Politics
Nothing would prevent the Congress from voting the TPP down, especially and because the contents of the Treaty are secret. The public isn’t informed of the details. Any US legislator with a trace of courage would do just that—vote it down.
The legislators themselves have been allowed to enter a sealed room and read some of the content. But there is no guarantee that what they’re reading is in the final draft of the Treaty. The legislators may takes notes in the sealed room, but they can’t keep their notes. They can’t make copies. They can’t discuss what they’ve read with the press or the public.
Again, on that basis alone, any legislator with a shred of honor would vote no on the Treaty. And no on secrecy.
If a member of Congress did break omertà and reveal to the public what he read in the sealed room, he would be violating Executive Branch regulations on classified data (“national security”), and he could be arrested.
Well, that is exactly what a Senator or Representative who, with courage and honor, opposes the TPP, should welcome. An arrest? He should celebrate it.
The Greek PM has announced a national referendum on July 5 on the conditions of the debt deal with international creditors. It’s up to the Greek people, Tsipras said, to make a fateful decision on the country’s sovereignty, independence and future. “These proposals, which clearly violate the European rules and the basic rights to work, equality and dignity show that the purpose of some of the partners and institutions was not a viable agreement for all parties, but possibly the humiliation of an entire people,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address to the nation, as cited by Reuters.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras launched a scathing attack on the International Monetary Fund for rejecting Greek reform proposals ahead of talks in Brussels Wednesday, denting hopes of a final debt deal to prevent Athens from defaulting and leaving the euro. The leftist leader hit out at the “strange position” just minutes before going into an eleventh-hour meeting with key lenders including Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, and the European Union.
As Congressional Democrats on Wednesday took a sharp U-turn from their previous opposition to President Barack Obama’s corporate-friendly trade agenda, presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) reiterated his disdain for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and demanded that the era of “corporate greed must end.”
In a win for multinational corporations and the global one percent, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly advanced Fast Track, or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) —ensuring for all practical purposes the continued rubber-stamping of clandestine trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Over the last three months there have been dozens of suspicious sightings of military and UN equipment being moved throughout the country coupled with numerous realistic military training exercises with a sharp domestic focus. This is all happening in the lead up to Jade Helm 2015 which has sparked a plethora of theories and strong opinions on what is actually happening.
Several new polls from the early battleground state of New Hampshire indicate that the progressive message of Sen. Bernie Sanders—who has been busy talking about the troubling supremacy of Wall Street banks, vast economic inequality, the crisis of money in politics, and the imperative to address the climate crisis—is resonating with prospective voters in the early battleground state as he rapidly closes the gap with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
I want to use an analogy to demonstrate what I think is happening with our U.S. Congress and the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The Fast Track and TPP are like having trash put on a plate and served to you as dinner. You look at it and know instantly that it is nothing that you would ever want to eat, but the president and many Republican legislators tell you that it is going to be good for you and that the U.S. and 11 other countries have been working on perfecting this recipe for nearly a decade. Many of the Democratic legislators agree that there are problems with this recipe. Yet the president believes that he can convince them to vote in favor of this being something that all U.S. Citizens, and those of the other 11 nations, will be forced to swallow.
Karen Hudes worked in the World Bank legal department for more than 20 years and held the position of Senior Counsel. She was fired for blowing the whistle on corruption inside the World Bank. Ms. Hudes knows exactly what the global elite are after — total control. They are jockeying financial institutions and transnational corporations into position to dominate the planet.
Congress should not grant President Barack Obama authority to conclude another free trade agreement in Asia, because it would lower American wages and exacerbate income inequality. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would eliminate tariffs and lower other regulatory barriers to trade and investment among the United States, South Korea, Japan and nine other Pacific Rim nations.If successful, China, India and several other nations could seek membership. Hence, the TPP has the potential to redefine the rules for international commerce in the most rapidly growing region of the international economy, but President Obama has given ordinary workers good reason to believe he is not looking out for them.
Alex Jones, a powerful alternative media voice, has been consistent in his efforts to unearth the truth about the secretive Bilderburg Group & their secretive meetings every year, which take place in different countries each year in some of the most palatial accommodations in the world. This year, it takes place in Austria, from June 8-15, 2015. Famous people, powerful people, most of the so-called “movers and shakers” are their & have been since it started convening these meetings in the 1950’s. The meetings are in secret & under heavy security.
TWO years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States. In the days that followed, those journalists and others published documents revealing that democratic governments had been monitoring the private activities of ordinary citizens who had done nothing wrong.
“This is not about Bernie Sanders,” the candidate said to the room filled beyond capacity. “You can have the best president in the history of the world but that person will not be able to address the problems that we face unless there is a mass movement, a political revolution in this country. Right now the only pieces of legislation that get to the floor of the House and Senate are sanctioned by big money, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical companies. The only way we win and transform America is when millions of people stand up as you’re doing today and say. ‘Enough is enough. This country belongs to all of us and not a handful of billionaires.'”
New poll finds people across the political spectrum think the one percent has too much influence over politics and want system overhaul
The media outlet Wikileaks on Tuesday announced a campaign to raise a $100,000 cash reward for the complete text of the agreement in order to end the mystery surrounding the actual contents of the deal that involves the U.S. and eleven Pacific Rim nations.
“The transparency clock has run out on the TPP,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “No more secrecy. No more excuses. Let’s open the TPP once and for all.”
