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Posts Tagged ‘Fast Track Authority’

US Senator of Wall Street Ron Wyden wants to eliminate your voting rights, and redistribute your income to the 1 percent. And he knows exactly what he’s doing, as you can tell by the film below. He doesn’t even deny the accusations on this matter when confronted by a citizen of Oregon at a town hall in January 2015. He simply avoided the answer to the question over six boring minutes.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will steal your voting rights on many issues. It will also redistribute massive amounts of income from the 99 percent, and stuff that money straight into the pockets of the 1 percent. Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden knows this, and yet, he was the right hand man of President Obama to hustle the TPP out of the Senate Trade and Finance Committees. He is also the person who pushed Fast Track Authority through the US senate. Fast Track forces congress into an up or down vote on the TPP, limits debate, and stops the filibuster from being implemented when the TPP comes up for a vote in the US Senate. The final version of the TPP was introduced to congress a week or so ago, and the text of this international income and voting rights redistribution scam are being reviewed.

We know, as has Wall Street and its senator, the TPP will unconstitutionally allow foreign corporations to challenge US laws that the management of these corporations deem to negatively impact their alleged future profits. Such cases will be tried in secret corporate established tribunals.

If the citizen’s of a state or county vote to establish mandatory GMO labeling laws, for example, and a GMO company decides that this will negatively impact their future profits, that company can sue the state in Wyden’s secret tribunals. If the company wins, the state will have two options; pay the difference between what the company says its future profits if the law didn’t exist, and what the profits were before the law goes into effect, or rescinding your voting rights by eliminating the law.

In other words, your vote will be rescinded, or you will need to pay a foreign corporation every year in perpetuity to enact such a law.

So if a company is selling a gasoline additive, and poisoning the ground water of a state, and killing people with it, and the state legislators or the voters decide to eliminate the poison from their state, the same financial situation will crop up. Be poisoned and in the process lose your voting rights on the issue, if you lose in the secret tribunal, or pay forever a foreign corporation to exercise your right to vote, which is nothing more than an illegal and unconstitutional poll tax in perpetuity.

A US trade treaty can override US law, but only if it receives 67 votes in the US Senate. That’s why the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is legally called an agreement, rather than a treaty. NAFTA didn’t get 67 votes in the senate. Don’t ask me why the US Supreme Court has ruled that an agreement between two nations is not a treaty, but it has ruled this way, and don’t ask me why foreign corporations are allowed to sue state and local governments in NAFTA’s secret tribunals, since clearly such a process is overriding US laws, and NAFTA only received 62 votes in the senate. Okay, it’s called the corporate takeover and corruption of the US supreme court.

Regardless, that’s how Wyden is intending to illegally steal your right to vote, and all on behalf of his Wall Street masters. This year he has brought the TPP to the brink of a vote in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives. It’s time for folks to start calling their senators and representatives.

Only an insane or totally corrupted person would want to continue following the same trade policies that have redistributed massive amounts of income and voting rights from the 99 to the 1 percent and brought us to the most massive and destabilizing income inequality and historically high trade deficits in US history. Take your pick. Are the supporters of this income redistribution scam insane or corrupt?

As an aside, and as a final note, since 2009, the 1 percent has stolen 95 percent of all US income growth. In 2008, the 1 percent stole 21 percent of all income produced in the USA, up from 8 percent in 1980. This year the 1 percent is stealing 37 percent + of all the income produced in the United States. What do they do with that money? They corrupt your politicians and Supreme Court justices, and the legislation that flows from the US congress, and the white house. In other words, that money is used to rig the economic, political and financial games against the 99 percent.

Think about these numbers. They mean that the 99 percent went from earning 92 percent of all US income in 1980, to 79 percent in 2008, to 63 percent in 2015.

Do you feel like your working more and earning less? Where has your retirement gone? Where are the jobs? Why haven’t the 99 percent received a raise in pay when factoring inflation since 1980? Why are housing prices so high? The above numbers are the answers to every one of the these questions and more, and Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden is one of the main culprits as to why these negative things are occurring.

