General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis should make you really angry.
The last round of TPP talks is scheduled for this month. Next Up? Pushing Fast Track through Congress
It cannot be stressed too much how bad this agreement will be in any number of areas. Just to touch on a few of them:
Agriculture: The Chief U.S. Negotiator is former heavy weight lobbyist for Big Ag, including Dupont and Monsanto. It would make GMO labeling a near impossibility, elevate the rights of investors (corporations) over farmers, consumers and governments, and dilute the safety of food systems.
Public Health and Pharmaceutical Drugs: The HIV/AIDS community is legitimately alarmed as are other patient and care giver groups. Generic drugs are a particular area of concern.
Internet Freedom: The Electronic Frontier has done great work letting folks know that the TPP poses a serious threat to internet freedom
http://tppinfo.org/
http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpacts_Public-Health.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/stop-congress-taking-fast-track-one-sided-copyright-laws
In brief- and I've gone into more detail in other OPs- the TPP will effect everything from financial regulation to copyright laws to environmental laws and regulations; and not in a good way.
The administration and its allies in Congress on both sides of the aisle and its corporate allies have already begun the big push to shove the Trade Promotion Authority through Congress. Passage will shut down any debate in the Senate, allowing only a straight up and down vote; no amendments, no filibustering.
This is a press release from last week:
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance : Baucus Welcomes President's Request for Trade Promotion Authority
-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) welcomed the President's request today for trade promotion authority (TPA) alongside worker adjustment assistance, which Senator Baucus has said are critical to a successful trade agenda. The Senator announced his intent to move TPA alongside the worker job training program Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which he introduced a bill to extend last week.
"Trade promotion authority and worker training give America's workers the skills and opportunities they need to compete in the global marketplace," Senator Baucus said. "Trade supports good-paying jobs, and boosting our exports creates new opportunities for America's farmers, ranchers, businesses and workers. Trade Promotion Authority and Trade Adjustment Assistance are two sides of the same coin, and together they make trade work. Passing both is critical to America's trade agenda."
Senator Baucus paired with Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) last week to introduce a bipartisan extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance, which uses job training and assistance to make the American workforce more competitive.summarized here, extends TAA through 2020.
http://www.4-traders.com/news/U-S-Senate-Committee-on-Finance-Baucus-Welcomes-President-s-Request-for-Trade-Promotion-Authority--17139915/
LWolf
(46,179 posts)msongs
(67,413 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)leftstreet
(36,108 posts)DURec
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)God, when will we ever learn?
Scuba
(53,475 posts)safeinOhio
(32,688 posts)1%, zilch for us.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)spanone
(135,844 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Concise and to the point - and so simple, even they can understand the statement.
cali
(114,904 posts)the TPP.
Their silence speaks volumes.
an abomination. that's the truth. Okay, stop it from being passed. rethug-democrat, going to push it through and damn dissent. We can scream to high heaven what you wrote about TPP to our elected officials< how do we stop it??! We can't.
cali
(114,904 posts)urge them to vote against the TPA.
okay. have done.
antigop
(12,778 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Marr
(20,317 posts)bunnies
(15,859 posts)The fact that corporations from other countries can sue us for enforcing our laws at the taxpayers expense is fucking infuriating. I cant believe anyone with this countries best interest in mind would support such a pile of garbage. Its disgusting.
cali
(114,904 posts)It's mind boggling that such suits go before a panel composed of lawyers who when they aren't serving as judges in these cases are representing the very corporations bringing said suits.
bunnies
(15,859 posts)This is reason #1 in my book. Makes me sick that I voted for a man who is pushing this anti-American bullshit. We cant afford healthcare but millions for corporations based on a rigged system? No problem.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)it's the back way getting rid of domestic regulations.
With the added benefit of funneling more money to the 1%ers of the world. Everyone else be damned. Again.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)He's turning over our government and sovereignty to corporations, foreign and national. America will no longer be a democracy (if you could call it one now).
No other president, not even Reagan or the Bushes, managed to do that. And of course the corporate stooges in congress will go along with it.
