Rule By The Corporations

TTIP: The Corporate Empowerment Act

Paul Craig Roberts

The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do with free trade. “Free trade” is used as a disguise to hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use law suits to overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food safety, GMOs, and minimum wages.

The first thing to understand is that these so-called “partnerships” are not laws written by Congress. The US Constitution gives Congress the authority to legislate, but these laws are being written without the participation of Congress. The laws are being written by corporations solely in the interest of their power and profit. The office of US Trade Representative was created in order to permit corporations to write law that serves only their interests. This fraud on the Constitution and the people is covered up by calling trade laws “treaties.”

Indeed, Congress is not even permitted to know what is in the laws and is limited to the ability to accept or refuse what is handed to Congress for a vote. Normally, Congress accepts, because “so much work has been done” and “free trade will benefit us all.”

Continue . . . http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/06/01/rule-corporations-paul-craig-roberts-3/

 

A republican form of government. As per the constitution. Would be my preference.

Republican form of government, or corporatist form of government. Which of these does the U.S. Constitution guarantee to every state?

This is basic civics stuff. You do understand the United States was never meant to have a corporatist form of government don't you?

A republican form of government is a type of government in which the citizens of a country have an active role in the affairs of the government, and the government is not headed by a hereditary ruler such as a king. http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-republican-form-of-government.htm

Explain to me how the citizens of this country can have an active role in the affairs of government when our elected representatives choose to serve the interests of multinational corporations in secret rooms and meetings with secret "treaties" we can only read after they have been passed into law.

Then explain to me what any of that has to do with unions.

 

America’s Most Wanted Secret – Wikileaks is Raising $100K Reward for Leaked Drafts of the TPP

The only real information we have about the shady corporate giveaway known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), is via three chapters released by Wikileaks. Now, the whistleblower organization is raising $100,000 as a reward for additional leaked draft chapters. From Wikileaks.org:

Continue . . . http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/06/02/americas-most-wanted-secret-wikileaks-is-raising-100k-reward-for-leaked-drafts-of-the-tpp/

 

TPP: Follow the Money

How much did it cost to push the Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority through the Senate? Who bought the Senators and which ones sold out? Do you know who the chief Trade Representative used to work for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj8oS7BJF10

 

And you're still #1 when it comes to having an opinion. :smilewinkgrin:

It's okay folks RD2 must have lost his place in the never ending battle between lefties and righties and decided to come over and do a magic trick for us.

He's going to attempt to make the evidence disappear by mumbling some words and sprinkling pixie dust around.

Hope it works better this time than last. :wavey:


From the Independent UK

Wikileaks posts 'largest leak of trade negotiations in history' charting progress of TiSA

Wikileaks has released 17 different documents relating to the so-called 'secret' negotiations for a massive global trade deal known as the Trade in Services Agreement, a lesser known cousin of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that US President Barack Obama has been campaigning heavily for in Washington.

Continue . . . http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/wikileaks-posts-largest-leak-of-trade-negotiations-in-history-charting-progress-tisa-10296061.html

What is TTIP and why does Cameron want to sign the biggest trade agreement in history?

Cameron pledged his support to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, otherwise known as TTIP, right from the start. But when it came to the election, TTIP was firmly off the agenda.

In fact, negotiations have always been kept on the DL. One MEP wrote an entire op-ed on the fact that she’s seen the 'undemocratic' deal, but can’t reveal any of its contents. Another study said even EU representatives in Brussels think their European Commission colleagues are making deals behind closed doors.

We could be about to hear more as Cameron tries to secure his legacy by pushing through the biggest trade deal in history. Here’s what you need to know.

Continue . . . http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/what-is-ttip-and-why-does-cameron-want-to-sign-the-biggest-trade-agreement-in-history-10247456.html

That last sentence should read, "We could be about to hear more as Cameron and Obama try to secure their legacies by pushing through the biggest trade deals in history."

I wonder if UK politicians are cheaper to purchase than US senators?

From Forbes

Leaked TISA Documents Reveal Privacy Threat

Under the draft provisions of the latest trade deal to be leaked by Wikileaks, countries could be barred from trying to control where their citizens’ personal data is held or whether it’s accessible from outside the country.

