Every time I read about any law being passed, I think well, don't get all excited and shit, what if that law affects some corporation's profits in some way? Can the law be TTP'ed? I know this already happens, but I feel the corporations have lists of inconvenient laws and are getting bolder by the day.

posts about Kochs and nipples get thousands of views and hundreds of comments but something that is actually going to destroy what's left of sovereignty, jobs and the middle class is basically ignored.

Look at how many people will vote for Rodham-Clinton even though she not only supports the TPP but helped write it.

Only a total financial crash will wake people up.

and thinking that a total financial crash will wake people up is folly. See the Weimar Republic.

Marine Le Pen to meet other far-right leaders in move to create anti-EU bloc

France's Front National leader Marine Le Pen will meet other far-right and eurosceptic leaders on Wednesday in an attempt to create a powerful bloc in the European parliament.

Le Pen insisted the party's score was an unqualified victory despite an abstention rate of 57%. She demanded that France call a halt to talks between the European Union and the United States to create a vast free market, known as the Transatlantic Trade Treaty.

"I clearly call on the president of the Republic, firstly the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale, because you know it is no longer at all representative of the French people," Le Pen said.

"I also demand that he does three things to take Sunday's vote into account: firstly, France halts the transatlantic treaty, secondly, France states its veto of Turkey's entry into the European Union and, thirdly, he nationalises Alstom, contrary to the rules of the European Union, to save this strategic company."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/27/marine-le-pen-met-far-right-leaders-eu-bloc

what's more, factions of the right absolutely support it. muddying the waters with that kind of less than honest claim is really kind of creepy- not to mention far, far less than honest. Please stop using such tactics in your cheerleading of the TTIP and TTP. This is hardly the first time you've done so. Just like in this country, across Europe, many different factions oppose these trade deals.

<snip>

Rising opposition

Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe, the European center of the US think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, thinks there's a storm brewing in the EU at the moment. "There's enormous opposition forming at the moment," he says. He thinks the increased EU opposition has been a long time coingm: "Interest groups, NGOs, environmental groupings and so on now have gotten their act together and have gotten organized on this [issue] and are posing a formidable challenge."

<snip>

http://www.dw.de/tripping-over-ttip-obstacles-overshadow-eu-us-trade-pact/a-

NGOs and trade unions today (19 May) hit back at accusations they were spreading lies on social media about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as it emerged that Brussels Police used controversial “kettling” techniques and water cannon on protestors outside the European Business Summit.

<snip>

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-priorities-2020/de-gucht-ngos-trade-accusations-after-anti-ttip-protestors-kettled

it. The center-right in Europe and the left are more split.

I consider myself a "cheerleader" (no judgment there) for trade in general, not for either the TTP or TTIP. I have posted that the TTP would be useful if it promoted labor rights and environmental standards. Unfortunately, neither is in sections of the draft of the TTP that have been leaked. Unless by some miracle (and we all know how often miracles happen) the final draft TTP includes these standards, it represents a step backward from the WTO rules that we have and will continue to have without it.

I know less about what is TTIP. I am more comfortable with our TTIP negotiating partners in the sense that they currently have higher labor and environmental standards than we do, while our TPP negotiating partners (other than Canada, Australia and Japan) currently have lower standards than we do. As I said, many of us are afraid that TTIP will result in dragging Europe down to our level, but the possibility exists that it could "drag" us closer to their level. At least some on the left over there think that is what will happen.

until the sun comes out.