We’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the past few weeks with FDL members on the OccupySupply program. So far the FDL Membership Program has raised $83,583.88 and spent $42,833.96 on supplies, and we are proud to report that union made hats, scarves and socks are now on their way to 40 Occupations across the country.

A few odds and ends from the week just past.

I wonder if someone can sketch out for me a vision of America as an economic superpower with no jobs other than finance and the low-wage service sector, with a hollowed-out industrial base, and with its largest corporations replacing jobs at home with jobs overseas. It may make sense to those individual companies, but I’m straining to see how it makes sense for the mass of workers in this country.

President Obama gave a lunchtime speech at the US Chamber of Commerce, and the effort at groveling and currying favor was probably laid on thicker than the butter on the bread rolls.

In the 14 hours since the White House dumped the news of a NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade agreement on a Friday night, labor unions are deafly silent in opposing this job-killing agreement.

President Obama was supposed to waltz into Seoul ready to mark an agreement with South Korea on a trade pact, with enough changes to win over key constituencies. But while this was widely expected, it didn’t happen, with the South Koreans balking at some of the proposed changes. If you look at where the Democrats lost big last week – the Rust Belt – it would be political suicide to pass the type of agreement that the core constituencies in that region detest. And it would only harm, not help, the agenda of creating more exports and more American jobs.

I think the problem with this is obvious, right? All anybody will see is that Democrats walked off the field.

Over 14.9 million American workers remain unemployed. Americans must demand that economic policies provide the framework to create good paying jobs at home during the next decade with the least amount of outsourced labor and materials.

Rather than argue about workers’ lack of skills versus offshoring work to countries with lower skill sets, wouldn’t it be simpler to expect employers to do something that they used to do? Like train workers?

There are a multitude of reasons NOT to award the Chinese a contract for our new high speed rail. And yes, jingo-istic industrial support is one of them.