Small Business, Workers, Industry, and the Public Lose Again

It looks as though the Oligarchs Obama and McConnell are going to get their NAFTA-on-steroids-deal, otherwise known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  Our House of Lords (i.e., the U.S. Senate) finally managed to ram through so-called Fast-Track Authority for our King.  That means there will be no debate when the latest Free Trade Abomination comes up for a final vote in both Houses of Congress.
Here's what Citizen.org/TPP had to say about the Agreement:
"In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could:

offshore American jobs and increase income inequality, jack up the cost of medicines, sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom, empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards, expose the U.S. to unsafe food and products, roll back Wall Street reforms, ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs. "                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Every indication I've seen is that the overwhelming majority of the U.S. public are not in favor of the TPP.  And so it goes...more evidence that we have a non-representative Gov't.  When the choices at the voting booth consist only of Oligarchs or the puppets of Oligarchs, how could it be any other way?                                                                                       Not just my opinion.          Be Well

Lori Wallach is a Genuine American Hero for Exposing Globalization

She works for Trade Watch at Public Citizen.org, and has a complete grasp of the abomination known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called "Free Trade Agreement".  Go to the link below to see why this Agreement never should be approved by our country.
http://www.citizen.org/TPP

About 500 to 600 attorneys from mega corporations essentially have created the 29 or so Agreements that form the core of the TPP.  Only five of those Agreements/Chapters have anything to do with traditional Trade.  The rest will benefit the Super-Rich at the expense of common people.  The only reason we know this is because a whistleblower leaked the documents not long ago.  Prior to that, it was the most secret Agreement in the Trade arena.  Not even the U.S. Congress had access to it.

Very shortly, Obama and McConnell will be working together to get the TPP approved here as quickly as possible.  They've said so publicly.  This Agreement, if approved, will offshore millions more jobs from the USA, threaten the safety of our food, further threaten the environment, boost the cost of medicines, and protect mega bankers from prosecution to an even larger degree than presently.  That's only a few of the detriments we'll experience as a result of this bonanza for mega transnational corporations.

The TPP also will allow ANY corporation that believes its profits have been diminished by any U.S. law to sue the Gov't in a quasi-private international tribunal in order to get compensation.  In other words, corporations will be able to raid the U.S. Treasury if, for example, some safety law forces them to spend any money in order to comply.  [Any judgments can be enforced by Trade sanctions against the USA.]  Obama and McConnell certainly won't tell you, but that's one of the things they're working to get approved in our country.

Our puppet politicians and the Corporate (Mainstream) Media for years have propagandized us into accepting the falsehood that there are no alternatives to "Globalization".  Lori Wallach and others have shown that is a bald-faced lie.  For dozens of informative Video Clips on the subject, do a YouTube Search for her name.  She has been exposing the whole phony business for twenty years.  Kudos to you, Lori Wallach.  We all owe you a great debt.  With the aid of the work you've done, we peacefully can dethrone the Oligarchs.

STEP ONE:  stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well    p.s. The upcoming TAFTA, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, is even worse than the TPP.

Could the Gall of Oligarchs be Any More Brazen?

The following is largely based on the broadcasts of Democracy Now! yesterday and today.
Here are just a few examples of the unmitigated gall of Oligarchs and their puppets---

1.  In regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the deceit of Mitch McConnell and President Obama is appalling.  Mitch announced that the President was "willing to work together" with him on the issue of Trade.  Presently, that means the TPP.  The implication was that they don't agree on the subject.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Oligarchs and their puppets are about the only people in the entire world who are wildly in favor of the TPP and all other so-called Free Trade Agreements.  For the reason why, do a search for TradeWatch.org/TPP; that Agreement especially is little about Trade, but a whole bunch about making Mega Transnational Corporations the economic rulers of the world.  [The TPP is anti-Free-Market-Capitalism, and pro-Crony-Capitalism.  The difference between the two is crucial.]  If it becomes a U.S. Treaty, its rules will trump all U.S. laws (all Treaties do that), including those in the area of Environmental-Health-Safety.  It will allow any corporation that feels its profits have been impinged upon by a U.S. law to sue in an international tribunal...to potentially get tax dollars from you & me in court.  Any judgement is enforceable by Trade sanctions against the U.S.

Obama has been trying to get so-called "fast-track authority" for approval of the TPP for some time now.  Of course he's willing to work with Mitch on Trade; they both want the same thing.  One of the reasons that Mitch wants it is because he married into a wealthy family that has an international shipping business.  He's both an Oligarch and a puppet of other Oligarchs.  Obama wants it because, as I've said over & over, he's a Corporatist, a Crony Capitalist.  His record clearly shows that... no question about it.

After they "work together" for the TPP, Obama and McConnell probably will tout the whole thing as a bipartisanship victory... and breaking the DC gridlock.  What a farce.

2.  Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone reporter & long-time investigator of the Financial Sector, and Alayne Fleischmann, JP Morgan Chase whistleblower, have shown that Chase knowingly sold faulty mortgage securities to investors such as pension funds.  Not too long ago, the Bank and the Gov't reached a multi-billion dollar settlement in the case of this civil fraud.  No criminal charges.  Other mega banks also have settled for a large fine.  No criminal charges.  The Gov't claims the cases are too complex to prove criminality.  Alayne Fleischmann, an attorney, says that the securitization of mortgage loans may be complex, but proving criminal fraud regarding the sale of those faulty securities---at least in the Chase case---could have been a slam-dunk.  It's fairly clear that Obama and his Crew protect mega bankers from criminal prosecution.  Eric Holder came from a private practice law firm that defends corporations from prosecution; in my view, that automatically should have disqualified him from consideration as Attorney General.  Now we know why it didn't.

3.  Shortly after the Chase Bank was fined billions of dollars for fraud, the bank's Board of Directors gave Jamie Dimon (Chase's CEO) a 75% salary increase.  Any reasonable person would think they would have fired him.  Investors in the bank should have demanded it...those billions to pay the fine come from their pockets.  The same scenario has been repeated with other mega banks and their CEOs.  It's truly incredible.  Chase Bank alone has weathered about $30 billion in fines in only 4-5 years.  I can't believe that any business could survive that kind of financial hit unless that business is ripping off its customers in big and small ways.
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In general, the super rich and their puppets consider the rest of us to be the "little people"... of consequence only as wage slaves, a source of money, and spectators in the Rigged System.  We're viewed pretty much as one would view livestock...a means to an end.  Their Institutions, and for the most part the highest levels of the Fed Gov't, support that view.  Essentially, the Fed Gov't is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the super-rich and their mega corporations.

Yesterday, Obama announced (as a conversational "aside") that two-thirds of U.S. eligible voters did NOT vote in Tuesday's election.  I say, great!  Too bad it wasn't three-thirds.  That would have been a powerful message.  The Rigged System, the Dystopian Machine, the Oligarchy... they all need to be shaken up, but peacefully.  Not voting is the easiest protest there is... and there's no criminal penalty.  Who knows what it would accomplish if many, many more didn't vote, but one thing is certain--- it would get the attention of the Establishment's Rotten System, and the Oligarchs would be shaken up.

In this day & age, in this country, violence is no solution... that would be both stupid and suicidal.  Just as importantly, it would increase the severity of the U.S. Police State exponentially.  We don't need that.  On the other hand, there are many ways to peacefully and effectively protest the current 1984.  If we continue to drink the Propaganda Kool Aid, though, nothing effective will take place.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well