URGENT: Senate backtracks on TPP fasttrack -- call Congress to oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership

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Damn, it’s good to be from MA.

Go Warren & Markey!

The Senate never rejected TPP. The Dems just insisted that some other things get attached to it, and when the GOP refused, the Dems blocked the whole thing. Now that the GOP has given the Dems some of those other things, Dems are willing to let it TPP go through. It was always merely bargaining.

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This has zero chance of being blocked. It manages to go against the principles of both parties, but the Democrats are not anti-big-business enough, and the Republicans are not libertarian enough.

I’m afraid we long ago passed the point where the people have any influence on anything important.

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Members of Congress were threatened with jail for discussing …

What crime would they be charged with? Doing their job?

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“Fast Track” is my new nickname for Democratic sell-outs. No one can “compromise” faster than they can. The only surprise this time was that they didn’t compromise in advance, like they usually do.

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They’re lucky they still have jobs. Now get back to work, minions!

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I had a terribly cynical idea about how it might be possible to fight this. However, there are undeniable ethical concerns with this idea. Allow me to explain.

It’s well known that the Republican base is subject to latching onto false rumours and dragging their elected officials along (whether those officials actually believe the rumours or not). It’s also well known that much of said base is prone to casual racism. Combine that with the fact that the actual text of the TPP is not available to the public, and an idea comes to mind.

Suppose someone were to go on various web forums (especially local/regional forums in swing Republican-held districts) and say something to the effect of “Fox News reported last week that the TPP would force America to admit 250,000 immigrants a year from Southeast Asia”. That just might spook those Republicans into thinking twice about supporting the TPP.

Of course, I’m not saying this should be done, not with this particular rumour. While it could be rationalized as simply exploiting existing racism rather than promoting it, it’s almost inevitable that this would bring buried racist thoughts in many people’s minds to the surface, and could even cause hate crimes. So that particular rumour would be highly problematic to start (let’s not get into the question of whether the undeniable evil of increased racism would be outweighed by the benefits of stopping the great evil that is the TPP). But maybe some other sort of rumour, less destructive to innocent people, would work. People on the ground in those districts would have a far better idea than I would about which rumours would be likely to take hold.

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As a resident of Japan, I actually support TPP

Sushi?

Nobody knows just what it will commit America to.

Nobody knows that it won’t obligate marriage equality, or mandatory minimum wages, socialized health care, affirmative action, pay equality, the teaching of actual science in science classes, and many more.

Worst of all, nobody realizes that the TPP obliges the USA to strict gun control laws that no future president can overturn :wink:

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