit. Tom Carper says that the TTP gives him a huge boner because f#cking the American worker in the ass is what his paymasters sent him to Congress to do. And by GOD he is gonna do it. (paraphrasing) That said, the NJ's Nicole Gaudiano gives Claire Snyder-Hall the last word in this write up. "Fast Track and TPP are bad for American workers, but they are also bad for democracy," Claire Snyder-Hall of Delaware Americans for Democratic Action said in a statement. "TPP erodes the ability of the American people to make laws for themselves. Laws passed to protect American workers, the environment, local industries, or food safety could be deemed unfair trade practices under TPP, and there will be nothing we can do about it."

As you may know, a 25 year old Baltimore resident, Freddie Gray, was arrested by Baltimore City Police on April 12. At some point after his arrest, likely as he was being transported to jail in a 'paddywagon,' Gray suffered a spinal injury that eventually killed him seven days later. Six city police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into Gray’s death. A big protest in downtown Baltimore on Saturday turned a little violent in the evening hours. A Baltimore sportscaster, Brett Hollander, took to Twitter to say that demonstrations that negatively impact the daily lives of fellow citizens are counter-productive. I have found that this is usually the position of those who oppose protests: "Hey, I am all for what they are doing, but they are inconveniencing me, and therefore they must be stopped." Baltimore Orioles COO John Angelos, the son of owner Peter Angelos, responded on Twitter with a pretty amazing explanation and defense of why protests are happening. I mean, this is movement type stuff.