Dr. Patricia Ranald, a research associate at the University of Sydney and convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, told the paper that the documents suggest the US wants to “tie the hands” of other governments, including allied ones, by way of sheer deregulation.

“Amendments from the US are seeking to end publicly provided services like public pension funds, which are referred to as 'monopolies' and to limit public regulation of all financial services,” she said. ''They want to freeze financial regulation at existing levels, which would mean that governments could not respond to new developments like another global financial crisis.''

Earlier this week, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said the TISA deal was already well on its way to being put together.

"The basic framework of the agreement is in place, initial market access offers have been exchanged, and sector-specific work in areas like telecommunications andfinancialservices is in full swing,” Froman said, according to Reuters.

She is the only politician I know who can forcefully attack the cabal that negotiates these agreements that are leading us slowly, every one of us, into a sort of slavery without the free meals.

We need to get started now and organizing to persuade Elizabeth Warren to run and to serve as president. I do not see any other possible contender who will end the conspiracy against our country that is symbolized by these horrible trade agreements.

Sorry to sound too hair on fire, but, hey, it is time for us to have hair on fire.

I lived through the McCarthy era. That was nothing compared to what the NSA is doing and what these trade agreements will mean for the futures of ordinary people around the world including in the US.

Here's her speech scorching him:

I hope we can still expect some sunshine in our decision-making processes but as Ms. Polisi discovered, even the agencies under her oversight were running many rogue operations.

I expect that the rot throughout the system exceeds even what recent brave whistle-blowers have revealed. And I expect the rot is all fed by greed of those that own most of the economies of the world.

It's unfortunate, because while we're being distracted, the Global Oligarchs are stealing the world from under our noses.

TPP and TISA are not trade deals, they are tools to supersede decades of hard won regulation and law. This is where the real game is being played and it's all done in secret.

.....and that's the real plan. "Hey! Look over there - the other party is horrible!" and meanwhile their wealth increases by kazillions.

less about the snark, which will only illicit reciprocal snark and outright abuse. Believe me, I know, lol.

These "free trade" agreements go far beyond trade policies, and essentially designed to restrict the ability of national governments to regulate economic activity -- and all that flows from it -- through laws and policies. They undermine those controls, and they foster the growth of transnational capital, the subversion of labor rights and a "one sie fits all" approach to growth that is heavily weighted in favor of those that have over those who don't.

When combined with our collective national decision to stop enforcing economic regulation, tossing out anti-monopoly laws and gut the public sector so the wealthy and corporations can get ever-more wealth and power at the expense of everyone else.....Well you have all the conditions that are destined to create and perpetuate national and global oligarchies.

Thank you.

is the goal of the typical evil villain seen in comic books.

K&R. I'll also add that trade is my litmus test. All that other social issue stuff doesn't mean a thing if we're all impoverished. The other thing that annoys me are some well known chodes on this site who are socially liberal but ecomomically conservative types. Third-Wayers basically.

hmmm....what's that about transparency?

The 1936 republican party platform looks like it could have been written for the tea party:

It has coerced and intimidated voters by withholding relief to those opposing its tyrannical policies.

It has destroyed the morale of our people and made them dependent upon government.

Appeals to passion and class prejudice have replaced reason and tolerance.

It has created a vast multitude of new offices, filled them with its favorites, set up a centralized bureaucracy, and sent out swarms of inspectors to harass our people.

It has bred fear and hesitation in commerce and industry, thus discouraging new enterprises, preventing employment and prolonging the depression.

It secretly has made tariff agreements with our foreign competitors, flooding our markets with foreign commodities.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29639

"Trade Agreement" is like saying "Peace Treaty" or "Labor Contract"

It can be good or it can be crappy.

"Free Trade" agreements as they have been negotiated since the 1980's have been crappy.

Just because you find Republicans in the 1930's complaining about FDR is no reason to compare critics of TPP and other contemporary Corporate Wall St. giveaways to that.

