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A Multinational Trojan Horse: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Dave Pruett via Like The Dew blog,

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison in The Federalist Papers.

You don’t have to know much about the “trade” deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to be more than a little suspicious.

First, there are the very peculiar bedfellows. Supporting the TPP are President Obama and most Congressional Republicans, the same Republicans who’ve vehemently opposed his every initiative for the past six and one-half years.

Against the TPP are most (but not all) Congressional Democrats, Ford Motor Company, virtually all trade unions and environmental groups, watchdog groups such as Public Citizen, and usual Obama allies such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who, in a testy open letter to the President on April 25, called for greater transparency on the TPP.

Furthermore, when asked to lend his support for so-called “Fast Track” authority for the TPP, Obama water-carrier and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid chafed, “So the answer is not only no, but hell no.”

Also opposed: liberal icon Noam Chomsky, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee, many Tea-Party groups, and conservative Republican editorialist and former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan. Conspicuous by silence: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

What’s going on here? Why the strange alliances?

Peel back the layers of the TPP and you’ll find what some believe to be a “corporate Trojan horse.” Disguised as “free trade,” the TPP’s provisions and tactics undermine Constitutional safeguards and national sovereignty. But there’s also a silver lining. The TPP exposes who, in the marbled halls of political power, is working for whom. It forces politicians to put their cards on the table, and by their hands you will know them.

In a recent interview, Chomsky called each word false in the euphemism “free trade agreement.” There’s nothing “free” about it. With nearly 30 chapters, only a half-dozen or so about international commerce, it’s not really primarily about “trade.” And, having been conducted in secret, shielded from the watchful eyes of the public and their congressional representatives, it’s hardly a broad “agreement.”

Every citizen has an obligation to find out what’s in this “deal.” That’s difficult, because the Obama administration has decided to treat TPP documents as classified. Indeed, we know the outlines of the TPP only because of leaks.

For a quick primer on what is known, start with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s two-minute video. Follow with Pat Buchanan’s op-ed “Obama’s Republican Collaborators.” And finish with Amy Goodman’s 13-minute interview on Democracy Now! with Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach.

If you still haven’t made up your mind, read the chilling “The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic” by Ellen Brown of the Public Banking Institute. Is it all hyperbole, or could things be as ominous as they seem?

The TPP, which involves 12 nations and 40% of the earth’s trade, has been called “NAFTA on steroids.” (NAFTA, recall, was the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement of 1993 negotiated during the Clinton Presidency). Every such agreement has been sold to the public by the promise that free trade floats all boats. What’s the reality? According to Buchanan, “… almost all [the big trade agreements] have led to soaring trade deficits and jobs lost to the nations with whom we signed the agreements.” Over the past four decades of free trade, America, cites Buchanan, has lost 55,000 factories and 5-6 million manufacturing jobs, all while racking up $11 trillion dollars in trade deficits.

So, who, if anyone, benefits by so-called “free trade?” Only the multinational corporations set “free” to scour the earth for the hottest sweatshops and the cheapest labor. Free trade is a global race to the bottom.

Given the dismal track record of such deals, one would expect future agreements to be negotiated in the light of day by representatives of all stakeholders. So, who’s at the table crafting the TPP?

“The Administration’s 28 trade advisory committees on different aspects of the TPP have a combined 566 members, and 480 of those members, or 85%, are senior corporate executives or industry lobbyists,” the Warren-Brown letter asserts. “Many of the advisory committees — including those on chemicals and pharmaceuticals, textiles and clothing, and services and finance — are made up entirely of industry representatives.” Absent from that table are all congressional representatives.

In April, the Obama administration began the process of petitioning Congress for “Fast Track” authority on the TPP. Some believe that Fast Track (which originated with Richard Nixon) is executive usurpation of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: “The Congress shall have the power… to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” An end run around Congress, Fast Track minimizes oversight and public debate. It cedes negotiating authority to the executive branch and then binds Congress to an up or down vote, severely constrained by time and without adequate discussion or filibuster.

Where are the hair-on-fire Republicans incensed over the imperial presidency of Barack Obama? Firmly in Obama’s camp! The self-proclaimed party of the Constitution, the family, and God seems only too happy to sell out all three to its prime constituencies: Wall Street and K-Street. Buchanan admits the painful truth: “Fast Track is the GOP payoff to its bundlers and big donors.”

The most troubling aspect of the TPP, asserts Ellen Brown, is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, which “first appeared in a bilateral trade agreement in 1959.” Brown continues:

According to The Economist, ISDS gives foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever the government passes a law … that [negatively impacts] corporate profits — such things as discouraging smoking, protecting the environment or preventing nuclear catastrophe.

Imagine a scenario in which the U.S., coming to its senses about climate change, imposes a revenue-neutral carbon fee on fossil energy. According to provisions of the TPP, a fossil-fuel company in a signatory nation could then sue the U.S. for lost profits, real or imagined.

The threat is not idle. In 2012, the U.S.’s Occidental Petroleum received an ISDS settlement of $2.3 billion from the government of Ecuador because of that country’s apparently legal termination of an oil-concession contract. Currently, the Swedish nuclear-power utility Vattenfall is suing the German government for $4.7 billion in compensation, following Germany’s phase-out of nuclear plants in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

The ISDS provisions of the TPP are insidious: the means by which signatory nations voluntarily surrender national sovereignty to the authority of corporate tribunals, without appeal, and apparently without exit provisions. No wonder the negotiations are secret.

Packaged as a gift to the American people that will renew industry and make us more competitive, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a Trojan horse. It’s a coup by multinational corporations who want global subservience to their agenda. Buyer beware. Citizens beware.

 

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Sat, 05/09/2015 - 20:52 | 6076983 stant
stant's picture

Gant sucking sound 2.0

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:04 | 6077004 InjectTheVenom
InjectTheVenom's picture

we gotta pass it before we can know what's in it !

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:19 | 6077007 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

It's a S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E !!!  The 5 year wait to find out what is in it will be worth it. Honest.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:21 | 6077043 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

We need to make that Core Educated Tolerant ( C A T ):

Sprise!!

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:30 | 6077066 macholatte
macholatte's picture

 

 

YOU just have to learn to deal with it.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/05/06/bill_clinton_there_is_...

 

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:40 | 6077092 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

Its got what America craves, its got electrolytes!!

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:21 | 6077183 Comte de Saint ...
Comte de Saint Germain's picture

National Sovereignty?

In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the said United States never gained a full independent status per se, nor did the British Monarchy grant those colonies such privilege:

Transcript of Treaty of Paris (1783)

The Definitive Treaty of Peace 1783

In the Name of the most Holy & undivided Trinity.

It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the Hearts of the most Serene and most Potent Prince George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and Lunebourg, Arch- Treasurer and Prince Elector of the Holy Roman Empire etc.. and of the United States of America...

Article 1st: His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States; that he treats with them as such, and for himself his Heirs & Successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, Propriety, and Territorial Rights of the same and every Part thereof.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/print_friendly.php?page=transcript&doc=6&tit...

Additionally, the United States hasn't abrogated Inter Caetera nor do they have such powers.

Coincidence that Benjamin Franklin negotiated on behalf of the United States the Treaty of Paris and acted as liaison with His Holiness Pope Pius VI?

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 00:12 | 6077384 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

Truth, it's what is NOT for dinner...

Treaties and Partnerships like this are just more ringfencing.

If you look at the EU pre and post, there, right there is the tell.

If you look at India pre and post british, right there too, is a tell. India was never a nation as such.

