December 16, 2013

From the right: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Bigger and More Dangerous Than ObamaCare

The Democrats in Congress passed ObamaCare in 2010, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Three years later, in October of 2013, tens of millions of Americans began finding out what was really in the bill, as they began receiving health insurance cancellations and/or massive premium hikes. They also began to learn that under ObamaCare the IRS has been given new powers to go after them, their businesses, and their bank accounts. And that is only the beginning. As with all legislation, the devil is in the details, and lots of devils keep popping out of the constantly evolving details, as dozens of federal agencies continue churning out thousands of pages of regulations to implement the misbegotten, misnamed Affordable Care Act.

There are many important lessons from ObamaCare that we should apply to another huge project that could have a similarly devastating impact on our nation. In November 2009, President Obama announced his intention to have the United States participate in a so-called trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I say so-called trade agreement because 80 percent of the proposed agreement deals with a great many issues besides trade.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as it is called, is an all-out assault on our national sovereignty. It would unconstitutionally transfer legislative powers from the U.S. Congress, our state legislatures, and our city and county governments to multi-national corporations and unaccountable international bureaucrats at the World Trade Organization, or WTO. Incredibly, it also would transfer judicial powers from our federal and state courts — which are bad enough — to globalist TPP judges at regional tribunals and the WTO. It would also confer huge advantages on foreign businesses and large multinationals, while at the same time putting companies that operate here in America — especially small and medium-sized enterprises — at a competitive disadvantage. American businesses would remain shackled by the regulations of EPA, FDA, OSHA, etc. while their foreign competitors could operate here unimpeded by those same strictures.

Like the infamous NAFTA trade agreement passed in the '90s, the TPP would usher in another wave of outsourcing, as the remaining manufacturing and technology bases would be given incentives to move to Pacific Rim countries, resulting in millions more American job losses. With TPP negotiations on track to be completed by the end of 2013, President Obama will likely ask Congress to approve this trade agreement in early 2014. Contact your senators and representative and urge them to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and see the many additional articles listed below that we’ve published detailing the dangers of the TPP.

Related articles:

WikiLeaks Publishes Key Chapter of Secret TPP Agreement

Regional Scheme for the Pacific Rim

Trans-Pacific Partnership Ready for Christmas Delivery?

TPP Secret Trade Agreement Puts International Tribunal Above U.S.

The “Free Trade” Agenda Threatens Our Rights

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Secret Surrender of Sovereignty

Japan Set to Join TPP as Secret Negotiations Continue in Malaysia

Goal of TPP: Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP)

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/17175-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-bigger-and-more-dangerous-than-obamacare

December 16, 2013

From the UK: Globalisation is turning the west against its elites

What the followers of the Pied Pipers of popular resentment really hate, perhaps more than Muslims and other aliens, is their own so-called liberal elite – the educated mandarins and commentators, the bien pensant writers and academics, the left-of-centre internationalists, the cosmopolitans and the eggheads. In short, the people whose superior airs make them feel inadequate.

The common idea is that the liberal-left elites are destroying our identities – ethnic, national and religious. It was the liberal elites that allowed immigrants to “swamp” our cities, legally or illegally. It was they who built pan-European institutions and the UN. Liberals created welfare states, which reward the lazy and allow foreigners to sponge off our taxes. In the US, liberals elected a black president. And some Tea Party enthusiasts sincerely believe that the UN is robbing the US of its sovereignty (because of the liberals, of course).

The world is shifting in ways that make many western citizens uncomfortable. Non-western powers are rising fast. The European sense of superiority is becoming harder to maintain. Non-white populations are growing in the west. In much of the US, white Christians of European origin no longer dominate politics.

The politics of hatred never result in anything good. But preaching the old liberal shibboleths about internationalism, the richness of immigrants’ cultures and the horrors of racism are not enough. The borderless economy must become more equitable to temper growing inequalities and to shield the vulnerable from global market forces. If the new elites in the global economy want to stave off the storm of destructive hatred, they had better come up with some ideas of their own on how to temper the market forces from which they have profited so well.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/66eaf8d2-5602-11e3-96f5-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz2ndFuq2nV

The Financial Times is a conservative source, but this oped makes a good point. The "politics of hatred" (a constant of the right with its politics of fear and emotion) is growing and will "never result in anything good. Growing inequality should be dealt with in a liberal manner (progressive taxes, stronger safety net and more union support) or they will be dealt with by the right and far-right using the 'politics of hatred'.

December 12, 2013

1844 Know Nothing poster (title: American Patriot) could be from 2013 Tea Party

In favor of
The protection (with tariffs) of American Mechanics (labor) against Foreign Pauper Labor.
Foreigners having a residence in the country of 21 years before voting. (Doing everything possible to keep immigrants from becoming citizens and voting.)
Our present school system. (OK, that's one major area of difference.)
Carrying out the laws of the State, as regards sending back Foreign Paupers (immigrants) and criminals.