"ooooooo, the Libertarians are coming. And they all look like socialists."

the republican accusation was that they were both crappy - "flooding our markets with foreign commodities" - and negotiated secretly - "It secretly has made tariff agreements with our foreign competitors".

The problem is that the contemporary version of "free trade" goes far beyond tariffs and debates over protectionism. they extend into limiting the ability of governments to enforce domestic laws and policies, and advance a neo-liberal (i,e, free-market conservative) ideology that undermines labor rights the environment, consumer protection and the domestic economy.

eom

to find out what our fearless leaders are up to.

And even then, they got the story only thanks to the much-reviled Wikileaks.

Thanks for the thread, LiberalElite.

K&R

will be ruled by the private sector; once governments are rendered obsolete.

When I hear Americans chant "USA, USA, USA!" I think, "That is so 20th century." Remember when we used to name our arenas & stadiums after people? Now they are after corporations.

I assume this is something Obama supports, correct? I have to wonder after the Bush administration, with all of the retreads from Iran/Contra, the expansion of police powers, the burrowing into various agencies of ideologically pure shadow government types, how much is Obama, and even congress in control of what goes on in government any more.

Written by and for megacorps, in order to loot us and the planet more quickly and completely than heretofore.

I'm not that familiar with TISA; but last I knew re- the TPP (applicable among Pacific Rim countries), that treaty would further deregulate and make nations and their taxpayers liable in damages if they tried to enforce any of their own, national laws in the following areas:

Environmental protections
GMO's
Copyrights (e.g., the treaty would further heighten already unreasonably expanded copyright protections and require household disconnection from the internet for even minor infractions by any member of the household)
Patents (again, strengthening rights of patent holders: no more, more reasonably-priced drugs from Canada)
Etc.

He is not a helpless pawn in this. He's bought into it hook, line and sinker.

if TPP goes through, where's the need for Congress/SCOUTUS/POTUS?

K&R

STOP WORSHIPING WEALTH! START PRACTICING WHAT SO MANY WOULD PREACH....LOCALIZE, PULL OUT OF THIS DEATH SPIRAL AT THE LOCAL LEVEL AND LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND OR DIE IN THE INFERNO TO COME....CAPITALISM IS AT THE HELM, ENGINES FULL AHEAD AND ICEBERGS BE DAMNED...THIS SHIP CAN'T SINK!!!! (Until it does...)

The fact is that the entirety of their "power" is encompassed in the 'need' of the general public to possess that which they do not need because of an ill-gotten belief that it (whatever 'it' is....money, sex, power, things) will make them whole, make them complete, make them happy. The powerful may be lining up arms and surveillance and agreements, but NONE of it matters one bit if we were to collectively opt out of the capitalist system itself. A body without blood flow is dead within minutes, the brain is gone first and when it goes, it never comes back...even if the heart is somehow restarted.

Our body, our system died in 2007 - after a 30 year illness and malpractice on the part of those entrusted to "fix" it; and while the powers that be have restarted the heart, the brain is dead and the system is terminal from here out. There is no reforming or rescuing or saving global capitalism...it has become Frankenstein's monster and it will kill us all if given the chance...

The 1% can buy all the businesses, all the police, all the means of production, all the power....but they cannot retain it without the tacit approval of the majority of the 99%, without our implied or real acquiescence through a continuing charade . Slogans and protests are fine and well...but updates of the 'movement' on Twitter and Facebook is such an amazing irony that it blinds us all...we are slaves, slaves to the system and to the advertising and envy that gives this modern Frankenstein life, that keeps the blood flowing through the brain-dead body...

Even as the monster chokes us all, still we desire...still we want....still we buy....and still too many of us vote against our interests, accept the status quo, cower like the fictional Howard Beal predicted...begging to be left alone, to have out little world between our eyes and our damned stupidphones as an oasis of fiction. That which matters most....our minds and our bodies - through health and education - are ignored in service of the next ad, the next celebrity, the next sex pill ad or worst of all the next totally unnecessary "upgrade" or "planned obsolescence" repurchase.