Inexorable march to teh cliff-edge, who'll turn the tide?

We? Oui?

Sequence 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzESrhRrkTI

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 05:05 | 6077583 winchester
winchester's picture

reel question is..... will EU got american weapons  20% discount ?

 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 12:59 | 6078247 smlbizman
smlbizman's picture

hey, if it gets us to the end faster....fasterer track that mutherfucker.....

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 21:40 | 6079653 zhandax
zhandax's picture

No prob, I will assume something this secret hitting the blogsphere means it is now a done deal; or as the talking balloons on teevee say, 'Achieved sufficient momentum to overcome bipartisanship in congress'.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 08:21 | 6077748 Muddy1
Muddy1's picture

The author is a real dumbass.  NAFTA is NOT North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement.  It IS North America Free Trade Agreement.  If the author can't get something that simple right what other facts are wrong?

Where is Ralph Nader in all of this dicussion?  He was against NAFTA as I recall.

 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 00:22 | 6077398 Shawnee
Shawnee's picture

the very definition of a stool sample......you gotta pass it to see whats in it.  as with everything w/ king hussein all stool all the time

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:06 | 6077882 DuneCreature
DuneCreature's picture

Up one - Nice analogy, unsavory visuals. …. I like it.

~ DC

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 20:55 | 6076988 AIIB
AIIB's picture

TROY

 

Achilles: I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_5ayprT6LM

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 20:55 | 6076991 Shad_ow
Shad_ow's picture

If Obama is for it, why would any of us want it?  Everything that man touches smells. I am sure that includes Michelle and certainly Reggie.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 20:57 | 6076995 The_Prisoner
The_Prisoner's picture

The fascists currently in power in Australia love the TPP.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:26 | 6077195 farmerunder
farmerunder's picture

I wonder if they really love it, or know they will be cutoff if they dont tow the line of our so called coalition of the willing. I saw an article here in Aust recently that said we would be ahead financially according to US modelling, WTF?, who relies on others to tell them what is good for them?. We are just puppets of these globalists and I hope I wake up one day and the zombies have realised whats going on around them.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 05:56 | 6077629 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

But everbody will be better off under TPP. Free poniez and unicorns for everyone. A glorious utopia awaits. But step into this shower room first.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:00 | 6077874 espirit
espirit's picture

If Unicorns taste anything like Ponies, I'm in.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:16 | 6077891 fel.temp.reparatio
fel.temp.reparatio's picture

So did the fascists previously in power in Australia. Here's Gillard talking it up before knowing what it even was.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:01 | 6076997 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

There is even a gun grab in there. 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:44 | 6077107 The_Prisoner
The_Prisoner's picture

There's everything in there. The corporations will have free reign to sue countries for regulating their products.

It's Big Agriculture and Big Pharma wet dream.For no country will be able to appose the use of any product once proved by the "honest" FDA.

The court will be selected by the corporations as well.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:04 | 6077158 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

So the Government "creates inflation" by simply printing fiat monies without any backing and then "big business" responds by saying "give us free trade or your free shit army is dead."

Sounds pretty simple to me.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:36 | 6077213 farmerunder
farmerunder's picture

One thing I have worked out about humans is that they fail to act/respond unless they are directly affected by something. We really are a selfish, self centred animal, that cares for not much apart from ourselves. I aslo note with interest that people who seem to have the least in this world are the more giving and are "awake" to whats going on around them. I believe that until our socieities are purged of the free shit u speak of, the zombies will rule the streets.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 07:03 | 6077665 GCT
GCT's picture

The treaty should be called the free labor trade agreement.  Cheap labor is all this treaty is about as the big boy club shifts factories to these lower labor countries.  The repubs along with Clinton (by the way who gets most of the blame for NAFTA in a Republican controlled Congress at the time) passed NAFTA.  China is getting expensive!

@The prisoner

Big business does not sue the government as that would require using a country's legal system.  ISDS allows business to arbitrate in SECRET no less with arbitraters employed by 15 of the largest laws firms in the world.  There are 15 to 20 arbitrators in the world that work for these firms.  They meet in secret without using any legal system but their own.  The arbatrator's decision is final period and cannot be appealed.  Oh and by the way these same law firms represent the same big corporations in our legal system. These 15 to 20 people control the world with their decisions without any government of the world able to appeal the decision.  Their decisions also put you and I and all people on the hook for their decisions.  Corporations can arbitrate for almost anything but most of it is being done for a preceived loss of profits with regulations.  The EPA wants cleaner air well they can arbitrate to get it over turned along with the fines levied against our country because they may lose profits complying with the new regulation. 

Now if you or I,or for that matter any level of government that signs this treaty wants to enforce a regulation and a corporation, we must use our legal system.  So I guess our legal systems suck if your a big mega corporation as it apears it is too primitive for the big biy club.  The rest of us pleebs must use this screwed up system and spend more then most ever make to fight these corporations. The ISDS is insidious and takes all rights of all government away.  This treaty will most likely pass and we will once again take another big fucking screwing as good paying jobs in this country go away.

What really bothers me to be honest all is why people do not do some research on some of this shit.  We all know Dems and Repubs are corrupt and yet we allow these fuckers to pass and sign shit like this to basically fuck the good people of the world.  No matter how it is stated or how it is presented to the public these treaties are job killers as corporations seek the cheapest and least regulated labor pools.  Right now Vietnam and Cambodia are primary recipients of new factories for global corporations.  Why?  Because labor is cheaper then China and other countries now!  China has threated these countries for some time now.

Prisoner you speak of approval by the FDA and there was a case in Canada where their FDA disapproved a drug and the corporation arbitrated and won.  Canada must now sell the product and the taxpayer paid I think 400 million in damages.  ISDS is a corporations dream to fuck us all.  Yet us pleebs must use the legal system, what a sham.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:04 | 6077881 espirit
espirit's picture

You really need to watch the movie 'Idiocracy'.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 12:36 | 6078190 Farqued Up
Farqued Up's picture

Rejoice! GMOs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Let those pesky Europeans eat cake, baked with GMO flour, of course. 

Worldwide!

Monsanto is running for Soylent Green status! And all of this time I've been brainwashed into thinking it was Exxon, alas, they have lost their mojo. Monsanto is Dr Evil and the POTUS is Minime.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:27 | 6077308 True Blue
True Blue's picture

And didn't I see something about more 'guest workers'?

The Civilization cycle is the amplified induction wave of the business cycle.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:01 | 6076998 unicorn
unicorn's picture

finally zerohedge goes against this treaty. good.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 01:06 | 6077434 DeusHedge
DeusHedge's picture

This obviously supports corporate power when globalization is about to have full impact, but way long term it may not be so bad.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 08:00 | 6077726 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

no tariffs-hate the tariff-think of the children...93 million out of work in usa with these past trade deals, this new one will fix that, 150 million out of work is coming..

the wonder of central fiat banks and income tax- gave america the tools to build an empire for a world elite..

multi national mega corps and banks...and standard of living in the west was raped..

too many dot's to connect

(if america stayed with the pre 1913 funding of fed gov (tariff income only) could we have fought in iraq and afganistan? how many fewer wars and civilian deaths would have been avoided)

eyes wide shut. kill the banksters and the free trade pols.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:06 | 6077885 espirit
espirit's picture

Just think of putting the chillun's to work for slave wages.