As for how Wall Street Ronnie plans to steal your money, see what-the-corporate-new-media-refuses-to-tell-the-public-about-the-trans-pacific-partnership-its-a-massive-income-redistribution-agreement-that-will-drive-the-middle-class-further-into-poverty–JohnHively.wordpress.com

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According to Reuters, “In the weeks leading up to a critical annual U.S. report on human trafficking that publicly shames the world’s worst offenders, human rights experts at the State Department concluded that trafficking conditions hadn’t improved in Malaysia and Cuba. And in China, they found, things had grown worse.

The State Department’s senior political staff saw it differently — and they prevailed.

A Reuters examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.”

In other words, President Obama instructed American officials to overrule the state department. Why would he do this? Two reasons 1. Fast Track Authority, and 2. The Trans Pacific Partnership. Malaysia is one of the nations that is involved in negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is a massive income redistribution scam diverting money and wealth from the 99 to the 1 percent.

The negotiations for the TPP broke down a few weeks, which was a good thing for people in the negotiating nations. However, the impasse could be overcome, so we’re not out of the economic hot water yet. The TPP would’ve shipped millions of US jobs to low wage nations, such as Malaysia and Vietnam. American workers would have been forced to compete against slave labor in Malaysia, and nearly slave labor in Vietnam, if the TPP had been passed by congress.

The only way the TPP could pass through the US congress would be by granting Fast Track Authority to the president. Clever Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden placed some restrictions on the Fast Track bill that passed through both chambers of the US congress. One of the stipulations of Fast Track was that no nation could be a Tier 3 slavery nation. So President Obama figured out a way to get around this stipulation, which Wyden being an astute puppet of the rich most likely anticipated: Push the state department to upgrade Malaysia’s slave trafficking status. So that status became second tier, which meant that fast track authority applied to the TPP.

How important is civil rights to President Obama at home if he is encouraging slavery abroad on behalf of the owners of US corporations, which is effectively the 0.01 percent? That answer is squat.

For more on this scandal, click on the following link.

Reuters Investigation: Special Report: State Department watered down human trafficking report

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A friend on the political right wrote me about my support for Bernie Sanders for US president. My friend had some objections about Senator Sanders positions. So I wrote the response below. I should also like to point out that Bernie is a US senator from Vermont, where large pockets of conservatism flourish, and Republicans are elected to statewide offices. Yet Bernie continues to win election after election, campaigning mainly on bread and butter issues.

Anyway, below is my reason why everybody should vote for Bernie, regardless of their political ideology.

“…the Democratic and Republican Party leaderships, and the big money that controls them, also controls the levers of political power. I am against any candidate supported by the leadership of either major political party. That’s why over the years I’ve been a supporter of such diverse independent minded politicians as Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader and Bernie Sanders. Besides, it doesn’t matter what Bernie wants, what matters it what he can achieve as president. If Bernie becomes president, with both houses of congress likely to be controlled by the twin party leadership, Bernie will likely only be able to limit their damage to the middle class in terms of economics.”

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With the help of the corporate news media, which can better be described as the corporate propaganda machine, the Democratic and the Republican leadership rip the grassroots of both parties apart and against each other by inventing social issues, while raping the grassroots of both parties financially on behalf their billionaire and millionaire benefactors.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Fast Track Authority are classic examples of how the leadership of both political parties team together in their financial rape of the 99 percent.The Federal Reserve estimates the TPP will cost four to five million US jobs. The difference between the old higher US wages, and the new lower overseas wages, will go straight into the pockets of the 1 percent via higher corporate profits, dividends and share prices. That money will be stolen straight out of the pockets of working Americans and redistributed into the already fat bank accounts of the 1 percent, much of which will find its way into the pockets and campaigns of the Democratic and Republican party leadership. The local and state tax dollars paid by the jobs losers will no longer support schools, police, fire, road maintenance and much more. In other words, the TPP will rape our schools and other public services.

The TPP will also steal money that should go to the social security trust fund because the rich only pay social security taxes on the first $118,000 of their income. Worse yet, the TPP will force China to manipulate its currency even more than is already the case, costing the US millions more jobs than the Federal Reserve estimates. This manipulation of currency will compel US corporations to ship more jobs overseas because Chinese currency manipulation increases the profits of those who manufacture in China. (See Four Graphs that Will Make You Boiling Mad About the Trans Pacific Partnership–Or Why President Obama, along with executives from Nike, Microsoft, Apple and other US corporations Steadfastly Support China’s Currency Manipulations–JohnHively.wordpress.com).

