going on, on both sides of the aisle is obvious and fierce.

It was highly unpopular with the public, who put pressure on their representatives; who in turn opposed it on the floor. Clinton whipped and strong armed them because he was a determined to push NAFTA as our own president now is pushing TPP.

Which way will it go?

It's promising that Obama is experiencing resistance from his own party. That means even if we vote in a Thirdwayer into office in the next election we may still manage to protect the party's platform.

There's a lot riding on this, and not just for the president.

The exit of more jobs, diminished power of unions, richer at the top. You don't need a PhD to figure out this is what Baltimore symbolizes.

ood for the US" or some such equivalent. Looks to me like the TPP/TTIP et al. are the natural result of global corporations getting together and borrowing Louis XIV's (apocryphal, I know) ""L'État, c'est moi".

Yes, corporations are now The State, American (or any country's) citizens are not really important. In fact, for citizens, the only important things seem to be how little can they be paid, how little health care can they grudgingly be given, how badly can they be treated before they revolt or cease to be productive. As far as land and air and water - how much can be polluted before there is real penalty involved - not damage, mind you, but any penalty that has not been done away with. Voting - equivalent to the bread and circuses, complete with sponsors.

Fast Track is now, IMO, just a device to keep citizens from having any say in things. Maybe we used to be able to say oh, we can depend on these agreements to be made with the best interests of the people in mind - but only a naive and fucking loony simpleton would believe that a crowd of corporate spokesmen would do anything that benefited anything but themselves.

And that trickle down bullshit is just, well, bullshit. The corporations hoard the profits, they hide the profits, they only reward themselves with the profits.

So I am tired of reading that Fast Track is how we have always done it. Fast Track is now just the device used to ensure that not one bit of what the global corporate community wants for themselves can be altered or changed.

in things" and conservative republicans oppose it overwhelmingly.

"And yet liberal Democrats support it and the TPP and republicans (particularly the tea party wing) oppose it overwhelmingly."

WASHINGTON — Six years into his time in office, President Barack Obama rarely has been able to claim Republican support.

But at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, it was the GOP, not Democrats, who roundly supported giving Obama more authority.

Specifically, Republicans seek to give Obama “fast track” authority that will allow him to send trade-agreement proposals to Congress for a simple “yes or no” vote with no amendments. Past presidents beginning with Richard Nixon have been able to use such authority; the last agreement expired in 2007.

Fighting to pass another trade deal that allows global corporations to undermine local, state and federal laws if they feel their never ending search for more profits are effected...

So either the FDR tradition of standing up to Wall Street and rich CEOs, supporting labor and a strong middle class is officially over or
we have to fight back.