Opposed to
Papal aggression and Roman Catholicism. (Modern tea party types are not too happy with the current pope.)
Foreigners holding office. (Kenyans like Obama )
Nunneries and Jesuits. (?)
To being taxed for the support of Foreign paupers (immigrants) million of dollars yearly.
To secret Foreign Orders in the US. (Sharia Law?)

December 11, 2013

VW asked the state of Tennessee to "include union representation on a management board"?

How "European"! Did the state go along with that idea?

Hard to imagine an American corporation asking government to allow it to have union representation on a management board.

I wonder what German execs think of the American corporate mindset to avoid and dismantle unions whenever possible.

December 11, 2013

Jim Corsi: "financial meltdown would be staged to keep President Barack Obama in power."

Just when you thought it could not get any crazier.

Corsi seems unsure of whether this manufactured financial collapse will serve to keep Obama in power forever or to ram through the TPP and TTIP and end "U.S. sovereignty over economic issues. I am a little surprised that he does not now foresee the coming of the North American Union as a goal of this subterfuge on the part of Obama and his minions.

There's a video of the interview at the link.

December 10, 2013

Record Trade: German Exports Reach All-Time High

Source: Spiegeleisen

Total German exports in October rose to €99.1 billion ($136 billion), a new all-time high. The previous record of €98.7 billion was set back in March 2012, according to the Federal Statistical Office on Monday. The latest figure also represents an increase on the same month last year of 0.6 percent.

A repeat of the recent international criticism over Germany's massive trade surplus, however, is unlikely, as imports rose at an even greater rate than exports -- at a surprising 2.9 percent. Thus the trade balance, the difference between exports and imports, shrunk to €17.9 billion from the record high of €20.4 billion reached in September.

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-exports-reach-record-high-in-october-but-imports-also-increase-a-937961.html

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Not bad for a country with strong unions and high wages.

Exports and imports combines equal about 80% of Germany's GDP. In the US trade is about 20% of the economy.

December 5, 2013

BBC: UN implicates Bashar al-Assad in Syria war crimes

The UN's commission of inquiry into Syria has produced "massive evidence... [of] very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity," Ms Pillay said. "The scale of viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief," she said.

The evidence indicated responsibility "at the highest level of government, including the head of state", she added. It is the first time the UN's human rights office has so directly implicated Mr Assad.

The inquiry has also previously reported it has evidence that rebel forces in Syria have been guilty of human rights abuses.

However, the investigators have always said the Syrian government appears to be responsible for the majority, and that the systematic nature of the abuse points to government policy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25189834

The war crimes and human rights abuses on all sides is why this should be referred to the ICC for prosecution on all sides.

"The scale of viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief" is a sad, sad commentary, especially coming from someone who has other violence-related horrors.

December 5, 2013

Poll: Wide partisan gaps in foreign policy goals

More than three times as many Democrats (57%) as Republicans (16%) say that dealing with global climate change should be a top foreign policy priority. This reflects the deep partisan divide over whether there is solid evidence that the earth is warming.

And while goals such as strengthening the U.N., improving living standards in developing countries, and promoting human rights and democracy are not among Democrats’ leading priorities overall, more Democrats than Republicans view each as top policy goals.

By contrast, reducing illegal immigration is rated as much more important by Republicans than Democrats. About six-in-ten (62%) Republicans say that reducing illegal immigration is a top foreign policy objective, compared with 49% of independents and just 38% of Democrats. In addition, protecting against terrorism is viewed as top priority by more Republicans (93%) than Democrats (81%) or independents (78%).

http://www.people-press.org/2013/12/03/section-3-long-range-foreign-policy-goals/

The 5 issues in which there is a significant Democratic leaning were: dealing with climate change, strengthening the UN, improving living standards in poor countries and promoting human rights and democracy abroad. None of these issues were top priorities even for Democrats, but were largely ignored (or actively opposed) by republicans.

December 3, 2013

Poll: Americans view US as declining power; want greater role in global economy.

Growing numbers of Americans believe that U.S. global power and prestige are in decline. And support for U.S. global engagement, already near a historic low, has fallen further. The public thinks that the nation does too much to solve world problems, and increasing percentages want the U.S. to “mind its own business internationally” and pay more attention to problems here at home.

Yet this reticence is not an expression of across-the-board isolationism. Even as doubts grow about the United States’ geopolitical role, most Americans say the benefits from U.S. participation in the global economy outweigh the risks. And support for closer trade and business ties with other nations stands at its highest point in more than a decade.



About half of Americans (51%) say the United States does too much in helping solve world problems, while just 17% say it does too little and 28% think it does the right amount. When those who say the U.S. does “too much” internationally are asked to describe in their own words why they feel this way, nearly half (47%) say problems at home, including the economy, should get more attention.

But the public expresses no such reluctance about U.S. involvement in the global economy. Fully 77% say that growing trade and business ties between the United States and other countries are either very good (23%) or somewhat good (54%) for the U.S. Just 18% have a negative view. Support for increased trade and business connections has increased 24 points since 2008, during the economic recession.

http://www.people-press.org/2013/12/03/public-sees-u-s-power-declining-as-support-for-global-engagement-slips/