Wikileaks has released 17 documents relating to the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), currently under negotiation between the US, the European Union and 23 other nations. These negotiating texts are supposed to remain secret for five years after TISA is finalized and brought into force.

The deal, which has been under discussion behind closed doors since early 2013, is intended to remove barriers to trade in services. It’s a sort of companion piece to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which cover trade in goods – but potentially far bigger, with Wikileaks claiming that ‘services’ now account for nearly 80 per cent of the US and EU economies.

Like TTIP and TPP, TISA could be sped through Congress using Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), also known as fast-track authority, which has been passed by the US Senate and may be taken up in the House this month. Under TPA, Congress is barred from making amendments to the trade deals, and most simply give yes-or-no approval.

Continue . . . http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2015/06/04/leaked-tisa-documents-reveal-privacy-threat/


You might try using more pixie dust RD2.

 

It Doesn't Matter Who Does the Lobbying: Trade Agreements Aren't the Place for Internet Regulations

The Associated Whistleblowing Press released portions of draft text proposed by the United States for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) this week, revealing some alarming provisions that indicate how tech companies have been involved in influencing a secret international deal. The language of the leaked treaty shows provisions that could impact privacy online, and net neutrality—with no public consultation or opportunities for open debate. What is dispiriting is some of the language of these Internet regulations almost certainly comes from tech companies, who have joined the many other lobbyists fighting for their special interests behind closed doors.

TISA is yet another so-called trade deal which began negotiations in 2013 and is being hammered out in back room meetings between 23 countries around the world, including the United States, the European Union, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. According to the leaked documents, countries involved in the negotiations have agreed to keep the text of this agreement classified for five years after it enters into force. On top of the five-year-embargo, neither the negotiation rounds nor the topics discussed in this agreement have ever been made public.

Continue . . . https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/it-doesnt-matter-who-does-lobbying-trade-agreements-arent-place-internet

 

Tpp begins to unravel as obama launches final push for votes

"Please just tell us what is in TPP"

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade package is beginning to unravel, with more prominent voices slamming President Obama and the Republican leadership over the secretive deal that threatens to cost American jobs and hand big corporations new powers that would violate national sovereignty.

House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rules Committee chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) refused to reveal to Breitbart whether they had read the TPP agreement but still said they would support the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and allow President Barack Obama to fast-track the TPP.

Lawmakers claim that TPA is separate from TPP and that they will review the final TPP agreement before it is considered by Congress.

However, as Matthew Boyle explains, this explanation doesn’t wash. A vote for the TPA is a de facto green light for the TPP since there is essentially no way to halt a trade deal once it has been fast-tracked.

“Since fast track was created in the Richard Nixon administration, not one trade deal that started on fast track has been thwarted. As such, a vote for TPA is a vote for TPP, since passing TPA will all but guarantee the successful passage of TPP,” writes Boyle.

Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Rep. John Boehner are also refusing to reveal if they have visited the “secret room” to read the controversial TPP document, although all three are set to vote for the TPA.

“It is unforgivable for the Republican majority to shirk its congressional duty and refuse to read the text of a bill that will give Obama unprecedented authority over our economy,” said Daniel Horowitz, the senior editor of the Conservative Review. “Passing a bill in order to find out what’s in it is what placed the Pelosi Congress in the ash-heap of history. It’s not an auspicious path for ambitious politicians.”

Continue . . . http://www.infowars.com/tpp-begins-to-unravel-as-obama-launches-final-push-for-votes/

 

Confidential USTR Emails Show Close Industry Involvement In TPP Negotiations

While a full range of stakeholders would be affected by the outcome of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement under secret negotiation by the United States and a dozen trading partners, corporate representatives have had a special seat at the negotiating table, as shown by hundreds of pages of confidential emails from the US Trade Representative’s office obtained by Intellectual Property Watch. The emails give a rare and fascinating perspective on how policy is developed in the trade office.

Years into the negotiation, the TPP is said to be nearing completion and is the subject of a US congressional debate over renewal of fast-track negotiating authority for the president (limiting Congress to a yes or no vote). But the TPP text has never been made available to the public of the countries negotiating it, except through periodic leaks of parts of the text, making these emails timely for the debate.

