TPP

Hypotheticals On The TPP

May 17, 2015 BadBoyScientist, www.dailykos.com Resist! Democracy, Sovereignty, TPP, Trade

This isn't as much a diary as a few questions to start a discussion. Supposing the TPP gets rammed through and American states, counties and cities lose some of their autonomy to the 'Star Chamber' of multinationals. I suspect they won't like it - and their constituents won't like it. 0) Can state and local governments practice 'civil disobedience' to protest an unjust law? 1) Could a state use this as a basis to secede from the United States since it will be placing the State under 'foreign rule' with no way to petition this 'shadow gov't'? 2) Could a city or state just ignore the ruling of this 'court'? I mean, how much power does that court have? Who enforces it? What could they do if a state said "Try to stop us from prohibiting the sale of those products and good luck collecting your settlement from us."

Newsletter – Overcome Fear With Love

May 16, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter BXE, Chile, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Economic inequality, fast track, FERC, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Greece, Homelessness, Human Rights, Inequality, Injustice, Living Wage, Obama, Police violence, Racism, TPP, United Kingdom (UK), Urban decay, Walmart, Water, World Economic Forum

Instead of taking action to prevent or mitigate the next crisis, politicians are causing more harm as they work hand in hand with the wealthy elites who are trying to grab even greater power and extract even greater riches. Maryland's governor was quick to bring in the National Guard and militarized police, but just cut Baltimore education funding by $11.6 million to fund pensions, while last week the state approved funding for a youth jail the people in Baltimore don't want. This article provides five key facts about Baltimore and a graphic that shows how the United States built its wealth on slavery, Jim Crow and racially-based economic injustice and kept African Americans from benefiting the economy. Also, as a special addition to recognize BB King, he sings "Why I Sing the Blues" describing the history of African Americans from slavery until today.

Why Is President Obama Having So Much Trouble Selling TPP?

May 15, 2015 Stan Sorscher, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Free Trade, Human Rights, Obama, TPP

Barack Obama is cool and personable -- no-drama Obama. Then suddenly, he scolds critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, his NAFTA-style trade deal. He accuses them of being "wrong," unable to look at the facts, fighting the last war, confusing this new improved trade deal with NAFTA, if they don't want TPP they must want nothing at all ... and they definitely are not invited to his next birthday party. Of course, the critics are right, they are looking straight at the facts, the critics know exactly what a good trade policy would look like, and it's nothing like NAFTA or TPP. ..... and deep down, everyone wants to be invited to his next birthday party. So what's wrong with TPP?

Hillary Ducks TPP Protesters In Beverly Hills

May 15, 2015 Lauren Steiner, www.laprogressive.com Resist! Free Trade, Politics, TPP

On Thursday, around 50 people attended a press conference and rally to tell Hillary Clinton to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with 12 countries consisting of 40% of the world’s trade. The TPP fast track bill has been scheduled for a vote in the Senate this coming Tuesday. The protesters urged Clinton to come out against the TPP, the trade agreement she touted while she was Secretary of State, calling it “the gold standard in trade agreements.” However, after waiting an hour past the start time for Hillary to show up, the protesters realized that she had taken a five-mile detour to another entrance to the gated community where her fundraiser was held just to avoid being dogged by protesters.

You Can’t Read The TPP, But These Huge Corporations Can

May 14, 2015 Alleen Brown, www.firstlook.org Educate! Capitalism, Congress, Free Trade, Law, TPP

The Senate today is holding a key procedural vote that would allow the Trans-Pacific Partnership to be “fast-tracked.” So who can read the text of the TPP? Not you, it’s classified. Even members of Congress can only look at it one section at a time in the Capitol’s basement, without most of their staff or the ability to keep notes. But there’s an exception: if you’re part of one of 28 U.S. government-appointed trade advisory committees providing advice to the U.S. negotiators. The committees with the most access to what’s going on in the negotiations are 16 “Industry Trade Advisory Committees,” whose members include AT&T, General Electric, Apple, Dow Chemical, Nike, Walmart and the American Petroleum Institute.

