Obama to Push for TPP Passage During Lame Duck Session

Not a surprise to anyone here, unless we're surprised he's admitting it and at least one news outlet is reporting on it...

From The Hill has published an editorial by Mark Weisbrot

Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, and the president of Just Foreign Policy. He is also the author of the new book "Failed: What the 'Experts' Got Wrong About the Global Economy" (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Obama's TPP campaign could drag down Democrats

How much is President Obama willing to harm the Democratic Party in order to win approval for the deeply unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "trade" agreement? We may soon find out.

On Tuesday, Politico broke the story that the White House will be "making an all-out push to win passage of the deal in the lame duck session of Congress, organizing 30 events over the congressional recess." The effort will be designed to put pressure not only on Democratic members of Congress, but also on swing Republican votes, by lobbying important business interests in their districts.

This is pretty big news for the 2016 elections, but it seems to have gotten little to no coverage in major media outlets. The TPP has become a major issue in these elections, with GOP nominee Donald Trump highlighting his opposition, and Hillary Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — who had previously supported the agreement — vowing to oppose it "before and after" the election. (Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, her former rival for the Democratic nomination, also had a major impact on the debate during the primary season, and possibly on Clinton's change of position). This agreement is especially despised among the white working-class voters who have made up the major swing vote in most of the presidential elections of the past four decades.

Weisbrot speculates that perhaps Obama wants TPP as his legacy. They don't seem to understand why he may feel that way any more than I do...

But here's the OH SHIT portion of their reporting:

The strategy is apparently to target representatives who lose their elections, which has typically been about 80. They suggest that a quarter of those newly without a job will seek lobbying work (or employers who hire lobbyists), and that these folks are free to vote consistent with job acquisition in mind during their lame duck days.

"Everybody who is anybody," says The Hill, wants this treaty. Well, everyone who isn't all the rest of us, of course (Weisbrot is clear on this). He closes thusly:

...one of the main purposes of the TPP, like previous "trade" agreements including the World Trade Organization, is to bind the United States to a set of rules that our political leaders would have difficulty putting into law in the U.S. These include raising pharmaceutical prices by strengthening and lengthening patent protection; allowing corporations to sue the government for regulation that infringes on their profits; and undermining public health and environmental protection, and financial regulation. So by corrupting democracy for this one big, lame-duck vote, our politicians can undermine and limit democracy for many years and even decades to come.

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divineorder's picture

two petitions (Credo and DFA) linked from this article

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/progressives-demand-clinton-pledge-to-...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

What is "FWIW"

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Thanks!! Sorry to be so simple!!

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Mrs. Clinton will not be placed in the uncomfortable position of signing it into law if President Obama has his name on it.

As a Union supporter, fair not free trade is what I support. Damn NAFTA, CAFTA and the TPP, this issue is a priorty for me.

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Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking

Hillbilly Dem's picture

She claims to be against TPP and can actually campaign against because it will pass before she takes the oath. She wanted it anyway (ah, the gold standard). PBO rides into the sunset and makes out like a bandit. It's perfect for everyone....except the 99.9%.

Thanks for the article. Once again, suspicions confirmed.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

part of the lame duck session too

A number of those who claim to know what's going on in DC say TPP will not pass. I am skeptical.

NAFTA, TPP, etc can be exited with a 6 month notice. Too bad we have a president where we have to hope for a future very long shot to make things right.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

lotlizard's picture

Nah, no matter what we do it seems the world is condemned to Mad Bomber in a landslide.

“Four more years!” courtesy of The Committee to Re-elect the Clintonhood.

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period where polls have predictive power. As I understand it, the last 80 or 100 days before the election sees polls more accurately predicting the outcome(s) than heretofore. Clinton is wildly unpopular and untrusted and if - maybe too big of an "if" - Trump can stay on the message that NAFTA and related have caused the loss of millions of jobs and that he (Trump) will exit NAFTA - easy to do with a 6 month notice - and not pass TPP and T-TIP - he may tap into the anxiety workers and pensioners are feeling about the mismanaged economy.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Unless, of course, you're doing all you can to throw the election to the person who could be beat by everyone else but you.

