Full Text of TPP Shows it's A Bad Deal For All.
By Thom Hartmann A...
We've known for decades that free trade agreements are bad news for American workers. But, now that the full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership has been released, we know that this massive trade deal is a major threat to our environment as well.
This week, the full text of the TPP – aka SHAFTA – was finally released to the public. Unfortunately for our environment and our food supply, the final deal is even worse than we previously thought.
In the words of Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, “We now have concrete evidence that the Trans-Pacific Partnership threatens our families, our communities, and our environment.”
He added, “It's no surprise that the deal is rife with polluter giveaways that would undermine decades of environmental progress, threaten our climate, and fail to adequately protect wildlife because big polluters helped write the deal.”
And, after reviewing the details, the Sierra Club wasn't the only group that expressed their concern.
Wenonah Hauter of EcoWatch.com warned about the devastating effect on our right to know what's in our food. She said, “The language included in the TPP is more aggressive than previous trade deals and provides broad new powers for other countries and foreign corporations to challenge U.S. food safety and food labeling measures.”
In other words, GMO food producers can challenge our labeling laws if they predict that those laws will interfere even slightly with their prospective profits.
This massive trade agreement would be the largest in our global history, and it would harm our nation in ways we have never before seen.
Our lawmakers have already given up their right to negotiate or change what's in this disastrous deal, so the only option we have left is to demand that they reject the entire thing.
For the sake of our workers, our environment, and our food supply we better stop SHAFTA while we still have a chance.
Comments
#2
I'm just wondering, because Alan Grayson used the phrase, whether "the almighty dollar" was coined when "In God We Trust" was put on the currency.
#3
Great Show today, Thom...
We must stop the Treasonous Preparation for the Plummet. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now was excellent today. Lori Wallach covered it Brilliantly and also gave us info on where we can find tools to educate ourselves/others. Also in the subsequent segment she covers how the for-profit prison cos. are, get this, applying for child care licenses so they can continue to detain refugee children at the boarder… “the largest trend in family detention since the Japanese camps”
#4
Bernie Sanders should campaign on rejecting TPP!
#5
Re: Shafta
Note there are angry protests in many of the member countries, each having specific concerns, and all worried about loss of national sovereignty.
Yet this thing moves forward.
Like crime syndicates meeting for peace talks, multinationals are finding it profitable to meet and set up these trans national trade agreements.
"Nothing personal, just business."
ct
#6
Pepto-Bismol™
{a limerick}
The political news tends dismal;
‘bout SHAFTA it’s especially abysmal.
My tummy churns.
Diarrhea burns.
I need some Pepto-{Bismol}-Bismal™.
=============================
#7
Bernie Sanders does campaign on rejecting TPP but he could do more, this is a great opportunity for him to inject more vitality into his campaign. He is uniquely positioned to give high profile platform to the issue from the people's side and it would give his campaign new life and would galvanize America behind him.
Both he and Donald Trump are popular because they aren't afraid to say what Americans consider to be the plain truth. If he would make this trade deal a main part of his campaign he would really become what Ralph Nader calls "unstoppable" and go all the way.
#8
Eh. There's nothing we can do about it, anyway. Maybe huff and puff and send in another truckload of petitions (and don't forget to send those urgent donations...). Besides, liberals evident;ly support the TPP. After all, lib media have spent 2016 hard-selling Hillary Clinton, who had worked so long and hard promoting the TPP to Congress. And really, what's thre worst that could happen?
#9
Educate about what, specifically? America's "plummet" has nothing to do with immigrants or refugees, and it was started back in the 1980s. Are middle classers even aware of the degree to which the US has stripped impoverished Americans of their fundamental human and legal rights? Not likely. Middle class myopia has ruled ever since the Clinton administration. Note that we now have a prison system that makes the old Soviet gulag look puny in comparison. This is what the middle class demanded for years. Meanwhile, a steadily growing portion of our jobs are now being done by cheap prison labor. It''s cheaper for corporations than moving jobs to foreign countries, but it also requires a steadily-growing prison population.
#10
The TPP makes me sick.
It is so disheartening to be so deeply betrayed by our leaders who are supposed to represent us.
Obama who was really none other than fascism's trojan horse.
I can only wonder if the TPP doesn't have something to do with Heinz's decision to close it's Oscar Mayer business unit in Madison, WI a move that cost the area 100's of jobs.
#11
Don't take this as an anti-Hillary sentiment because if she gets the nomination, I will vote for her in the national election, but this article sums up pretty nicely Mrs. Clinton's role in getting the TPP written as well as fact-checking her own comments after the fact:
"Clinton Deserves Credit For Negotiating the TPP and Her Direct Involvement Made It What It Is"
#12
Tell Obama now NO TPP www.whitehouse.gov
Billionaires, Multi national Corps / Wall St Banks / Lobbyists run ( own ) the USA
Take our POWER back !!
#13
Bernie should take up TPP as his main issue and be very loud about it. A quixotic, third party campaign may not have much chance of wining but what it is he can and ought to do is conduct a public education campaign on the issues.
