Big Pharma and the Rush to the Latest Dangerous Trade Pact

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 12, 2015 · 11:23 AM PST

2015/02/12 · 11:23

To get a glimpse of how corporate-oriented trade deals, such as the currently proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, threaten both the public interest and national sovereignty, take a look at an innovative green energy initiative in Ontario, Canada.

In the years following the 2008 global economic crash, Ontario moved forward on a climate action plan billed the “most comprehensive renewable energy policy” in the world. It would provide premium rates for renewable energy for businesses, local governments, and first nations, and a lot of local jobs with a requirement that a minimum percentage of the labor force and materials be local to Ontario.

In “This Changes Everything,” her book on the climate crisis, Naomi Klein tells what happened next. Citing World Trade Organization rules, the European Union charged that the buy local provisions would discriminate against non-Ontario businesses. The WTO ruled the local laws were illegal, and the project, the improved local economy and contribution to climate action, were dumped.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 08, 2012 · 5:22 PM PDT

2012/10/08 · 17:22

Just looked up chutzpah in the dictionary. The definition says “see the Proposition 32 campaign in California” (well it does in my dictionary anyway). Presumably the dictionary is referring to the latest Yes on 32 ad deceptively titled “Dishonest.” No, it was not a confession, but it should have been.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 26, 2012 · 3:08 PM PST

2012/02/26 · 15:08

Before we all dismiss Rick Santorum’s latest attack on public education as just more fodder for the late night comedians, it’s worth giving more thought to what it actually represents – a fundamental attack on democracy and the institutionalization of a class-based two-tier society, permanently divided along lines of wealth and privilege.

For the two or three people who may have missed it, Santorum told a Tea Party rally Saturday that President Obama is a “snob” because he wants “everybody in America to go to college.”

His belabored efforts to rationalize his attack on higher education as a fulmination against “liberal college professors,” should not obscure the point that Santorum has repeatedly attacked all public education – perhaps most evident in his promotion of home schooling – and the wider implications of his comments.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 16, 2009 · 9:45 AM PST

2009/12/16 · 09:45

Sen. Bernie Sanders's Medicare for all amendment, SA 2837, is being read on the Senate floor now.

This may be one of our final opportunities to send an unmistakeable message to the insurance industry, Congress, and the White House that we are tired of all the compromises and bowing to the industry giants, blue dogs and red dogs.

Please call now.

Call the Senate switchboard, 202-224-3121.

Urge your Senator to vote:
For a full debate on the amendment.
Support SA 2837 -- for our patients, for our families, for our nation.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday December 14, 2009 · 5:54 PM PST

2009/12/14 · 17:54

Now that the Democrats have apparently capitulated to Sen. Joe Lieberman's latest demand to do away with both the public option and a Medicare buy-in, how about trying a new course -- escalate.

Let's urge the Senate to act on Sen. Bernie Sanders' Medicare-for-all, single-payer Sanders Amendment No. 2837.

That would be the strongest signal we can to send to Lieberman, his insurance industry benefactors, and all those who apparently think they need to pass a bill no matter how weak it is.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 03, 2009 · 10:43 AM PST

2009/12/03 · 10:43

If we can hit the pause button on the hagiography associated with the current healthcare bills, it's time to admit there's been way too much myth making around how much the Congressional bills will reduce overall healthcare costs and make healthcare more affordable.

At the top of the list should be all the rhetoric, fanned by too many liberal and progressive wonks and columnists, about how the misnamed tax on supposed "Cadillac" health plans will "lower costs" while ignoring all the consequences.

One effect was exposed in a Mercer consulting firm survey released today of 3,000 employers, up to 19 percent of whom will be hit by the tax in the first year alone.

cidelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 03, 2009 · 12:29 PM PST

2009/11/03 · 12:29

Yes, you read that headline, from the Sacramento Bee, right.

The University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento sent a $29,186.50 bill to the grieving parents of 23-year-old Scott Hawkins, a Sacramento college student senselessly beaten to death in his dorm room 10 days earlier.

Need more evidence of the inhumanity of our broken healthcare system?

RSS

Big Pharma and the Rush to the Latest Dangerous Trade Pact

Prop. 32 campaign having trouble with the facts

Santorum's attack on college education is no joke

Single payer on floor of Senate now. Please call your Senator - Updated

Fed up with Lieberman? Call now to urge a vote for single payer

New survey exposes more myths on healthcare bill affordability

Hospital bill stuns slain student's parents