TPP: The Terrible Plutocratic Plan

[99th_Monkey]

TPP: The Terrible Plutocratic Plan
By David Swanson * OpEdNews * 7/21/2013
(Remarks July 21, 2013 at an Occupy Harrisonburg (Va.) Event.)

Thanks to Michael Feikema and Doug Hendren for inviting me. Like most of you I do not spend my life studying trade agreements, but the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is disturbing enough to make me devote a little time to it, and I hope you will do the same and get your neighbors to do the same and get them to get their friends to do the same -- as soon as possible.

I spend most of my time reading and writing about war and peace. I'm in the middle of writing a book about the possibility and need to abolish war and militarism. I hate to take a break from that. But if we think trade and militarism are separate topics we're fooling ourselves.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a big fan of the supposed wonders of the hidden hand of the market economy says, "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the U.S. Air Force F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

(snip)


In this year's State of the Union, Obama said the TPP and an agreement with the European Union were priorities for him this year.

There is also, of course, nothing hidden about the hand of corporate trade agreements. These are not agreements aimed at maximizing competition by preventing monopolies. These are very lengthy and detailed agreements that include protection and expansion of monopolies. Rather than relying on the magic of the marketplace, a corporate trade agreement relies on the influence of lobbyists. Just as the corruption of the military industrial complex helps explain a global military buildup in the absence of a national enemy -- I mean an enemy that is a nation, not a handful of criminals who ought to be indicted and prosecuted rather than blown up along with whoever's nearby -- so, too, the corporate ownership of our government explains our government's trade policies.

What is hidden, in another sense, is the detailed negotiated text of the proposed TPP treaty. Some 600 corporate advisors are helping the U.S. government write the text. Some of these advisors come from those benevolent, public-interest firms known as Monsanto, the Bank of America, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. The rest of us are shut out. The government gathers up our every communication, but we aren't allowed to see what it's doing in our name. We don't influence the text and we don't get to see it. Some courageous person or persons willing to risk charges of aiding the enemy (even if there is no enemy) has made parts of what is in the TPP known.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/TPP-The-Terrible-Plutocra-by-David-Swanson-130721-184.html

[djean111]

1. At least the apologists for anything this administration does have not started telling us

how wonderful the TPP is, or how Obama's hands are tied, or how the TPP is the fault of the GOP congressional goblins.
Wonder why. Do they agree it is awful and therefore sort of like Voldemort? Not to be mentioned?
Waiting for it to be rushed through and forced into law?

[msongs]

2. it aint snowden that wants to pass abominable trade deals that screw american workers nt

[Enthusiast]

12. Good point........nt

[woo me with science]

3. K&R Assault and betrayal.

[rhett o rick]

4. Why study it? Like there's a chance we could stop it? nm

[99th_Monkey]

5. Knowledge is power

ignorance may induce a short-lived "bliss",
but it leads to more utter disempowerment.

[rhett o rick]

6. No wonder I am powerless. Just sayin. nm

[99th_Monkey]

7. Never-the-less, your point is taken

It is easy to feel like "why bother anymore?"

I totally "get" that. just sayin.

[rhett o rick]

10. NGU. I totally understood. My earlier comment was from frustration.

[forestpath]

8. K&R

[byeya]

9. If TPP is Obama's #1 priority, we should all mail him pictures of Detroit and the nations'

boarded up factories and Main St businesses.

[HomerRamone]

11. This is a VERY important article

I guess I can't quote more than what's posted already--please read in full

[Catherina]

13. K&R n/t