The Trans-Pacific Partnership is great for elites. Is it good for anyone else? →

…where powerful interest groups try to use trade rules to overrule democratically elected governments…. The WTO’s dispute-settlement process… puts pressure on countries to actually keep the promises they make in trade deals…. But the complex, secretive, and anti-democratic way the TPP is being crafted rubs a lot of people the wrong way…. 

We expect the laws that govern our economic lives will be made in a transparent, representative, and accountable fashion. The TPP negotiation process is none of these — it’s secretive, it’s dominated by powerful insiders, and it provides little opportunity for public input. The Obama administration argues that it’s important for TPP to succeed so that the United States — not China — gets to shape the rules that govern trade across the Pacific. But this argument only makes sense if you believe US negotiators are taking positions that are in the broad interests of the American public. If, as critics contend, USTR’s agenda is heavily tilted toward the interests of a few well-connected interest groups, then the deal may not be good for America at all…

Walling Ourselves Off →

In the past two weeks, more than a thousand people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe on often-overloaded boats. In 2014, more than three thousand perished on this crossing.
Each individual migrant’s motives are unique and unknowable, but this collective surge in deaths clearly stems, in part, from the disorder engulfing parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Civil war and state collapse have expanded the incentives and opportunities to flee, and the increased flow of migrants along dangerous routes has, predictably, led to a surge in accidental deaths.
Of course, those deaths also owe something to the policies of the countries toward which the overloaded boats sail...
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An article by Sarah Stillman in this week’s New Yorker describes how, over the past 15 years, the U.S. has adopted tougher measures to keep migrants from crossing illegally into the U.S. from Mexico in spite of the U.S. economy’s continued dependence on more immigrant labor than our government will legally allow to enter. These measures, which include the construction of hundreds of miles of fence, apparently have slowed the rate of illegal crossings. At the same time, they have encouraged the expansion of the human-smuggling business, catalyzed the growth of criminal rackets that extort the families of kidnapped migrants for ransom, and, as in the Mediterranean, contributed to a significant increase in the number of deaths occurring en route.
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How large are the economic losses caused by barriers to emigration? Research on this question has been distinguished by its rarity and obscurity, but the few estimates we have should make economists’ jaws hit their desks. When it comes to policies that restrict emigration, there appear to be trillion-dollar bills on the sidewalk.
I hope I live to see that claim tested.

Long-Predicted Death Toll in Nepal Earthquake Reflects Wider Himalayan Seismic Risk →

The Himalayas are one of the world’s most worrisome hot zones for earthquake risk, which is a function of tectonic activity, human population size and the quality (or lack thereof) of construction.
That is why the death toll in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake near Katmandu today is almost certainly going to be far higher than initial reports of hundreds...

Horrifying devastation from this quake, with aftershocks causing damage around the region.

Burying Bill: Why Hillary Clinton must turn her back on parts of her husband’s political legacy to win in 2016 →

If Bill Clinton had a chief political goal in his two terms as president, it was to win working-class whites and restore the Democratic Party as the home for their concerns. To that end, Clinton and his allies were enthusiastic supporters of legislation such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, and the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996—laws that spoke to the cultural concerns of lower-income whites.
Clinton didn’t succeed in luring working-class whites back, but he stopped the bleeding, strengthening Democrats in Rust Belt and mid-Atlantic states, where they were crucial...
...would she reject that part of her husband’s legacy?
If Hillary’s overarching political task is capturing the Obama coalition while distinguishing herself from him and Bill, the obvious answer to that question is yes, she must. A Hillary Clinton who ran as a political corrective to both presidencies—who refused to pander to social conservatives or bend to Republicans in Congress—might preclude liberal challengers and do well in the general election.
But there’s a downside. A Hillary Clinton who did that—who touted the liberal line on crime and social spending and other areas—would continue the political story of Obama’s presidency; not of shaping the new Democratic coalition, but of ending the old one her husband tried to rebuild.

Pentagon Releases New 2015 Cybersecurity Strategy →

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter unveiled the Pentagon’s new cybersecurity strategy at Stanford University in a speech entitled “Rewiring the Pentagon: Charting a New Path on Innovation and Cybersecurity.”
According to the Associated Press, the strategy is the first document in which the United States has publicly said that the U.S. military intends to use cyberwarfare as an option in potential conflicts. Thefirst cyberstrategy document, released in 2011, focused heavily on defense. However, the 2015 version clearly states that the United States “should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary’s command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure and weapons capabilities.”

Where are the student teachers? →

In Kansas:

In the 1990s, K.S.D.E. data on secondary teaching licenses in the sciences showed that all programs across the state together produced nearly 240 new biology teachers, over 125 new chemistry teachers, 115 new physics teachers and 62 new earth science teachers annually. By 2013, production of new science teachers in Kansas dropped to less than one-tenth those levels. What happened?
Science teachers are particularly repulsed by mandated curricula and teaching-to-the-test. The nosedive in science teacher production began with QPA and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) that forced science teachers to drill students for the state assessments. In many cases, field trips and laboratory exercises were reduced or eliminated.
The NCLB focus on testing continues today, and remains in the current proposed renewal of NCLB in Washington, DC. I went from having 50-60 biology teacher advisees in the 4-year pipeline and 4-6 student teachers per semester, to having just 15 students with 1-2 student teachers per semester last year.
Then, the Kansas Legislature ended due process for Kansas teachers...
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They also heard that if the Legislature fails to renew the provision where teachers can return and teach after retirement, it will cost Kansas 2000-2500 teachers, exacerbating the teacher shortage (particularly in special education).
Even more devastating to our supply of future student teachers is the proposal by the Coalition of Innovative Districts to bypass teacher training and allow out-of-field and even non-degreed teachers into Kansas classrooms as full teachers. Why enter a job that is no longer a profession?