In other words, the TPP has been negotiated specifically to redistribute income from the 99 to the 1 percent, and since 2009, the 1 percent has stolen 95 percent of all US income growth. Their share of the total national income has risen from 8 percent in 1980, to 21 percent in 2008, to 37 percent in 2015.

The TPP has also been negotiated to undermine US laws and democracy.

Hillary Clinton has stated publicly on 45 occasions that she is for the TPP. All of the Republican candidates are for it. Bernie would veto the TPP if he was president. Ergo, damage to the vast majority of US citizens would be limited.

Here’s something to think about. Opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership brought together unusual allies, such as the John Birch Society, the Tea Party, Black Lives Matter, and the AFL-CIO. We need more, not less, of that kind of cooperation among US citizens. Bernie understands this, and his candidacy is encouraging this. That’s precisely what the leadership of both political parties and their billionaire benefactors don’t want: Americans of all colors and political persuasions united together in opposition to the billionaire class and their complete corruption of the US government for their own ends.

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From Arthur Stamolis of CitizensTradeCampaign.Org (words in parenthesis mine)

Just last year, the U.S. State Department listed Malaysia among the world’s worst countries when it comes to human trafficking. While exact counts are impossible to come by, we’re likely talking about millions of people affected. Many of these modern-day slaves end up not only as prostitutes and domestic servants, but working in Malaysia’s export-oriented electronics and palm oil sectors. One-third of all electronics workers in Malaysia are estimated to be trafficking victims. (Some of these slaves will likely wind up working for US corporations, their contractors and subcontractors, should Malaysia be included in the TPP. This means US workers making $30 an hour will need to compete against slaves. Thank you Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden!)

Less you think this is anything less awful and barbaric than it really is, just this spring, dozens of trafficking camps with guard posts, barbed wire and their own mass graves were uncovered in the country’s jungles. A human rights campaigner said at the time, “The only way these kinds of camps could operate was with the support of military, police and politicians who were either directly involved or were paid to look the other way.”

The Fast Track legislation recently passed by Congress — as awful as it was — at least included a provision against fast tracking trade deals with the worst human trafficking abusers. Rather than requiring the Malaysian to clean up its act before it joins the TPP, the Obama administration has reportedly chosen to just write the problem away with a new trafficking report that says the country is no longer that big of a concern. (What an asshole we have as a president)

Top human rights advocates all agree the sudden “upgrading” of Malaysia’s trafficking status has nothing to do with human rights improvements, and everything to do with greasing the skids for the TPP, which means greasing the skids for Wall Street and the 0.01 percent to financially rape and pillage the 99 percent since the TPP is nothing more than an income and political power redistribution scam falsely marketed as a free trade agreement, and its political supporters all know this. They aren’t stupid little boys and girls.

A “stunned” Human Rights Watch representative said Malaysia has done very little in the past year to protect trafficking victims, and “This would seem to be some sort of political reward from the United States.”

An Amnesty International representative further argued that “Malaysia’s anti-trafficking efforts have been severely wanting,” and that “the U.S.’s willingness to sidestep one of the world’s worst rights crises” was instead motivated by “the value of trade this would bring.”

TAKE ACTION NOW: Please urge your U.S. Representative to speak out against attempts to cook the books in the State Department’s forthcoming human trafficking report.

For more on this subject, click the following link, first-remains-brought-down-malaysias-human-trafficking-camps–Asia One.

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Larry Cohen, who stepped down in June of this year as president of the Communications Workers of America Labor Union (CWA), has endorsed Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, over Wall Street candidate Hilliary Rodham Clinton. The Communication Worker’s of America union has not endorsed a candidate. Cohen will also be working on Bernie’s campaign as a volunteer. Cohen said he and other labor union leaders had tried to convince Mrs. Clinton to refute the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and giving Fast Track Authority to President Obama, but she refused. Mrs Clinton is on public record as having supported TPP 45 times. The TPP, if enacted, is a massive income and political power redistribution scam falsely marketed as a free trade agreement. The TPP will redistribute these things from the 99 to the 1 percent, which Wall Street loves. The CWA has 750,000 members throughout the USA.