It'll keep them off the streets at night.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:02 | 6077000 Elliott Eldrich
Elliott Eldrich's picture

It's not just that the TPP is a hideous monstrosity, or that the more one learns about it the more it appears to be nothing less than a globalist coup; it's seeing how utterly servile our so-called "leaders" are to these corporatist bastards. "We The People" are no longer represented in any meaningful way, that much is painfully obvious. 

"When in the Course of human events..."

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:10 | 6077005 suteibu
suteibu's picture

It's just flat out treason against the peoples of sovereign nations....all of them.

Every person that signs their name to this pact, regardless of their nationality, should be subject to 17th and 18th century-style maritime punishment...televised live.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 13:53 | 6078382 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

TPP = legalized treason

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:07 | 6077013 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

Moar Treason.....

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:17 | 6077035 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

If that's at all possible.

They are dialed in at  11 on the treason scale already...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:25 | 6077058 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

I guess anything goes when there is no one who will hold them accountable or bring them to Justice.....

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:43 | 6077105 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

Considering this is something akin to double top secret, I am surprised anyone heard about it at all.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:51 | 6077962 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

TPTB are going to Jade Helm all of US anr replace US with Chinese.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:49 | 6077245 MedTechEntrepreneur
MedTechEntrepreneur's picture

Somebody...please get this party started! We have no other recourse at this point!

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 12:44 | 6078201 Farqued Up
Farqued Up's picture

Treason is increasing exponentially. The collapse will follow the same trajectory. Collapse will have many facets.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 14:04 | 6078395 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

An minute and half long video metaphor for the "economy:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcGM6maGGk

Exploding iceberg in Antarctica!

Bit by bit, the people that control the people that control the government of the USA have been hollowing its economic system out. They want to destroy the republic, and they are clearly succeeding in doing so. I can not think of anything but implausible series of political miracles that could change that … There MUST come some time in the future when that video above is a good metaphor for what finally has to happen. However, the difference is that the collapse of the American economic system is on an astronomically amplified scale, with consequences that are quite impossible to fully imagine.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:15 | 6077028 rejected
rejected's picture

Just like NAFTA, CAFTA and the rest,,, the scum in DC will ratify it. It wil be unconstitutional like most other treaties and law passed but who pays attention to that relic in these modern days.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 14:55 | 6078540 Trucker Glock
Trucker Glock's picture

Unconstitutional?  Isn't it the Constitution that grants them the power to do this dirty shit?  Wake up, Constitution-huggers.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:15 | 6077029 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

I'm sure that it will be well worth waiting the 5 years after passage to find out about! Honest Injun since these guys are all real schmart lawyers!

Besides all those other trade deals that sent all that nasty industrial pollution of ours over to China and Mexico worked out real well in the end didn't they?

Except for China becoming the Pentagons new #1 fake enemy and all...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:25 | 6077055 Wild Theories
Wild Theories's picture

TPP includes every major nation in the Asia-pacific but China, including Vietnam, so no, that's seeing China as a real enemy, not fake.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:31 | 6077068 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

So you are telling me China is not already maximizing it's exports with most favored nation status?

Read Brandon Smith's articles sometime. This is the Globalists NWO agenda.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 00:47 | 6077413 Wild Theories
Wild Theories's picture

So you are telling me you are not aware that China has a competing free-trade-zone thing going on for the exact same Asia-Pacific area through ASEAN that includes pretty much everyone on the TPP list but the US? almost like, an exact counter version of the American TPP?

 

Try reading some real world news, buddy.

 

and what's your logic? because they are already exporting to the US they don't need to be in a multinational trade deal that include countries other than the US because their Most favored nation deal with the US makes inclusion in a trade agreement with other non-US countries redundant? 

...hence China's non-inclusion in the TPP is easily explainable by the fact the US is the entire world to armchair bloggists and China certainly don't need trade deals with anyone else but the US, hence China must be America best friend to not have been included in an US-led multinational trade deal because why would they need to trade with anyone else when they've got a good deal with the US already.

am I following your fucked up logic correctly?

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:11 | 6077890 espirit
espirit's picture

This reeks of strange bedfellows.

China owns the USSA.  Sun Tzu mirage.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:49 | 6077954 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Haha, the PRC owns Bath House, too.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 20:31 | 6079459 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

MFN status is over, China is Full Member of UN and WTO.

I think that is how it worked.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:30 | 6077072 Elliott Eldrich
Elliott Eldrich's picture

"Except for China becoming the Pentagons new #1 fake enemy and all..."

Like that wasn't the plan all along. The Military-Congressional-Industrial complex must be fed.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:17 | 6077034 Normalcy Bias
Normalcy Bias's picture

...And they'll ridicule whoever speaks out against the TPP as a nut (just as they did with Perot, who time has proven was speaking the truth about NAFTA).

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:25 | 6077052 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

I can still remember that traitor Limbaugh ridiculing him and calling him a hand grenade with a bad haircut...

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2008/01/17/little_hand_grenade_with_a_...

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:48 | 6077114 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

I guess Rush's list of people he had harmed, and was willing to make amends to them (should have), included Perot?  Rush had a hell of a drug problem when he was shooting his fool mouth off. 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 01:31 | 6077448 MeBizarro
MeBizarro's picture

Truly repugnant individual which is saying alot for media issues.  He refuses to engage in any conversation today regarding the drug topic.  Also love to hear him ranting about gay rights especially gay marriage on any issue given his beard wives.  

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:46 | 6077946 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

That fucker gives out just enough info, but never takes on TPTB or the Fed, etc.

Of course, he would likely have a fatal accident if he did.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 22:01 | 6077147 Dixie Flatline
Dixie Flatline's picture
  • http://www.ontheissues.org/Ross_Perot.htm
  • OpEd: made deficit reduction a proxy for public virtue. (Aug 2008)
  • Donated land for commercial airport in Fort Worth. (Sep 2000)
  • Building new businesses is key to country's future. (Sep 1996)
  • Weak dollar means weak America. (Jul 1996)
  • Lack of Balanced Budget Amendment caused dollar’s decline. (Jul 1996)
  • Idea for Balanced Budget Amendment began in 1787. (Jul 1996)
  • Balanced Budget in 1970s equals $15,500 more income now. (Jul 1996)
  • Tax incentives to encourage corporate & personal savings. (Jul 1996)
  • Stabilize dollar with central bank intervention. (Jul 1996)
  • OpEd: Balanced budget mania swept country in 1992. (Jun 1994)
  • United We Stand America: Focus on economy & debt. (Jan 1993)
  • Limit power to tax; expand power to intervene in market. (Nov 1992)
  • More federal involvement in business. (Nov 1992)
  • Will balance budget in six years by adding jobs. (Oct 1992)
  • Change rules to foster small business investment & growth. (Jul 1992)
  • Congress needs to be held accountable for enormous debt. (Jul 1992)
  • Marijuana is the 1st step; tough penalties needed. (Sep 2000)
  • Assisted Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" program. (Sep 2000)
  • We're 5% of world's population but use 50% of cocaine. (Sep 2000)
  • Can’t overstate the damage that drugs are doing. (Jan 1998)
  • Never hires people who use drugs or alcohol. (Sep 1996)
  • Cordon off ghettoes to "vacuum up" guns & drugs. (Jul 1993)
  • Longer sentences and more enforcement will solve drug war. (Jul 1993)
  • Drug traffickers will take advantage of open Mexican border. (Jan 1993)
  • Deal with drug problem in military terms. (Nov 1992)
  • Make drug treatment available to all addicts. (Jul 1992)
  • No right to own machine guns. (Jul 1996)
  • Enact strict gun control laws. (Nov 1992)

Perot was a mixed bag.  He may have been correct about NAFTA, but many of his ideas were not going to gain any traction when facing the pit of vipers that is congress.  I wasn't old enough to vote in that election, but I remember thinking positively about Perot's approach and attempt to educate as he laid out his policy ideas.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:19 | 6077036 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

Quick !!!