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elenacarlena's picture

Truly if we make an agreement, surely we can turn around and break the agreement?

Not that TPTB will be willing, but just in case a miracle happens and someone finds a heart.

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and it involved England. It was a treaty in accordance with the Constitution.

NAFTA and its ilk should also be treaties but those who control the political economy knew a treaty probably wouldn't pass. Not being a treaty is the weak point and it's my understanding, a country can withdraw after giving 6 months notice.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

recently get approval? And Clinton will approve fracking anywhere a Clinton doesn't live, so hey, gang! We will be burned, poisoned, AND we won't get meds for it! Perfect!
Thanks, Obama!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

will go is being met my non violent resistance. Since it's a deal for the 1%, the Native Americans are being met by a militarized police force.

Clean water vs oil profits...any odds on this?

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Deja's picture

Only caught part of it on PRI (KPFT Houston). They were stopping cars and turning away people they believed were tribal elders headed to the protest. Nice, huh? You look like you might be headed somewhere we don't want you to go, so turn around. Unbelievable!

Also heard something about being accused of having weapons at the protest but none were found.

Might not be the same thing you're talking about, but standard operating procedure for all of them it would seem.

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Hillbilly Dem's picture

Q: Secretary Clinton, do you support fracking?
A: Well, yadda yadda yadda, weasel words, monitor it, yadda yadda, weasel weasel, energy independence, yadda weasel.

Q; Senator Sanders, do YOU support fracking?
A: No.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

MsGrin's picture

ah, for the few months there was ACTUALLY something to believe in, a potential for change.

I want to read his book, to know what happened. I don't think he expected the campaign to catch fire. I also don't think he expected to be shut out with quite the level of corruption which got slammed at him.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Hillbilly Dem's picture

Sec. Clinton: Senator Sanders hasn't even told the voters who his foreign policy advisors will be.
Sen. Sanders: Well it won't be Henry Kissinger.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

MsGrin's picture

and that stink eye when he's really annoyed at how she's being...

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

lotlizard's picture

And he answered, No.

This is the record of Bern:

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That is all.

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lotlizard's picture

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All I can find news on is Enbridge and Gateway - and the news is that their approvals were overturned in court.

Meanwhile, I wonder if they will just re-name Keystone and try again....

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Bollox Ref's picture

No surprise there.

Frankly, I haven't thought about B. Obama for quite a while. Then you suddenly realize again that he's still president.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Shigeru's picture

disappointment of my voting career.
I know there are some here who still love him, but he has mixed an untoward level of venality, lack of sense of urgency, and unconcern with such an incompetence that he is indeed like the second coming of Reagan 1987.

The TPP itself is just one of many bad trade deals, but it is the underlying ISDS that is really evil and attempts to bypass the US court system for corporate admin courts to which the defendant cannot directly appoint a member. I have taken to calling them corporate Star chambers after the English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber. As these courts will be administered by people paid for by corporations on a pro-rata basis, accuser gets to select one, the federal government another, and a 3rd appointed by the 1st two; the defendant does not get pick any directly. It is rife with potential for abuse, particularly when a corrupt federal government can take bribes (e.g. gifts or foundation contributions) from a corporation or foreign government.

It is indeed a step back in time to 1531 England or earlier.

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There was that time a week or two ago when he laughed at anyone suggesting that we have "rigged" elections--he laughed about it. So funny. I am thinking that being one of the corporate shills who "litigate" the disputes of TPP, that would make a perfect retirement job for him, just in case he needs a bit of extra money, wink, wink. I heard that in his radio address this week, he says that the Statue of Liberty might be swallowed by rising seas. Never mind that in one place we are having another 1000 year storm laying waste to the southern coast and the west has one wildfire after another. Hmm, could it be climate change? I guess that's the last we'll hear from him on the whole climate change thing, got that all taken care of. Yes, I have to agree that he's my biggest voting disappointment, too. I'll bet there is a lot of that going around. The real PBO is right out there now. So now we have a Slick BO to go with our Slick Willie, two of a kind.

