Discussion for article #238983
The other day I saw a story that said the intellectual property issue was a big sticking point.
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I see TPP and immediately think ToiletPaPer…
Now I’m thinking PayPerView…
Now I’m thinking…ViewFromTheTop
Now ----------your turn.
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I’m down with TPP.
I am good with TPP because, at some point, we must have either trade deals that all are signed on to or no deals whatsoever and all nations acting separately in their own interests with no holds barred.
There definitely is the chance that low paid workers in America will suffer but there is also the opposite chance and most likely it will be a combination of both. Maybe, education and job training will come back into vogue and we can give up worrying about low paying jobs and work on bringing back career jobs with all the bennies.
America should be manufacturing all sorts of things, we have the knack for it and that is an American fact. There is a reason that Chinese products are called Chinese shit, because their products are shit. Cheaper means worse, cheaper doesn’t mean better. And look at how Chinese workers are treated, as liberals it is against all that we believe in to support that kind of abuse so that a few can become wealthy beyond imagination. TPP begins to ace China out and that fact alone is a great thing.
We Americans can have our productive working class and eat our paper shuffling wealthy class too.
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I just get the feeling that being against TPP has become a sort of badge of honor with some progressives. Some see trade deals as being the sum total of the decline of the working class and that, the sentiment goes, if this country can only fight ALL of them then we’ll be better off. Of course, nothing is further from the truth. If the US had NO trade deals whatsoever, we (as workers) would still be losing the fight against the oligarchy and technology.
As an aside, I have the feeling that some of the so called progressives are against the TPP but think that having Uber move into every city creating “independent contractors” with no benefits is a good thing. Because that’s just progress.
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This is great news considering the sleazy move Obama and Kerry pulled the other day, as reported here on 7/27. In case you missed it:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Monday took Malaysia and Cuba off its blacklist of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery, leaving the U.S. open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report.
Thailand, downgraded with Malaysia last year because of pervasive labor abuses in its lucrative fishing industry, remained on the blacklist. That will add to the growing strains in its once-strong relations with Washington. Critics contend that Malaysia’s upgrade is related to its participation in a U.S.-backed trade agreement among Pacific Rim countries. Thailand is not part of the proposed agreement.
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I suspect that Malaysia also benefits from its strategic geopolitical importance re the Chinese flexing their muscles over the seas.
Right, if you think Cuba was really turning a blind eye to “modern-day slavery” your ODS really has gotten the better of you. But as always, Darcy only shows up to say anything and everything it thinks up to try and slag Obama off. BTW, this “story” was from a week ago. So do you keep these stories you think you can try and spin as “sleazy” (when they aren’t) in a file to pull out when you find a thread to spew your irrational Obama-hatred and possible find a sympathetic ear?
A little more info:
The U.S. State Department has taken Malaysia and Cuba off its list of worst human trafficking offenders — which many human rights advocates and U.S. lawmakers say has more to do with politics than facts on the ground.
The department’s latest annual Trafficking in Persons Report also upgraded Uzbekistan and Angola, while Belize, Belarus and South Sudan were among 18 nations downgraded this year. Russia, Iran, Eritrea and Algeria are some of the countries that have been on the blacklist for years.
Malaysia and Cuba were raised from the lowest level, “Tier 3,” to “Tier 2 Watchlist” status. Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Sarah Sewall said that Malaysia’s government had made efforts to begin improving its victim protection policies, along with its legal framework. She said authorities also had increased the number of trafficking investigations and prosecutions compared with 2013.
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Jeez Les, you give me way too much credit. And BTW, this “story” is a real story and critical to passing TPP. But since Trippin and I were the only two concerned posters (the rest of TP seemedl full of outrage over poor Hillary and her billions being all ambushed by the NYT ) I thought Randy, who is really deep in the weeds on TPP, might have missed it. But I’m guessing he didn’t (sorry Randy).
It is a BFD when Obama, in his TPP obsession, takes the other end of his pencil and erases Malaysia’s long history of human trafficking violation and tries to put some lipstick on their well-earned tier-3 (can’t get any worse) reputation as one of the world’s worst human-trafficking countries for no reason other than they are part of the TPP gang and instrumental in TPP’s “success” or failure.
A little more info:
The United States is upgrading Malaysia from the lowest tier on its list of worst human trafficking centres, US sources said on Wednesday, a move that could smooth the way for an ambitious US-led free-trade deal with the south-east Asian nation and 11 other countries.
The upgrade to so-called “tier two watch list” status removes a potential barrier to President Barack Obama’s signature global trade deal.
A provision in a related trade bill passed by Congress last month barred from fast-tracked trade deals Malaysia and other countries that earn the worst US human trafficking ranking in the eyes of the US State Department.
The upgrade follows international scrutiny and outcry over Malaysian efforts to combat human trafficking after the discovery this year of scores of graves in people-smuggling camps near its northern border with Thailand.
The State Department last year downgraded Malaysia in its annual “Trafficking in Persons” report to tier three, alongside North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe, citing “limited efforts to improve its flawed victim protection regime” and other problems.
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