Laura Browder is the latest example of how harsh America can be on working mothers. When an employer called [3] the Houston mother of two to meet up for a job interview, she didn’t have time to line up childcare. Browder ended up taking her 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter with her to the interview location, a local mall, where she kept an eye …
GOLDMAN SACHS – MASTERS OF THE EUROZONE by Gaius Publius
Interesting headline, yes? I have a two-point intro and then the piece. First, when a “private” group’s chief individuals flow back and forth constantly between government and that group, the group can be said to be “part” of government, or to have “infiltrated” government, or to have been “folded into” government. (Your phrasing will be determined by who you …
At Wall Street Journal, Government-Enforced Monopolies = ‘Free Market’ By Dean Baker
Those folks at the Wall Street Journal are really turning reality on its head. Today it ran a column by Robert Ingram, a former CEO of Glaxo Wellcome, complaining about efforts to pass “transparency” legislation in Massachusetts, New York and a number of other states. This legislation would require drug companies to report their profits on certain expensive drugs, as well as government funding …
The Spirit of Judy Miller is Alive and Well at the NYT, and It Does Great Damage – Glenn Greenwald
One of the very few Iraq War advocates to pay any price at all was former New York Times reporter Judy Miller, the classic scapegoat. But what was her defining sin? She granted anonymity to government officials and then uncritically laundered their dubious claims in the New York Times. As the paper’s own editors put it in their 2004 mea culpa about the role they played in selling the …
Is the ‘military option’ on Iran off the table? By Ray McGovern
If, as seems likely, President Barack Obama retains enough support to complete the nuclear deal with Iran,it will be largely because enough members of the House and Senate are persuaded by his argument that the only other real option is war. This was the rhetorical gauntlet the president threw down at his press conference last week. Equally significant, Mr. Obama omitted …
The American Nightmare: The Tyranny of the Criminal Justice System By John Whitehead
Justice in America is not all it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Jeffrey Deskovic, who spent 16 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit. James Bain spent 35 years in prison for the kidnapping and rape of a 9-year-old boy, but he too was innocent of the crime. He was finally freed after DNA testing proved …
Bernie Out of the Closet: Sanders’ Longstanding Deal with the Democrats – Paul Street
I am glad that the left intellectual and activist Chris Hedges does not support the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. As Hedges explained in a recent interview on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Sanders’ candidacy lends undeserved credibility to the thoroughly corporatized Democratic Party. Sanders has pledged that he will support the corporatist military hawk Hillary …
Hedging on Wall Street: Clinton’s Finance Reforms Reek of Weak-Kneed Populism – Jon Queally
As Bernie Sanders continues to draw record crowds and appears to be winning the battle for small-donor contributions, the campaign of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton—even as the former senator and secretary of state attempts to strike a more populist tone—continues to show it knows where the deep pockets are: Wall Street. And as the Associated Press reports on Wednesday morning, the campaign’s strategic approach is rather easily …
Robot surgeons kill 144 patients, hurt 1,391, malfunction 8,061 times – Iain Thomson
Surgery on humans using robots has been touted by some as a safer way to get your innards repaired – and now the figures are in for you to judge. A team of university eggheads have counted up the number of medical cockups in America reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2000 to 2013, and found …
Kids Count report: 22 percent of US children live in poverty By Tom Hall
Twenty-two percent of all children in the United States live below the federal poverty line, significantly higher than during the height of the 2008-2009 economic crisis, according to a report issued Thursday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The latest edition of the Kids Count Data Book found that the number of children living in poverty rose by almost 3 million between …