Chris Hedges: The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History
from truthdig:
The Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History
Posted on Nov 6, 2015
By Chris Hedges
The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared.
“The TPP, along with the WTO (World Trade Organization) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me when I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C. “It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections (to be) unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws.”
The TPP is part of a triad of trade agreements that includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA, by calling for the privatization of all public services, is a mortal threat to the viability of the U.S. Postal Service, public education and other government-run enterprises and utilities; together these operations make up 80 percent of the U.S. economy. The TTIP and TiSA are still in the negotiation phase. They will follow on the heels of the TPP and are likely to go before Congress in 2017.
These three agreements solidify the creeping corporate coup d’état along with the final evisceration of national sovereignty. Citizens will be forced to give up control of their destiny and will be stripped of the ability to protect themselves from corporate predators, safeguard the ecosystem and find redress and justice in our now anemic and often dysfunctional democratic institutions. The agreements—filled with jargon, convoluted technical, trade and financial terms, legalese, fine print and obtuse phrasing—can be summed up in two words: corporate enslavement.
.....(snip).....
If there is no sustained popular uprising to prevent the passage of the TPP in Congress this spring we will be shackled by corporate power. Wages will decline. Working conditions will deteriorate. Unemployment will rise. Our few remaining rights will be revoked. The assault on the ecosystem will be accelerated. Banks and global speculation will be beyond oversight or control. Food safety standards and regulations will be jettisoned. Public services ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to the post office and public education will be abolished or dramatically slashed and taken over by for-profit corporations. Prices for basic commodities, including pharmaceuticals, will skyrocket. Social assistance programs will be drastically scaled back or terminated. And countries that have public health care systems, such as Canada and Australia, that are in the agreement will probably see their public health systems collapse under corporate assault. Corporations will be empowered to hold a wide variety of patents, including over plants and animals, turning basic necessities and the natural world into marketable products. And, just to make sure corporations extract every pound of flesh, any public law interpreted by corporations as impeding projected profit, even a law designed to protect the environment or consumers, will be subject to challenge in an entity called the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) section. The ISDS, bolstered and expanded under the TPP, will see corporations paid massive sums in compensation from offending governments for impeding their “right” to further swell their bank accounts. Corporate profit effectively will replace the common good. ................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_most_brazen_corporate_power_grab_in_american_history_20151106
= new reply since forum marked as read
besides, Brunei is getting a minimum wage!!!
This is the reason he supports it:
When we have a level playing field, Americans out-compete anyone in the world. That’s a fundamental truth about our country.
But right now, the rules of global trade put our workers, our businesses, and our values at a disadvantage.
If you’re an autoworker in Michigan, the cars you build face taxes as high as 70 percent in Vietnam. If you’re a worker in Oregon, you’re forced to compete against workers in other countries that set lower standards and pay lower wages just to cut their costs. If you’re a small business owner in Ohio, you might face customs rules that are confusing, costly, and an unnecessary barrier to selling abroad.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership will change that -- and you can read the complete text of it right here.
The TPP is the highest standard trade agreement in history. It eliminates 18,000 taxes that various countries put on American goods. That will boost Made-in-America exports abroad while supporting higher-paying jobs right here at home. And that’s going to help our economy grow.
I know that past trade agreements haven’t always lived up to the hype. So I want to tell you a little bit about what makes this trade agreement so different, and so important.
The TPP includes the strongest labor standards in history, from requiring a minimum wage and worker safety regulations to prohibiting child labor and forced labor. It also includes the strongest environmental commitments in history, requiring countries in one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth to crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and illegal fishing. These standards are at the core of the agreement and are fully enforceable -- which means we can bring trade sanctions against countries that don’t step up their game.
And for the first time ever, we’ll have a multilateral trade agreement that reflects the reality of the digital economy by promoting a free and open Internet and by preventing unfair laws that restrict the free flow of data and information.
In other words, the TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century. When it comes to Asia, one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, the rulebook is up for grabs. And if we don’t pass this agreement -- if America doesn’t write those rules -- then countries like China will. And that would only threaten American jobs and workers and undermine American leadership around the world.