Get This Story On The National News !!!

!?!?!?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:25 | 6077054 suteibu
suteibu's picture

Yep...the people bribing the White House and Congress to pass this thing are the same people who decide what is news.  Any report on this will seem like an advertisement for the deal.

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:26 | 6077059 stant
stant's picture

The news has been nationalized

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:41 | 6077098 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

Got a particular nation in mind?

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 20:27 | 6079450 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

He means a Police State, State controlled Press.

You got it. No nation involved. Racketeering.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:27 | 6077063 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

What I don't understand is why no one is taking this to court. How the fuck does ANY govt. give itself the right to hand over the sovereignity of the people's nation?

How is this even Constitutional?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:50 | 6077118 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

How the fuck does ANY govt. give itself the right to hand over the sovereignity of the people's nation?

Well, it started in 1492.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:53 | 6077125 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

This what the US has been doing to other countries for half a century to benefit big US banks and big US businesses (and what John Perkins seems utterly incapable of properly explaining in hundreds of pages).  The US is the cherry on the Sunday, and the key transitioning from corporate persons to corporate sovereigns.

Private International Law is actually important to attracting investment and providing legitimate protections to foreign investors who do risk their capital, but it should not be used as tool for protecting the monopolies/oligarchies of Big Banks and Multinationals.

 

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:36 | 6077335 Rhal
Rhal's picture

Well said UR. 

It echos of Gemanys slide into facism doesn't it?

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 20:26 | 6079447 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Then are these multinationals above all countries, is the International Law & Court above All countries, or is this the plan to leverage capital from the USA... over to a new superpower like China with Fascist Rules??

BIS
UN
League of Nations
WTO
IMF/WB

Germany yes maybe, State Claims Factories, Resources, Assets, and allows corporate buddies to hold on to profits, power, status, and control.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:04 | 6077868 Dewey Cheatum Howe
Dewey Cheatum Howe's picture

Don't put too much faith in that Constitution. Here is why.

If trial by jury has to be unanimous for conviction why is it not the same for the Supreme Court?

The question is where does the Supreme Court get the Constitutional right to rule on 'supreme' laws of the land by simple majority?

It doesn't, read it for yourself.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii

If the Supreme Court was mandated by the Constitution to rule unanimously on all cases something like Obamacare or controversial laws would never be able to be rammed into law by a simple 5 to 4 ruling in the first place.

The Supreme Court is rigged when needed. They can pressure someone to switch their votes like Roberts did or use things like Court packing to change justices as needed or add as many new ones until you get the ruling you want.

Yes the amount of Justices on the Supreme Court is not mandated by the Constitution either. It is an arbitrary number determined by Congress or the President. It used to be determined by the number of appellate courts at one point.

As far as court packing goes the most egregious example under Ulysses Grant.

This involves legal tender laws and fiat system we have in place now.

The first case was Hepburn v. Griswold, 75 U.S. 603 (1870).

It was struck down 4 to 3 and ended the legal tender laws that allowed the government to print money backed by nothing to fund the Civil War. Basically forced the Treasury to go back to printing money backed by gold and silver.

BTW legal tender laws violate the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution because they allow for compensation of property without fair value exchange. That was the rational behind the majority opinion handed down by Justice Salmon P. Chase. The context here is this during the Reconstruction era so the North had to pay for destroyed property, rebuilding it and such in the South.

Ulysses Grant added 2 more justices to the Supreme Court the very same day the laws were struck down and the case was tried again a year later.

Knox v. Lee and Parker v. Davis was passed 5 to 4 same Justices who voted 4 to 3 prior with the 2 new Justices voting for overturning Hepburn v. Griswold and reinstating the legal tender laws which are the basis for the modern monetary fiat system.

Don't put too much faith in the legal systems period....

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:27 | 6077902 Dewey Cheatum Howe
Dewey Cheatum Howe's picture

Just to expand on the 5th amendment and reconstruction after the Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Const...

...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The important part is just compensation. Reparations to the South and such had to be paid for somehow in the rebuilding process. You can't legally compensate someone for loss of property using an IOU, there has to be an equivalent tangible exchange equivalent that the value is agreed upon. Greenbacks didn't have this associated with them since they were backed by nothing an IOU is not tangible, it is a promise with no tangible backing unlike pre Civil War dollars that could be redeemed for gold and silver. Eminent domain laws are unconstitutional for this reason also unless you are compensated with property of equal value or some other tangible equivalent.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:31 | 6077074 BI2
BI2's picture

How'bout this Trojan Horse >>> http://wp.me/p4OZ4v-3z

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:44 | 6077108 CHC
CHC's picture

I'm a simple man.  Here's how I sniff out the good and bad.  If Obama is for it - then I'm against it.  Simple.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:57 | 6077136 Brazen Heist
Brazen Heist's picture

TPP is about perpetuating the parasitic and anti-competitive models of a few monopoly men with greyed out hair and Armani suits. They will get the powers to sue national governments, delay generic drug brands, extend patents.

TPP = putting profit ahead of people, in other words, business as usual for the scum suckers pushing for it.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:06 | 6077278 foghorn leghorn
foghorn leghorn's picture

This will probably be the last straw that broke the camel's back for me. There is no real reason for me to remain in this country. So when this thing passes I will give it a chance and if it turns out worse I'm gone. As a matter of fact I'm pretty positive that it will.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 06:11 | 6077639 dogismycopilot
dogismycopilot's picture

the problem is once you leave America you will very quickly realize that our country is great.

it's the US Federal Government and politicians that are the problem.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 06:28 | 6077649 Farmer Joe in B...
Farmer Joe in Brooklyn's picture

Very true, but until that cancer is removed, I share the sentiment of the previous commenter. 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 09:10 | 6077801 pupdog1
pupdog1's picture

Problem is, most of the rest of the world now hates the Yank.

And five years from now, this will seem like the good old days.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:17 | 6077298 Super Hans
Super Hans's picture

As a side note had an Indian woman come in and ordered 10 lamb chops at $50 total, but when she tried to pay with her EBT it was declined.  The front end Supervisor brought the order back to our meat dept.  I was shocked, but I guess that I should not have been.  I could hardly even understand her English, I assumed, that she was the spouse of some H1B or whatever visa holder's wife.  Just another WTF is going on moment.

I'm in the deep south.. I had to got to our county family services main office a few years ago, for an unrelated matter, and what I saw was shocking!  If I had removed every Mexican from the waiting room their would have been maybe a dozen blacks and a few white people, the rest were all Mexican or Latinos; keep in mind that this was a HUGE lobby!  Just another WTF  moment.

I assume that this trade deal will just sail on by, and make it into law, just like everything else these days!

Everyone is so dumbed down, it is really tragic. Of course, the history of human nature teaches us that we do not make changes until too late; in most cases.