For additional details, click on the link below.

Communication Worker’s of America Labor Union Leader Endorses Bernie Sanders for President over Wall Street’s Candidate: Hilliary Rodham Clinton

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A decade in the making, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reached a climax two weeks ago when corporations paid enough money to politicians in the US Senate and the House of Representatives to give President Obama Fast Track Authority, which makes it easier to ramrod the TPP through congress against the wishes of the US public. The TPP is the largest income and political power redistribution scam in US history, but it’s being falsely being marketed as a free trade agreement. Congress must still pass the TPP, and that is not necessarily a done deal. However, big money talks louder, and is more important to politicians, than voters, as noted during the debate over fast track authority. Click on the link below for a reasonably good analysis by the Guardian UK. 54 percent of US voters were against giving Fast Track Authority to the president. This is proof enough democracy does not exist on the federal level in the USA.

Here’s how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill–The Guardian

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Some progressives threw up their hands Tuesday after the Senate voted for closing debate on fast-track trade legislation. It’s all over, they said: The nearly completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is certain to pass now.

Not so fast.

Although the Senate will undoubtedly approve fast-track legislation today—the trade promotion authority bill only needs 51 votes—the despair and talk of surrender on the TPP shouldn’t be on anyone’s agenda. Certainly, it’s true that blocking that agreement will be exceedingly tough. But it is by no means impossible. George Zornick at The Nation writes:

Without question, fast track makes the TPP much more likely to pass. No amendments can gum up the process or chase off support, and we already can easily see there are 50 votes in the Senate based on the fast-track votes. But the House remains no sure thing for the TPP. Fast track twice passed by only two votes.

When the TPP actually comes out, there will be some really ugly details that are likely to enrage liberals and solidify opposition among Democrats, not too mention some Republicans. For months the White House has been dodging some criticisms of the TPP by stressing that the text isn’t final, but that will no longer be an option. […]

On the Republican side, Boehner will almost surely have a more difficult time gathering Republican votes for the TPP than he did for fast track. One argument frequently made by Republicans during the congressional fast-track debate was that it benefited the GOP, too—that it was also a vote to give a theoretical Republican president in 2017 immense power to shape trade deals without congressional meddling. That has no application to the TPP debate.

One of the leading anti-fast-track foes—Public Citizen—plans to fight on. Robert Weisman, president of the organization, said in a statement:

Today’s action means that Congress will tie its hands to prevent it from exerting positive influence over negotiations of the TPP. It means that the final TPP agreement will very likely include provisions empowering foreign corporations to sue our own government for policies that they claim impinge on their expected future profits. It means that the final TPP will very likely include provisions that will extend Big Pharma monopolies, raising prices for consumers and health systems—and, even in the United States, and especially in the poorer TPP countries, denying people access to needed medical treatment. It means that the final TPP will very likely include provisions undermining our food safety.

What it doesn’t mean is that Congress must pass such a TPP.

Losing on fast-track was a major defeat. But it should not induce anyone to surrender in this crucial fight.

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From Elizabeth Swager of Oregon Fair Trade

Dear friends,

The Senate vote today was a tough loss. We’ve seen several victories along the way. We defeated the Camp-Baucus fast track bill last year, and stopped the original Ryan-Hatch-Wyden bill in the House just a little over a week ago. But Republicans and the White House were able to make enough sweetheart deals that cloture for Fast Track passed with a single vote, 60-37.

We have a lot of be proud of here. Our struggle against Fast Track built a movement. Allies from labor, enviros, immigrant rights, access to medicines came together on a common front. We united against the largest most powerful corporate interests in the world, and we came so close. It’s a true testament to your good work and will lay the foundation for the next episode in the battle for people over profits.

As you know, next is stopping the TPP itself. Proponents know there is little time to pass the TPP with the upcoming Presidential campaign cycle and Congressional elections on the way. We have built tremendous momentum in this fight, if we keep it victory is within reach.

Thank you for all your incredible work.

