They wrote what they wanted and then told the congress critters they owned to pass it. Our country is controlled by big companies that own many if not all politicians.

this is the first step cowards the "New World Order" which they are so afraid of. Let them know this is something we can work together on, since neither of us is willing to give up national sovereignty, although for different reasons.

or billionaire, I would BUY billboards, newspapers and magazines, radio and TV stations, internet

sites, and enlist a TEAM of like minded wealthy individuals to get Senator Bernie Sanders message to the public.

There are wealthy Progressives, Socialists, and Greens.

I wish they would step up and help this country before it is totally destroyed beyond repair.

Or a billionaire to compete with a group of billionaires with trillions to spend...they can overwhelm the market with adds...and squeeze your message out.
And until we remove the money from politics it will stay like that.

I think my strategy would work.

Maybe you misunderstood my post ?

Wealthy Progressives, Greens, Democratic Socialist, and Socialist are not stepping up to the plate.

Are you suggesting that these groups combined could not raise a huge some of money ?

But it will never be as big as the whole corporate world can bring to bear against them...and they have other resources too including some government, both local and federal.

But that don't mean I am against it or don't think it would help, just don't expect it to work all by itself because they can out spend us no matter how much we raise.

The system is a failure on a massive scale, the MIC is a total failure (where was all that protection on 9/11) the CIA is more interested in spying on Congress than Russia, we've let the NSA sink back into the grey matter, the POTUS is pushing for the horrible TPP to get passed when it goes against his own wishes. That is an apparent sign of a completely dysfunctional system. Not to mention corporate $COTU$, the completely soldout mainstream press, the ever increasing tensions caused by crazy men like Alex Jones and Rush. The madmen in Congress calling for a new dark ages.

We need another Thomas Jefferson.

"I remain just one thing, and one thing only — and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician."

"I hope we shall abolish war and settle all differences at the conference table... I hope we shall abolish all hydrogen and atom bombs before they abolish us first." - Charlie Chaplin

Secret torture, secret rendition, secret 9/11 28 Pages, secret surveillance, secret prisons, secret courts, secret laws, secret police, secret judges, secret interpretation of laws, secret list, secret hearings, secret evidence, secret fracking stuff, some other secret things, secret TPP...

Once upon a time, demand for transparency in government was a strong public sentiment.

Today, not so much.

Where are the Democratic Party leaders? Does anyone still doubt that they've sold us out?

They are supposed to represent the people, not corporations. Bernie Sanders speaks for all of us.

were being negotiated? Should they have been released?

Should the "secret text" in the ongoing Iran negotiations be released? Would doing so be likely to produce a better agreement or derail the negotiations?

I am all for open public talks (Woodrow Wilson had the right idea with his "open covenants, openly arrived at&quot but that is not how international negotiations seem to usually occur in the real world.

I like to think that trade reforms that Bernie would support would include enforceable labor and environmental standards that would protect American workers while helping the environment and workers in other countries.

False Equivalencies.

And I think it is worth pointing out how gypped the American public is by the entire situation with "trade agreements."

There should not be any such thing as trade agreements. There should be ONLY Trade Acts, which by being an act, would require a 66.7 % majority in Congress.

But since most of us are not schooled in how Congress has moved the goal posts, we the public do not know that.

So what was once a debated situation, because it was an "Act" and required a heavy duty majority, now is a merre "agreement," and requires only an 88 second discussion, and a 50% majority!!

Are other countries willing to be open about trade negotiations but not nuclear or environmental or diplomatic recognition negotiations? For any international negotiation to be public all sides have to agree.

love of international trade deals will forever be lost on me.

He did not want to see a return to the high-tariff, low-trade economy of the 12 republican years before he became president.

The US trades much less than any other developed country (anywhere from 1/2 to 1/3 of the trade levels in Canada, Germany, Sweden, etc.) yet we manage to blame all of our problems on trade while the unions and middle classes are much stronger.

FDR knew how to deal with the 1% and he did not do it by restricting trade but by expanding it. He dealt with our 1% by going after them directly with higher taxes and corporate regulations and supporting the rest of us with a stronger safety net and government programs.

Horse to bring along agreements that our nation will have to live up to without the approval of the American people. Fast Track should be a warning that someone doesn't want debate on this agreement.

information on them. That is a big part of the problem.

If you read the OP, you will understand that what Bernie is objecting to is the fact that the negotiations are not being kept secret from the corporations and moneyed interests but are being kept secret from many in Congress and from the rest of the American people.

I oppose the TPP. The sneakiness of the negotiation of this treaty, allowing Wall Street and corporations in on the negotiations and shutting the American people and most members of Congress AND THEIR STAFFS out is simply wrong. Something stinks about the TPP negotiations.

Here is what Sander Levin says about the negotiations and secrecy surrounding the TPP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026040549

He is the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee in Congress. He opposes fast-track. I am even more opposed to the TPP than he is. I hope you will watch the video and listen to what he says. His arguments are very compelling.