 

SH

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:22 | 6077305 SillySalesmanQu...
SillySalesmanQuestion's picture

TPP= Take it in the Posterior People
This is so easy to oppose...just like GS recommending a buy posistion for their clients. We'll be muppetized and look just like Tyler's Kermit photo.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:24 | 6077312 Vendetta
Vendetta's picture

Treason done dirt cheap

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:27 | 6077318 Laddie
Laddie's picture

Secret Deal Could Contain a Myriad of Gun Restrictions, Ammo Bans! 07 May 2015

Gun import bans ... Microstamping of firearms ... Ammunition bans ... The full implementation of the anti-gun UN Arms Trade Treaty ... Illegal amnesty which locks in millions of new, anti-gun voters.

This anti-gun wish list could be part of the secret trade agreement that President Obama is getting ready to spring on the Congress.

This trade pact is called “fast track,” and what it means is that Obama can write any form of gun control he chooses into a trade agreement -- import bans, amnesty, etc.

And this agreement DOESN’T need two-thirds vote in the Senate, as a treaty would. When completed, the agreement is merely subject to a majority vote in both Houses ... it can't be filibustered ... it can't be amended ... and the GOP can't refuse to consider it.
Top Secret TPP means you won’t know what’s in the bill

DICK MORRIS: Obama Sneaking in 'Unrestricted Immigration' in Trade Deal

Dick Morris said the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPA) fast track being supported by many Republicans has a provision that allows for the “free flow of workers” between countries, essentially creating a backdoor to “unrestricted immigration.”
“This is huge. I hope everybody listening takes action call your senator about it. If he is a Republican he is voting wrong. “I dont think that people understand that in this deal which is a trade agreement among Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, there’s a provision for free flow of workers, just like in the European Union. What It means is unrestricted immigration. It means literally that congress would not have the authority to restrict immigration because a treaty supersedes a statute under our constitution.”

Obama’s Republican Collaborators
By Patrick J. Buchanan April 21, 2015

When we look back to NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, MFN and PNTR for China, the Korean-U.S. free trade deal, CAFTA with Central America — almost all have led to soaring trade deficits and jobs lost to the nations with whom we signed the agreements.

As for the bureaucrats and politicians who promised us big new markets for exports, rising trade surpluses, better jobs — were they simply ignorant, or were they knowingly lying to us?

No one can be that wrong for that long. The law of averages is against it.

SESSIONS: Trade deal opens immigration floodgates

'Living Agreement' can be changed after Congress approves

McConnell vows to move Obama 'fast-track' authority 'very soon'; 'I want to compliment the President'

Trump: 'A Bad, Bad Deal'

Sessions demands deal be made public

Senator Jeff Sessions Sends Letter to Obama on Trade Pact: Make ‘Living Agreement’ Provision Public before ‘Fast-Track’ Vote, May 6, 2015

The first international trade and regulatory agreement that would be expedited under “fast-track” is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. This is one of the largest international compacts in the history of the United States. Yet, this agreement will be kept a closely-guarded secret until after Congress agrees to yield its institutional powers and provide the Administration with a guaranteed “fast-track” to adoption.

The U.S. ran a record $51.4 billion trade deficit in March, the highest-level recorded in six years. This is especially concerning since assurances were made from the Administration that the recent South Korea free trade deal would “increase exports of American goods by $10 billion to $11 billion.” But, in fact, American domestic exports to Korea increased by only $0.8 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent, while imports from Korea increased $12.6 billion, an increase of 22.5 percent. Our trade deficit with Korea increased $11.8 billion between 2011 and 2014, an increase of 80.4 percent, nearly doubling in the three years since the deal was ratified.

Overall, we have already lost more than 2.1 million manufacturing jobs to the Asian Pacific region since 2001.

Former Nucor Steel Chairman Daniel DiMicco argues that we have not been engaged in free trade but in “unilateral trade disarmament and enablement of foreign mercantilism.”

Due to the enormity of what is at stake, I believe it is essential Congress have answers to the following questions before any vote is scheduled on “fast-track” authority.

1. Regarding the “Living Agreement”: There is a “living agreement” provision in TPP that allows the agreement to be changed after adoption—in effect, vesting TPP countries with a sweeping new form of global governance authority. TPP calls this new global authority the “Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission.” These measures are unprecedented. While I and other lawmakers have been able to view this provision in secret, I believe it must be made public before any vote is scheduled on TPA, due to the extraordinary implications. I call on you today to make that section of TPP public for the American people to see and review.

2. Regarding trade deficits: Will TPP increase or reduce our cumulative trade deficit with TPP countries overall, and with Japan and Vietnam specifically?

3. Regarding jobs and wages: Will TPP increase or reduce the total number of manufacturing jobs in the United States generally, and American auto-manufacturing jobs specifically, accounting for jobs lost to increased imports? Will average hourly wages for U.S. workers, including in the automobile industry, go up or down and by how much?

4. Regarding China: Can TPP member countries add new countries, including China, to the agreement without future Congressional approval?

5. Regarding foreign workers: TPA is a six-year authority. Can you state unconditionally that no agreement or executive action throughout the lifetime of TPA will alter the number, duration, availability, expiration enforcement, rules, or processing time of guest worker, business, visitor, nonimmigrant, or immigrant visas to the United States?

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:32 | 6077326 Rhal
Rhal's picture

It looks like the Security and Prosperity Partnership all over again. Sovereign power given over to the tri-lateral commission.

 I remember Canada's PM Harper tried passing that as a "Maritime agreement" in order to bypass parliament. But enough Members of Parliament got wind of it and helped quash it. 

I hope this dies like the SPP. Time to look up my MPs email again... ;)

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:51 | 6077351 holdbuysell
holdbuysell's picture

Capital vs. Labor repeat of centuries old.

When capital buys the governments with the help of central banks, labor has a problem.

That's what we're seeing now.

The winds of change know this.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 23:52 | 6077353 pupdog1
pupdog1's picture

Obama's attempt to do this in secret is fundamentally un-American.

It is time to look at all his activities from this point of view.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 00:11 | 6077381 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"A Zionist Trojan Horse: The Trans-Pacific Partnership"

But then since Zion is already amongst us...

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 00:59 | 6077427 lester1
lester1's picture

Obama in 2008 said as President he would renegotiate NAFTA. But to this day he has done nothing. Many fools like myself voted for Obama in hopes he would bring our jobs back from overseas like he said he would.

 

Obama proved he is a two faced liar. This will be his legacy, even with liberals.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 01:18 | 6077440 MeBizarro
MeBizarro's picture

Nah he is just a New Democrat Network type which is a 'centrist Democrat' organization.  Same repackaged and rebundled shit as most of the corporate whores on the right have been pushing for a long time that are Chamber of Commerce lapdogs and have been since before NAFTA.

It is too bad the left and right don't realize they have a lot more in common than they think (against massive state surveillance, against the drug war & prison state, against foreign adventurism and the massive military overseas expenditures, against BS like this which is under the guide of 'free state', etc) and they really should do a lot more to channel their efforts to focus on these commonalities instead of fracturing off and getting carved up in the 2-party system we have.  America and the American people would be a lot better off as a result.  

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 01:25 | 6077444 MeBizarro
MeBizarro's picture

This is how brazen and completely FU this conversation has become where Nike 'promises' to add 10k domestic manufacturing and engineering jobs after Obama appeared there if the TPP passes.  Nevermind that Nike refuses to disclose (as any large corporate company in the US does today) what its hiring has been in the US in recent years when asked.  Instead they only give the blanket 26k employees answer in the U.S.  

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/05/08/Nike-TPP-Just-Do-It-and-Well-Cr...

Does Nike really think that the American public is really is fucking stupid?  Apparently so.  

