(Early) Weekend Open Thread: Open the Box, Read the TPP Text, and Weep

By

Greg Diamond

– November 5, 2015Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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A package has arrived for you.   You haven’t been able to see what’s inside until now.  You might not like what you find.

The TPP is out — and, amazingly, not buried on a Friday afternoon.  (Maybe that would have been too obvious.)  We might as well get a jump on the weekend and open the box to see what’s inside.

The official version.

The version who want their nauseating fare with better graphics.

“Enjoy.”  Leave your thoughts in comments below.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)

5 Comments

1. Reply

   Ron & Anna Winship

   Posted November 7, 2015 at 9:38 AM

   *When you look under “Special Interests” in the Dictionary….you will find the TPP and
   the soon to be released Trans Atlantic Partnership….as well. What is great about this
   is that China changes their minds faster than they change underwear. What will they
   abide by and what will they want….next week? When you read the synopsis, it reads like
   a report of sales at Estate Sale in Newport Coast. Who will get what…..and for how
   much? Ever since the days of Carla Hills..we have been leery of any of these so-called “Trade Agreements”!

2. Reply

   Greg Diamond

   Posted November 7, 2015 at 10:28 PM

   The American Friends Service Committee has this commentary:

   http://afsc.org/story/trans-pacific-partnership-analysis

   I’ll quote three paragraphs of it here:

   The newly released text clearly demonstrates what has long been feared: The TPP’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions would enable investors from any of the 11 participating countries to challenge environmental and public health laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent the U.S. and any other country’s judicial system.

   A number of smaller free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties already grant these powers to transnational corporations — and they are being used to attack clean air rules in Peru, mining laws in El Salvador, a provincial fracking moratorium in Canada and a court decision against the oil giant Chevron in Ecuador, among many other examples. Expanding this system throughout the Pacific Rim would only increase the occurrence of these challenges and further open governments to lawsuits costing millions or even billions of dollars for protecting their citizens.

   The ISDS provisions alone are reason to sink the entire TPP deal, but that’s just one of the concessions that the over 600 corporate advisors to the negotiations have inserted that will guarantee corporate profits while harming the rest of us. Under the TPP, U.S. exports of fracked natural gas would automatically be deemed in the public interest, bypassing certain environmental and economic reviews, if going to any of eleven TPP countries throughout the Pacific Rim – including Japan, the world’s largest importer of natural gas.

   I don’t know how many votes the Republicans can muster against it, but while I expect most Democrats to oppose it that will probably not be enough. The time to stop this was at the “Fast Track Authorization” stage. Bernie Sanders did his best to stop it; Hillary Clinton — now posturing as an opponent — kept silent. She had a reasonable chance of using her influence to stop it — and she didn’t. This is on her head.

   • Reply

     Ron & Anna Winship

     Posted November 8, 2015 at 7:23 AM

     *Great stuff…Dr. D., we do have to look on the bright side and say that the President did turn down Keystone…..which is pretty cool. Now, all his cronies
     in the Senate will need to test their muscle memory ,,,,and just say no thanks!

3. Reply

   Greg Diamond

   Posted November 10, 2015 at 7:16 AM

   From a post on Daily Kos:

   http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/10/1448087/-Hillary-will-not-lobby-against-the-TPP

   According to a tweet from Dan Merica at CNN, he asked Hillary if she plans on lobbying against the TPP while Congress mulls putting it up for a vote. Her response was that she will, “State my position,” but not actively lobby against it.

   Is this the kind of leadership we should expect from the potential Democratic nominee? To me, if she truly wants to embody the role as a leader on the left (and a so called Progressive) she would not only be lobbying against this crappy “trade” deal now before a potential vote, but she would have also stated her opposition and lobbied against it before the Fast Track vote earlier this summer. Alas, we were disappointed then as well, and it passed. I believe if Hillary voiced her opposition during this crucial vote we would not have seen 28 Democrats voting for Fast Track, and it would have failed.

   This is simply another reason why I can’t vote for her, in the primary or general election. Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy. This trade deal will completely gut the middle class while benefiting only the top 10% in the US if it passes. I don’t believe Hillary has truly opposed this deal either. Again, she demonstrated excellent political calculus in saying that she “doesn’t support it in it’s present form.” What exactly does she not like about it? Does this mean she will change her opinion once (if) she is elected?

   Clever, treacherous — or both?

   On the bright side: if she’s not lobbying against TPP, which she says she opposes, then maybe it’s really in trouble!

   • Reply

     Vern Nelson

     Posted November 10, 2015 at 10:44 AM

     I think I will create and copyright, if Bernie doesn’t make the primary, a line of CLOTHESPINS marked Vote Hillary. So people can hold their noses while thinking about the next couple decades of the Supreme Court.

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