Dear President Obama: If the TPP is so wonderful why the dark cloak of secrecy?

[99th_Monkey]

This one thing should repulse anyone who calls themselves a "Democrat" ...
What could be less democratic than an international agreement binding on the USA, an
agreement crafted in complete secrecy, save for a handful of Wall St. CEOs.

And then even after it's drafted, no one gets to know all of what's in the document?
Yet our democratically elected Congress-peeps are supposed to put on blindfolds and
vote for the damn thing anyway?

I don't think so.

Fuck that. Fuck the TPP. Fuck Wall St.

Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief, said:

The selective secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations, which has let in a few cashed-up megacorps but excluded everyone else, reveals a telling fear of public scrutiny. By publishing this text we allow the public to engage in issues that will have such a fundamental impact on their lives.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/updated-secret-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-tpp-freedom-of-information-civil-liberties-and-access-to-medicines-at-stake/5408730

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, it's wonderful, all right................for the fucking 1%. NOT for us. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

2. True dat.

This one issues is truly revelatory in a way, in that it exposes how asleep we are,
like proverbial frogs in gradually boiling water.

The very fact that these slimy trade deals can be drafted in complete secrecy then
"fast tracked" through Congress without the congress peeps ever knowing what
all is in it??

But here we are, as if this is just another issue where O carries Wall St. water on
another Third Way Railroad job, to the detriment of democracy and the American
working class.

[MisterP]

3. I suppose it's like Semele or the Ark of the Covenant: it's so wonderful

and amazing that our minds would burn from the inside out if we even had an inkling of what was in it

(or it's just such a stinker that a hundred Krugman articles and all the party's Nurse Ratched-like tactics would just fall flat: "You want to hand the country over to the Republicans? You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.&quot

[AtomicKitten]

4. The way it's being handled makes me feel powerless.

As a citizen, I don't like feeling powerless.

[Faryn Balyncd]

11. Secrecy & "Fast Track" is designed to render our elected representatives powerless as well.

For a Democratic president to not only be complicit with, but to push this piece of corporate welfare is beyond belief.

[AtomicKitten]

17. it's shock and awe

Last edited Fri Jan 2, 2015, 09:26 PM - Edit history (1)

[YoungDemCA]

5. I stopped reading when I saw that Julian Assange was (favorably) quoted in the article

nt

[99th_Monkey]

8. I hope you didn't stop thinking too, when you saw Julian quoted.

We would know only a minuscule of what we now know about TPP if it
weren't for the courageous good work of people like Assange.

[YoungDemCA]

9. Too bad he's a shameless rapist

nt

[99th_Monkey]

10. Too Bad indeed

Too bad you've apparently bought into the Dark Side's narrative attempting to slime
Assange on trumped-up sketchy "charges"

You know the women supposedly involved declined to press charges, right?

Oh, and here's a group of Feminist anti-rape women who clearly DON"T want Assange extradited.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/23/women-against-rape-julian-assange

[Deny and Shred]

20. Kill the Messenger has claimed another.

Logic can't stop it - facts can't stop it.

It's impervious to well-considered ideas and arguments.

Beware the snarky phrase - the natural defense mechanism.

[beerandjesus]

13. Well shit, in that case, I guess TPP must be awesome!

Can't argue with your logic on this one! And since it's basically NAFTA, I guess I've been wrong about NAFTA for all these years too! Here I thought all these jobs had been sent out of the country... and unemployment has actually gone down! And TPP will bring us to full employment!

Thanks for setting me straight!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. He stood trial and was convicted?

[840high]

12. ...^ that

[DisgustipatedinCA]

38. Don't be deluded into thinking anyone cares about your petulance.

They don't.

[billhicks76]

6. Secrecy Is Evil

People are getting angry at this slight of hand trickery. Obama should be calling out Jeb Bush not protecting him and TPP.

[Enthusiast]

7. The corporations writing this thing could give a shit about the General Welfare.

They do not have our best interests at heart.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. Exactly. So why is Obama listening to them, and letting them write this crap? n/t

[Enthusiast]

31. I would rather not say it.

I'm being nice.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. Lord Acton

[99th_Monkey]

21. +100 nt

[whereisjustice]

16. K&R

[Michigan-Arizona]

18. K&R n/t

[easychoice]

19. My exact question.Throw it on the table and we'll all look at it.

You got to look at it, we want to look at it.More of their hourly wage poverty bullshit no doubt.Hillary and the rockefellers love it so run like hell I guess.

[99th_Monkey]

23. Problem is, there isn't a "table" to throw it onto.

That use of "table" assumes & implies there is some open discussion
in the light of day, i.e. being "on the table" for consideration.

