Trans-Pacific Partnership: Under Cover of Darkness, a Corporate Coup Is Underway

[Fire Walk With Me]

http://www.alternet.org/story/156059/trans-pacific_partnership:_under_cover_of_darkness,_a_corporate_coup_is_underway
http://www.thenation.com/article/168627/nafta-steroids?rel=emailNation

With the direct participation of 600 corporations and shocking levels of secrecy, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is rushing to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Branded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate proponents, TPP largely has evaded public and congressional scrutiny since negotiations were launched in 2008 by the George W. Bush administration.

But trade is the least of it. Only two of TPP’s 26 chapters actually have to do with trade. The rest is about new enforceable corporate rights and privileges and constraints on government regulation. This includes new extensions of price-raising drug patent monopolies, corporate rights to attack government drug formulary pricing plans, safeguards to facilitate job offshoring and new corporate controls over natural resources.

Also included are severe limits on government regulation of financial services, zoning and land use, product and food safety, energy and other essential services, tobacco, and more. The copyright chapter poses many of the threats to Internet freedom of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was stalled in Congress under intense public pressure.

[Lifelong Protester]

1. I give it a K & R

I have been reading about it, and it ain't good.

I don't pretend to understand it all, but I know if it is done in secrecy and includes those restrictions on OUR government, it cannot be a positive thing.

More crap from China? Including food contaminated with lord knows what all?

[L0oniX]

2. This is not a movie!

[Fumesucker]

3. Damn Republicans, every time you turn your back they're up to some crap..

Somehow we must get word to Obama, if he knew what was really going on he would put a stop to it.

[bbgrunt]

4. lol

[Omaha Steve]

6. Obama knows and has been supporting it!

K&R btw.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002909634

http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/07/06/legislators-from-50-states-sign-letter-demanding-new-approach-to-tpp-negotiations-by-the-obama-admin/#1u

According to a press release from Maine Rep. Sharon Anglin Treat, a total of 130 legislators representing all 50 U.S. states have pledged to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (aka “NAFTA on steroids”) unless the Obama administration agrees “to change its approach.”

The press release reveals an “open letter from U.S. legislators” that urges the rejection of “investor-state dispute settlement” which is described as undermining U.S. law by elevating “individual companies to the status of signatory countries in allowing them to privately enforce the proposed agreement by suing signatory governments before foreign tribunals. ”

“The U.S. government should not be negotiating trade deals that undercut responsible state and federal laws enacted to protect public health and the environment, preserve the stability of our financial system, or make sure working conditions are safe and healthy,” said Maine State Representative Sharon Treat, who drafted the letter with Washington State Senator Maralyn Chase and circulated it among legislators nationally.

“The letter is a strong political statement to the U.S. government opposing negotiating away our sovereignty”, said Washington State Senator Maralyn Chase. “When legislators from all 50 states and Puerto Rico are united in their concern about U.S. trade officials undermining our nation’s founding principles of democracy, federalism and checks and balance, its time for the administration to change its approach.”

FULL story and letters at link.

[byeya]

10. I'd like to see US Senators promise to filibuster this abomination.

NAFTA = Clinton
TPP = Obama

It is very disheartening.

[Fumesucker]

13. Look at the bright side.. We'll have affordable health insurance while we work for a pittance..

A healthy serf is a productive serf..

[UnrepentantLiberal]

11. Ummm...

[pampango]

5. In Obama's own words - President Obama Speaks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

&feature=player_detailpage

[99th_Monkey]

9. Holy Shit! EPIC FAIL --> Obama on TPP

This is like Clinton and NAFTA on steroids.

[truedelphi]

15. AND at least, when pressed for them, the Clinton Admin released the

Full documentation that covered what NAFTA was all about. No one anywhere will release this piece of shit agreement that can allow our Chinese overlords to move to our country and have us working as serfs in their factories.

This has been HUSH, HUSH,HUSH, with only an occasional squeak of, "Well, who can you vote for -- no matter what I happen do to you fuckers in the middle class?? I know you guys don't want Romney!"

