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Showing Original Post only (View all)The TPP, if Passed, Spells the End of Popular Sovereignty for The United States [View all]
From Naked Capitalism:
The principle of popular sovereignty is the idea that a governments power derives only from the consent of the people being governed. The Constitutions first three wordsWe the People
establish from the very start that the United States government draws its authority and legitimacy directly from the people. The concept of popular sovereignty differs from the old monarchical belief in the divine right of kings (in which the monarch was said to draw his right to rule directly from God) and also from the British principle of parliamentary sovereignty (in which ultimate authority rested with Parliament rather than with the people directly).
Making it all the more remarkable, or not, that our political class Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch, a bipartisan caucus, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Editorial Board of The New York Times, to name a few of the usual suspects would pursue an agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) that sells out popular sovereignty to transnational investors, and allows them to rule us. I know your friends think this sounds like nutty black helicopter stuff, but its true! Its true! (Tell them to watch Yves on Bill Moyers, in a really sharp transcript.) So bear with me, please, as I work through the thesis. First, Ill look at how TPP replaces popular sovereignty with transnational investor rule, in two ways. Next, Ill take a very quick look at the state of play. Finally, Ill suggest that all is not lost, and in fact the TPP can be defeated.
<SNIP>
Yet in a manner that would enrage right and left alike, the private investor-state enforcement system included in the leaked TPP text would empower foreign investors and corporations to skirt domestic courts and laws and sue governments in foreign tribunals. There, they can demand cash compensation from domestic treasuries over domestic policies that they claim undermine their new investor rights and expected future profits. This establishes an alarming two-track system of justice that privileges foreign corporations in myriad ways relative to governments or domestic businesses. It also exposes signatory countries to vast liabilities, as foreign firms use foreign tribunals to raid public treasuries.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/the-tpp-if-passed-spells-the-end-of-popular-sovereignty-for-the-united-states.html
The eye-opening Bill Moyers segment with Yves Smith and Dean Baker mentioned above is here. DU thread on it here.
Something not mentioned in the NC post: this international court will be presided over by a judge chosen on a rotating basis from the corporate lawyers that plea cases in front of it. Its decisions cannot be appealed.
Corporate coup d'etat in motion. I hope you all are ready to get vocal to oppose fast-tracking of this secret NAFTA on steroids. I'll do my part on the corresponding and equally awful TTIP.
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The TPP, if Passed, Spells the End of Popular Sovereignty for The United States [View all]
BelgianMadCow
Nov 2013
OP
and how many labor/environmental groups have been included in the negotiations? nt
antigop
Nov 2013
#41
Her site has the same attacks on Common Core education as the far-right sites do.
AtheistCrusader
Nov 2013
#63
Quite a bit of hyperbole here to be sure.....but nothing to sneeze at, either.
AverageJoe90
Nov 2013
#19
HYPERBOLE MY ASS, FIND OUT JUST HOW TERRIBLE THIS TPP IS, WHY DO YOU THINK IT'S IN
drynberg
Nov 2013
#24
I agree with you on local regulations, environmental policies, living wages, etc
davidpdx
Nov 2013
#37
I think it is plenty fair to say it impacts our sovereignty. We are debating degrees and areas.
TheKentuckian
Nov 2013
#65
What purpose is it if corporation X can now either reverse the will of the people or extract huge
TheKentuckian
Nov 2013
#72
The support of this by Obama boggles, indeed, stupefies---unless one accepts that he is VERY be-
WinkyDink
Nov 2013
#26
Bear in mind that Winston was reading Adolph's top secret messages before he did sometimes n/t
Fumesucker
Nov 2013
#36
How does the party of NAFTA speak out on TPP? The party of Free Trade with Korea, China?
Romulox
Nov 2013
#46
OMG! It's, it's, the most succesful meme against critical thinking, ever!
BelgianMadCow
Nov 2013
#50
This is the issue of our generation. I wonder how Elizabeth Warren feels about this?
silvershadow
Nov 2013
#54
Warren on Trans-Pacific Partnership: If people knew what was going on, they would stop it
solarhydrocan
Nov 2013
#60
Hillary Clinton's Business Legacy at State Department (leading part in drafting TPP)
antigop
Nov 2013
#77