With the underhanded ways that Hillary is campaigning I will not vote for her if she is nominated. I couldn't hold my nose that tightly.
No way should anyone like her EVER be president. I may even vote for her opponent, especially if it's Trump.
#14
These agreements are scary. For example, Obama just declined The Keystone pipeline. Because he has no reason to do so other then political as it has passed all the environmental tests this is a direct violation of NAFTA. Any day now TransCanada will be launching a 2 billion dollar law suit that you the tax payer will be stuck with. Get your check book out.
#15
Is it possible that Obama is throwing himself on his sword by supporting the TPP, in order to get the republican congress to do their typical thing of voting against everything he proposes?
Hopefully Obama isn’t a full "Insider" and isn't as corrupt as he appears. Hopefully he’s doing the only thing he can in order to kill the TPP. I would agree that its heart wrenching to see him vote the opposite on other issues he campaigned For. Hopefully he knows (better than us) somehow and sees something that changes the necessary timing for our Progressive issues to actually pass… (maybe that would be a few more warm hearted humans in Congress)?
#16
I'm afraid that it is already a done deal and no one will vote against it - especially our president because he has been bought out. Time to pay up for favors done and now to go on to living the good life after he leaves office. IF (when?) he signs this monstrosity into law he officially becomes a TRAITOR TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
#17
Bernie has spoken over and over again against TPP and TiSA and how horrible it will be for our country but he is not taken seriously. I don't know know how much more he can do when no networks will air his speaches and give him so little air time. Hillary has the market with networks sewn up.
Right now Hillary is backtracking and revoking all she said before about what she did then but now wants to be Berniesque - it doesn't work, Hillary!! - but if she is elected she will revert so fast that we will all be spinning.
#18
Ah, I think Obama's vetoing the KYL was a token to the people making them think he is going to go big and do the same with TPP. Don't think so. Just a smokescreen. Don't believe that man behind the curtain.
#19
TPP NAFTA CITIZENS ALL HORRID FOR AMERICA
Tell Obama before its too late www.whitehouse.gov/contact
NO TPP 202 456 1111 M-F to 5 pm
#20
karksweet, I only wish that what you are saying is true and I do hope that Obama proves me totally wrong and DOES NOT sign TPP but I'm afraid that big money has already bought and paid for him and he has grown accustomed to the lifestyle and wants it to go on. It will for him and his ilk - but for the rest of us, we are screwed. Won't be a big thing for me since I'm at the end of my life but I do fear for my grown children, grand children and great grandchildren. Had I only had 20/20 hindsight don't know that I would have ever brought children into this world to have to live the upcoming master/slave relationsip TPP would bring about. Ask Australia and Japan about the WTO and how it has affected them. Don't believe in religion so can't say I pray it doesn't happen but I'll just email, call, write and hope beyond hope that it doesn't. Please, President Obama, prove me totally wrong!
#21
Wicked Sorcerers
{… a limerick …}
Like a wicked sorcerer’s magic,
the Right conjures spirits tragic
which {tragedy-like} trag-e-deely
make us queasy-{feeling}-feely,
as on an ocean of motions pelagic.
{“pelagic” = on the rolling waters of a roiling sea}
. . . .
http://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/vomit-cruise.jpg
=======================================
#22
whatever Obama's 'errors in judgement on TPP He has done much to bring us back from Bush Cheney 8 years 2008 Global crash - lossing 700 K jobs PER MONTH at end of Bush term- trying to CUT SS an earned benefit- womens right to chose which GOP hates - Ledbetter law- ACA which can become Medicare for ALL if we demand it- GOP policies- corp cuts- loopholes & subsides- 2 long failed wars based on fear tactics, lies and war profiteering - far right wing anti middle class pro wealth ( Citizens United ) Supreme court- We must NOT allow anymore far Right wing juidges who have and will kill off the middle class ! Their terms are for life Their harm will last many years Think about GOP policies- debt- corp cuts- corp loopholes- - anti birth control policies BEFORE YOU VOTE !!
#23
President Obama's dishonestly promoted (and UNCONSTITUTIONAL) TPP/TTIP/TiSA "trade agreement" initiatives will impoverish and/or KILL at least 200 million people worldwide (including at least half of the population of the United States) by authorizing multinational corporations and investors to sue (at US taxpayer expense) all three levels of our government for any law, regulation, or court decision made my our elected representatives in those governments that infrincges on the "future expected profits" of those corporations or investors. If passed, that would make President Obama the DEADLIEST MAN ON EARTH so far in this century!
History has clearly shown (especially in Latin American and African contries) that those multinational corporations don't really give a damn how many people they impoverish and/or kill in order to "maximize their profits!"
#24
I hope that the citizens of this country get loud about this trade agreement. Make our voice heard in every way we can. We don't want this hellacious agreement. Stop it, just like we did the key stone pipe line. Neither are needed by this country.