Don't think about the issues (ARROGANT!!!), don't sound too smart (ELITIST!!!), don't act (TERRORIST!!!). Don't ask the question about why a functional 60-vote Senate and majority in the House could do no better than warmed over corporate care in the healthcare debate...or why those same numbers resulted in an explosion of for-profit "education" at the expense of enslaving an entire generation to college debt before they ever have a chance in the world. Don't worry...be happy. Don't disagree....be a 'team player'. Worry not about the dying ecology...who's winning the Bachelor's Next Big Rose or Dancing with a "star"???? Do not raise your voice in despair at the slaughter of innocent 6 year olds behind the rifle of a paranoid idiot mother and a mentally ill trigger man...instead be offended that someone would suggest guns that fire shots in excruciating rapid fire might be a big part of why so many die when the numbers could be horrific still but an order of magnitude less severe.

We reward the vapid and the inane, the moronic and the shallow....and at the same time we abide those who attack the consequential and expose the men behind the curtains. We collectively deserve the exact amount of added chains and deeper bondage that we accept, that we crave, that we must secretly desire, even need.

The fact that we have collectively built a global society around "capitalism" is not part of the problem or some of the problem, its the whole problem. Freedom is not ours for the offing because we have suffered fools lightly, allowed rulings to go unchallenged by civil (or uncivil) disobedience, cheered lustily for "our side" while the game was rigged and both sides were taking it in the ass from the real ruling class and their hired thugs in finance and insurance and real estate.

We have allowed those who contribute ZERO to command billions of dollars and lord over millions of lives as modern day Pharaohs, and yet we allow the legs to be cut out from underneath our most vulnerable, our poorest, our weakest and simultaneously we insult the most consequential, the most productive, the most useful with only platitudes and insincerity. People actually give a damn about the offspring of pseudo-famous people because they are famous thus making the idiot offspring even MORE famous in a bizarre circle of shame.

We have fought like cats and dogs about abstracts - "freedom / regulation", "right to life / right to choose", "equal rights / biblical rights"...ad nausea and as we did so, the thieves and money changers decided that setting up shop in the temple was a bigger hassle than it was worth, so they stole the whole damn thing instead.

The goddamn Muslim terrorists are RIGHT to hate us. I HATE US. I hate that we cannot see these things are our historical bane, our eternal shame....our own contribution to the coming Second Dark Ages, one that there is no guarantee we will emerge from on the other side...

Timothy Leary only had it partially right...Turn off, tune out, drop out! He had the last part right....the only solution is massive dropping out of global capitalism in favor of local and at most regional commerce and worker owned co-op's. Organic, local farming and an efflux of urban living to agrarian living for millions once more. Otherwise, the writing is on the wall and the outcome is assured, no matter how deep into denial we allow the species to sink or be pushed.

But, no-one is going to voluntarily opt out, as long as they think they can force some one else out. They might not realize that their continued suburbanite existence is causing suffering elsewhere, and most likely prefer to remain pleasantly obtuse. But once the power goes out, and the grocery store doesn't get re-stocked, or their money is suddenly worthless. That's when people react, and that's when anything can happen.

Some studies say that when 3% of a society is radically engaged, and 60% are at least mildly supportive, then that is when sea changes happen. Presently we have the top 1% followed by perhaps the next 3% of top level managers and bureaucrats radically engaged in cutthroat capitalism, and more than 60% of the citizenry is A-ok with it because at least they're getting some benefit. The remaining 35% is the group that has to lead the way with new thinkers, new leaders and new radicals.

Righteous rant by the way.

In 2006, my wife & I sold everything,
cashed out and paid the penalties,
used the money to buy bubble proof land in the rural South.

We live there now, grow most of our food,
and keep chickens and HoneyBees.

