So Bernie wrote President Obama a letter today...

[Cheese Sandwich]

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 10:35 AM - Edit history (1)

...





edit: Related thread is here: Just Don’t Do It, Sanders Urges Obama on Nike Trip



LA Times Article here.

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[Autumn]

2. This man keeps rocking my world

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

52. The optics are unbelievably bad, amazing they are going to NIKE ,wow, terrible

[Autumn]

54. The optics? Sorry, you lost me.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

55. Obama going to NIKE, sickening and dumb

it LOOKS dumb and is dumb

[SusanCalvin]

59. Certainly not geared

Toward convincing people TPP is a good thing.

[handmade34]

3. ...

[erronis]

44. ++++++++

[progressoid]

4. Rec!

[SamKnause]

5. K&R

Who will vote for Bernie Sanders ???

"Nobody But The People"

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Oops. The truth is messy that way.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. That's it.

Exactly.

[pa28]

8. Why has Obama decided to pitch a new trade deal at a company that offshores 99% of its labor?

WTF.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-changed-the-shoe-industry-2014-4

[Hoppy]

10. Because Obama is a corporatist. He needs money when he retires.

Do you think signing NAFTA had anything to do with how Billary got to be multi-millionaires?

[840high]

62. ... yep

[totodeinhere]

19. As someone who supported him, contributed to him and voted for him twice

this is a great disappointment to me to put it mildly. But I continue to believe that he has been a great president in other areas, certainly the best since Jimmy Carter.

[JDPriestly]

23. Yes. But now it is time to elect someone who will really speak up for us.

Obama has done some great things, but there is so much, much more to do.

[jwirr]

9. With all due respect Mr.President. This is the way it is supposed to be done - not like the 47.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Michael Moore was all over this years ago...

[Enthusiast]

32. Thanks for reminding us.

[Cheese Sandwich]

33. wow. Highly relevant video here.

Thanks for posting this.

[KoKo]

40. ....!

[erronis]

43. Hadn't seen that. It really points out the utter disconnect

Between those fat-cat billionaires and the people of this world. What an asshole that Nike person was (yeah - I know he is probably the CEO, major stockholder, and a relative of Mitt RMoney.)

The sooner they get dragged down to reality - the better.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

65. I remember that interview in a Michael Moore movie.

[turbinetree]

12. That is just

AWESOME
This is why I support this Democratic Socialist
TOTALLY AWESOME

[Scuba]

13. Stark differences between Bernie and the President, and between Bernie and Hillary.

[Enthusiast]

31. That's why we love him.

[Beartracks]

14. Bernie kind of highlights the oligarchs' plan to hire more Americans...

...

He notes how 56 cents an hour, no unions, and political kowtowing describe the slave-labor employees in Nike's Vietnam factories. If the oligarchs and multi-nationals can succeed in making American workers the same as that, THEN and only then will they start on-shoring jobs again.

So, see?? The corporations WILL hire Americans again!! Their plan is already in motion...



=====================

[dreamnightwind]

15. Speaking truth to power, K & R

[SoapBox]

16. Wow!

I WAS going to be in Beaverton this week...glad I changed my mind!

[cascadiance]

27. I live just to the west of Nike HQ... Nike is also known for using "corporate personhood" in court

... to claim the right as a "person" to be able to lie like a natural person can. Read more here.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/

Maybe I'll try to drive by Friday to see what's going on there and if there are any protests.

[CentralMass]

49. While im visting my real home in MA, I have an aparment nearby Nike as well.

[Pharaoh]

17. But he can't win!

He is not electable..............

"sarcasm"

[sabrina 1]

18. Excellent advice, it would be nice if the President would listen to people like Sanders

instead of all those Corporate types he seems to find more interesting.

[Mnpaul]

20. Grand slam home run

I'm sure it will be promptly ignored.

[nikto]

21. Whoomp!

[JDPriestly]

22. And we have a fighter who speaks for Americans. Wow! Finally!

[FoxNewsSucks]

24. GO BERNIE!!!!!!

[delrem]

25. wow. powerful stuff.

[Populist_Prole]

26. Great and timely call-out on a perfect issue that needs calling out on

This is the perfect wedge issue between corporatists and real democrats.

[merrily]

28. That's our Sanders!

[Chellee]

29. I adore this man.

[Enthusiast]

30. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

How could any honest person not recommend this post?

The story they told us about trade back in the 1980s and 1990s was a lie then and it is a lie now.

The one lie they have held on to the longest, that, "Products will be cheaper for the American consumers." even turned out to be untrue.

[Nay]

35. "Things will be cheaper" -- yeah, like $320 sneakers are cheap. Frankly, those items

that come from China and are cheap need to stay over there -- they aren't worth buying at ANY price. I know I'm old, but in my youth, you couldn't even buy clothing that fell apart after a couple of washings. It didn't exist.

I know I've mentioned it here before, but in my capacity as a buyer for my former workplace, I had a hell of a time buying pencils with real erasers!! All pencils have erasers -- but many don't actually erase -- they smear. IMO, those pencils should not even be allowed to be SOLD here. And no, no pencils I bought as a kid had non-functional erasers.