Continue . . . http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/06/05/confidential-ustr-emails-show-close-industry-involvement-in-tpp-negotiations/

 

Memo to the Fed

Memo to the Fed and its Media Tool Hilsenrath: We’re Not Here to Enrich Your Corporate Cronies

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Charles Hugh Smith

The Federal Reserve is appalled that we’re not spending enough to further inflate the value of its corporate and banking cronies. In the Fed’s eyes, your reason for being is to channel whatever income you have to the Fed’s private-sector cronies–banks and corporations.

If you’re being “stingy” and actually conserving some of your income for savings and investment, you are Public Enemy #1 to the Fed. Your financial security is nothing compared to the need of banks and corporations to earn even more obscene profits. According to the Fed, all our problems stem from not funneling enough money to the Fed’s private-sector cronies.

Fed media tool Jon Hilsenrath recently gave voice to the Fed’s obsessive concern for its cronies’ profits, and received a rebuke from the middle class he chastised as “stingy.” Hilsenrath Midde-Class “Responded Strongly” To “Offensive” Question Why It Isn’t Spending.

Memo to the Fed and its media tool Hilsenrath: we’re not here to further enrich your already obscenely rich banker and corporate cronies by buying overpriced goods and services we don’t need. Our job is not to spend every cent we earn on interest to banks and mostly-garbage corporate goods and services. Our job is to limit the amount we squander on interest and needless spending. Our job is to build the financial security of our families by saving capital and prudently investing it in assets we control (as opposed to letting Wall Street control our assets parked in equity and bond funds).

Continue . . . http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/memo-to-the-fed-and-its-media-tool-hilsenrath-were-not-here-to-enrich-your-corporate-cronies.html

Eric Zuesse

The way that “Fast Track” is described to the American public is as an alternative method for the Senate to handle “Trade Bills” (TPP & TTIP) that the President presents to the Senate for their approval; and this alternative method is said to be one in which “no amendments are permitted, and there will be a straight up-or-down vote on the bill.”

But, in fact, the “Fast Track” method is actually to require only 50 Senators to vote “Yea” in order for the measure to be approved by the Senate, whereas the method that is described and required in (Section 2 of) the U.S. Constitution is that the President “shall have the Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.” That’s not 50 Senators; it’s 67 Senators, that the Constitution requires.

In other words: “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority” (which was invented by the imperial President Richard Nixon in 1974, in order to advance his goal of a dictatorial Executive, that the Presidency would become a dictatorship) lowers the Constitutionally required approval from 67 Senators down to only 50 Senators.

This two-thirds rule is set forth in the Constitution in order to make especially difficult the passing-into-law of any treaty that the United States will have with any foreign country. The same two-thirds requirement is set forth for amending the Constitution, except that that’s a two-thirds requirement in both the House and the Senate: it can be done “by either: two-thirds (supermajority) of both the Senate and the House of Representatives …; or by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds (at present 34) of the states.”

Getting two-thirds of either house of Congress to vote for a bill is rare and difficult, but it has happened 27 times, because the entire process was public, and because there was widespread support of each Amendment.

By contrast: Obama’s proposed trade treaties are still secret.

Continue . . . http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/how-the-media-deceive-the-public-about-fast-track-and-the-trade-bills/

 

Capital–which includes savings–is the foundation of capitalism. If you attack savings as the scourge limiting corporate profits, you are attacking capitalism and upward mobility. The Fed is not supporting capitalism; rather, the Fed’s raison d’etre is crony-capitalism, in which insiders and financiers get essentially free money from the Fed in unlimited quantities that they then use to buy up all the productive assets.

Everyone else–the bottom 99.5%–is relegated to consumer: you are not supposed to accumulate productive capital, you are supposed to spend every penny you earn on interest paid to banks and buying goods and services that further boost corporate profits.

This inversion of capitalism is not just destructive to the nation–it is evil. Funneling trillions of dollars in free money for financiers while chiding Americans for not going deeper into debt is evil.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/memo-to-the-fed-and-its-media-tool-hilsenrath-were-not-here-to-enrich-your-corporate-cronies.html