Obama Hurls Insults At Democrats And Democratic Base

May 14, 2015 Brent Budowsky, www.observer.com Educate! Law, Obama, Progressive, TPP, Trade

In Mr. Obama’s speech at Nike last week, his comments to Matt Bai of Yahoo over the weekend, and White House press secretary Josh Earnest’s comments to reporters on Monday, Mr. Obama and his White House staff have repeated a string of personal insults directed against prominent liberal Democrats in Congress, liberal Democrats across the nation, organized labor, and leading public interest and environmental groups who share doubts about the TPP trade deal. Mr. Obama’s tirades on trade have included accusations that these liberal Democrats are ignorant about trade policy, insincere when offering their opinions, motivated by politics and not the national interest, and backward looking towards the past. Obama’s repeated attacks against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in which he charged that Warren’s concern about the trade bill is motivated not by a reasoned view of what is right for America but by her personal political motivations, is one of the most dishonest and repellant examples of character assassination and contempt by any American president.

Washington Post Calls Senators Names If They Oppose TPP

May 14, 2015 CEPR, www.cepr.net Educate! Congress, Journalism, Media, TPP, Trade

Everyone knows that the Washington Post supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but does it really have to resort to name calling in its news pages to refer to people who disagree with its position? That's what readers of its front page piece on the Senate vote to block the discussion of a bill authorizing a fast-track are wondering. The piece referred to Senator Sherrod Brown and other staunch opponents of TPP in its current form as "anti-trade hard-liners." Of course Senator Brown and his allies are not opponents of trade, they do not advocate autarky. The correct way to refer to these people would have been "anti-TPP." Given the concern of newspapers over space, in addition to being more accurate, this also would have saved the paper two letters.

Senate To Move Forward With Debate On Fast Track

May 13, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! fast track, TAFTA, TPP, TTIP

After yesterday's stinging defeat, the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate along with President Obama have reached an agreement to move forward with a debate on fast track trade authority. The Hill reports that "Under the agreement, senators will vote on two controversial bills favored by Democrats before moving to a wide-open debate on granting Obama fast-track authority to negotiate future trade deals." The Senate will vote at noon on a customs enforcement bill that includes currency manipulation language and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides duty-free access for sub-Saharan African countries to sell many goods in the United States. These votes will be stand alone bills rather than combined with the fast track bill. At 2:00 the Senate will begin argument on whether to proceed to a full debate of fast track trade authority combined with trade adjustment assistance (TAA) a program to help US workers who lose their jobs because of the trade agreement. House leaders say they will consider fast track after the Senate passes the bill. Everyone agrees that they currently do not have majority support for fast track in the House. The movement's primary responsibility is to keep and build that majority opposing fast track in the House.

Senate Deals Stinging Defeat To Obama Trade Agenda

May 12, 2015 Alexander Bolton, www.thehill.com Resist! fast track, Free Trade Agreements, TPP

There was a major victory for the movement against the Trans Pacific Partnership and other rigged corporate trade agreements today in the US Senate. Advocates for fast track trade authority fell well short of the votes needed to move to debate fast track on the senate floor. This victory is the result of well-coordinated work by the broad movement against fast track. Across the board each part of the movement of movements did its job. The movement has always seen the senate as the weaker of the two chambers so any victory, even a procedural one like this, shows the effectiveness of all of our work. Rather than President Obama and the pro-free trade congressional advocates gaining momentum they suffered a defeat that will make it even more difficult to win future votes, especially in the US House of Representatives. Our work is not finished, we need to build on this victory and finish the task. Congratulations to everyone who participated.

Stopping The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is A ‘Black Issue’

May 12, 2015 Ajamu Baraka, www.popularresistance.org Educate! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), fast track, TPP, Trade

USA - The Neoliberal assault on U.S. workers continues – this time with a slick move on the part of the 1% to sneak by the people a noxious trade bill called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP. The TPP is just one of measures the elite hopes to conclude using Barack Obama - their most effective weapon since Ronald Reagan for convincing the middle-class and working people to support policies that are objectively against their interests. Like the North American Free-trade Agreement ( NAFTA) concluded under Bill Clinton that promised jobs, balanced economic growth and prosperity but instead created economic devastation in the agricultural sector of Mexico and the loss of jobs in the U.S., the TPP promises more of the same but on a grander scale.