Obama must be getting a really big pay day for taking us back to the 19th century.
cali
(114,904 posts)from the last few presidents- from Reagan through shrub. That's hardly a commendation but he for sure isn't the worst president in history.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)so royally by people I vote for. Maybe you do. But I don't. And Obama is the one who destroyed my faith in the Democratic party.
cali
(114,904 posts)it has zip to do with expecting to get screwed over by the people I vote for. I care about facts. I present a lot of them here- you're welcome for all the information about the TPP, btw- and when someone posts something that isn't factual, as you did, I challenge it.
sorry you don't like that.
.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)No other president has ever done what Obama is trying to do. So when you act like it's not really so bad, don't be surprised if that's exactly how I take it.
PETRUS
(3,678 posts)I the simplest explanation for pretty much any politician's behavior is the same - they respond to political pressure. Right now political power is concentrated in relatively few hands - more or less coinciding with ownership of capital. Every now and then a large enough group of "regular" people manage to organize themselves and display some solidarity and become a constituency to be reckoned with. But that's not really going on right now, so here we are.
cali
(114,904 posts)The TPA may not pass the House and it will an odd coalition of progressive dems and tea party reps who stop it.
I have a libertarian type friend and we have rather different ideas about why certain things are wrong and what should be done, but we often point our fingers at the same problems (symptoms). Strange times...
westerebus
(2,976 posts)Not all the chickens have come home to roost, so there's potential and time.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Exactly.
What could be more treasonous than that?!
forestpath
(3,102 posts)senseandsensibility
(17,063 posts)It does I assure you.
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)are a matter of NATIONAL SECURITY!!!
They are going to ram this shit through like the fucking Patriot Act. People are going to vote on it without ever knowing what is actually in it. And we will not find out how bad we are getting screwed until it's too late.
cali
(114,904 posts)but under the TPA they can't do anything to change any given provision.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)this train I fear...
Disgusting. Despicable. Horrific.
I'm heartsick over this. Thanks for your continued links on this Cali. They matter. Don't stop.
cali
(114,904 posts)into it, the more appalled I am. I'm so afraid that the TPA will be voted through. Last time, in 2002, it was 215 to 212 in the House. The Senate was not nearly so close.
At least I know my Congressional delegation will vote against it.
I don't know where you live but here's a link to the vote of the Senate the last time it was authorized. kind of ironic that Biden and Kerry both voted nay when now they're obligated to arm twist for its passage.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00207
I won't stop posting about it.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)no matter how many things you get pissed off at, you can't keep up.
cali
(114,904 posts)not that one can make a prediction based on that; lots of changes in those bodies since then. In the House, the vote was 215-212 for passage, in the Senate it was a pathetic 54-34.
I actually believe there's a chance that it could fail this time in the House. The tea party contingent won't vote for it and neither will a lot of dems who have already pledged to vote against it. Get ready for the most intense arm twisting you've ever seen with votes held open, etc.
It will be interesting to see what Pelosi and Hoyer do. They both voted nay in 2002. I expect them to vote yay this time around. Reminds me of posters here who would object to this (and other things) if a repub was President. Biden and Kerry also voted against it.
They're now very much about pushing for it.
It's infuriating and nauseating.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll370.xml
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00207
daleanime
(17,796 posts)it does make me angry. All the work that needs to be done and the only things that pass their muster are projects that screw us over.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)Cut the American Worker's Wages & Benefits to 3rd World Slave Labor levels,
and then run Unemployment UP to about 15%.
The American Worker CAN WILL compete with EVERY Worker in the World, (just as soon as he gets hungry and desperate enough).
It took someone REALLY smoooooooth to SELL this nonsense to a gullible American Working Class, and they are STILL Selling that Nonsense today,
despite the observable data and evidence to the contrary!!!
PT Barnum underestimated the number of SUCKERS born in America.
You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]
cali
(114,904 posts)It's bad on so many levels and in so many areas. It's an understatement to say it's far reaching.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...is only ONE of the many design features of the coming "Treaty".
The TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) is the "Ring that Will Bind Them",.....and it is being forged in secret as we speak.