We buy nothing "new" if we can avoid it,
preferring to buy 2nd hand or salvage from the original owner.
We participate in the local rural black market for trade and labor.
Wall Street can live or die without our money or concern.
So far, so good.

bvar22 & Starkraven
living well on a low taxable income and stuff we learned in the 60s.

local agriculture is the backbone of the community- complete with slow lending and involving all members of the community.

and WikiLeaks

of both parties.

wild hyperbolic rhetoric, after all, has never been more apparent and need no longer be defended.

confined by Capitalism? Seriously. Where can I live on this planet, and where can I begin building a place for my grandkids to someday live in peace & freedom?
I want a country like the one I grew up in.
What's left?

How long before the Oligarchs deem the Native Treaties null & void. Like they did with the US Constitution.

I recall GW Bush standing at the podium, smirk on his face, waving a paper in hand & claiming, "Its just a piece of paper", in reference to the US Constitution.

Fact is that the US Constitution has never meant but a hill of beans, a minor inconvenience standing in the way of their grand plan for the oligarchy. The dismantling will continue until this country & its laws resemble Saudi Arabia.

So I fear.

the article says:

Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press.

Yet, I cannot find anything about when this was ratified. That would be the only thing that I could think would mean "signed one to".

we have also signed into TTP, which gives us a place at the table for negotiations. The treaty has not been signed or ratified in the sense you are thinking. It is intent to join. It is an early step in the process and dangerous as hell imo, because we are moving away from open negotiations to closed door negotiations.

Ratification is for democracies.

Don't you think its better not to know what they are doing in secret behind our backs, what rights they are signing away etc...we must just trust our authorities, like Brittany Spears said.

because...you know...

Snowden is a creep, Assange is a narcissist, and Greenwald is just such an asshole, and Manning, well, he has all kinds of psychological problems I can't even begin.....

I do sometimes wonder if President Obama was 'selected' as the Presidential Hunger Games were played in the first election. Hillary vs Barack. This Grand Plan of the Oligarchs didn't just show up in the last couple years. Like the run up to the Middle East invasion, whomever was to be the chosen President would have to be one who would be 'all in' on moving the plan forward. Al Gore, for instance, or (someone like Sanders, or Warren) would surely buck the system in defense of the Nation,
Perhaps Hillary would have been a little less cooperative on what the Oiligarch's were planning.

Just my theory. Yes I am very much tainted by the way I see the Nation's politics moving since Bush vs Gore & what that result brought us as we sit here today.

the nation was not happy with the Bush War criminals. If you remember, Bush and Cheney slithered out of town. I dont think that was their choice. Both are outspoken sociopaths. So maybe the Oligarchs (b613) decided that they were going to let the nation have their Democrat and so they helped the REpublicans shoot themselves in the Palin with sure losers like John and Sara. Meantime B.O. comes out as a very liberal candidate and then punches the left on the nose on inauguration day (Rick Warren) and never looked back. In 2016 I think the Oligarchs (b613) will support both HRC and Jeb, the I am not an idiot, son.

We are so jaded. Before Bush, & with Bill Clinton, yes many voiced their fears of NAFTA. At that time, had we handed our government a looking glass to see the future of what their decisions would bring to our Nation, I somehow don't think our President & his supporters of NAFTA would have been surprised. They would have simply seen that the plan would indeed move forward to where it is today.
The slow churning of the gears of a forward Democracy were being brought to turn in the opposite direction.

How do we American citizens reverse the direction of the gears anymore. So much has been put in place for that to never happen.
They have brought us to a point where what governs us is now stacked against what our common sense would command us to do.

They outrank the President. I think this scenario is highly likely. If not before, during the Bush lost decade, the NSA/CIA were given carte blanche to expand their spying without any oversight. Budgets were unlimited. Why would we think that they didnt use that to build a B613. The same players are still involved in the NSA/CIA security state.

Yes the same players are still involved and that is absolutely key to following the path of how they have progressed through the years to where we are now.
Roles have been defined, theirs and ours.

