Dear God

When will this nightmare be over?  And will we be able to recover?



Well, maybe South Korea would like us to go back into TPP anyway. 

Jesus.

The Clueless President

President Trump on Thursday instructed top administration officials to explore re-entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a trade pact he pulled the U.S. out of last year while calling it a “disaster.”

  The Hill

Because of course he did. He has no policy beliefs, no understanding of global politics, or anything required to be president.

Speaking after a trade meeting with Trump, Republican senators said the president told White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to look into joining the deal, which 11 other Pacific Rim nations signed in March.

“The president multiple times reaffirmed in general to all of us and looked right at Larry Kudlow and said, ‘Larry, go get it done,'" Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a vocal proponent of free trade, told reporters at the White House.

And, if they meet tomorrow and tell him he should pull out again, that's what he'll do. He's clueless.

In early March, the 11 other nations signed the renamed Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership in Chile after spending the better part of the last year reworking the deal.

[...]

Trump told lawmakers he now believes the TPP “might be easier for us to join now” because the 11 other nations are close to finalizing a deal without the United States, according to the Nebraska senator.

He'll say that by doing what he did, he got a better deal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Signing Orders

Withdrawal from the TPP was Trump's first signing order of business today.

Next was a hiring freeze for federal positions, except for the military.

Third, no NGO can receive federal US dollars if they perform or support abortion services.

One good, one neutral, and one bad. A wash.

That is aside from the fact that executive signing orders is a terrible system for doing anything in a democracy.

Is TPP Really Dead?

A total of 72 percent of those surveyed either hadn’t heard of the deal, or had heard “not much” about it.

  Morning Consult

And the reason Americans don't know what it is: negotiations have been conducted in secret.

Despite Republicans’ historic support for major trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the poll indicates a shifting landscape in public support for U.S. trade policy, including TPP. Of the surveyed Republican voters, 34 percent oppose TPP, compared to 24 percent who support it. Just under one-third of surveyed Democrats support the agreement, despite their party’s general skepticism of free trade policy. Independent voters more closely mirror Republicans voters, with 22 percent supporting and 30 percent opposing.

I think we can safely say that we don't know how Republicans really feel about it, because they will oppose it simply because it's being pushed by Obama.  Considering its terms, I have to believe they would otherwise be all for it.

Obama’s administration has described TPP as “the most progressive trade agreement in history” largely because of language targeting labor and environmental abuses it claims are the strongest negotiated in any U.S. trade agreement. Unions and a number of other interest groups have blasted that rhetoric, however.

We’ve all heard over and over that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the “most progressive trade agreement ever.” Even if we don’t know what the TPP is, we know it’s progressive. Or do we?

Here’s the deal: I can be the tallest person in the room and still not be tall. You can be the richest person at the meeting and still not be rich. Likewise, the “most progressive trade deal ever” isn’t progressive.

Let’s just start with a simple question: How “progressive” is it to negotiate permanent economic rules that will affect 40% of the world’s GDP in secret—with more than 85% of your advisers representing business interests?

The TPP gives Australian, Japanese, Malaysian and other TPP corporations their own private justice system (ISDS) that they can use to attack our democracy. If these companies think that a California law banning a certain toxic chemical, or a Fort Lauderdale City Commission decision denying backyard fracking, or Rock Island County, Ill., increase in the minimum wage is “unfair” and violates their rights as a foreign investor, they can sue the United States before a panel of private arbitrators (usually international commercial lawyers) for damages. If they win, the foreign companies take home our taxpayer dollars to compensate for lost “expected profits.” Giving foreign businesses power and influence over local and state decisions isn’t progressive.

The TPP also creates extreme monopoly rights for global pharmaceutical companies. [...] The TPP will raise drug prices for families across the region. That’s regressive.

[...]

America’s working families and those in the other 11 TPP countries will certainly not benefit by a trade deal that permanently locks in increased corporate power and rights.

  AFL-CIO

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A Small Bit of Silver in the Lining

How's That Obamacare Coming Along?

A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that as many as two states and 650 counties are on track to have just one insurer on the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year.

[...]

That’s up significantly from 225 counties with just one marketplace competitor in 2016.

[...]

