How do you figure? If that were actually the case, then the bill wouldn’t need to be secret now. Especially since the TPP has been in what you claim as “initial negotiation” for YEARS.
There is no “initial negotiation” when everyone who the agreement applies to is kept from ever seeing it.
You accuse us of FUD, when there’s actually plenty to fear and doubt, and if history is any indication, we can be certain that this agreement is designed to enhance profitability for corporations worth billions of dollars already, with the signatorys’ citizens bearing that cost, while attempting to rewrite our domestic law.
That the TPP is being done in secret is enough to reject it as a law worth ratifying from a public citizen’s perspective. That it also allows any corporation in a signatory country, foreign or domestic, to sue the government for not relaxing it’s own regulations is doubly unacceptable.
IT’S SECRET BECAUSE THE INDUSTRIES INVOLVED KNOW THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTRIES IT WOULD APPLY TO WOULD NEVER AGREE TO IT.
Not only that, the citizens likely won’t agree to it even it it was to pass. If the people you elected auctioned off your countries sovereignty as a nation state, this act can also be interpreted as sedition.
that of course is one logical conclusion to the centuries old question - if there is a god why do bad things happen to good people - the logical conclusion that in fact god is evil - but of course an line of reasoning that never got very popular for obvious reasons.
Yep. I’ve never been able to understand why this obvious self-contradiction of christianity is almost never enough to make people realize the whole edifice is sloppily made up crap by totalitarian despots and fearful bronze-age savages.
Probably, it’s because they’re too afraid of the idea that the world is completely indifferent to them.
Elizabeth Warren came out saying the whole idea is backwards, that trying to keep things secret because they might be unpopular is precisely the reason we shouldn’t be doing them - because they are unpopular.
which is why the wall street banks are supposedly threatening to cut Democratic campaign funding unless the candidates are opposed to her
What happened to the separations of powers? If I were in congress I would get a copy of the TPP and read it into the record. It really sucks when the president fits right into a Fox News narrative.
Well, here’s the thing: While congress has the right to ratify the treaty, the executive branch has seized authority to negotiate the treaty before ratification. The US Trade Representative is the one with the power to do the negotiation and, belonging to our swollen executive branch, has claimed classification privilege for this negotiation.
But seriously, the USTR shouldn’t have a right to keep an agreement that has even a slight possibility of interfering with our domestic law from the legislative branch. And really, if it’s going to affect our trade with other countries, and numerous corps are privy to the discussion there’s no reason at all they should be allowed to keep it from congress.
International human trafficking cartels aren’t safe from congressional scrutiny, why should the TPP?
ETA: Since Obama is squarely in support of the TPP, at best, we can hope for the obstructionist republican house to eat their own buttholes and go against it, if he’s loud enough in his support.
Seriously, if Obama setup a press release saying the sky is blue, the Republicans in the house would hurry to their followup interviews in order to claim that the clear, midday sky is in fact black-and-orange plaid, just so they could contradict him, because they can’t stand the fact that a black man has power.
Honestly, I’m very split on Obama. He’s a damn sight better than McCain or Romney would’ve been (IMHO), but he keeps doing things that run completely antithetical to his platform and promises, some of which can be easily chalked up to the republicans in congress thinking contradicting anything he wants is their entire mission in life.
But a bunch of stuff he has the power to do, and promised to do, he hasn’t done either, which is very disappointing indeed.
I never got swept up in the Obama mania (or should I say boosterism) in my area, but I’m still very disappointed in that I really think he could have done much better than he has.
No doubt the conspiracy theorists have already decided that Obama is voicing his support precisely because he wants the Republicans to block it as thoroughly as possible.
For those not in the know, the Economix Comix version previously linked from BB is suitably terrifying: http://economixcomix.com/home/tpp/
Ah…merely because the God from the Old Testament does not meddle in earthly, human affairs, does not negate His?Her existence. Once upon a time, long, long ago the then God granted humans “free will”. For me, the translation of free will means we no longer need to fear a wrathful, all-powerful and vengeful deity we must live freely, whether for good or bad. Besides, even if the God of old returned and engaged in smiting the evil among us, some folks would think they could continue in their evil ways and then fall on their knees in abject supplication when faced with God’s wrath, begging and pleading for forgiveness while promising to never transgress again. I think the old God just got tired of promises and realized His/Her time was largely wasted on mankind. I think we are just one big reality TV show, a few laughs here and there, but a train wreck none-the-less! Who wouldn’t get tired of the same ole same ole without getting a bit discouraged?