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Shigeru's picture

had low expectations of him anyway. Less real experience at anything than anyone else running for prez in past 100 years. Barely a practicing attorney, at best an office litigator, and governor of the most backward place in the northern hemisphere. Like Obama he had zero real world experience either in much of anything else other than pandering.

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elenacarlena's picture

They did, at least, get a minimum wage raise on the ballot and voted it in.

I've vacationed in Arkansas; parts of it are very nice.

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MsGrin's picture

But I just took a bus through it...

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

BHO convinced so many, many people to have hope, then promptly betrayed that hope.

And yet, and yet... I have to wonder. His endorsements of HRH were absolutely brilliant examples of passive aggression. I wonder if his comments about election fraud were also. The corruption, obstructionism, and incompetence in our government is so pervasive that it is hard to know who is genuine, who is bought, and who is coerced. We will certainly never get any accurate information from corporate media, and it is irrelevant to the outcome in any case: everyone not a member of the master class is completely scrod.

I do feel that while HRH is bought, she is an enthusiastic and sincere participant, while Bernie is clearly coerced. And I will never, never forgive them for breaking our Bernie.

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WindDancer13's picture

was devised by the Russians. That should get it some coverage and a lot of "Oh, no! We can't have that!"

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Bollox Ref's picture

Is The Putin Plan after all.

(So they say.)

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

WindDancer13's picture

The Putrid Plan. I am so glad someone here is in the know. By the way, as long as "they" are saying that maybe we should help push it out there into the greater knowledge. = )

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Bollox Ref's picture

reinforce 'the truth'.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

and Obama's work will be complete. Up next, Hellery will continue with Obama's third term.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Blasphemy101's picture

The wheels of the bus go round and round... and again the populace is getting thrown under it at the same time. I can not believe I actually believed a word that came out of his mouth now. He lies almost as much as Hillary. Glad I am a recovering former Democrat.

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War, War Never Changes - Fallout Series

Alligator Ed's picture

of TPP. We all know, BooHoO wants to go out in a blaze of glory. That inferno would of course be fueled by TPP. But what did BHO get from Repugs after "compromising" on ACA? Absolutely nothing! He threw the American Public's best shot at a good health plan under the bus before the bus driver even got it. I don't know where that figure of 80 congress critters being vulnerable to electoral defeat in the 2016 Carnival election came from. The stats are that in most cycles, particularly in non-presidential years, 90% of incumbents remain in office. Since Mitch McConnell viscerally hates O'Bummer, he will be the last person on earth to let his arch-nemesis get any glory, even if it means his own desire for the TPP--but, hey, ain't that the way partisan politics is played? Fuck You, fuck your Party and Fuck the rest of the country if it comes down to that!

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MsGrin's picture

so they were using that number as the likely number of those who would be gearing up to sell themselves off for future careers. It was a back of the envel tally figure is how I read it.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Shigeru's picture

re-elected. The median is closer to 95% because the disasters the democrats had in 96 and 10 lowered the mean.

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Lenzabi's picture

TPP=Total Power for Plutarchs.

This shitty deal has no one Else's interests at heart and Obama is a total tool of the Oligarchy and this push proves it!

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

prolific writing, all of it good, all of it rock solid, and my friend, you have given me lots of days of reading, of staying engaged, when sometimes, I want to just pack up and move to Guatemala where I would have to walk 5 miles to an internet cafe' to check in on the happ'nin's.
I am off thread.
I am not sorry.
Keep it up, please.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

MsGrin's picture

I'd be happy to write less if there were fewer items PISSING ME OFF!

