Dem Establishment: "Dear Kiddies, We Know What's Best for You and it's Spelled TPP"

Largely unnoticed, last week, Penny Pritzker, the Secretary of Commerce and former fundraiser in chief for Obama's 2012 camapign, whose billionaire family members are among the largest donors to the Clinton campaign and Clinton SuperPacs, gave a speech in San Diego, in support of passing the TPP this year. Her tone was that of a mother scolding a young child for refusing to take his or her medicine.

She uttered the words slowly and deliberately — as if speaking to a child.

“At home and abroad, we are increasingly fighting the view that suggests we pull up the drawbridge and retreat into isolationism,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said Wednesday in San Diego. “My friends, you all know this. But. That. Will. Not. Work.” [...]

“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s be frank,” said Pritzker, who followed Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf to the auditorium lectern. “The world is watching. American leadership and prosperity are at stake with this agreement.”

Calling the “heated rhetoric” around TPP louder than ever, she urged audience members to make their voices heard.

“We must not let the most progressive trade agreement in our nation’s history … fall victim to our fear of the future,” she said. “Now is the time to secure high-standard trade agreements that reflect our interests and our values.”

Yes, because if we fail to pass the "most progressive trade agreement" in US history, one that will give large transnational corporations the authority to subvert our laws and our Constitution through the use of secretive corporate staffed and run tribunals is clearly a retreat into isolationism.

[T]he pact includes the kind of “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS) provisions written into most major trade deals passed since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Those provisions allow companies to use secretive international tribunals to sue sovereign governments for damages when those governments pass public-interest policies that threaten to cut into a corporation’s profits or seize a company’s property.

If you think this is theoretical nonsense, think again. Under NAFTA the US Government is currently being sued in one of these "investor-state dispute" forums by TransCanada Corp "seeking to recoup $15 billion for the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline ." But rest assured, such matters are best left to the adults, by which I mean wealthy elites such as Penny Pritzker and her family.

“We must get it done this year,” Pritzker said of TPP approval. “We must look to cities like San Diego as a model and help more communities find their own phones, drones and genomes” — specialties for export.

In a 12-minute talk at Qualcomm Hall, she said TPP would lift more than 18,000 foreign tariffs on U.S.-made products, cut red tape and export delays and free up money for expansion — while boosting wages of high-paying jobs on a “level playing field.”

“All of us are excited about TPP,” she said. “Yet we must acknowledge that many of us have friends and neighbors here in San Diego and across the country who are anxious about … another trade deal. Today the American people are more afraid of trade, more anxious about the future and more frustrated with government than ever before.”

Unfortunately for Secretary Pritzker, the record of past trade deals shows they do little if anything to increase jobs in America. Quite the contrary.

For NAFTA’s unhappy 20th anniversary, Public Citizen has published a report that details the wreckage. Not only did promises made by NAFTA’s proponents not materialize, but many results are exactly the opposite.

Such outcomes include a staggering $181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada and the related loss of 1 million net U.S. jobs under NAFTA, growing income inequality, displacement of more than one million Mexican campesino farmers and a doubling of desperate immigration from Mexico, and more than $360 million paid to corporations after “investor-state” tribunal attacks on, and rollbacks of, domestic public interest policies.

Now Hillary Clinton, after much evasion and dodging, last year finally came out against supporting the TPP despite once calling it the "gold standard" of trade deals while traveling around the globe as Secretary of State making speeches promoting the pact. Yes, thank you Bernie Sanders for getting Hillary to announce on the record that the TPP in its present form doesn't meet her high, if somewhat vaguely worded, standards:

[W]e have to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security, and I still believe that is the high bar we have to meet," she said. Clinton said she doesn't believe the Trans-Pacific Partnership between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations "is going to meet the high bar I have set."

Yet, in light of her support by billionaires, like the brother and sister-in-law of Commerce Secretary Pritzker, her recent courting of wealthy Republican donors, who are now flocking to support her, and her campaign to bash Progressive opposition within and without her party, we are asked to believe that Hillary as Madame President will keep her word and oppose passage of the TPP - assuming President Obama fails to secure its approval in a lame duck session of Congress after the general election, which is the major focus of many activists who supported Bernie Sanders.

To me, Hillary's actions speak louder than her words. Republican billionaires are not signing onto her campaign because they believe she will do what's best for the 99 percent. They are acting in their own interests. They obviously are either dupes (unlikely), or they have been promised that Hillary will continue to support the pro-business policies of her predecessor, Barack Obama.

