An extremely sad day: just before memorial weekend and our recognition of
our veteran’s sacrifices (dead and alive)
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a
proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty. As of 2014, twelve
countries throughout the Asia Pacific region have participated in negotiations
on the TPP: Australia,
Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand,
Peru, Singapore,
the United
States, and Vietnam.
The proposed agreement began in 2005 as the Trans-Pacific
Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP or P4). Participating countries
set the goal of wrapping up negotiations in 2012, but contentious issues such
as agriculture, intellectual property, and services and investments have caused
negotiations to continue into the present, with the last round meeting in Ottawa from 3–12
July 2014. Implementation of the TPP is one of the primary goals of the trade
agenda of the Obama Administration in the United
States of America.
On 12 November 2011, the nine Trans-Pacific Partnership
countries announced that the TPP intended to "enhance trade and investment
among the TPP partner countries, to promote innovation, economic growth and
development, and to support the creation and retention of jobs." Although
the text of the treaty has not been made public, Wikileaks has
published several documents since 2013. A number of global health professionals, internet freedom activists, environmentalists, organized labor, advocacy groups, and
elected officials have criticized and protested against the treaty, in large
part because of the secrecy of negotiations, the agreement's expansive scope,
and controversial clauses in drafts leaked to the public.”
From
the Center for Economic and policy Research: Published: 10 May 2015
“In
an interview
with Matt Bai, a political columnist with Yahoo, President Obama took issue
with Senator Elizabeth Warren's claim that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and other trade deals that could be allowed special rules under fast-track status,
could unravel financial regulation put in place by Dodd-Frank.
"'Think
about the logic of that, right?' he went on. 'The notion that I had this
massive fight with Wall Street to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened
in 2007, 2008. And then I sign a provision that would unravel it?'
“'I’d have to be pretty stupid,' Obama said, laughing."
“'I’d have to be pretty stupid,' Obama said, laughing."
President
Obama may not want to rest the case for TPP on the strength of his status as a
foe of Wall Street. He has not always been the strongest proponent of financial
reform. Among other noteworthy items:
1)
He has not sought the criminal prosecution of any executives at major banks for
issuing or securitizing fraudulent mortgages, nor against executives at credit
rating agencies for knowingly granting investment grade ratings to securities
containing large numbers of improper or fraudulent mortgages;
2)
He opposed the Brown-Kauffman bill, which would have broken up the big banks;
3)
He did nothing to push cram-down legislation in Congress, which would have
required banks to write-down the value of some underwater mortgages to the
current market value of the home;
4)
He supported the stripping of the Franken Amendment
from Dodd-Frank. This amendment (which was approved by a large bi-partisan
majority in the Senate) would have eliminated the conflict of interest faced by
bond-rating agencies by having the Securities and Exchange Commission, rather
than the issuer, pick the rating agency. (The line from opponents was that the
SEC might send over unqualified analysts. Think about that one for a while.)
5)
He only began to push the Volcker rule as a political move to shore up support the day after Republican Scott
Brown won an upset election for a Senate seat in Massachusetts.
6)
The administration had to be pushed by labor and consumer groups to keep a
strong and independent consumer financial protection bureau in Dodd-Frank.
If President Obama
wants to push the case for TPP he should probably rely on something other than
his status as a foe of Wall Street.
Addendum:
It
is worth noting that the fast-track legislation being requested by President
Obama would extend for five years. This means that if a Republican is elected
in 2016, they would be able to have future trade agreements approved on a
straight up or down vote by a majority in Congress. If it is difficult to see
how President Obama can assure Senator Warren, and other critics of fast-track,
that a future Republican president would not use this power to weaken financial
regulation, if they could not otherwise get the 60 votes needed in the Senate
to overcome a filibuster.”
From
techcdirt
“From the most-transparent-administration-in-history
dept:
President
Obama is apparently quite annoyed by the fact that his own party is basically
pushing against his "big trade deals" (that are not really about
trade). Senator Elizabeth Warren has been pretty aggressive in trashing the TPP
agreement, highlighting the fact that the agreement is still secret (other than
the bits leaked by Wikileaks). In response, President Obama came out swinging
against the critics of TPP arguing that "they don't know what they're
talking about."
He insists that
it's unfair to compare TPP to NAFTA because they're different deals:
“You need to
tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25
years ago.”
