Policies
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.”
As negotiations continue, WikiLeaks has published leaked chapters of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership — a global trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy, but details have been concealed from the public. A recently disclosed “Investment Chapter” highlights the intent of U.S.-led negotiators to create a tribunal where corporations can sue governments if their laws interfere with a company’s claimed future profits. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warns the plan could chill the adoption of health and environmental regulations.
In the wake of their green roof and traffic reduction plans, the National Assembly of France made a unanimous vote to legally ban supermarkets from wasting unsold food, instead requiring them to donate for human consumption or animal feed.
The result of Ireland’s referendum on same-sex marriage is official: an overwhelming “yes”. Ireland thus becomes the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage by popular vote.
More than 250 tech companies and digital rights organizations on Wednesday sent a joint letter to Congress, blasting the corporate-backed TPP trade deal they say “actively silences the voices of Internet users, start-ups, and small tech companies…while undermining the health of the entire Web.”
Nebraska lawmakers gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill abolishing the death penalty with enough votes to override a promised veto from Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts. The vote was 32 to 15 in Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature.
In October 2011, when the Occupy movement arrived in Houston, protesters were subject to local and federal surveillance, infiltration by police provocateurs, and police assault. Months later, Dave Lindorff reported for WhoWhatWhy, a document obtained in December 2012 from the Houston FBI office shows that the agency was aware of a plot to assassinate Occupy movement leaders—and did nothing about it.
“’In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations’…What began in Ferguson continued in Baltimore, as some of the same actors and strategies in Ferguson were bussed to Baltimore. See Brandon Turbeville, Activist Post, “Baltimore riots: A product of the Soros Machine”, April 30, 2015, https://intellihub.com/baltimore-riots-a-product-of-the-soros-machine/ and those in Baltimore lasted for several days. In both cities, similar damage was done…In light of all of these concerns, we can level the blame and liability on the head of Mr. Soros.
Members of Congress are scuttling around like weasels, claiming they can’t disclose what’s in the far-reaching, 12-nation TPP trade treaty. They can go into a sealed room and read a draft, but they can’t copy pages, and they can’t tell the public what they just read. Why not?
Though the overwhelming and bipartisan passage of the USA Freedom Act in the House of Representatives on Wednesday portends the end of the NSA’s mass collection of Americans’ private telephone records, civil liberties groups found little else to celebrate as the ultimate passage of the bill, which now heads to the Senate, would re-authorize a number of worrisome programs by extending the life of the controversial Patriot Act.
In a very creative and off-beat campaign, one organization is trying to bring home how violative, of our privacy and peace of mind, is the unbridled and more and more “legal” right of our government to spy on us. 14 years of the Patriot Act has not made us safer as it was shown last year that it has not given us actionable information, yet it is still around. It is slated to expire in June of this year. The CISA Bill threatens to put another piece of legislation, worse than the Patriot Act in place.
Don’t feel bad if trade talk – treaties, exports & imports – makes your eyes glaze over. It’s understandable. Most likely, you’ve heard about this Trans Pacific Partnership, or TTP at least once a week. But you’re busy & probably haven’t really looked beneath the headlines. Even if you have, some of the authors don’t always do a great job breaking the nuts & bolts down for you. So, you leave frustrated that they don’t get to the point. This article seeks to tell this story in more plain language. Make no mistake this TPP story is big, full of intrigue, and needs heroes and heroines to stand up to the bad guys. You can be one of the many that are standing up. But time is short because the congress is being asked to shut down debate on this sucker and say yea or nay to it under a limited time crunch to read & understand what’ll probably be over a 1000 pages & then figure out if it is right for America.
Sources reported Tuesday afternoon that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), will officially launch a bid for the White House—as a Democrat—on Thursday.
Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks, according to Vermont Public Radio.
As you may have heard, the Fast Track Bill was introduced last week. It may come up for a vote anytime next week. This would mean that the Congress would surrender its right and obligation to debate a treaty before voting upon it. You have an opportunity to sign your company’s name on to a letter, being sent to our representatives, urging them not to vote for Fast TrackJust go to the following link: www.tradewatch.org or call Lacey Colmooth at 202-454-5134 and ask to have your company’s name added.
In its study of the nation’s top twenty-five think tanks, FAIR finds that all have received money from corporations, foundations, government, or major individual donors. In many cases, these donors not only get a tax deduction for their contributions, they also can influence the think tank’s formulation of policy.
