***** CREDO/ ACTION: The Democratic Party Platform must include unequivocal opposition to the TPP ... (petition)
***** CREDO/ ACTION: Tell House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: No lame- duck vote on TPP ... (petition)
Thomas Hudson Pickering/ Ranch Chimp
This posting will be Part 7 of the "American Trade" series for this journal/ blog, to look at why it's importante to not let TPP slip us during this busy election year ... I also want to Thank Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for inspiring this posting. Yesterday I caught some of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren's speech in Cincinnati ... it was a great speech and of course Warren really energized the crowd as well, but the news this morning only focused on Elizabeth calling Donald Trump names, and of course Trump tweeting and talking insults back in response ... I mean, CNN news this morning was saturated with this, and it's nothing but pointless and stupid badmouthing, that does nothing but burn too much importante mainstream media time. It's sad as it is, that Trump already probably got tens of millions of dollars in free political campaign advertising, from doing nothing but making some tweets and public statements, he simply can make a tweet when he wakes up in the morning, that gets peoples panties in a bind, whether its about women, immigrants or whatever, the minute he sayz anything that can be tossed into race, sex or related, major news networx will have entire full panels of political experts set up, spending hours to analyze what he said and what he means ... when you should just go to Trump, I dont think he would have any problemo telling you what he means in a New York minute, it just shows you how stupid the big money thinx we are. Also expect Trump to go after Clinton on trade, which is another positive, because it will push these trade deals more into the open, forcing it to be a lead issue, if Bernie Sanders didnt push TPP and trade so hard, you can bet Clinton would have never brought it up ... I mean, NAFTA for instance was Bill Clinton's prize package as President. But there was good news yesterday that the Supreme Court struck down the Texas denial to women for abortion access (CNN), I figured they would rule this way though, so it didnt surprise me ... again let me point out, that when it comes to a woman's right to choose or same- sex marriage and some related social issues, the big money which has influence over our courts and government are not going to buck it when their backs are to the wall on these type issues, the whole reason why the big money creates issues like these and spend years through politics, propaganda groups, and their religious institutions to deny simple rights, is to use as leverage against us, and a bargaining chip to screw you out of something bigger ... understand, that the big money influence could care less about you, your love/ sex life, or what a woman chooses for her body, or if a person wanted to even marry their cat, dog or horse, they care about money, control and power only ... nothing else. The other big news this morning was about the Republicans releasing their pointless report on Benghazi and Hillary Clinton, her emails, failure, etc, which is pointless unless there is an indictment ... and of course the Democrats and their pointless response, that they will release, which is all pointless, because it will do nothing, but waste more mainstream media time. The point on this for instance, if I were Clinton's legal counsel, I would not respond, except tell them Republicans, to bring charges or shut the Hell up, or I'll bring a case for defamation on you ... but, I guess it's all show business, eh?
The thing that caught my atencion yesterday in the Clinton/ Warren speech, was when Hillary Clinton said absolutely "NO" to TPP with such confidence ... I was a little surprised actually, and especially on her complete turn around, pointing out real progressive demands and change, no clever wording, no sugar- coating, etc, which is absolutely great if she is sincere about it ... yesterday she sounded more progressive than Bernie Sanders, and as if she rehearsed his speech! {:-) I was surprised, because not long ago, Clinton was equally confident, calling the TPP the 'gold standard' of trade, then at the end of last year she started to say that it needed to be looked at, perhaps modified or whatever ... yesterday she just said "no" to it. Which made me assume the reason why, is because she is banking on it being slipped through in the lame duck session of Congress at the end of this year, of course after elections ... at the end of last year (2015), President Obama was already anticipating that it may have to go that route of the lame duck session, if it does not go through in the first half of 2016. This way ... if it went through on the lame duck, it's done at the end of the year, and would have no negative or positive repercussions on the next President or Congress, it can all be blamed on the previous house and administration, and the outgoing President (Obama) wouldnt care ... he just wants to push it through, he's out next year, or any of the other politicians that are pushing it through. But it seems like these lame duck sessions are notorious for passing through legislation that most folks dont want ... it's a time when corporate/ banking lobbyists and their pocket puppet politicians I guess, can run amuck on the house. But yes, I suspect that they are going to sneak this in on us as an outgoing Christmas present this end of year holiday season ... as long as oligarch controlled corporations and banks are running Washington alone, they are going to screw us every time, bank on it. But there is a growing opposition to this, and this is one where I'm happy to see some Republicans using their obstructionism on Obama, some actually trying to cancel a lame duck session, which they say is unprecedented, but NOT illegal, I'm with them on that too, and this is something that many folks left and right can mutually buck and agree on. I also look at "Brexit" as a positive the other day, what I mean is that Great Britain is big money as far as the EU, it add's some obstacles for TTIP ... I mean, we cant just say ... "ohhh well ... no biggie", heh, heh, heh, heh, heh {:-) ... anything to disrupt these corporatists/ oligarchs plans is a positive {:-) Also again, the talk you hear about we should be afraid of China is simply a corporate fear card the way I see it ... I see no reason to worry about China (but I would never totally trust the Chinese government when it comes to trying to run a global monopoly for themselves, and their push to gain more strength and territory in Asia), but plenty of reason to have concern about the corporatists running our country, remember, it was decades of our legislators working with China that put our trade and economics with China where it is today ... all China done was take advantage of an opportunity we handed to them, they are NOT our enemy ... I mean, we went to them decades ago, they didnt come to us. The ones who REALLY need to fear China are only the corporatists/ oligarchs, that's why these trade deals are created to make a huge corporate western trade/ economic block, to have more leverage on pushing China to meet the oligarchs goals/ demands, since China has more control over their capital/ business/ assets than us for example, and China and their Russian neighbours are finding some common interests too (Sky News) ... China is setting up their own Asian trade circle, so basically what we see, is a trade, economics, territorial and military occupation dominance battle between the east and west.