Then again, it's how I stay engaged. I'm slipping, but I don't want to miss it when/if TPTB have that mis-step which gets person I believe actually won the primary back in the race. So, I have my rounds of the several sources which get this info out. I've tried to hand out leads to others, but that hasn't worked so well. I'm afraid my posts are a bit formulaic - mostly, they provide links so folks can go see for themselves. Mostly, it's a way to work off frustration. My local Bernie peeps went off in their own directions, a couple of them did what they could to push me off the curb (it wasn't quite throwing me under a couple buses, but it did sting) for their own (sometimes vanity) reasons. So, I've lost the local camaraderie there was for awhile.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Your friends left hard truths.
You didn't.
You rock, chica.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

MsGrin's picture

to get him on the ballot is now 'following Bernie's lead' or whatever since he returned from Philly. He lost me before that, but I'm still scratching my head. I thought there was no bigger Bernie Believer.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

elenacarlena's picture

follower. Sorry you had to go through that. I too am glad you are here and enjoy reading your posts. You have a good nose for the latest interesting news.

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RantingRooster's picture

already with over 900+ loses at the state legislator level, which, to me, seem quite indicative of a failed, if not the complete lack of any type of a 50 state strategy. Unless Berniecats and Greens can make inroads at the state level, what happens at the national level won't matter that much. We'll just continue to have more of the same, grid lock, brain lock and lot's of fraud and insider trading, as is legal for them, but not for us.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Dhyerwolf's picture

It's not a bug, it's a feature! What better way to explain to your constituents as to why you basically fail to pass anything than to point at your opponents! If the Democrats had a 50 state strategy, it might cause them to win enough that they'd have to find another excuse.

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MsGrin's picture

They likely have such a plan...

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Lily O Lady's picture

'hopey, changey' stuff workin' out for ya?" taunt. Granted it was likely based on the planned obstruction of the Obama Administration in Congress, but it still burns. It turns out that a disfunctional Congress works out just fine for TPTB, at least until the 1% want something done. Then just watch Congress's smoke!

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

To try to pass it before the election when Americans can have a say (sort of) about this.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

detroitmechworks's picture

Had a wonderful discussion on the ride today about why breaking up the US might be better for EVERYBODY, not just the 1%...

I may have to turn it into a diary, because I'm just getting SICK of this crap on the part of our esteemed representatives.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

So how soon will the dems being saying we don't want to pass TPP but TRUMP Yanno.

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Orwell was an optimist

MarilynW's picture

To increase exports, Obama permitted the sale of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia. It didn't stop there, the US assisted Saudi Arabia in destroying the country of Yemen. The CIA gave the Saudi pilots a list of targets. Check out the new Harper's Magazine for the story.

ACCEPTABLE LOSSES
Aiding and Abetting the Saudi slaughter in Yemen
Andrew Cockburn

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To thine own self be true.

lotlizard's picture

The U.S. is promoting war crimes in Yemen

This US-backed war is not just a case of the Obama administration sitting idly by while its close ally goes on a destructive spree of historic proportions. The government is actively selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weaponry. They’re re-supplying planes engaged in the bombing runs and providing “intelligence” for the targets that Saudi Arabia is hitting.

Put simply, the US is quite literally funding a humanitarian catastrophe that, by some measures, is larger than the crisis in Syria. As the New York Times editorial board wrote this week: “Experts say the coalition would be grounded if Washington withheld its support.” Yet all we’ve heard is crickets.

High-ranking Obama administration officials are hardly ever asked about the crisis. Cable television news has almost universally ignored it. Both the Clinton and Trump presidential campaigns have been totally silent on this issue despite their constant arguing over who would be better at “stopping terrorism”. Beyond the grotesque killing of civilians, it’s clear at this point that the Saudis’ bombing campaign has also boosted al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) to a level which Reuters described as “stronger and richer” than anytime in its 20-year history.

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MarilynW's picture

incompetent ex-CIA Mike Morell. A friend watched his interview on Charlie Rose 3 times and now considers herself well-informed. It was about how Clinton and the CIA will continue to keep America safe. No mention of CIA complicity in war crimes.

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To thine own self be true.

Meteor Man's picture

Obama is licking his chops over themassive amount of charitable contributions filthy lucre pouring in to the Clinton Foundation.

Obama has always been a crooked Chicago politician. This is Obama's big opportunity to jump aboard the .1% gravy train.

I hope the TPP will be subjected to a legal challenge. The Supreme Court may be the only barrier to absolute global corporate domination of everything. I can't imagine the Roberts court taking sides against corporations, but the surrener of national sovereignty may be difficult to defend on constitutional grounds.

