Leaked TPP Document Reveals No Regard for Environment in Trade Agreement

[marmar]

Published on Jan 16, 2014

President Obama's fast track process for TPP gets dealt another blow by leaked environment chapter

[another_liberal]

1. "Now is time to put Planet before profits."

Truer words were never spoken. I want that slogan on my next bumper-sticker (that and "To Hell With TPP!&quot .

[dotymed]

2. Elect Senator Bernie Sanders as POTUS!!

One thing Obama has shown all of us...it's not just "rich, old, white men" who want to enslave us.

He is our protective oligarch, fascist trying to shove this down our throats.

Corporate fascists come in all shape, sizes, colors and genders.

[another_liberal]

3. Hold on a minute . . .

You think our President is an "Oligarch" and a "Fascist?" Really?

While I do not agree with President Obama on the TPP, I am certain he is not a fascist, not even close. As to his being an oligarch: if he is one, he is piss poor at it. He never operates like one.

[drynberg]

5. I'm sad to say that our current President, B.H.Obama, is just a lackey for the Billionaires and

Corporados. He ain't one of them, but he ain't acting in our interest nor the interest of our nation.

[another_liberal]

7. He is too accommodating to them and their interests, yes.

"Lackey" is further than I would go though. Remember, he is a Constitutional scholar, not an economist or expert on trade negotiations. I fault him for taking bad advice from deceptive and self-serving advisers, but I don't believe he is owned by the wealthy class, as is the case with any number of members of Congress.

[Malteil]

8. When Obama was elected president, I was more hopeful for the future than I had ever been in my life.

I truly believed that the U.S. had made the greatest of all possible choices for POTUS. Though I had never been a fan of the ACA and thought that a single payers system would have been better, I thought that it would be a good step in the right direction. Then there were issues here and there that I had concerns about, like his always trying to offer the Republicans any and every deal. Next was the NDAA that he signed in 2011. Goodbye Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus, hello permanent detentions. On and on it has gone. Now we have TPP which largely hands over economic control to corporations, taking all legal rights away from “we the people”, when dealing with said corporations. I am sorry but that is Oligarchy. That is rule by the rich when we lose all power to redress. The state of things really bothers me and I am more concerned about the future now than I think I even was before Obama was elected. Was it all him? No. He has been, perhaps, the greatest enabler that the corporations and the Right could have ever wanted though. If Bush had tried to pass any number of these, the left would have been screaming bloody murder. It’s sad that but for a few exceptions; Warren, Sanders etc. that the difference between the Democrats and Republicans largely seems to be in name only.

[another_liberal]

9. He is hardly, "The greatest enabler that the corporations and the Right could ever want."

Let me remind you of Mitt Romney, the guy who publicly stated that "Corporations are people," and as much as wrote off half of the American people (in order to serve the wealthiest among us). Can you even imagine Romney pushing for an extension of unemployment benefits or a raise in the minimum wage? As much as I dislike many of the decisions our President has made, let us never forget that the Republican candidates he defeated would have saddled us with far, far worse decisions.

I am not suggesting you stop complaining, not at all. But we should also thank our lucky stars we have President Obama, instead of what we might have gotten in his place.

[Malteil]

10. Okay, yes Romney and McCain (Palin… Shudder) would have been worse.

Romney so, because he is part of that corporate world; McCain for many reasons, but none greater than Palin (shudder). But the problem I was illustrating was how under the radar so many of Obama’s bad decisions have flown. Deportations are up every year, until very recently the DOJ was cracking down really hard on pot in states where it has been deemed legal, the use of drones has steadily increased and Obama’s treatment through the DOJ on whistleblowers has been draconian. My point is that I voted for one Obama and got one I never expected. I was a defender for years of Obama and still am on issues like his birth certificate and his attempt to shut down Gitmo, as well as his following through on leaving Iraq and hopefully Afghanistan. I just wanted and voted for the Progressive Obama only to get the center right Obama. And yes, he has drifted further and further to the right just trying to keep up with the Republicans mad dash to the far right.

[another_liberal]

11. There is, of course, much truth in what you say . . .

Yet I have to be pragmatic, could President Obama have been truly progressive? Would his own political party have followed him? Did he have to cut deals we can't imagine to just succeed in holding the reactionary forces to what small gains they did make?

[Malteil]

14. I guess then,

being pragmatic, we need to ask ourselves what successes have been achieved under Obama and then decide if those successes outweigh the negative. Perhaps, in the vein of being pragmatic, we need to look at the future and decide if the Democratic party can ever be a force for good or only ever be a weak levy against a far right ideology. If as you say, the Democratic party would never have allowed Obama to be progressive, and I am assuming that you are saying that Obama’s progressive leanings were neutered by his own party, then we are in a time where a truly progressive populist third party is needed. A party that operates on the local and state level. One that can show even tea partiers that the population, as a whole, share the same needs and concerns that are never given a thought by the major parties. The Green party had a sound platform but their greatest flaw was that most of the people that would have been represented by that platform never saw themselves as “Green”.


But we digress...

[another_liberal]

18. Even one more Republican administration in the White House . . .

I love the Greens' proposals and platforms, I am a liberal and a progressive. But is there even a chance they will win the Presidency in 2016? What they could possibly do (as they did in 2000) is take enough votes away from the Democrats to give the Presidency to the GOP.

At the current time, our nation and people can not afford even one more Republican administration in the White House. It would be a disaster we might not come back from as a united country.

The Greens should concentrate on electing mayors, Congress people and governors. Once they have succeeded at that, I will take them seriously on the national scene. Until they do achieve some local and state-wide success, I will consider them really nothing but a GOP ploy to take away much-needed Democratic votes for the next President.

[swilton]

16. The difference I see between President

Obama and a President Palin, Romney or McCain is that with those as alternatives the Democrats and more of the public would have strongly opposed their policies....With Obama in the WH he is doing the bidding of the corporatists and the opposition has been emasculated for fear of hurting election chances, or fear of criticizing the first African American president, etc., etc. We're in this lesser of two evils mode and our country might as well have been flushed down the toilet.

[another_liberal]

17. Politics for me is more defense than offense.

"Learn all you can about the candidates, and then vote for the one who is likely to hurt you the least."

In my case (and that of about 99% of the country) the one who will hurt the least is always the Democrat.

[n2doc]

4. Of course, why would there be?

What does the environment have to do with making money?

[BelgianMadCow]

6. Crystal clear

Thanks for posting marmar!

[Agony]

12. at least we have The Real News

and DemocracyNow!

[Kurovski]

13. K&R. (nt)

[Overseas]

15. So glad our opposition has been able to delay this.