Bill Moyers on why the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement is death for democracy

11/5/2013 10:05am by Gaius Publius 25 Comments

Many of you know I’ve been covering TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement) for a while now — for example, here. Obama and the rest of the neoliberal (“free-trade”) Democrats are dying to implement it, and the Republican servants of the same fine CEOs are not far behind.

But the TPP is complicated — at least in appearances — and the public is having a hard time bottom-lining it, in between taking kids to soccer and paying bills in the evening. By comparison, characterizing Keystone is easy — “Want to drink goo from your faucet and watch the earth cook? Support Keystone.”

It’s not really hard to understand TPP though, once you see the pattern — TPP puts the ruling class (and the corporations they control) in charge of most aspects of our economic and regulatory life. It rewrites the laws of every nation that signs it, all to increase the wealth of our pathological betters. We just need more people saying that.

Now comes Bill Moyers with an excellent, listenable primer on what TPP is and why it spells death to democracy (literally) and breathes even more life into the predator 1% of the 1%.
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much more at link: http://americablog.com/2013/11/bill-moyers-trans-pacific-partnership-free-trade-agreement-death-democracy.html

The Other Shoe Drops for Scott Walker. Another John Doe Probe Revealed and It's Statewide!

Source: Daily Kos

A former top-level assistant U.S. attorney has been appointed a special prosecutor in a burgeoning, secret investigation into a wide variety of state issues, including possible campaign violations during the recent recall elections, multiple sources said.
Francis Schmitz — who spent nearly 30 years as a federal prosecutor and was once a finalist for U.S. attorney in Milwaukee — is leading the widespread John Doe probe, according to sources.

Overseeing the case is Kenosha County Circuit Judge Barbara A. Kluka, who has been used by Milwaukee County judicial officials in past John Doe cases.

This is the type of news that normally dumps out late on Friday, but here it is first thing on Monday. Better yet, this probe was going on BEFORE the Milwaukee County John Doe Probe closed after the conviction of Kelly Reindfleisch, the former top aide to County Executive Scott Walker and 6th associate of his to be charged and convicted.


Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/21/1249353/-The-Other-Shoe-Drops-for-Scott-Walker-Another-John-Doe-Probe-Revealed-and-It-s-Statewide?detail=facebook#

Just based on my FB feed and reading conservatives conversations and postings, the feeding frenzy

is well underway. Vote them all out! No, save 18. No screw the 18, most of em voted for..., McConnell memes already about the earmark. Yep, there is much gnashing of teeth. Onward to 2014!

"You get nothing".-President Barack Obama, to Speaker Boehner and the Teapublicans.

No link, but DailyKos is reporting on FB that the Senate will convene at noon, when a final deal is

expected to be announced.

Amar Kaleka, Son Of Slain Sikh Temple President, Plans To Run For Congress Against Paul Ryan

MILWAUKEE -- MILWAUKEE (AP) — The son of a slain Sikh temple president plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in next year's congressional election, in a Wisconsin district where support for the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee has been strong but slipping.

Amar Kaleka, 35, told The Associated Press he'll file paperwork Wednesday to form an exploratory congressional committee. He plans to formally announce his candidacy as a Democrat next month.

Kaleka said he wants to bring accountability and transparency back to Washington. He blamed the government shutdown on Ryan, who's the House Budget Committee chairman, and his GOP colleagues. He said citizens are tired of career politicians who care more about staying in power than serving the people.

"There's a fever in the nation, and specifically in this district, for our leaders to stop playing politics and do their jobs," Kaleka said. "All I want to do is bring democracy — a government of, for and by the people — back to America."
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more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/amar-kaleka-paul-ryan_n_4098237.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Is it too soon to start lamenting the NSA Security State again? Or is that over now that we have

other faux crises on the tee vee? Just kinda wondering...I know we are all giddy at the prospects heading into 2014, so this topic is kind of the albatross of the decade that the PTB would rather we all forgot about whilst electioneering is underway...

I am sitting here listening to an end-times preacher right now on Trinity...He is mixing religion

and politics. Just weaved all of the Kennedy's, John, Robert, and Teddy into his sermon. Got some real laughs out of the crowd. Beyond that, the whole sermon is just seething with politics. It's really not much of a biblical sermon, but more of a political one. Pathetic.

Al Gore: GOP Guilty Of 'Political Terrorism'

Former Vice President Al Gore said the GOP is guilty of "political terrorism" because of those who are threatening a government shutdown over Obamacare.

“The only phrase that describes it is political terrorism,” Gore said Friday, speaking at the launch of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Effective Public Management in Washington. “Why does partisanship have anything to do with such a despicable and dishonorable threat to the integrity of the United States of America?”

“And now you want to threaten to not only shut down our government but to blow up the world economy unless we go back and undo what we did according to the processes of this democracy?” Gore said, referencing the Affordable Care Act. “How dare you?”

Gore also joked that he's a "recovering politician."

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/al-gore-gop_n_4003376.html

Watching the Senate International Narcotics Control Caucus from Wednesday on CSPAN2...Noted:

While a Senator Klobuchar I think it was was talking about reasonable and prudent things like getting pharmacies to take back unused prescription drugs, she was followed by DiFi, who is gunning hard for marijuana farms. It's reefer madness in California, to hear her go on and on. Armed guards. It *all can't be for medical marijuana, she says. Granted, I'm not in California, and there may be a few problems, but it just struck me as something straight out of a 60's "educational" film that we were shown in the 70's at school, complete with the psycho swirls of paisley wafting though the room, but where people are gunned down like they were in a school or shopping mall. Just out of touch. She has to go.