I didn’t think TTIP could get any scarier, but then I spoke to the EU official in charge of it
With just eight words she exposed everything that's wrong with the deal, and why it needs to be defeated
by John Hilary
I was recently granted a rare glimpse behind the official façade of the EU when I met with its Trade Commissioner in her Brussels office. I was there to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the controversial treaty currently under negotiation between the EU and the USA.
As Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström occupies a powerful position in the apparatus of the EU. She heads up the trade directorate of the European Commission, the post previously given to Peter Mandelson when he was forced to quit front line politics in the UK. This puts her in charge of trade and investment policy for all 28 EU member states, and it is her officials that are currently trying to finalise the TTIP deal with the USA.
In our meeting, I challenged Malmström over the huge opposition to TTIP across Europe. In the last year, a record three and a quarter million European citizens have signed the petition against it. Thousands of meetings and protests have been held across all 28 EU member states, including a spectacular 250,000-strong demonstration in Berlin this weekend.
When put to her, Malmström acknowledged that a trade deal has never inspired such passionate and widespread opposition. Yet when I asked the trade commissioner how she could continue her persistent promotion of the deal in the face of such massive public opposition, her response came back icy cold: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”
more
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-didn-t-think-ttip-could-get-any-scarier-but-then-i-spoke-to-the-eu-official-in-charge-of-it-a6690591.html
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to bottle and sell to back to us. 
That good old American Exceptionalism! 
So Sweden is just a short (2 hours) flight or a long train ride away. Now that they completed the bridge from Denmark to Sweden, you don't even need to take a ferry any more. Although visually stunning, Stockholm is by far not the most fun city in Scandinavia. That honor goes to København ("Copenhagen"
. Danish is almost the same language as Swedish, but pronounced completely differently. Just take Swedish, put mashed potatoes in your throat and speak at double speed. Danish is what comes out.
Also, bring a lot of money. Scandinavia is EXPENSIVE, and Norway, in particular, is insanely expensive.
Here is what the protest in Berlin looked like this weekend. These people are about to be skinned for the benefit of capital interests and they know it.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/10/hundreds-thousands-march-berlin-against-ttip-trade-deal
"Who cares what you think?". 