I don't think I could watch Scandal after your comparison, just a bit too much reality for me at this point. But it does sound like the writers must have their eyes on a serious point that needs to be made.
Hope other viewers make this connection.
Very interesting

about it.

Or is our government in a state of simply appeasing its citizens until they have signed it all away.

The people of the world do not want these trade agreements.

Who are these politicians to claim they will do this against our will?

would show up. Normally, they all, every last one of you, avoid discussion of the TPP. Can I assume you all support the TPP?

IF I was using your logic, I would assume you are racist, sexist RW piece of shit. I do not assume that at all, and would never ever accuse you of it.


Try to chill out with these weird suppositions based on nothing maybe? The list making is beneath you. You my or my not be part of a "group" but that's not the DU experience for most of us.

that never, ever discuss the TPP. Why is that? They also never, ever discuss fracking, or the XL Pipeline, or Wall Street corruption. I might understand if some didnt want to discuss those issues, but when not one single one is willing to discuss these very important issues it makes me wonder why they are here. Seems that GROUP is only here to spew hatred toward whistle-blowers and protestors and anyone that speaks truth to power.

We are all part of groups. I want freedom and liberties and control on the NSA/CIA Cabal. I want to see an end to the gross inequalities. I want to see single payer health insurance in my lifetime. I want to see manufacturing jobs in the USofA again. I want to see our environment saved from the ravishes of the capitalists.

Tell me where I am going wrong.

silly assumptions- because I 'read only' on certain subjects. And no, just because YOU feel like part of a group, does not mean that anyone else is. I agree and disagree with loads of people and never feel the need to demonize them as "the other" like you seem to.

You made completely wrong assumptions about me. We want exactly the same things, and I have a few more on my list too. I don't care if they'd be on your list or not. The way you judge people here makes me not in the least curious if we have even more mutual interests. Way to go!

And the irony of being falsely profiled and added to a list of "not good Duers" by someone who puts concerns about the NSA so very high- that is totally priceless. It's the McCarthy era in GD, LOL. I just have to laugh.

I reject the NSA/CIA McCArthy-like security state. The Hate Snowden Crowd seem to embrace it. They also seem to like to alert/hide/lock/ban. Seems they are the McCArthy types. Tell me this. Why dont any of them, not a single one, discuss the TPP, fracking, Wall Street corruption, the XL Pipeline, the Patriot Act, etc. Why do they seem to hate OWS, Code Pink, whistle-blowers, Wikileaks, Ms. Manning, Michael Hastings, anonymous, or anyone that speaks truth to power. This is not politically liberal behavior.

And the hate? I'm seeing it in one direction, towards me- for no reason other than the ABSENCE of behavior. Because I never go "Yay rec!", you decide to treat me like shit. YOU jumped to ugly conclusions because I do not want to come to a progressive site and see women or POC being denigrated with slurs. Think about that. Why do you hate on good Dems? Seriously?

badmouthing me to hosts.

obviously you'd prefer to drive people off this site. "the group" in your head. you have no idea how hateful all that was, really?
even if you were right about me, it's sucky behavior.

and maybe throw out those worthless lists?

But I guess when you're busy worrying about and sliming other posters, those types of details don't matter.

because I said something bad about Snowden once! Except I didn't! Then it was "you people who alert" never comment in NSA / TPP threads- we all MUST be fascist Hillary supporters who love surveillance! Shit is getting wacky.

and downloaded the document into the computer. It is next in my stack.

That is just wrong! No president is perfect.

Trade deals have eroded the middle class. Trade deals are the main reason for the lost manufacturing jobs.

Trade deals should be universally opposed by Democrats. If all Democrats stood up in opposition to trade deals, if we stood together, there would be no trade deals!

Read it, Dont see anything nefarious, in fact it looks to be a document opening markets for financial services and attempting to level the playing field across markets.

I am not a lawyer but it looks pretty reasonable. Maybe someone can point out what I am missing.