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 06:24 | 6077646 Farmer Joe in B...
Farmer Joe in Brooklyn's picture

The answer is "yes"

They pulled one or two positive talking points to dupe the public, knowing full well the American public is too stupid and apathetic to dig any further.

The US is quickly swirling down the drain and it is our own damn fault for not sounding the alarm.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 02:12 | 6077483 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

TPP will fall quicker than Reggie going down on Obama. 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 02:27 | 6077494 zerospin
zerospin's picture

The Bought sell us.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 03:42 | 6077538 billl
billl's picture

Let's make the United States the best place in the world to live and do business. Repealing and replacing Obamacare with GovCare, (yet to be drafted) and repealing all federal taxes and abolishing the IRS and replacing them with the Fair Tax HR25 could bring remarkable and immediate health and tax benefits to everyone living and doing business in the United States and this should be done today, before the 2016 elections. Bonus benefits learned from FairTax direct computer payment deposit systems interacting with citizens using their social security numbers for Prebates could also demonstrate an efficient way to make safety net payments directly to the people who will spend the money paid directly to them. Limited government could be achieved instantly at local, state and federal government levels by allowing millions of current government employees to instantly retire and go home to enjoy their retirement benefits that taxpayers will fund gleefully for the luxury of attaining instant limited government. President Obama and the 535 legislators in office today should get this done as fast as the banks and Wall Street were bailed out and they need to do it now before the 2016 elections Millions of off shore jobs could be brought home and starting and operating new or existing businesses in the US will be simpler and businesses will no longer be forced to pay any taxes or be required to pay for or be involved with healthcare in any way. The US would instantly become the worlds best tax haven for individuals and businesses. Businesses from all over the world would flock to the US to locate here and employe millions of Americans because the US will be the, healthiest, easiest, most profitable, least bureaucratic, fairest and freest place on the planet to enjoy life, to make money and to make dreams come true. HR 25 Fair Tax sales tax only collections will be revenue-neutral and will provide all the money required to pay for social security and all existing federal programs. A $trillion could be saved annually, from the $3trillion spent for healthcare in 2014 and by repealing and replacing Obama Care and adding a second free “GovCare” choice everyone in the United States will have choices for access to far superior care and payment options than is being provided today. Pass the Fair Tax HR 25 Abolish the IRS and all federal taxes by passing the (FairTax HR25) and hopefully all states will switch to consumption taxes too modeled after the Fair Tax for all of their revenue requirements. Pass GovCare, (yet to be drafted}. Two basic healthcare choices would be offered for everyone in the US to select from. 1. Choice one: use your own money to purchase anything you want to buy from existing healthcare industry hospitals, health insurers, doctors, drug stores, medication and medical supply sellers. 2. Choice two: select to use a new free one stop single payer government operated system called GovCare where all care and services will be delivered to patients for free and funded by collecting sales taxes to eliminate todays healthcare industry's high profit markups and expensive administrative and expensive bureaucracy costs of dealing with insurance programs and copays. Every patient will have a multitude of choices of where they might voluntarily chose to spend their own money for purchasing any insurance or care from any of the non government funded providers competing for healthcare customers. Patients will be able to go back and forth between free GovCare or non government pay for care providers and insurance companies. Healthcare customers and patients can mix and match, use only free GovCare or purchase whatever insurance or care they want to buy from existing systems or they may choose to never use either system. Everyone in the US regardless of their citizenship or financial status, rich or poor, citizen or non-citizens, could make a choice to receive free care at GovCare Hospitals; no insurance purchases required, no copays, no restrictions because of preexisting medical conditions just ask at any GovCare hospital and care will be provided for you and it will be free period! GovCare will provide all inclusive birth to death healthcare including, primary, inpatient, outpatient, weight loss, substance abuse, psychiatric, long term elderly, extended nursing home care, free medications, dental, eye care, glasses hearing aids, and all medical devices. No one in the US will ever again be forced to go without healthcare or medications nor will any individual, business, or government at any level ever be without choices to avoid bankruptcy or lack of care or medications because of healthcare costs or availability. Americas Veterans Administration Hospitals using governments low cost advantages and evidenced based care meaning(prevention programs to keep you healthy)and (if you get sick or injured the VA does whatever it takes to make you well) and the VA has been producing better patient outcomes for years than any other providers at any cost and the VA's costs are a mere fraction of what todays healthcare industry is charging patients and taxpayers. 1. Individuals would no longer be forced to purchase insurance and could have free care just ask at GovCare hospitals it's free period. 2. Businesses would no longer be required to pay for or be involved with healthcare in any way. 3. 50 State governors would no longer be required to pay for or be involved with healthcare costs or liabilities in any way in their states if they choose to use GovCare services. Here is how to make GovCare available to everyone in the US wanting free care in 2015. Repeal and Replace Obama Care with a 100 page simple straightforward GovCare legislation bill. This can be done quickly if President Obama and other prominent Democrats and Republicans unite. Treasury and Federal Reserve funding, like that used to bail out the banks and Wall Street, could be used to fund the new GovCare startup. Aquire as much as $500billion of existing public and private healthcare companies from willing sellers to quickly form the new “GovCare” single payor healthcare option for patients to use by year end 2015. Sales taxes, collected fairly and efficiently from 50million tourists and everyone shopping in the US could pay the annual costs for operating the free single payer GovCare option. To control costs and quality no government funding will paid to any providers other than GovCare. Existing insurers and providers will no longer be required to provide indigent care nor be subjected to any government meddling, mandates, restrictions or pricing directions as they practice medicine. Employers will not be required to provide nor pay for any healthcare; however for anyone choosing to purchase any healthcare it will be tax deductible for the purchasers and tax free to the recipients. Todays existing costs paid by local, state and federal governments for healthcare can all be eliminated. Here is a business news quote that screams the damage that today's healthcare industry, their lobbyists and conspiring government policymakers are inflicting upon patients, taxpayers, businesses and local, state and federal governments who are all being subjected to terrible financial and physical pain and even death. “The unstoppable healthcare sector is expected to see revenue growth of 9.1%, according to FactSet, with three sub-sectors seeing double-digit sales growth: Healthcare Technology (38%), Biotechnology (23%), and Healthcare Providers & Services (11%) Thats why no one in congress or anywhere else, wants to get healthcare expenditures under control. It may eat up Medicare, Medicaid, state healthcare programs and retiree healthcare programs. It may be economically cannibalistic for the country. It may bankrupt municipalities and states. It may blow up federal programs. But in its manner, healthcare is the most vibrant growth sector in the US economy. Even if it lives on borrowed money and is bankrupting the nation, its growth!” Wolf Richter The Fair Tax Act of 2015 will abolish the Internal Revenue Service and end all federal personal income taxes, all corporate income taxes, all payroll taxes, all self-employment taxes, including social security taxes, all capital-gains taxes all inheritance, estate and all gift taxes and replace everything with a single revenue-neutral personal consumption sales tax on all retail sales of new goods and services. Efficient, painless and non intrusive sales tax collections at the cash register when you buy stuff will provide the same amount of money to continue to pay governments bills like they are paid today. Social security and all existing government programs will continue to pay the same benefits. Existing hidden value added taxes, ( 20plus%), that we pay now on everything we buy will be eliminated and here is the beauty of the FairTax a 23% sales tax substitution on all new purchases will produce the same annual revenue-neutral amounts produced by our existing convoluted and hated IRS. Workers will be able to keep all of their wages. No more forms to fill out, no more withholding, no taxes will be collected on used purchases and everyone in the US with a social security number can get a monthly “Prebate Check” https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr25/text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax A presidential candidate with the ability to recruit a campaign army, raise money, has integrity, persistence, determination, clout, tact and coalition building skills to inspire President Obama and 535 existing Washington legislators and an army of lobbyists to join together to repeal Obamacare and the entire federal tax system and abolish the IRS to rid government of the complicated, incomprehensible, cruel, grossly inefficient and overpriced healthcare and tax systems and their bureaucracies that are killing us and then who succeeds in replacing them with two simple straightforward, honest, fair, compassionate and fiscally responsible laws, free GovCare and the Fair Tax HR 25 before the 2016 election should be elected to be the next: PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 04:15 | 6077552 dreadnaught
dreadnaught's picture

why cant we wipe out the middleman/parasite?: The Big Healthcare Insurance Companies-Canada and the UK work fine without them=all they do is suck down your tax dollars and are more worthless than a Detroit Welfare recipient...