And I really really don't want Romney. All I want is a nice, zero energy Time Machine to take me and my friends back to 1977 and Jimmy Carter era.

[hay rick]

16. This is the bipartisanship that Mr. Obama holds so dear.

His support for TPP fits right in with his absence from Wisconsin.

K&R.

[99th_Monkey]

7. K&R This shit MUST be stopped in it's tracks.

How can our politicians call themselves "representatives" anymore, since
they only represent Mega-Corps, and not We The People.

Reprehensible Tools is more like it.

And btw, where is Obama on this? and why aren't Journalists on the left who
still care, like Amy Goodman, Thom Hartman, Rachael Maddow, et. al. raising
holy hell over this non-stop, and holding Obama's feet to the fire?

[Kaleko]

8. We've had a thread on the TPP here recently that garnered 190 recs so far.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002891345

But this theme bears repeating with the persistence of a toothache if you ask me.

[They_Live]

12. We must stop TPP

somehow. Must stop TPP. It's going to kill us all.

[alfredo]

14. Defund the corporate pigs.

[freshwest]

17. What darkness? There's no mystery here. Just another screw without a kiss.

The only people surprised are those who watch the lying media all day long and would never have a clue that anything is wrong. For them, as usual, the black guy did it.

As for those that do know up close what is going on, it's also not a secret. They're the ones lining up at the trough to get their cut as they always have.

[HiPointDem]

18. kr

[sabrina 1]

19. It is shameful, absolutely and utterly shameful, bordering on treason. To allow

foreign entities to control issues that affect this country, that is treasonous I don't care what anyone says.

I am having a hard time believing this, as no American worth anything could possibly go along with this, and yet, the evidence says they are.

Time to get a statement from our elected officials. The only one I know who has spoken publicly about this is Sen Ron Wyden. So often a lone voice in the US Senate against outrageous policies, such as Bush's torture program.

So what are we supposed to do about this? Every day it is something else, each time a slap in the face to the people of this country.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

25. Even Wyden seems to have backed off his origional stance and gone silent.

This is, as someone else said, a five-alarm fire.

We've seen the devastation from the other so-called "free trade" agreements. Yet where are the firemen? Where are the Senators and Members of Congress that are supposed to preserve this country?

[hay rick]

20. Kick for visibility. nt

[CrispyQ]

21. Global corporate rule, a global feudalistic society.

The artificial behemoths & their human minions win.

[fascisthunter]

22. welcome to fascism

[Romulox]

23. When Obama signs this thing, are we going to *pretend* like we do with Clinton/NAFTA?

*Pretend* that their signatures aren't the operative fact in enacting these laws? Pretend that the majority of these pacts weren't negotiated under the current admin, and not (just as they claimed with NAFTA!) by the previous President Bush?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

24. Bipartisanship

Here's the job-transferring free-trade agreements that have been signed so far:
1994 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

2001 - Jordan – United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Chile - United States Free Trade Agreement
2004 - Singapore – United States Free Trade Agreement
2005 - Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA; incl. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic)
2006 - Bahrain – United States Free Trade Agreement
2006 - Morocco - United States Free Trade Agreement
2006 - Oman – United States Free Trade Agreement
2007 - Peru – United States Trade Promotion Agreement

2011 - Panama - United States Trade Promotion Agreement
2011 - Colombia - United States Trade Promotion Agreement
2011 - Republic of Korea (South Korea) - United States Free Trade Agreement

And here's the bipartisan support for the pending wage-lowering, let's-send-more-jobs-to-foreign-countries "free-trade" agreement:

Trans-Pacific negotiations have been taking place throughout the Obama presidency. The deal is strongly supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the top lobbying group for American corporations. Obama's Republican opponent in the 2012 presidential elections, Mitt Romney, has urged the U.S. to finalize the deal as soon as possible.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html

If there is a better way to benefit wealthy stockholders and ruin what is left of the American middle-class, what is it?