I could go on and on about "cheap" as a fake value, but you all know what I mean. It harms consumers rather than helps them.

[Enthusiast]

38. Apparently consumer citizens are the new Al Qaeda—the enemy.

I worry about anything Chinese electrical. Like a plug-in alarm clock that could burn my house down.

Then there is a the pet food that could kill your kitty.

These foreign made junk shoes are the worst. We have to walk in those things!

I didn't know about the non-erasing erasers. Somehow it doesn't surprise me. Fake erasers.

[denbot]

34. Nicely done Mr. B

The debates are going to rock!

[raouldukelives]

36. K&R nt

[L0oniX]

37. K & R

[StandingInLeftField]

39. You Go Bernie!

At least one South Carolinian will be voting for you in the primary! (and I'm sure there will be many more!)

[Punx]

41. Yes

The absurdity of it all.

fwiw, I did send a letter to our local Representative, Susan Bonamici, who represents the district Nike is in. She's hemming and hawing, which means she will be voting in favor when the time comes.

[jopacaco]

42. Buy New Balance not Nike

The President should be showcasing New Balance not Nike. I know that this is all about the TPP but New Balance shoes are proudly made in Skowhegan Maine. They are one of the very few shoe makers that still are in the US. I work in Dexter, a town that prior to NAFTA used to be the headquarters of Dexter Shoe. Now the former factory is a lot of abandoned buildings with one very small part run by a company that is trying to keep American made shoes alive. The town has suffered greatly from NAFTA. I see more of the same with the TPP. Go Bernie!

[awoke_in_2003]

57. Look at the tag first

I wear NB, but not all of their shoes are made here. I make sure the ones I buy are.

[tclambert]

45. Bah! He should have written to the CEO of Nike, telling him to ignore President Obama

because the Senate would do everything it could to undermine his foreign policy. Besides, the next President might change all those policies, anyway. And he should have gotten 47 Republican senators to sign the letter.

[kacekwl]

46. BAM !

Let's see him defend that to THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

[WillyT]

47. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[rhett o rick]

48. No one has come forward to the people to convince them that the TPP will benefit them.

For those HRC supporters that are reading this but afraid to comment,
NO ONE HAS COME FORWARD TO TELL THE 99% WHY THE TPP WILL BENEFIT THE PEOPLE.
Obama is going to talk to another CE-fracking-O. Why doesn't he go to the AFL-CIO and convince them? That's a rhetorical question. He and the New Democrats (old DLC) are the corporatist wing of the Party.

The corporations and their hired Congress-Critters are riding high as they send American jobs overseas. But they are killing the goose. Sooner or later there will not be a market in the USofA for Vietnamese and Chinese products. When they bleed us dry, then what will they do? Capitalism isn't democratic.

[awoke_in_2003]

60. The supporters arguments

are usually "I trust the president not to screw us" and "this will help workers in other countries. Do you hate workers in other countries?" I have had both leveled at me. First, no- when it comes to trade deals, I do not trust the president. Second- my main concern is workers in this country. Some Pollyannas think that corporations are going to bring the workers of the world up to our level (which is lower than it should be). Wrong, they want to drag us down, and to believe otherwise is either foolishness or willful ignorance.

[rhett o rick]

63. It amazes me that we have posters here that post on this "politically liberal" message board

that will actually admit that they "trust" Obama without question. This an admission of following authoritarianism. "I don't want to think for my self (the definition of politically liberal) and will blindly follow my leader. And it goes farther, many of the same posters, that they will support HRC in spite of her horrible baggage because they see her as a great authoritarian leader they can give themselves to.

Those that intimate that if one doesn't support Free Trade, then one must not care about the working conditions of poor countries. This is a very, very sad argument. They don't say they have evidence that supporting Free Trade will in fact improve the conditions of workers in poor countries, because they don't. In fact the evidence shows that Free Trade Agreements only improves the wealth of the big corporations. So why do these supposedly smart posters make such an asinine argument? They want to support their chosen authoritarian leader and have nothing else.

[awoke_in_2003]

64. Agreed

In many way Obama has been a good president, in some he hasn't. I applaud when he does good (like coming out supporting marriage equality prior to re-election) and speaking out when he doesn't (TPP). But some may consider me a basher

[1StrongBlackMan]

50. Don't the USTR's Negotiating Objectives ...

speak directly to the concerns listed in the 4th paragraph?

[peacebird]

51. Awesome!

[DonCoquixote]

53. The ultimate irony

we fought a wat against "communism" and the communist governments in Asia have revived the sweatshop, being the last haven for sweatshop labor.

[lovemydog]

56. That is a great letter!

Bernie Sanders keeps on rockin' my world.

[Flatpicker]

58. Bernie

Is getting my vote in the primary a some money to help fundraise.

But,
I will support whomever gets the overall nomination over the RNC.

[polichick]

61. There's a leader who isn't a corporate tool - what a concept!