 

and it is incredible that The Republicans sold the country out and joined Obama and voted for the TPP......mindboggling

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 05:22 | 6077601 August
August's picture

Use paragraphs.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 05:28 | 6077605 monad
monad's picture

Easier to kill all the criminals with law degrees. No matter how gory, path of least resistance always wins.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 08:52 | 6077782 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

That was painful to even look at much less try to read.

Cut and paste is the starting point to creating a post that I would read.

Just FYI

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 05:49 | 6077621 Rusputin
Rusputin's picture

TTIP and TPP in a nutshell, are corporate exclusivity agreements designed to isolate EU nations and China respectively from multipolar trade.

They create isolationist, anti-competitive frameworks with water-tight international tribunal redress under state-of-the-art ISDS (Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement).

Essentially putting corporates above national or EU (etc) laws and within an expensive international legal framework the corporates have written, with high punitive damages and a lower burden of proof.

The targets for these agreements will be resource rich, smaller and poorer nations, who will not be able to afford the $4 to $8m per case legal costs, years of litigation and billions in punitive damages, the highest ISDS award so far is $110bn - equivalent to the entire GDP of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - prime targets for TTIP, with plenty of shale gas to be fracked and GMOable agriculture to be planted.

The scary part is that politicians who sign these agreements (either willingly, deceptively or under coercion) will not be able to reverse back out of those agreements, or create counter national or EU (etc) laws with any effect; basically, they would be committing national suicide with the stroke of a pen, only able to watch as their nations are then raped and pillaged until they have nothing left worth stealing.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 06:14 | 6077644 honestann
honestann's picture

Humans are finished.

Hopefully a few of us escape first.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 07:35 | 6077694 A82EBA
A82EBA's picture

I need a TPP for dummies narrative to follow whats happening.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:49 | 6077955 viahj
viahj's picture

global facisism.  prison planet.  tyranny.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 09:04 | 6077794 Martian Moon
Martian Moon's picture

Free trade was used by the British financial sector to implode their own economy and fully take it over by the late 1800s

The Opium Wars had been so successful in breaking open China in the mid 1800s, the financial class took notice

The concept of free trade sounds great, but its implementation always destroys sovereignty for the benefit of the oligarchs

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 09:16 | 6077809 d edwards
d edwards's picture

but prez 0bamao wouldn't deceive us would he? sarc

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:26 | 6077904 espirit
espirit's picture

Then legalization of MaryJane is a shoe in.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:56 | 6077972 Martian Moon
Martian Moon's picture

TPTB are schizo on this one

They love feeding warm bodies into the Prison Industrial Complex but they do want the plebs high as a kite 24 / 7

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 09:35 | 6077832 DuneCreature
DuneCreature's picture

Down There and Over There

In rural areas south of the USSA border and plenty of third world countries there are people living on next to nothing. REALLY next to nothing. A family of four could literally live off of the contents of an average American family’s take out trash. They cut up used tires and make crude footwear. The better off own two pair of pants. They walk everywhere they go, rain or shine, daylight or pitch black stormy night. The family car might be a rusty bicycle or a donkey which doesn’t rust so bad but must be fed. One meal a day for these people is a very successful day.

They are coming to your neighborhood and trust me when I tell you they won’t mind a bit if they are hired to do the same work you do and are offered a quarter of or maybe even a tenth of what you are being paid. It doesn’t take much pay to make your life much better than no paying work at all.

Down There And Over There Coming Here - or - How we are taught to love having the just the TPP stuck in

Courtesy of big business and our own compromised congress critters plenty of impoverished people from all over the globe are being flown in, given green cards, gov subsidized wages and then encouraged to send for their extended families as soon as they are established.

In my area we have a new flood of Somalian, Nigerian, and Myanmarians (Burmese) immigrants who have been brought in to work at the in local poultry growing and processing factories. These jobs were traditionally filled with the born and bred here. Then maybe twenty years ago Latino immigrants both legal and illegal began coming here and filling the jobs at lower and lower wages. After ten years of that wages kept on falling until even the Spanish speakers stopped coming in to fill the slots. So here we are today and the (mostly foreign owned) industry recruits labor from the poorest countries it can find. They don’t even bother posting help wanted ads here. They recruit from North Africa and South East Asia. They give classes to the new flood of labor coming in on how to safely deal with electricity and basic sanitation. English language classes are deemed unnecessary. They are set up in makeshift trailer parks and are bused to and from work.

And oh, most are of these newly arrived immigrants just happen to be of the Islamic faith, by the way.

We either take back the nation’s sovereignty from the globalists or it will be Grapes of Wrath for every one of us in the not too distant future.

~ DC

 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:29 | 6077912 espirit
espirit's picture

The rest of the world notices that merikans should only eat one meal per day.

(based on their productivity)

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 10:53 | 6077968 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

Free Trade ... the right to rip anybody off in the world when countries for THE SAME THING HAVE LARGE DIFFERENCES IN VALUE.

That difference is the drive the trade deficit, loses jobs, suppresses wages and all in all either you end up FOR THE FED THIS creating more and motre QE for all the value flowing out or the cost of supporting people with no income because all the better paid jobs left.

Death by stagnation a best case scenaro.

Free Trade could work but it means treating the cost of labor the same as say a tonne of copper whewre it costs the same all over the world. Not going to happen because that just ran a train through corporate profit levels.

3 costs, trade deficit cost, lost jobs / income level cost and the security tyranny cost of the likes of the NSA / security services cost and to hold it all together so the FED will print again and again just to cover this cost BUT IN EVER GROWING COST > 2% deflationan rate of Keynes.

QE for Xmas

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 11:11 | 6077986 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

I am leery of a lot of these stories at KWN, but this one seems to have some pep to it.

 

http://kingworldnews.com/is-this-the-most-shocking-interview-of-2015/

Thu, 05/14/2015 - 14:14 | 6093896 BustainMovealota
BustainMovealota's picture

Thanks.  I too quit going to KWN because of the bullshit, but this info looks pretty legit.

TPP will render control to the executive branch of our criminal government.  This will have far reaching destructive effects for the people of the US.  That is why it is held in such secrecy.