I know! I know! Grasping at straws here.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Obama's plan to push those losing their seats to vote for TPP is straight out of the history books. As the movie portrayed in some detail, Lincoln pushed hard on Democrats who had lost their seats in the 1864 election, offering them jobs as postmasters and the like, in trade for their votes to pass what later became the 13th Amendment before the next Congress went into session. He had about five months to do so, as the government changed over in March back then.

Obama had to have seen the movie, since Republicans are his heroes. I hope that lying-ass corporatist enjoys his retirement as one of the most reviled ex-presidents ever.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Even fairly well informed people have not heard about TPP. Corporations are spending for ads about how wonderful trade is.

From Commondreams.org

As Resistance Mounts, TPP Becoming 2016 Election's Third Rail 'Obama has to consider what his campaign to pass the TPP will do to the Democratic Party—or at least he should'

I don't think that the establishment is scared yet. They think they can continue to pull the wool over the eyes of the "citizens" and because the other side is so bad, by default they will win again.

Now that the Bernie movement has mobilized millions, and large scale protests like the ones on the pipelines, there is a good chance that anti TPP protests could catch on.

There were 10 million around the world who protested the invasion of Iraq. And it didn't mean shit to the war mongers.

But we learned from that failure and now know that there is a short time to raise the issue.

The legislative branch has been working for the oligarchs for decades and they need to know that there is a reason for their low approval rating

Excellent paragraph from the article which was posted in this article and is now repeated here

...one of the main purposes of the TPP, like previous "trade" agreements including the World Trade Organization, is to bind the United States to a set of rules that our political leaders would have difficulty putting into law in the U.S. These include raising pharmaceutical prices by strengthening and lengthening patent protection; allowing corporations to sue the government for regulation that infringes on their profits; and undermining public health and environmental protection, and financial regulation. So by corrupting democracy for this one big, lame-duck vote, our politicians can undermine and limit democracy for many years and even decades to come.

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Lily O Lady's picture

ridiculing Ross Perot's opposition to it. They made fun of his charts (facts) like playground bullies marginalizing the weird kid with glasses. They are still the playground bullies who know how to enlist most of the kids who don't really understand what's happening as the kid who does know is isolated and rendered powerless.

When Clinton won in '92 I said that they'd out Republicaned the Republicans, meaning that they'd avoided being bullied into ineffectiveness. Little did I know that they were just another playground bully come to push us around.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

from that period and make the point Clinton was warned and he still cost the country 50,000 factories and who knows how many fairly good paying jobs.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

The WTO and IMF, still destroying the world. I guess they'll keep going until nothing is left. Reality bummer.
Objective Reality vs. Perceived Reality By John Perkins

My success as chief economist at a major international consulting firm was not due to the lessons I learned in business school. It was not due to the competence of my staff of brilliant econometricians and financial wizards.
[...]
As described in my book The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, my job was to convince heads of state of countries with resources our corporations covet, like oil, to accept huge loans from the World Bank and its sister organizations. The stipulation was that these loans would be used to hire our engineering and construction companies, such as Bechtel, Halliburton, and Stone and Webster, to build electric power systems, ports, airports, highways and other infrastructure projects that would bring large profits to those companies and also benefit a few wealthy families in the country, the ones that owned the industries and commercial establishments. Everyone else in the country would suffer because funds were diverted from education, healthcare and other social services to pay interest on the debt. In the end, when the country could not buy down the principal, we would go back and, with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “restructure” the loans. This included demands that the country sell its resources cheap to our corporations with minimal environmental and social regulations and that it privatize its utility companies and other public service businesses and offer them to our companies at cut-rate prices.

It was a strategy of using perceived reality to change objective reality. In these cases, Objective Reality 1 was that the countries had resources. The Perceived Reality was that using those resources as collateral on loans to finance the building of infrastructure projects would create economic growth and prosperity for all the citizens. Objective Reality 2, however, was that economic growth occurred only among the very wealthy. Since economic statistics (GDP) in such countries are skewed in favor of the wealthy, the fact was that only our companies and the wealthy families benefited. The rest of the population suffered. In many cases this has led to political unrest, resentment, and the rise of various forms of radicalism and terrorism.