With TPP, it's all UNDER the table, if you get my meaning.

Which is the whole point of my OP.

[easychoice]

30. Remember the Patriot Act? It was a rough draft til they passed it.

They don't have a treaty and they are not forthcoming about our economic rights they want to lose.No Unions,no Environmental laws.What else? Will it be illegal to report a law breaking corporation? I bet the final draft is a wholesale farm sale.Any time these Corporate Shitbags want to fix something we get hosed.

[99th_Monkey]

33. No Argument here -nt

[burrowowl]

24. You nailed it!

[ucrdem]

25. What dark cloak of secrecy?

There's plenty of TPP info available online:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026034112

Is there something you're not finding there?

[jwirr]

26. I saw that post. I looks like comments made by various people but it does not look like the

actual plan. Am I wrong?

[ucrdem]

27. There's an outline, there are transcripts of negotiations, there are texts of speeches.

That's about all the TPP amounts to right now because the actual text is still being hammered out.

[jwirr]

28. Okay. I wondered about that. Why do they want to fast track something that is not even finished

yet?

[ucrdem]

29. I think the idea is to prevent Congress from gutting it.

Fast track means Mitch and the gang can't strip out protections they don't like and otherwise screw around with it.

[jwirr]

32. Okay. Then if this was something we wanted we would want fast track. Unfortunately all those

benefits he says are in there will be stripped out if he does not get fast track. What a mess.

[Jim Lane]

41. Fast track has TWO components and the other one is the bad one.

Prohibiting amendments of a multilateral trade agreement seems to me to be reasonable. Even without Republican majorities in the House and Senate, it would just be impractical for each country to be able to approve a modified agreement, because then each prior approval would be ineffective. To get multiple approvals for the same version, you'd have to keep going back to each participant, in what could be a never-ending round.

The objectionable aspect of fast track is the "fast" part. Given that the negotiations have been largely secret (only largely, not entirely, because the efforts at secrecy have been largely but not entirely effective), the reality is that the whole thing will be dumped on Congress and the public, and only then can informed analysis begin. (Note how many people on DU try to shout down any discussion of TPP's flaws because we still haven't seen the exact text of the final agreement.) There's no justification for the tight time limits of fast track -- other than the proponents' understandable fear that, the more time people have to kick the tires on the deal, the more likely it is to be rejected.

[whereisjustice]

34. TPP is one reason corporations are holding onto record profits instead of

reinvestment and worker compensation in the USA.

There's lots of fresh meat in Asia and elsewhere waiting to be purchased.

The implication of TPP for US families and communities is horrifying.

After bailing out Wall Street, US workers are once again being asked to sacrifice their quality of life so that Wall Street can maintain their outlandish and decadent lifestyles.

TPP is a class war weapon of mass destruction against an increasingly discontented working class.

Like global warming, the data is in and it is irrefutable. Washington is continuously and violently fucking over voters so that the smallest minority of oligarchs can increase their wealth.

We are pretty much tapped out with the status quo. They need to do something to get them to the next level.

Think it's more complicated than this? History proves you wrong.

This is about the tyranny of wealth and power of a minority over the best interests of the majority.

The only thing different is the massive destructive scale and variety of weapons available to the ruling class to keep us in our place.

Critics will be proven right about TPP, just as they have about banking deregulation, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, energy deregulation (Enron anyone?), man made global warming, NAFTA and dozens of backroom deals that sacrificed millions of families for the greater wealth of the 1%.

To further the global warming analogy - what we have are right wing extremists in the Democratic Party celebrating TPP like that dumbass Governor in Maine (Lepage) who thinks global warming is wonderful because of the economic benefits.

Only the ruling class has the means and capital to make money from global warming and TPP. When the shit hits the fan, they'll be right back demanding more from the working class - more from our children, more from our wages, more from our benefits.

TPP is pure poison for US families. It needs to be stopped.

[Unknown Beatle]

35. "Fuck that. Fuck the TPP. Fuck Wall St."

Is it sacrilegious to say Fuck Obama for wanting this and hiding it from the public?

[99th_Monkey]

36. Perhaps, but esp. in one DU forum, it would be regarded as sacrilegious, yes.

I refrained so as not to undermine the entire OP.

[liberal_at_heart]

37. Didn't Obama promise to be a transparent President? Where is the transparency?

[99th_Monkey]

39. You're absolutely correct

I had actually kinda forgotten that, just as Obama hoped I would.

Thanks for the reminder

[whereisjustice]

40. Good question - the most radical, corporate friendly law in US history with incalcuable

consequences for US families deserves public scrutiny.