I know an International banker who can speak candidly with me.  He says the corruption in the US government is off the scale and that only the tip of the iceberg is reported on mainstream.  By the time the people figure this out it will be too late and the elite will win.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 11:15 | 6078007 rosiescenario
rosiescenario's picture

Anything that must be done in secrecy from the public can be assumed to be detrimental to the public.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 11:37 | 6078051 geno-econ
geno-econ's picture

Free trade agreements are great for US equipment manufacturers in bolstering exports. However in two or three years that equipment is utilized by lass developed nations to increase their exports to the US since there are market access provisions in the areements as well. The same is true in agriculture with initial increases in agricultural equipment followed by imports of food products   Result is blip in increased exports for a year or two, followed by increasing trade deficits. That is the pattern for every free trade agreement. Also, retailers and importers beneftit because cheaper labor is achieved, but at the expense of US jobs.  In addition more "operations and application  technology" is exported never to return and allowing foriegn countries to innovate manufactering and assembly line advancements. In the foreseable future, the only US export will be military equipment and expansion of fiat debt through the financial industry.  Is it any wonder the provisions are kept secret  ?

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 12:13 | 6078134 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

Whether or not you agree with Alan Grayson and Bernie Sanders on everything, they BOTH want the Fed abolished, they BOTH stand on their own two feet, and they BOTH are rallying against this latest takeover

Bernie is the ultimate socialist, but being we're already bankrupt and a reset is inevitable, why not start printing money for the 99% for a change??

---

 

 

 

Recently, I was on Democracy Now!, an hourly news report that runs on over 1250 TV and radio stations worldwide each day. The subject was trade:

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to the pending vote in Congress on the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a global trade deal currently being negotiated between the United States and 11 Latin American and Asian countries. Senate Finance Committee leaders Republican Orrin Hatch and Democrat Ron Wyden are expected to introduce a "fast-track" trade promotion authority bill as early as this week that would give the president authority to negotiate the TPP trade deal and then present it to Congress for a yes-or-no vote, with no amendments allowed. . . . Congressman Alan Grayson, could you explain your opposition to fast-track authority, and what you're calling on your colleagues in Congress to do?

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: Our "free trade," our so-called free trade policies, have been a disaster for the United States since NAFTA was enacted. Before NAFTA was enacted and went into effect 20 years ago, we never had any year in our history when we had a trade deficit of $135 billion or more. Every single year since then, for 20 years in a row, our trade deficit has been over $135 billion. Our last 14 trade deficits have been the 14 largest trade deficits not only in our history, but in the history of the entire world. And the result of that is that we've gone from $2 trillion in surplus with our trade to $11 trillion in debt. And we've lost five million manufacturing jobs and roughly 15 million other jobs in the last 20 years. So we've lost twice: We've lost the jobs, and we've also gone deeper and deeper into debt.

What's happening is not that we're buying goods and services from foreigners and they're buying an equal amount of goods and services from us-that's the way free trade is supposed to work. What's actually happening is that we're buying our goods and services from foreigners, and they are taking the money that we give to them for that, and buying our assets.

That has all sorts of consequences for our economy. First we lose those jobs. Secondly, it makes American income and wealth more and more unequal. The reason why we have the fourth most unequal distribution of wealth in the world is because of fake trade. The reason why we have a bizarre, and at this point unprecedented, "quantitative easing" [monetary] policy, where the government uses the cash in our pockets to buy up assets and drive those asset prices up further and further, is because of fake trade. The reason why we have a federal deficit is because we have a trade deficit. The TPP, "fast-track," the Transatlantic version of TPP, these dramatically increase the amount of countries with whom we have this relationship-they quadruple them-and they put us on a fast track to Hell, where America is nothing but cheap labor and debt slavery. . . .

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to President Obama speaking in February after he began the major push for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This is bipartisan legislation that would protect American workers and promote American businesses, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren't just free, but are fair. It would level the playing field for American workers. It would hold all countries to the same high labor and environmental standards to which we hold ourselves. Now, I'm the first to admit that past trade deals haven't always lived up to the hype. And that's why we've successfully gone after countries that break the rules at our workers' expense. But that doesn't mean we should close ourselves off from new opportunities and sit on the sidelines while other countries write our future for us.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that's President Obama speaking in February. President Obama is, obviously, President of the United States, [the] leading Democrat. Congressman Grayson, he represents your party, as well. Why the difference? Who are the blocs now that are united? We're not just talking [that] it's Democrats here and Republicans here. What set of Republicans and Democrats agree on this?

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: Well, it's a mystery to me. You know, I was in the room when the President gave that statement, made that speech. He gave a 45-minute speech. On those three sentences, that was the only time during that entire speech when the Republicans rose up and applauded him, and the Democrats did not. I think that's very revealing. There are very, very few Democratic votes [for Fast-Track] in the House of Representatives, because we represent ordinary working people. The groups that are lobbying the hardest for this are the multinational corporations, and their K Street lobbyists. They're the ones who desperately want to see this passed. . . . Ordinary Democrats represent constituencies who have been hurt hard, really hurt very hard, by the loss of those five million manufacturing jobs and 15 million other jobs. Go to any Democratic district in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. And the fact is that there is very little support, if any significant support, within the Democratic House Caucus for Fast-Track or for the TPP. We do have a few corporate Democrats. Frankly, we do have a couple of sell-out Democrats, who have sold out to the corporate lobbyists. But the bulk of the Democratic Party well understands, along with the labor movement and ordinary people, that these policies have been disastrous for us. And it is a lie to say that they will improve the economy. In fact, they will continue the downward trend of the economy, until foreigners own everything. . . .

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Grayson, do you have to rely on WikiLeaks to get information about what's actually in the TPP agreement?

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: Well, one of the sad and disturbing elements of this whole process has been the artificial secrecy that's been imposed by the Administration and by the Trade Representative on these dealings. I can't think of any other occasion, when I've served in Congress, when I've seen the element of deception loom so large here. The public is better informed of Iraqi attacks on ISIS, which you'd think would be classified, than it is informed on a trade deal that's going to determine our economic future for the next 20 years. What's happened is that, right at the beginning, the Trade Representative took the absurd position that everything that was being negotiated was classified, even though it was directly in the hands of the foreign governments with whom he was negotiating. Remember, normally, we have a classified system to keep information away from our enemies, or at least other governments. In this case, it was the other governments that had the information, and it was Congress and the American people who were being denied the information. And they took that position for five years, even though 100 members of Congress wrote a letter to the trade representative saying, "Cut this out."

Now, I'm the first member of Congress to actually see any part of the TPP, even though 600 corporate lobbyists are, quote, "advisors" to the Trade Representative, and they get to see everything. And I insisted they take that information to my office, and in return they told me I couldn't take it with me, I couldn't take it home, I couldn't make notes on it, I couldn't have my staff present. And here's the kicker: They didn't want me to discuss it with the media, the public or even other Members of Congress. So it's a farce. And it's meant specifically to keep the information away from the American people, because if the American people knew what was going on, they'd recognize that it's a punch to the face of the middle class in America. . . .

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you for being with us, Congressman Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida's 9th Congressional District.

If we want to avoid a future of "cheap labor and debt slavery," then we have to fight back, and fight back now, before it's too late. To see the video, or to support our "Truth in Trade" campaign, click right here.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson

 

 

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 15:04 | 6078561 litemine
litemine's picture

Harper also is IN with the TPP ..............Behind Closed Doors.

When Canada Defaults , are the people responcible to the bad debts and sueing that Corporations will do......Water is their dream that Harper better understand that we have been screwed before.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 16:04 | 6078741 Loucleve
Loucleve's picture

and what better SALESMAN for TTP than..............OBAMA.  You know, the Hope and Change guy?

Now revealed to be an agent for TPTB.

You dont really believe he beat hillary clinton without TPTB at his back do you?

Lets face it, the people matter not.  and they are too distracted by the MSM to even know it.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 21:22 | 6079604 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

They're trading our country for a handful of magic beans.

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