But back to the trade deal ... a trade deal should able to be made with simply a hundred pages or so, you should not need 5000/ 6000 bloody damn pages oversaturated with of all kinds of special corporate privileges, nor should it only be made/ drafted by the largest corporate/ banking entities of the globe and their cherry- picked pre- paid pocket politicians. Politicians alwayz tell us, like the Presidents/ leaders for instance, that this is about reducing taxes for mom and pop's bakery, or the entrepreneur in whatever country that has a start up unique product/ business ... nothing is for free in this society of today, when they give us a little tax break or other incentive, it's no different than some mega corporate/ banking commercial telling you that they will give you something for nothing, and locking you in to some lengthy commitment, these deals are not to benefit the small business/ company, as much as it's to benefit those at the top, and history shows that when you let these people draft all these deals, we all lose in the long run. If any of these deals were to benefit us, they would have our input in drafting them up, not doing it in secret and keeping it secret. Sure there are plenty of problems when it comes to labeling products, the environment as well as monopolization and price manipulation through certain industries ... it is true as pointed out below in the "New American" link, that if the salesmen who sold us NAFTA would be rightfully held accountable, they would be criminally charged with misrepresentation, fraud and deception, like anyone of us who sold a bad product ... they werent, and that is why we need to fight back so hard against this. The talk about this is the "new thing" to bring us all together globally is more nonsense, we are already interacting, networking and moving about the globe more than ever in human history, we dont need a sham like this to bring us together ... which decreases choice and competition that is healthy in any business, but puts us all in a competitive race to the bottom. When the lame duck session comes at the end of this year, you can bet that they will be watched on Capitalism Hill more than a fox watching a hen house, and it will be challenged heavily ... another plus even if it went through, is you still have that 2 year "ratification period", so it's importante to stay on their asses. Again I want to point out, how not only the lack of many consumer and environmental protections and needed regulations/ oversight ... but the ISDS (Investor- State Dispute Settlement) is what really can set us back financially big time, and have us in years of lengthy litigations once the doors are fully opened, it can end up like a tsunami of frivolous lawsuits on us and our countries, which has been limited so far, but opening these larger trade packages with so many countries involved, makes it more complex and getting ourselves deeper into a hole. This is why I included a video below with Melinda St.Louis of "Public Citizen", to try to simplify in common language what this consists of, and the danger of how many corporations can use so many new countries trade deals to drain us of billions of dollars if we decline their products/ deals, Melinda been at this a long time ... so give her a listen. Then I added also 3 link reads below, one from PBS pointing out the positives of TPP, but ignoring the negatives of it, which is why so many like the President is gung- ho to pass it ... again, trade is a good thing, but total mega- corporate control alwayz brings trouble.
Word Out ....
***** NPR: Elizabeth Warren Gives Hillary Clinton Her Full Endorsement While Attacking Donald Trump ... (newsread)
***** NEW AMERICAN: Movement to Stop TPP by Canceling Lame Duck ... (independent/ newsread)
***** PBS/ NEWSHOUR: Column: Why the Trans- Pacific Partnership isn't a bum deal ... (newread)
The Deeper, Uglier Side of TPP ... Thanx to THE REAL NEWS
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***** PD/ RCJ: "AMERICAN TRADE" PART'S 6 THRU 1
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** RCJ/ THOMAS PICKERING: GOOGLE+ (video posts)
***** THE RESISTANCE/ PERIL'S OF THE POWER POSSE (inspiration for hope & change) ... to be viewed as a "profit- see", not a "prophecy".
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