The Obama Administration claims that there is "deep and wide Democratic support for trade." For trade? Of course Democrats support trade -- I bet they support commerce, too! But do Democrats support "free" trade agreements that outsource our jobs and nullify our laws? That's a different question, and n.b. that polling using weaker questions (did NAFTA do us good, etc.) do not show "deep and wide support" among Americans as a whole, let alone Democrats as a group.
Ho hum, our federal government has spent over $3 billion developing charter schools over the last 20 years, but hardly performs any oversight to ensure the schools do what they're supposed to do. Yet Education Secretary Duncan seems to think the solution is more money, and if that looks to you like a scam to deliver taxpayer money to someone's cronies, you're not alone. And anyone who argues that we shouldn't spend any more money on public schools needs to answer why we should be diverting any money to charter schools.
Sales executive claims she got fired after she disabled an app her employer required her to have on her phone that tracked her movements 24/7. The story is actually even worse, and Antonin Scalia is going to be pissed when he hears about it! Your job can monitor you a great deal when you're on the clock, and can require that you be on-call at times, but tracking your every movement is a sign the employer can't trust anybody, and maybe shouldn't be an employer, then. I mean, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.
From the "Did He Really Say That?" file: Jeb Bush thinks we don't need the Affordable Care Act because the Apple Watch will have health care apps in five years that can help you manage your sugar intake (for example) better than ever before. That's damn near a Chickens for Checkups moment there. You know, a big reason we have health insurance is to deal with things we don't foresee -- oh, forget it, it's Jeb Bush. I wonder if he's throwing this thing now.
Finally, Facebook announces that it will pay contractors and vendors a minimum of $15/hour, and would also give them three weeks' vacation and would pay a $4,000 bonus for having a child (which won't make up for all one's lost pay during one's 12 weeks of FMLA, but it's a step forward). Those who would exclaim that this proves the free market really does provide should wonder if perhaps the massive protests for a $15/hour minimum wage might just have had something to do with Facebook's decision. But as I said, this is progress.
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