That means that if Obama fails to push the TPP through a lame duck session of Congress, Clinton will undoubtedly and "unexpectedly discover' that it suddenly passes the high bar she set for trade deals. And of course, a plethora of business groups are laying the groundwork for her by issuing endorsements of the TPP that cite its many benefits without once mentioning the potential cost to workers or the drastic impact it will have on the enforcement of our state and federal laws ranging from labor and environmental protections to policies regulating Wall Street.

It is also critical to note that the Democratic Platform does not contain any language opposing the TPP, thanks to Clinton and DNC appointees to the Platform committee who voted against language backed by members of that committee appointed by Sanders who fought for an anti-TPP plank. And don't forget the numerous anti-TPP signs that were either confiscated or ripped out of the hands of Sanders delegates at the DNC convention by Clinton Supporters. Indeed, the head of the US Chamber of Commerce flat out said that Hillary is lying to us now regarding her opposition to the TPP back in January:

The Chamber president said he expected Hillary Clinton would ultimately support the TPP if she becomes the Democratic nominee for president and is elected. He argued that she has publicly opposed the deal chiefly because her main challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has also done so. “If she were to get nominated, if she were to be elected, I have a hunch that what runs in the family is you get a little practical if you ever get the job,” he said.

So vote for "Her" if you like, but don't expect a woman who cannot tell the truth even after her lies have been exposed numerous times, to follow through on any of her alleged promises

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Comments

detroitmechworks's picture

And it still wouldn't be enough.

Reagan and his ilk never went away. They just jumped the gun a little. After all, who better to push the pro-corporate agenda than the party of "the people".

Somebody is having a very sick laugh over this, every single night.

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

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edg's picture

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featheredsprite's picture

I didn't believe it until I met a few. I, of course, was just a worker.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

opposed to the TPP, to name two.

Which unions are you referring to?

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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"

SEIU, AFSME, & NEA

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edg's picture

And she's only against TPP until the election is over and Bernie goes away.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Somebody is having a very sick laugh over this, every single night.

It's better if you imagine those people coming back in the next life as an oversees child textile worker trying to organize a union to fight for a 25 cent an hour raise and getting laughed at by TPTB.

I sleep better at night when I do.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

will have a party on signing day. Shortly afterward, he'll become a venture capitalist for tech startups for which he just tipped the scales.

Then, a year or two later, Hillary Clinton will start touting the TIPP, which will be the final blow to any hope for a world wide middle class. Or even any middle class.

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CambridgePulsar1919's picture

How's that sweet trade deal with S. Korea going Obama?

What? The trade deficit (with S. Korea) has doubled since it's implementation?

Um, yah, just a koinky-dink fer sure.

"most progressive trade deal evah" is sorta like 'least painful anal rape yet".

Sorry, not feeling great today, and the sheer audacity of Obama and $$Hillary's lies really, really get me fired-up.

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Bob In Portland's picture

She set up a "fund" of a half-million dollars, to be controlled by the Mayor of Flint and Chelsea Clinton, for Flint. And then the mayor of Flint endorsed Hillary.

That's how the game is played.

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Christine.MI's picture

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Hillbilly Dem's picture

He said that it would probably be awful.
But, but, but the "experts" say it will be GREAT!

Frank then recalled that a position paper in the 1990s saying that NAFTA would be a net gain for the USA was signed by 100s of "expert" economists. On the other hand, the working stiffs (i.e. the rank and file) said it would be a job killer. The experts were wrong. Oh, it was a gain for some companies who sent the jobs elsewhere, but the country as a whole? The workers were right. It sucked stagnant canal water.

TPP? It's deja vu all over again.

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

that $hillary loves her some TPP. Anyone who ever thought differently is stupid, naive or both. Rule number one, if $hillary is talking, more than likely, she is lying.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

Note that they do not say that they are against the TPP. They just say that it does not meet their standards. If Obama does not manage to get the TPP passed in a lame duck session, and Clinton/Kaine wins Clinton and Kaine win the election. Clinton and Kaine will get a couple of meaningless fig leaf measures added to the TPP in a quick renegotiation and then it will meet their standards and they will push for it whole heartedly.