Sander Levin confirms that corporations are being given more and freer, less restricted access to information about the progress and issues in the TPP negotiations than are members of Congress or their staffs.

I put that in bold because a lot of people who don't know what they are talking about don't want to believe that Obama would actually give privileged access to corporations about the TPP negotiations. Sander Levin confirms it.

That's just plain wrong. The Iran negotiations are not comparable, not the same kind of issue at all.

these trade agreements because he is not a Democrat. He does not rely on the Party for his campaigns.

has become. A stat I just read here stated that in 1980 approx. $1.8 million was donated for congressional campaigns, and now it's almost half a billion. On corporate practices, there's an excellent video, via drone of a No. Carolina Pig Farm/Capo and giant cesspool on the DU Home Page. It's operated by Smithfield, purchased by the Chinese a couple years ago. Unbelievable, the filth and pollution, harming humans and the environmental to feed 7 billion people.

That should be a huge clue.

GO B!

Yeah, I actually saw that posted here today.

It is now time to file a LAWSUIT, because we the public are not being given information from our elected representatives about this issue.
This is a (small d) democracy and not a oligarpghy.





I congratulate Mr. Sanders for his diligence on this matter and others that are with him on the public getting disclosure on this trade deal

Any lawsuit on TPP would be judicially "fast-tracked" to SCOTUS,
kind of like W's being "appointed" president was.

Not saying that's the way it should be, but damn, We the People
have been bamboozled and end-runned into the ground. We've
already lost, lost the Congressional branch, lost the Judicial branch,
and mostly lost Presidential branch on way too many fronts, including
the TPP..

I can't even begin to imagine what kind of evil these 600 mega-
corporations have cooked up for We the People and the whole
idea of democratic governance, not to mention loosing our
national sovereignty to international corporations.

He should have to wait until after it passes to see it, just like the rest of us!

At least that's what some people on DU tell me.

Last edited Mon Jan 5, 2015, 06:59 PM - Edit history (1)

the text states that the contents will remain "secret" for three years after it goes into effect.

I need to correct an error in the post. The sentence should correctly read:

Sorry, but you still won't be able to see it after its passed, because by agreement of all the parties to the treaty, the deliberations will remain secret for four years after it goes into effect.

Last year (2012), Obama's top trade rep, Ron Kirk, declared that locking out the people is necessary, because the deal's details would outrage Americans and spook Congress from rubber stamping it. In short, to win public approval of TPP, the Obamacans say they must keep it hidden from the public.

What could he be possibly complaining about? No one knows what is in it yet. He should just let it go into effect before he jumps to these wild accusations.

Doesn't he know that Obama was elected TWICE?
(Disclosure, I voted, donated and canvassed for him both times)

THink what could be done if there were only 5 more like: Bernie, Warren, Grayson....

Corporations.

a story on this every day in the hundreds of "news" channels we have. Bernie is great , would definitely vote for him.

No way.

It's shit like this that OWS was addressing directly,
and we saw how that played out, with NYPD pigs.

Fights for what he believes in. Why is President Obama for this legislation?

I got an 'Error. Your request cannot be processed' message!

and posting it that way. Thank you for the explanation.

yes please.

Go Bernie!

I'll have a whole new level respect for this man if he can pull this off before elections!

a politician is an ass upon which everyone has sat except a man.

Yea I can see that shit happening to.

which won't be until 5 seconds before it's "fast-tracked"
down our collective throats.

Hope & Change? Not so much.

Last edited Tue Jan 6, 2015, 12:14 PM - Edit history (1)

and no one would be the wiser.

We weren't supposed to even KNOW about this agreement
until 2-3 years after it had been adopted and gone into effect.

Plenty of support for this, I suspect. Let's do that part anyway.

It ought to be standard practice.

This post deserves hundreds of recommendations!

I certainly hope he wins his battle.

Otherwise, are going to be eating cat food soon.

It goes against the wishes of every person with investments in Wall St.
With so many funding the attackers against us & our fragile democracy, I fear we will never prevail.

We need the whole population of the US to know this.

That goes for ALEC, too.

In fact, I'll remind Paul Krugman to read it all before he sucks up to the same corporatist law.

Corporations are not "We the People".

The TPP will go through.

Unless of course we proceed to yet again tell our friends, relatives, acquaintances, and the person on the elevator to contact their representative and order them to examine this and vote for us not for the corporations.

Then we will all watch them twirl their finger aside their head and suggest a tinfoil hat.

He's making it awful damn hard to resist!

happen.

Release it to Congress and the Press so that the people of THIS country can see what they are planning. There must be some pretty awful things in there if they are working so hard to just get it passed without anyone having a chance to see what's in it.

We the People have been bamboozled and end-runned into the ground.

We've already lost, lost the Congressional branch, lost the Judicial branch,
and mostly lost Presidential branch on way too many fronts, including
the TPP..

I can't even begin to imagine what kind of evil these 600 mega-corporations
have cooked up "in private" for We the People and the whole idea of democratic
governance, not to mention loosing our national sovereignty to international
corporations.