#25
At a time when all working class citizens should be in the streets rioting because of past free trade deals, our President, a "Democrat," is pushing for another. My theory: A while back Obama had a beer with Boehner at the clubhouse after playing golf, and that beer was laced with a right wing stupid pill....the Fascists will stop at nothing.
Any Democrat that supports the TPP needs to be run out of office...I'm truly flabbergasted by it all.
#26
Obviously we need "redirected consumerism" aka buy locally using organic markets..grow our own food and buy NOTHING to eat that is imported. As we speak the language of business and money is lost..those who engineered SHASTA will get the messahe.
Time for victory gardens.
#27
What a Hell has been Wrought
{re the TPP}
{… a limerick …}
What a Hell has been wrought; -
- even Worse than what we had thought.
Corporations have brought
a scheme we have fought
as equitable economics we’ve sought.
=============================
#28
Reply to #9: Branski, middle class "myopia" (as you call it) has existed since long before Clinton's presidency. Clinton simply boosted it along.
Reply to #10: Obama as "fascism's trojan horse..." brilliant analogy, tellio!
#29
The Primary Objective of Obama’s TPP/TTIP/TiSA dishonestly labeled “trade agreements!”
Proponents of President Obama's dishonestly promoted TPP/TTIP/TiSA "trade agreements" will dream up just about any argument that they believe will help to get those so-called "trade agreements" passed in Congress. Their primary goal is to AUTHORIZE multinational corporations and investors to sue all three levels of our government (and other country's governments) for the "loss of expected future profits" that they allege has resulted from laws, regulations, or court decisions made by those governments. Once they have been granted that authority (i.e. POWER), those multinational corporations and investors will be use multi-million dollar or billion-dollar lawsuits (adjudicated by corporately controlled international tribunals) to OVERRIDE ALL national judicial systems in order to abolish (or at least eviscerate) all laws, regulations, or court decisions that infringe on their efforts to "maximize their profits." This will include our social safety net programs (Social Security Program, Food Stamp Program, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, etc.), all of our laws to protect labor unions and worker's rights, all of our laws to protect our environment, all of our minimum wage laws, all of our worker safety laws, all of our food safety laws, all of our labeling laws, copyright laws, internet laws, etc. With that kind of power "under their belt", the rest of the provisions in Obama's dishonestly promoted TTP/TTIP/TiSA initiatives will become irrelevant (as will the US Constitution) for most practical purposes, because our laws to support our programs and objectives described above will no longer exist!
#30
So, what is wrong with Obum? He is behind and promoting TPP with all he's got. Change we can believe in alright. The change I'd like to see is TPP down the drain along with the idiot in the W.H. How does the guy sleep at night knowing so many of us dislike him. Cheering African dictators at the W.H. was enough for me. Maybe he will retire there, good riddance. Actually he'll try the paid speech approach to pad his bank account like ole Bill has done for the Clinton Foundation.
#31
Chris Currie, Your comment should be in every American paper for any, if there are any, people that might be in favor of the trade deals.
#32
I hope Thom sees this piece. I had it in my favorites and read it from time to time. The section on NAFTA is really telling:
The Clinton administration also have erred in its staunch support for NAFTA. Not only does the agreement put further downward pressure on U.S. wages, thereby increasing the income inequality at the heart of Country anger at government, but in aggressively pursuing passage of the agreement, the Clinton administration put itself in conflict with organized labor. By attacking one of the Democratic party’s most important constituencies, the administration succeeded in further weakening the Democratic coalition and exacerbating the party’s organizational decline. Also, the time and resources spent by the White House and labor lobbying for and against the agreement would have been better spent on measures of benefit to both groups, such as lobbying for health care reform, an overhaul of campaign finance, or upgrading the organizational capacity of the Democratic party.
http://academics.hamilton.edu/government/home/2002/faculty/pklinkne/94.htm
#33
Before launching her pre-campaign speaking tour, Hillary Clinton was working hard at promoting the TPP, a "natural" next step to Bill Clinton's NAFTA. The media marketed to middle class libs went all out throuigh 2015 to sell H. Clinton, even while railing against the TPP. This certainly is a bizarre era of contradictions.
#34
This is what liberal media have been promoting via their excessive promotion of (neoliberal) Hillary Clinton. Obviously, since liberals want Clinton, they must support the TPP. And since Democrats and liberals support the TPP, it would defy logic for President Obama to oppose it.
#35
Nope, I don't dislike President Obama. As a grown up, I didn't expect Obama to deliver rainbows and unicorns. I am grateful that he restored benefits for disabled workers, which Bill Clinton had slashed, though I regret that the Dems in Congress have resumed targeting disabled workers on Social Security. I am also aware that Obama was able to reverse years of steady job losses, so that the country has seen steady job gains. Obama actually did deliver most of what our liberal bourgeoisie demanded as well, but it hasn't stopped their whining.
#36
Tom today said: GMO food producers can challenge our labeling laws if they predict that those laws will interfere even slightly with their prospective profits.
I looked for this in the text but could not find it. Could someone send me the pertinent paragraph (ordal@uiuc.edu). Thanks.
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