"Progressive" Rep. Earl Blumenauer gets a Fast Track talking toby Gaius PubliusAs we reported, TPP lost its first major vote in the Senate when Fast Track enabling legislation (formally, "Trade Promotion Authority") failed to clear the 60-vote barrier:
The Economic Destruction of Baltimore By ROB URIE | CounterPunch | May 2, 2015 “We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. The ‘three-strikes-and-you’re-out’ for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to […]
Participating in US politics, as a citizen activist, puts you face-to-face with corruption and the ugliness of money-politics.
In 2002, when young Omar Khan got a job as an intern in Nancy Pelosi's congressional office, NAFTA had already been passed and signed into law by Bill Clinton. An initiative of Big Business, Wall Street and the Republican Party, George H.W. Bush, who negotiated it, had been unable to get Congress to fast track and pass it before he was defeated by Bill Clinton-- who promptly assured Bush, Big Business and Wall Street he would get it passed-- which he did.
Since the President’s State of the Union message where he announced his plan to push corporate trade agreements and seek Fast Track trade promotion authority, the movement against Fast Track, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and globalized trade has grown. Instead of the bump in support that Obama expected after the State of the Union, opposition has increased inside Congress and in the grass roots.
There is bi-partisan opposition in Congress to Fast Track and a large movement of movements mobilized to stop it.
The corporate media is reporting that since the Republican leadership and President Obama support Fast Track trade authority, it is a done deal. And that message, also heard by countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is driving the race to finalize that agreement.
The truth is: Fast Track is not a done deal. There is bi-partisan opposition in Congress and a large movement of movements organized to stop it.
The globalist plan to incrementally merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union has been ongoing for years. While at times, the agenda appears to have seemingly stalled, current efforts to expand the trilateral partnership show that it is alive and once again gaining steam. With NAFTA as the foundation, the renewed push for deeper North American integration continues on many different fronts.
By Deirdre Fulton | Common Dreams | November 21, 2014 Though nine out of ten Americans perceive blue-collar jobs as “good jobs” and policymakers tout the benefits of expanding the country’s manufacturing base, the truth is that factory wages now rank in the bottom half of those for all jobs in the U.S., according to […]
On Monday we took a look at the dangers posed to ordinary working by the rush to bipartisan corporate globalization. You should give it a read as background to what's unfolding now that Congress is back in Washington for a few days, desperate to find something they can pass and get signed into law.
Communities lose out to oil palm plantations GRAIN | September 22, 2014 Palm oil is not something you would associate with a Mexican kitchen. But go to any supermarket in the country, and you will find countless products containing it. The country’s food system has changed immensely since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) […]
