Discussion for article #237606
I love how our âDemocratic Presidentâ continues to screw us with his insane need to come to a Grand Bargain with the enemy. Heâs the biggest goddamned political disappointment in the 50 years I have been personally involved with politics.
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What a disappointment. Still better than the Clown Car on the other side but we still get screwed.
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Gee, I thought Obama was humiliated, slammed, in lame-duck land, rejected etc. with the stunning rejection last week.
Could it be weâre still horse trading and making sausages?
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changed my mind
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NOT ONE MORE DIME TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM ME.
They donât represent me. I have never seen a trade deal that helped the middle class. Canada, Germany, Japan, all have laws that protect their Workers. Not the US
My first trade Readjustment Allowance was in 1977. Finally with all the plants in my county, that employed Tens of thousands of workers gone, I had to retire at 57.
AND Obama is certainly one of the worst negotiators I have ever seen, he even seems to have started to drink the Trade Kool-Aid. All the lies to smooth things over.
I now know that Bernie Sanders is the only hope
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Notice who is conspicuously absent? Of course we can always look forward to a fire bagging emoprog to tell us how bad Obama is as a president. People just do not understand this trade deal and that is unfortunate. Most are basing their dissatisfaction because republicans are for it and labor is against it. These are the same labor unions who are in favor of the Keystone XL Pipeline that will create maybe 100 + jobs for a temporary period of time, to allow Canada to bring their disgusting oil through our country down to mexico so they can sell it to someone else. The fact that previous trade deals may have not been drafted the way they should have been, doesnât mean that this deal canât be better.
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Agree, the unions are being too short-sighted about protecting their turf, and too many Democrats are afraid of losing union funding.
And too many are basing their claims of Obama SELLOUT! on three-year-old drafts leaked by Wikileaks.
This is a complicated deal that has been under way for a long time. I thought this might be of interest. Apparently the TPP negotiations go back over a decade. This from Tuesdayâs column on the Americablog website:
"A more thorough investigation reveals that the TPP was conceived at the 2002 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting as the Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership among New Zealand, Singapore, and Chile. Brunei joined during negotiations, leading to a new name: the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPSEP), which took effect in 2005â2006.
The TPSEP includes an âaccession clauseâ which encourages other countries to join the agreement, even after its initial implementation. Accordingly, in 2008 the Bush Administration announced an intention to enter negotiations to join the pact, renamed as the more familiar Trans-Pacific Partnership. Negotiations have stretched on ever since."
The column is of interest, besides providing the history portion, as it discusses political factors and factions in play. Here is a link: http://americablog.com/2015/06âŚ
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And whatâs your alternative? Stick with the status quo, which is NAFTA?
Or should we let China continue to extend its influence and reach, and cut us out of the picture?
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Itâs misleading to assert that labor unions are strong supporters of the Keystone XL. In response to a direct question regarding labor support for Keystone XL, AFL/CIO President Richard Trumka did say, âThere are a number of economic issues and job issues that we want them to get done. That happens to be one of them. So the answer is âyes.ââ This is the firmest statement to date regarding the pipeline made by the labor group, which previously had been notably silent on the issue. To contrast laborâs qualified and hesitant support for Keystone with the Presidentâs obsession with getting TPA/TPP passed at any cost is a false comparison.
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Interesting article by RW boogie man, George Soros, in the New York Review of Books. Made me curious if the TPP secrecy is another case of Obama playing 11th dimensional chess against the repubs, or behind-the-scenes squaring the circle on Hillâs presidential campaign vs RW anti-chinese jingoism.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/jul/09/partnership-china-avoid-world-war/
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Chammy, I meant to respond to your other post.
On this post, what changed your mind? Was it this article, or the one that appeared after the initial vote failed last week?
Just curious.
I forgot to quote your comment so I could respond, so I tried to fix my error, but this system at TPM wasnât allowing me to cancel my response and asked me to give a reason. You responded to the right comment.
The Unions are in favor of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Period!!!
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I love how people like you oversimplify everything and scapegoat one man, when the real blame falls on the Democratic-Republican Corporate DUHopoly Party, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Corporate Elite Plutocratic Oligarchy, LLC.
No, all the unions are not in favor of the Keystone Pipeline. Period.
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You offer a false choice. We need FAIR trade treaties, not FREE trade treaties.
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Well that was very interesting indeed and it shows just how complicated this issue is. The comments are interesting too. Who runs americablog? Do you know.
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I wouldnât count on that. They got the votes for this by jettisoning any worker retrainingâŚâpromisingâ to bring that back up later. It wonât happen.
And without both pieces, this is dead in the water in the Senate. The only thing that has changed here is the Boehner gets to save a little face he lost in the last vote. Very little.
This deal canât be worse. It takes away national sovereignty and creates corporate sovereignty. That means corporations can over rule US law. That is completely unconstitutional.
Anyone who votes for TPP/TTIP is a traitor, and should be immediately removed from office and put in prison where they belong, after their fair trials of course.
I donât thing the American people will tolerate this mass treason. I think there will be sustained sieges of DC by the people until this issue is resolved for the benefit of the people.
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