And that number could even grow; filings in many states aren’t public yet, and insurers are free to change and update their offerings until September.

  IBA

Aetna’s announcement Monday night was the latest sign that large insurers are losing money in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, heightening concerns about the long-term stability of a key part of Obama’s domestic policy legacy.

[...]

Aetna said it will exit 11 of the 15 states where it offers coverage through the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. That affects about 80 percent of its customers covered through insurance marketplaces.

[...]

Earlier this month, Humana said it will cut back its participation on the exchanges from 15 states to 11. On an earnings call in July, UnitedHealth Group chief executive Stephen Hemsley announced that his company plans to remain on “three or fewer exchange markets.”

[...]

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to modify the law to expand coverage and wants to add a public insurance option.

  WaPo

Really? Is that like her insistence that she's against TPP while bringing in Tim Kaine for her VP (who voted for fast-tracking TPP) and Ken Salazar for her transition team (who supports TPP and opened the Arctic Ocean for drilling while secretary of the interior)?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

From Someone Who Might Actually Know

Hillary has made a remarkable flip to claiming she doesn't support TPP.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, longtime best friend to the Clintons, said Tuesday that he believes Hillary Clinton will support the TPP trade deal if elected president, with some tweaks.
[...]

Later, McAuliffe’s spokesman sought to clarify the governor’s remarks after this story published, saying he was simply expressing what he wants Clinton to do if she is elected president. “While Governor McAuliffe is a supporter of the TPP, he has no expectation Secretary Clinton would change her position on the legislation and she has never told him anything to that effect.”

  Politico

Ha. Damage control.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

They Haven't Given Up

Here's that hope Obama was talking about.



Don't you know the Obamas and the Clintons and all the Dem leaders just hate Bernie at this point?

[T]he TPP is not actually a free trade pact. It won’t lower tariffs, the most common trade barriers.

In fact, the TPP is more focused on crafting regulatory regimes that benefit certain industries. It would expand corporate and investor rights at the expense of medical affordability, the environment, and labor rights.

For Bernie Sanders supporters — and some Trump supporters — TPP has become shorthand for corporate control of the political process. Hillary Clinton was a late convert – and not particular sincere at that.

[...]

[S]everal Clinton delegates told The Intercept that they trusted Clinton’s judgment on the issue and would not take part in any protests of Obama’s speech.

  Intercept

There's some gullible folks who haven't been paying attention.

“When [Hillary] takes the reins of the country, she is going to make a decision that she believes is best for the country. I’m very certain that whatever decision she does…she will have analyzed it, she will have researched it, and she will do what is best for the country,” [Elena McCullough, vice-president of the Democratic Hispanic caucus of Florida] said.

Just like she did with Libya. Don't let that Hispanic caucus bother you. It's Florida. Where the Hispanics are largely Cubans whose business interests didn't mesh with Castro's communism.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And....Back in the White House

Is Hillary supporting or not supporting TPP today?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Next Democrat Aimed at the Oval Office:MORE Hawkish

[T]heir united front against Mrs. Clinton’s likely Republican opponent in the presidential election this fall masks differences in how they portray the threat from Islamic terrorism at home and how they would wage the campaign to defeat it abroad.

Mrs. Clinton, who served as secretary of state during Mr. Obama’s first term, has advocated a more aggressive military strategy in Syria, including a no-fly zone to protect civilians — something the president has steadfastly rejected. She has spoken more starkly than he has about the threat posed by Islamic State-inspired terrorism in the United States. And she would overhaul the administration’s efforts to counter violent extremism.

“Whatever we learn about this killer, his motives in the days ahead,” Mrs. Clinton said Monday, “we know already the barbarity that we face from radical jihadists is profound.” Mr. Obama has shunned such charged language, arguing that it sows fear. When the nation has acted out of fear after terrorist attacks, he said on Tuesday, “we came to regret it.”

  NYT

Has he come to regret making the deal with the devil to support Clinton?

Trade is likely to be the most visible dividing line between them. Mr. Obama is pushing hard for Congress to ratify his ambitious Asian trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, before he leaves office. As secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton promoted the agreement scores of times. But last fall, facing an unexpectedly robust challenge from Mr. Sanders, she reversed course and came out against it.