Well, Mr.
President, I would love to do that, but I can't because you and your USTR
haven't released the damn text. It takes an insane lack of self-awareness for
the guy who once declared his administration "the most transparent in
history" to demand people tell him what's wrong with his trade agreement,
when that agreement is kept entirely secret.
Furthermore,
multiple experts concerning things like the corporate sovereignty ISDS
provisions and the intellectual property chapters have gone into great detail
as to why the leaked versions have problems. They're not complaining about
NAFTA. They're actually complaining about the latest drafts -- but the USTR
won't acknowledge them because they're talking about leaked versions.
In fact, the
only real complaints I've seen relating to NAFTA concern the fact that the
government says one thing about these big agreements, but the reality is
something different.
Of course, he
attacks the fact that people are complaining about the secrecy as well, by
arguing (misleadingly) that the deal is not at all secret:
“The one that
gets on my nerves the most is the notion that this is a ‘secret’ deal,” Obama
said. “Every single one of the critics who I hear saying, ‘this is a secret
deal,’ or send out emails to their fundraising base saying they’re working to
prevent this secret deal, can walk over today and read the text of the
agreement. There’s nothing secret about it.”
I'm a critic.
I can't walk over today and read the text of the agreement. Obviously,
President Obama is only talking about elected members of Congress. But that's
not what they're complaining about. They're complaining about the fact that the
American public cannot see the text of the document or discuss the specifics of
what's in there. And that's absolutely true.
And even the
fact that members of Congress can actually see the document is tremendously
misleading. Yes, members of Congress are allowed to walk over to the USTR and
see a copy of the latest text. But they're not allowed to take any notes, make
any copies or bring any of their staff members. In other words, they can only
read the document and keep what they remember in their heads. And they can't
have their staff members -- the folks who often really understand the details
-- there to explain what's really going on.
And it all
comes back to the point that Senator Warren has been making for a long time:
that former USTR Ron Kirk has admitted that a big reason why they keep the
document secret is that when they tried being more transparent in the past, the
agreement failed. As Warren says, if being transparent with the American public
means the agreement will fail, then the problem is with the agreement, not the
public.
“When I keep
on hearing people repeating this notion that it’s ‘secret,’ I gotta say, it’s
dishonest,” Obama continued. “And it’s concerning when I see friends of mine resorting
to these kinds of tactics.”
Here's a
little test: can we see the current TPP documents today? No? Then it's secret.
Claiming otherwise is what's dishonest.”
“We
the People” can stop current trends in the United States of America (The Bosses
and Law Enforcers): if we legally use our voices, writings, phone calls, emails,
social media postings (tweets, posts, shares, etc.), protests, and votes in
fact based truth to change the grave situations in our Democracy!
For two weeks “We the People” (Constituents and
Voters): have tried to express our frustration to the smaller of the
Congressional Legislative Bodies; The Senate.
For less than 24 hours “We the People” temporarily saw some hope: when you did not move the TPA (Fast Track Legislation) forward. The highlighted link in the previous sentence expressed true and verifiable facts and reasons we did not want the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Next, “We the People” discussed that what we needed to do and then expressed what our Federal Government must do! Did you hear us? The simple answer is “NO”: the United States Senate went back to business as usual!
When “We the People” observed this happening we respectfully shared that transparency showed that Stakeholders (values based people) needed Shareholders(multinational non-values based entities) to be removed from power in our democracy: we expressed that we knew the difference between; Right (good) and Wrong (evil) Governance in the United States of America!
“We the People” then expressed how $1.18 billion in 2014 Campaign Donations to Congress had led to complete Collusion and Corruption of politician legislators because of
Fraud and Quid Pro Quo: we then respectful express to you what needed to be done tocorrect this situation.
Well, “We the People”, who are still being ignored, now need to request impeachment of President Obama for openly stating fraudulent facts in the U.S. Public Media; a gross crime or misdemeanor!
Additionally,
any U.S. Congressional member not understanding “We the Peoples” issues tell
our elected officials that “We the People” will legally request our Countries
laws across the Nation by: moving "We the People" to first: through legalrevolutionary repair of the United States of America.
Finally, this battle will be over and when it is: “We the People” need the following legislative items completed in an expeditious (few weeks) order!