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Anja Geitz's picture

I'm working on using my sphere of influence to get people to send postcards to their representatives telling them to STOP FAST TRACKING THE TPP. Haven't yet decided the best way to increase the numbers of people I reach outside of by word of mouth or through FB. Am flirting with the idea of going door to door but not sure how I would approach that. Who am I representing? Lol. Myself?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

detroitmechworks's picture

Public Persons Protesting The Trans Pacific Partnership

OR PPPTTPP (Blow a raspberry...)

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

Anja Geitz's picture

The poor schmucks who always get the short end of the stick up their ass, but I fear that won't come across as sympathetic as I need it to. Lol.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Steven D's picture

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Anja Geitz's picture

I will check them out!

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Anja Geitz's picture

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Trade pacts deal with tariffs, dumping, opening markets and the like.

The TPP has only two that discuss this.

TPP is protectionist of absurdly long patents and copyrights forcing other nations to accept our new lengthened ones.
TPP is protectionist in that it restricts entry into the USA for foreign doctors and lawyers and other favored "professionals" from easily working here.

So, Pritzker, Who is isolationist?

(Now when it comes to foreign affairs and Clinton/Obama wars, I'd be in favor of isolationism.)

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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"

Stop voting for the greedy, lying, corrupted politicians that have been playing dirty for decades so they could keep us from knowing exactly how far they will go to keep 'their' aggressive money game going.

It took one decent, honest candidate to break the barrier and tell us exactly how rigged the system is against us, the 90%. The establishment liars hate him for showing his support for principled issues that benefit the 90% and they did their best to destroy his truth.

We need to do for our country and stop voting for politicians that are destroying the Democratic process, our country and the 90% out of existence. Make your vote count for your belief in a better and just system.

Stop enabling the drunken crooks.

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TK

The truth about TPP from perhaps the only honest politician in congress.....

[video:

]

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asked if he and his running mate who are now both anti-tpp, as we now know, (wink, wink), were going to negotiate with Obama over TPP to stop it.

The show cut away just as Kaine started to speak, immediately to Trump's rally.

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as soon as fast track was passed. Lame duck session so HRC wont be blamed for it. TTIP otoh is being harassed in Europe and will depend on how hard the EU fights for it.

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lotlizard's picture

can scare the EU finance and technocrat elite enough to make them back off their destructive, anti-democratic plans.

U.S. voters, take heed. Supporting Clinton and Clintonism is just suicidal.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

*

Though Superior Bank collapsed years before the current sub-prime turmoil that is rocking the world’s financial markets – and pushing those millions of homeowners toward foreclosure – some banking experts say the Pritzkers and Superior hold a special place in the history of the sub-prime fiasco.

“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” Timothy J. Anderson, a whistleblower on financial and bank fraud, told me in an interview.

“The sub-prime mortgages,” Anderson said, “were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”

In other words, if you traced today’s sub-prime crisis back to its origins, you would come upon the role of the Pritzkers and Superior Bank of Chicago.

*

Chicago’s billionaire Pritzker family and their partners bought Lyons Savings for a quite reasonable $42.5 million, but were also given $645 million in tax credits. The kicker was that the buyers only had to come up with $1 million in cash, and got access to the $645 million, and all the bank’s deposits insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).

http://itsoureconomy.us/2013/05/penny-pritzkers-subprime-banking-scandal/

***

This is when my mistrust and dislike for Obama turned to pure scorn and hate. He scammed us from the start.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

How is this not treason?

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TheOtherMaven's picture

Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

Sir John Harington, Epigrams, Book iv, Epistle 5. Compare: "Prosperum ac felix scelus/ Virtus vocatur" ("Successful and fortunate crime/ is called virtue"), Seneca, Herc. Furens, ii. 250.

Sir John Harington (or Harrington) (August 4, 1561 – November 20, 1612) was a courtier, author, and scientist. He became a prominent member of Queen Elizabeth I's court, and was known as her 'saucy Godson'. But because of his poetry and other writings, he fell in and ultimately out of favor with the Queen, as well as with her successor, King James I of England. He is credited with the invention of an early flush toilet. The flush toilet is described in his famous work The Metamorphosis of Ajax which had enjoyed considerable popularity on its publication in 1596.

(Wikipedia)

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Pritzker is just like Jack Lew and Geithner, another corrupt lobbyist sell-out hired to dump on the 99% and the Democratic rank and file, aka. the "inferiors" to the party elite. Obama and Clinton have done permanent damage to the party by giving so much power to these jerks.

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Please enjoy and share this music video on Hillary's transparent dancing on TPP (made even more-so by teaming up with Tim Kaine):
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_XOQOvVa2w]

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