So when reading the LA Times this morning Despite fears, Mexico's manufacturing boom is lifting U.S. workers
I can't help zeroing in on the one word "some":

The bottom line, say economists and company executives, is that what’s good for Mexico’s factory workers is good for some U.S. workers too.

"some" would be one in this case.

Degenhardt began as a machine operator, making about $5.50 an hour plucking plastic parts from an injection molding machine. He quickly realized that the influx of robots onto the factory’s floor might pose a threat.

“You want to be managing the new automation and technology, and not worried about ‘something is going to take my job away,’” Degenhardt says. So he got an associate degree in electronics, and then in 2006, a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.

Today, Degenhardt earns around $120,000 per year as the plant’s automation manager, supervising about 20 people.

At Evco’s Wisconsin plants, robots do the work Degenhardt once did, pulling just-made plastic from its mold.

“The robots do my [old] job, and I am managing people that manage them,” he says.

LOL the part where it says "So he got an associate degree in electronics, and then in 2006, a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering." because of course that is what every displaced worker can and should do! (drippy sarcasm)

What "a lot of folks don't know", here it is: Hillary Clinton rallies supporters in Las Vegas

Clinton: I'll tell ya something a lot of folks don't know, more than the half of all jobs in 2020 and that's not too long from now, will not require a four year education.

(applause wtf?) Everyone else eat cake?

So, here's how I'm fitting all the pieces together. I wanna make college affordable in fact I want to make it debt free. (applause) I want to help people who already have debts and the families that are burdened by those debts, to be able to pay them back at a lower interest rate, and have them forgiven after a certain period of time.

That is some strange reality where "pay them back at a lower interest rate" means "debt free", meh. " forgiven after a certain period of time". Yeah right, like the period of time it takes to go bankrupt working two full time jobs for crap wages to pay for your worthless degree (see above regarding what "a lot of folks don't know").

Cake!

Edit: fix to/too typo, add link to TPP corruption because of course! Cut it out.

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MarilynW's picture

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To thine own self be true.

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coming from the Right and the Left wings, while Centrist Rs and Ds both tend to support it. This might be seen as an early test of strength for Clinton's new "Coalition of the Established"... which is to say, TPTB of both Parties finding common cause to circle their wagons, as crowds of angry populists gather outside.

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native

CambridgePulsar1919's picture

On McLaughlin group last week, the bobbleheads all agreed that TPP was no big deal and would pass and everyone would just be okay with it..

Except for the detestable-on-all-subjects-but-trade Pat Buchanan, who stated that working class voters on the left and right will tear the system apart if this betrayal takes place, because they just can't give up any more of what little they have left.

The rest of the 1% panelists tried to shout him down, because of course they don't know or care about working people, and they've all got plenty of cake, even if the peons don't want some....

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a favorite contrarian of mine. Though of course he is despised by most liberals, and absolute anathema at TOP. He seems to have more confidence in working class voters than I do, but I can at least hope he's right.

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native

Lily O Lady's picture

This is a reply to "native" above.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

divineorder's picture

"Stop TPP, TTIP, TISA is a vehicle for helping to educate, organize, and mobilize against corporatetl rigged "trade."

https://m.facebook.com/StopTPP.TTIP.TiSA/?tsid=0.39918503994017973&sourc...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Obama is planning at least 30 events to rally suckers for his odious TPP.

That's 30 chances for massive protest IF only we could be prepared. Usually little notice is given -- not more than 2 days.

Anyone have any insight in how to know if Obama (or Clinton, or Kaine) will be showing up near your hometown?

You know all those wonderful "No TPP" signs from the Dem convention? Here is how you get some: 'No-TPP' Signs. Email John Laesch at JohnLaesch@live.com $0.50/each + $18.75 postage (in lots of 25; i.e. 25, 50, 75, 100 ...), Mail check to, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, PO Box 3, Geneva, IL 60134

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