Obama Protested As He Pushes TPP At Nike

May 11, 2015 Luke Hammill, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Free Trade, Obama, Portland, Protest, TPP

Chants of "TPP – just don't do it" and "Corporate greed has got to go" rang through the air outside Nike headquarters in Beaverton on Friday morning, as President Obama prepared to push the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership inside. More than 50 protesters from groups such as the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and unions such as Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757lined Murray Boulevard with signs and loudspeakers, urging Congress not to give Obama "fast-track" authority to submit the trade pact to lawmakers for an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed. The TPP has divided Oregon's Democratic congressional delegation. Sen. Ron Wyden and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader support the deal. But Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Peter Defazio oppose it.

First Senate Vote On Fast Track For TPP On Tuesday

May 10, 2015 Resist! fast track, TPP

It is time to flood the senate with phone calls before the first vote on fast track (trade promotion authority) that would allow the president to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other harmful rigged corporate agreements into law before Congress or the people see them. We have an excellent chance of stopping fast track and we must stop it, but to do so, people need to call their senators and tell everyone they know to do the same. (Call your senators, tell them “no” on fast track 202-224-3121). We can stop fast track and the TPP. We must do so to save jobs, protect our wages, food safety, internet freedom, right to protect our communities and more. In fact, the trade journal, Inside Trade, is predicting that it is “unlikely that congressional leaders will meet their goal of having Congress pass a Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill before it recesses on May 22 . . .” They report that some in the House are saying, it may not be until mid-June for the House to consider it. We are asking you to flood the senate with phone calls! Go to www.StopFastTrack.com for an easy tool that helps you reach your senators.

Portland Police Arrest Man Locked To Barrel In TPP Protest

May 10, 2015 Stuart Tomlinson, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Climate Change, climate crisis, Oregon, TPP

Portland police arrested a man who locked himself to a concrete barrel at a Northwest Portland fuel terminal Friday morning. He was protesting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the export of fossil fuels. Tim Oscar Norgren, 41, of Stevenson, Washington, a member of Teamsters Local 320, locked himself to the barrel on railroad tracks outside the Arc Logistics Partners' terminal at 5044 N.W. Front Ave. on Thursday. Police arrived to remove him at around 9:30 a.m. A spokesman for the Portland Rising Tide said Norgren timed his protest to coincide with President Obama's visit to Oregon. Portland Rising Tide was formed, according to its website, to "promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis" by direct action. At the same time as Norgren was being removed by Portland police, more than 50 protesters from groups such as the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and unions like Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 gathered outside the Nike World Headquarters campus in Washington County, where Obama was speaking. "I'm locked down today in part because climate change is an issue of survival inextricably linked to so-called 'free trade' globalization efforts like the TPP," Norgren.

Newsletter – We Have A Duty To Fight For Our Freedom

May 9, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Barack Obama, Cove Point, fast track, FERC, FERCus, Fracking, Gas, Human Rights, killed by police, Militarization, police brutality, Police violence, TPP

Chelsea Manning writes this week about the lack of transparency and declining press freedom in the United States. Transparency and press freedom are fundamental to democracy. Manning also connects these issues to our right to criticize our government without fear. Assata Shakur, who is currently living in exile in Cuba, says something we've been hearing a lot lately: "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Trans-Pacific Partnership Suggests Obama Has No Sense Of Irony

May 9, 2015 Evan Greer, www.theguardian.com Educate! Free Trade, Internet, Obama, TPP

Last week, the president, who claims he’s running the most transparent administration in history, went on the record saying there’s nothing secretin the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as he asked Congress for special authority to “fast track” the agreement. Today, President Obama will give another speech defending the TPP from critics who say the deal is a corporate power grab. The TPP is a massive, legally binding, agreement involving 12 countries that has been negotiated entirely behind closed doors by government officials and industry lobbyists. The text of the TPP agreement is classified.

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