That’s why I am posting the text of this agreement here for you to read and explore.
There’s a lot in here, so we’ve put together summaries of each chapter to help you navigate what’s in the agreement and what these new standards will mean for you.
Read it all in full right here.
I know that if you take a look at what’s actually in the TPP, you will see that this is, in fact, a new type of trade deal that puts American workers first.
Take a look. Then make up your mind.
-- President Barack Obama
For those who haven't found the agreement yet, or who want to read it, here's the link: https://medium.com/the-trans-pacific-partnership
I have been reading the actual Agreement, and can't for the life of me figure out where he is getting all this BS that he is saying in the aforementioned WH.Gov statement. Does he think that this will somehow give the U.S. control of the rest of the parties participating and the world for that manner? Does he find someplace in this agreement a definite manner in which this nation can write the laws for all nations in the world? Doesn't he understand that it is CORPORATIONS that will be making all of these decisions, and the fact that corporate control hasn't worked out too good for the world so far.
I truly have no idea as to why he is supporting this unless he is actual more of a corporate democrat than I believed he was. I tell you the truth about my opinion, we really don't need anyone that is going to continue his policies if this is an example of what he wants continued. I watched the MSNBC forum with Rachel Maddow last night, and more than ever I believe we need BERNIE SANDERS and his ideas and policies to lead this nation after Obama leaves office. This Trade Agreement is exactly what Obama got into office saying he would oppose. I voted for him, WHAT HAPPENED? 
It appears President Obama is either out of touch, or trying to make us believe he is out of touch. Reading the agreement I don't find anything that solidifies a living wage for workers in this country. As a matter of fact, the way it reads is that if workers in this country try to organize against a corporation and ask for higher wages, that company can sue because those workers would be costing them profits if they were somehow to win a lawsuit in court. By the way, cases against these corporations will no longer be going to court it appears, they will instead be going to arbitration and guess who we will have to appear in front of if we have a grievance? You guessed it, members of the corporations, 3 to be exact. Corporate lobbyist who will be selected as arbitrators. The agreement also does absolutely nothing to prevent forced labor or slave labor in the smaller and weaker nations that will be a part of the agreement. I think the toughest language against that is we will strongly suggest countries follow the rules and not participate in these practices or something to that effect. I mean, really I'm wondering if the President himself has read this stuff, and the TPP is only the beginning, there are 2 or 3 other agreements that are connected to this. I found this article over at Public Citizen very interesting: http://www.citizen.org/tpp
I guess it's time to begin calling our congressmen and women and threatening their jobs if they vote to pass this monstrosity. I believe it is also a good idea for every caring citizen to start discussing this with family, friends, and neighbors so that all who will be affected by this are informed.
Thank you for replying to my comment, thank you for this informative post Zalinda, and thanks for sharing your example of what is happening in business these days. You are correct about us being able to import goods already. Just order anything online, and if it is made outside the country it will be imported and will reach you within days. We don't need this agreement. We definitely need Bernie Sanders and his approach to government for our next President. I am donating to his campaign, I am volunteering with his organization here where I live. I am networking with friends and family in just about every state in the country, and am trying my best to get everyone I know to realize Bernie is our only choice.
We sure don't need Hillary Clinton, someone who is more out of touch than Obama in office IMHO. Hope your situation has gotten better and that you can afford more than what you might find at a garage sale these days; however, sometimes I believe a person can find some things at yard sales and garage sales that are of much better quality than you can find in the stores these days. 
er, I mean, I HOPE it sets the gold standard 
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]
Of course you would say that.
Not even hiding it, not even trying.
Frownies and a ball to play with afterward.
IT simply doesn't matter WHAT you think Barry has done for you. TPP negates almost everything.
WHy?
Because TPP is set up to TRUMP EVERYTHING!
Obamacare, XL Pipeline, Drilling in the Arctic, Medicare Expansion, anything you want to put here...
Everything Obama has 'accomplished' for the American People can, and WILL be destroyed by TPP.
Wanta bet?
It's everything Hillary Clinton stumped for when she knew, purposely hidden from the American public.
We weren't invited to that party.... Now, she's thought more about it... and changed her position.
Sure.... 
