Greenpeace dumps TTIP documents that show USA arm-twisting the EU

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TTIP or TTP, both equal fucking over Main Street USA, and points unknown.

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…was going to ask, where can I buy an inflatable trojan horse but:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Best-plato-0-55mmPVC-inflatable-Trojan_60200426626.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.46.ErEsDg

Now I want to know where one gets a wood pattern inflatable trojan horse.

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I think we now have the other half of the explanation of why Boris Johnson decided to support the UK leaving the EU. Johnson is a TTIP supporter and was pro EU till it became clear that the EU negotiators were tired of being told that this wasn’t a negotiation but a US walkover. He must have been well informed of what was happening. Once he realised that TTIP might be dead with the EU he promptly wanted a UK exit - so the UK could sign up to TTIP (remember Johnson is a US citizen and part Turkish - his loyalty to the UK is questionable to say the least, his loyalty to his own financial interests and backers is strong.)

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When Obama visited the UK he picked a potential UK/US trade treaty as topic, probably not exactly according to Johnson’s wishes.

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Correct. That was after Johnson’s announcement. And what did he do? He angrily denounced Obama and claimed that because he was part-Kenyan, he was anti-British. (If he hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have brought up his Turkish ancestry).
Johnson’s father is a thoroughly decent man, a historian, and pro EU. He really shouldn’t have sent his kids to that crappy school near Slough.

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Actually, TTIP is about forcing the EU to adopt the very weak consumer and environmental protection of the US, and allowing US corporations to sue European governments if they try to regulate their activities. It’s designed to wipe out European SMEs.

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No shit, it’s just another trade agreement made by NeoLiberals.

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Not the first leak, but a very important one: It shows the contrast of the negotiation positions of both parties. The EU position is well known since a year or so.

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These “trade deals” are grotesque. We should send the politicians a clear message of what we think of anyone involved in them.

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Corporations cannot rest until everything, every bit, is under private ownership, preferably theirs.

If Europe banks out of the toxic treaty, perhaps Canada won’t get sold down the river…

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Interestingly (to me at least) my friends who spend what seems to be all their waking hours not at work campaigning on this issue seem to feel it is dead in the water. With no sense of triumph.

Time to move on to the next whack-a-mole manifestation of the hydra-headed neoliberal executive technocratic usurpation of democracy.

Because even if this is defeated, nothing in it is going away.

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Nice! But the announcement is a bit lacking in facts. The leaked documents say bad stuff. TTIP is badly bad, with a side order of bad’n’worse, and a badness-n-tonic chaser. Yeah, we get it. I know it was going to override a lot of consumer protection and health regulation, and fair trade laws. This is generally is the good part of being in Europe, because these are the laws which we would not draft as individual nations.

Is the important bit that it says all the things we have been told, but In Their Own Writing With Sigantures? That’s even jucier. If it says who signed what, then we can load them on the tumbrils. But it would be nicer if the article told us. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s party, when things are going well, or nuffin’; but I would like a few facts before getting the balloons and streamers out.

I had a quick search and there are parts of the treaty itself (a hard read) but no bullet point summary from an independent source.

Eternal vigilance…

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I’m surprised those EU negotiators didn’t give into the pressure until now. When Big Brother USA comes knocking the customary bootlickers in the EU (UK, Poland) are usually the first to keel over and sabotage the EU position from within.

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The Poles seem to have forgotten the US response when they were really in trouble; “Roosevelt gets on with Stalin, everything will be OK.”
Well, that or they pay far too much attention to people like Applebaum.
For the UK, we have no excuses.

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The Poles seem to be going through a nationalist phase right now. Maybe you approve?

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/05/03/poland-vs-history-museum-gdansk/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Didion%20California&utm_content=NYR%20Didion%20California+CID_971bb5f3e315687e7e3154ac1d117c1e&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=Poland%20vs%20History

I wrote, and I thought that would have made my meaning plain
“Well, that or they pay far too much attention to people like Applebaum”

I can kind of understand Polish nationalism, but that doesn’t mean I approve of it. In the UK we have no excuses; we haven’t spent a couple of hundred years being a military training ground for our neighbours. When you’ve been invaded as often as the Poles have, wanting to chummy up to the US - which isn’t likely to invade you, just change your government - might be seen as an understandable position. Despite how badly it is working out for Ukraine.

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