"TPP: Corporate Power Tool of the 1%
*offshore millions of American jobs,
*free the banksters from oversight,
*ban Buy America policies needed to create green jobs and rebuild our economy,
*decrease access to medicine,
* flood the U.S. with unsafe food and products,
*empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards.
Closed-door talks are on-going between the U.S. and Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam; with other countries, including China, potentially joining later. 600 corporate advisors have access to the text, while the public, Members of Congress, journalists, and civil society are excluded. And so far what we know about what's in there is very scary!
http://www.citizen.org/TPP
Scarier that anything in the above are the Secret Tribunals (like NAFTA Chapter 11, but MUCH MORE POWERFUL) composed of High Judges FROM the Global Corporations themselves, with NO Spokesperson or representatives of the Defendants (the citizens and governments of participating countries),
that will essentially have the power to impose FINES (levy taxes) on Countries that they decide have interfered with a Corporations RIGHT to Make-a-Profit.
This is ONE issue where EVERYBODY who Works for a Living (Republican, Centrist, Independent, Democrat, Libertarian, Tea Party, Professional Leftist) should be able agree.
THIS is NOT a Good Thing.
...and NOBODY on the TV is talking about it, unless you have RT, FSTV, or Current. (What is that total... about 10 people, counting me?)
Unfortunately, In Today's America, where we are STILL Number ONE,
if it ain't on TV,
then it ain't real.
Bigfoot and Zombies...now THEY are on TV a lot,
and so they are REAL to too many Americans.
Much more REAL and WAY MORE Important than the TPP.
Note from the "You Can't Make this shit UP Dept":
My Wife recently took a certification Class for EMT in our rural area.
She was STUNNED to find that TWO MEMBERS of her class actually BELIEVED that ZOMBIES were REAL.
You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS[/i.[/font]
Marr
(20,317 posts)Once in office, he removed his mask and started fellating big business and the (secret) national security state.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)We should not allow anyone who becomes a millionaire to hold a national office. That kind of person is far too often utterly unconcerned for the welfare of ordinary Americans. We need middle class and working people in positions of power for awhile.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts).....from the Trilateral Commission.
GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)How do we fight this thing?
cali
(114,904 posts)it may seem like it's not much and maybe it isn't but call your congresscritters, let them know that you' know about this and that you oppose the TPA and the TPP- lots of members of the House will vote against the TPA. The TPP will only be voted on by the Senate. Stopping fast track is the most important thing.
Autumn
(45,106 posts)I don't think I have any anger left. Thanks for your post.
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Buns_of_Fire
(17,181 posts)The bastard will be long gone (he's not seeking reelection in 2014) before TSHTF. I guess some of these "representatives" are driven to leave a nice, stinking turd behind for us to remember them by.
Another good link (I don't recall it being listed above) is the Public Citizen site: http://www.citizen.org/TPP
Omnith
(171 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)as what we know about the TPP will hurt so many Americans- and others. Partly because I hope that people will contact their reps and Senators in opposition to the TPA so that the TPP doesn't arrive in a Senate that is limited to an up or down vote; no amendments and no filibustering.
However, all that can be accomplished without being angy. I guess its a matter of attitude. I suppose its only a minor point.
cali
(114,904 posts)by getting angry over an issue. That's been my observation.
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)And it is possibly the most egregious.
This will fundamentally change how America operates.
Talk about handcuffing "our" Congress Critters from passing regulations!
It's fascist bullshit.
cali
(114,904 posts)cowardice squared.
Yes, it certainly is egregious.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Obama appealing to the officials from other nations is one reason he was selected to run as President, even though he lacked experience.
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)Two different things?
cali
(114,904 posts)the other countries, the administration (as did all previous admins) is reliant upon the TPA (fast track) being in place. The TPA expired in 2007 so it needs to be voted on again. Without the TPP, Senators could introduce amendments to change provisions and have the right to filibuster. The TPA dictates just an up or down vote. The TPA and trade agreements are inextricably linked. Without the TPA, no TPP.
Hope that clarifies things for you.