Stop the Insanity: Something FAR worse than TPP on the Horizon.

[Skwmom]

BERNIE Is the ONLY Candidate who would oppose this.

Robert Reich on FB

As awful as is the Trans Pacific Partnership, there’s something even worse on the horizon: It’s called the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) -- currently being negotiated in Geneva, Switzerland with 51 participants representing 70 percent of the world's trade in services. Even more secrecy surrounds TISA than TPP, but the parts that have been released by WikiLeaks show TISA would dramatically reduce how much governments can protect their own peoples’ health, safety, labor, and even the environment.

For example, governments wouldn’t be able to regulate staff to patient ratios in hospitals, prevent banks from becoming too large, ban fracking, improve safety controls on airlines, refuse accreditation to schools and universities, or prevent the importation of genetically modified foods. And governments couldn’t restrict foreign investment – they’d have to allow global corporations to run public services such as communications, postal services, health care, even education. Giant banks and other global financial institutions would have the power to transfer client data out of a country regardless of national privacy laws or banking regulations. And global corporations would have the right to comment on any new proposed national regulations, and contest them in a dispute mechanism similar to the investor-state dispute settlement in the Trans Pacific Partnership – where the corporations can get compensated for any “expected future profits” lost through such regulations.

The fast-track authority already granted the Trans Pacific Partnership – moving through Congress without amendment – would apply to TISA as well, since fast track lasts six years. Which means TISA is already being teed up. Yet not one presidential candidate has been asked about or said anything about TISA. Europeans have been loudly demonstrating against this global corporate takeover of their democracies. We should be making a ruckus, too.

What do you think? If you're European, what's the view of TISA from there?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027302973

[Half-Century Man]

1. And here is the second shoe to be dropped on "fast track"

BOHICA

[Skwmom]

3. This is ceding the sovereignty of the U.S. Govt. It's like the revolution never took place.

[Half-Century Man]

8. This is an attempt at global conquest.

Plan and simple. A replacement of one form of bureaucracy for another. The sovereignty of individual states, into the sovereignty of the wealthy.

The completed form of rule by "the Divine Right of Kings" (the rejection of which multiple wars were fought over) transforming into rule by "the Sublime Right of Money".

The utter rejection of "All Men Are Created Equal".

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. I remember people laughed at the term "New World Order" a few years ago.

Kind of hard to even imagine that a country would give up its sovereignty.
But that is what is happening, all over the globe, bit by bit.
Euro zone was the first step of the experiment.

And now, here, enough politicians have been bought and paid for that there can be no stopping it.

[cali]

2. TISA is a looming nightmare.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. Some is orchestrating an actual takeover of the world, not this kind either:

[Odin2005]

5. This is why Hillary will be a disaster.

[Skwmom]

6. This is why I will only vote for someone with a LONG record of fighting against trade agreements.

Words that you are against the TPP and Trade agreements are meaningless.

[stillwaiting]

7. We absolutely need Bernie in the Presidency to stop TISA, TTIP, and he might

even have a chance to stop TPP if they can't get the deed done this year.

He's the only one I trust to stop these. I completely agree.

[smiley]

12. I hate to be cynical.... but

something with that much power behind it is unstoppable. If TPTB want it, then it will happen. If TTP or TISA is stopped, they will only take another form.

Bernie may have the power to slow it down but he won't be here forever. The kind of power that is behind these trade agreements doesn't give up.

[farleftlib]

9. OMG, I didn't think anything could be worse than TPP

but TISA is a nightmare in the making, and they're sneaking this under the radar in Geneva! Then on fast track thru Congress. Thanks for posting this, I think.

[Hoyt]

10. Robert Reich, the man who is probably most responsible for NAFTA and even a few years ago said the

only mistake was not to add strong Labor and Environmental protections (NAFTA also has the investor dispute mechanism, just like TPP). Reich is looking for a job.

It's gonna take our "sovereignty" -- have people gone nuts?

?w=1094&h=446

Bumper stickers associated with the sovereign citizens movement (photo from the Southern Law Poverty Center)



I have faith Europe knows what they are doing -- including Sanders' favorite, Denmark.

[Armstead]

15. What, Me Worry?

[Skwmom]

16. He's changed his views on free trade.

I used to believe in "free trade" agreements, until I took a hard look at the numbers. NAFTA cost U.S. workers almost 700,000 jobs. Since the Korea–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, America's trade deficit with Korea has grown more than 80 percent, the equivalent of a loss of more than 70,000 additional U.S. jobs. Since China’s admission to the World Trade Organization, the U.S. goods trade deficit with China increased $23.9 billion (7.5 percent) to $342.6 billion.

Trade deals the fail to address currency manipulation or to effectively address labor standards -- while protecting the intellectual property of global corporate investors and the financial asset of Wall Street -- aren't even about trade, since tariffs are already very low. They're really about enhancing corporate and financial profits at the expense of American workers. That's why I urge you to tell your representatives in Washington not to give the President fast-track authority to negotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership.

What's your view?

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/950807244931872

[amborin]

13. good summary of the catastrophic consequences of the TPP here:

https://www.popularresistance.org/tpp-sotu-the-facts-vs-obama/

[Mnpaul]

14. There is only one person I trust with 4 years of free trade authority

and that is Bernie.