No problem. Once she has the nomination and Bernie is out of her way, she can go back to supporting it.  The Hillary Clinton way.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Busting Bernie's Balls - Part 7,005

When Hillary dropped out in 2008, part of the deal was that Obama would back her in 2016, wasn't it?



Click the picture for the video.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Are We Still That Gullible?

Or are we just pretending to be?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Elections Are a Pain

I don't have a subscription to World Trade Online, where this excerpt came from (Billmon's Twitter), so I'll just have to comment on the excerpt.



I'm actually not going to comment so much as translate:

"While Bernie Sanders, who has opposed all our rotten trade deals, is talking to the public, we can't cram this latest rotten deal through on the sly.  In the unlikely event of his nomination to the presidency, we will, however, need to get moving on it, because he won't pass it."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Up the Union!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Isn't That Handy?

Banks and other financial institutions would be able to use provisions in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership to block new regulations that cut into their profits, according to the text of the trade pact released this week.

  The Intercept

So, it's pretty much assured that this horrible deal will pass.

In what may be the biggest gift to banks in a deal full of giveaways to Hollywood, the drug industry and technology firms, financial institutions would be able to appeal any national rules they didn’t like to independent, international tribunals staffed by friendly corporate lawyers.

That could nullify a proposal by Hillary Clinton to impose a “risk fee” on financial firms — or the Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders plan to reinstate the firewall between investment and commercial banks.

And I'm sure they know that.

Here are some of the words [Hillary Clinton] used to describe the TPP before she left the State Department in 2013: "exciting," "innovative," "ambitious," "groundbreaking," "cutting-edge," "high-quality," "high-standard" and "gold standard."

[...]

[At the conclusion of the TPP negotiations] Clinton promptly announced that she opposes the deal.

"As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it," she said in an

Oct. 8 interview with PBS Newshour’s Judy Woodruff, adding, "I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set." This stance has some people scratching their heads, because she praised the negotiations while serving as secretary of state.

  Politifact

Well, she did say "as of today."

And Bernie...

"Now that the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership has finally been released, it is even worse than I thought. It is clear to me that the proposed agreement is not, nor has it ever been, the gold standard of trade agreements.

[...]

"I will do everything I can to defeat the TPP."

  Bernie sanders

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

TPP Finalized

https://www.fightthetpp.org/

We Can Just Admit It Outright Now

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

TPP - Further Leak

Not just a vehicle to allow corporations to override any and all governments world-wide...

Wikileaks has published a leaked draft -- dated Oct, 5, and thus possibly the final text -- of the "Intellectual Property Chapter" of the Trans Pacific Partnership, and it's grim reading.

First in the parade of the Just Plain Wrong: the Internet has been included in a secret trade agreement.

[...]

The chapter dealing with the Internet is the intellectual property chapter, which tells you that as far as the negotiators were concerned, the most important fact about the Internet is whether people watch movies without paying for them -- not whether the nervous system of the 21st century through which we conduct our work, family, romantic, artistic, and political lives is appropriately safeguarded.

[...]

Under the terms of the text, countries in the TPP can force each other to suspend legal proceedings if the trial would cause embarrassing informainformation -- information "detrimental to a party’s economic interests, international relations, or national defense or national security" -- would come to light. That would be the Wikileaks/Snowden clause.

Also, if one country is prosecuting someone for "intellectual property theft," they can require other countries to turn over huge amounts of private data. [...] including the identification of third persons alleged to be involved in the production and distribution of such goods or services and of their channels of distribution."

In other words, if you're accused of downloading anime in America, the Japanese government can force your American ISP to hand over all of your parents' online records.

  Boing Boing

So now maybe your parents will care about TPP - send them a link.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Big Pharma Rules!

No, really.

You Knew They Would

And so did I.

We've been sold out again. Without a vote to spare, the Senate just voted to Fast Track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), handing off our sovereignty to multi-national corporations who have assured themselves higher prices for pharmaceuticals, preemption over many environmental protections, and veto power over our legislatures that seek to protect the public from dangerous foods and products. Way to go to the prostitutes who screw the people as they serve the interests of the multi-national corporations that have bought off our government (including the President and much of the Democratic Party) lock, stock, and barrel.   Rocky Anderson FB Post

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.