In Solidarity,

Elizabeth Swager
Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

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Notice in the graph below that income inequality in the United States grew remarkably in favor of the 1 percent as soon as NAFTA went into effect. Notice that under Republican President Ronald Reagan the 1 percent took home about 12 percent of all the income produced in the USA by 1984, up from 8 percent in 1980. By 2008, the 1 percent was stealing 21-23 percent of all the income produced in the USA. Since 2009, the 1 percent have been stealing 95 percent of all income growth, which means, if you do some simple math, they’re currently stealing about 37 percent of all income produced in the USA.

When jobs are shipped overseas, the difference between the old higher US wages and the new lower wages overseas goes straight into the pocket of the super wealthy via higher corporate prices, soaring share prices, and massive dividend growth. That great sucking sound in Mexico after NAFTA wasn’t just for sucking jobs away from US workers, it was the rich sucking the middle class’s wallets. Now the rich want to blood suck even more income from the 99 percent, and redistribute it to themselves.

On June 23 2015, the US Senate will vote on whether or not to increase income inequality via Fast Track Authority, which is legislation that will grease the wheels of a congressional rubber stamping of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has been labeled NAFTA on Steroids. It’s a massive income redistribution scam that benefits only the 0.01 percent at the expense of the 99.9 percent. Call your senators now. Save your nation! Save your job! Save your children’s futures. Click the following link to connect with your senators and tell them to vote against Fast Track, Click this link now to call your senator.

cbpp income inequality 2011

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The latest scam perpetrated by the 1 percent against the 99 percent is Fast Track Authority. If the Senate votes for it tomorrow, it will pave the4 way for a massive income and political power redistribution scam known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership to be rammed through congress with little or no debate, no amendments, and no hope of a filibuster in the US Senate to stop it.

Last month, too many Senators voted wrong on Fast Track. Tomorrow, however, the Senate is being asked to vote on an even worse Fast Track package — one that, in addition to allowing the TPP to be rushed through Congress, could also weaken human trafficking measures; eliminate simple currency measures and other enforcement provisions; and even prohibit the consideration of climate solutions in future trade negotiations.

Fast Track is bad for the economy, public health and the environment in our communities and around the world. On the eve of the new vote, join us in urging your Senator to vote NO!

You can call or email your senators who haven’t made up their minds. Just look at the Democrats who like China to manipulate its currency, which costs the US jobs; weaken slave labor transactions, and wipe out any consideration of dealing with climate change in future (that’s your future) trade negotiations. Call today at Click this link now to call your senator

In addition to calling or emailing your Senators now, here is a list of fast-approaching, last-minute rallies (most are today!):

CALIFORNIA
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Feinstein)
Monday, June 22 * 1:00pm
Senator Feinstein’s Fresno Office
2500 Tulare St, Ste 4290
Fresno, CA
Contact: Stan Santos, ssantos@cwa9408.org

Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Feinstein)
Monday, June 22 * 12:00 noon
Senator Feinstein’s Los Angeles Office
11111 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 915
Los Angeles, CA
Contact: Adrian Acosta, aacosta@cwa-union.org

Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Feinstein)
Monday, June 22 * 12:00 noon
Senator Feinstein’s San Diego Office
880 Front Street, Suite 3296
San Diego, CA 92101
Contact: Nicole “Kali” Gochmanosky, kali@citizenstrade.org

Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Feinstein)
Monday, June 22 * 12:00 noon
Senator Feinstein’s San Francisco Office
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA
Contact: Xiomara Castro, xiomara@citizenstrade.org

COLORADO
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Bennett)
Monday, June 22 * 12:00 noon
Senator Carper’s Denver Office
1127 Sherman St
Denver, CO
Contact: Brenda Roberts, broberts@cwa-union.org

DELAWARE
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Carper)
Monday, June 22 * 3:00pm
Senator Carper’s Wilmington Office
310 North Walnut Street
Wilmington, DE
Contact: Scott Reynolds, sreynold@aflcio.org

Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Coons)
Monday, June 22nd * 2:00pm
Senator Coons’ Wilmington Office
American International Building
1105 N. Market Street
Wilmington, DE
Contact: Sam Bernhardt, sbernhardt@fwwatch.org

FLORIDA
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Nelson)
Monday, June 22 * 12:00 noon
Senator Nelson’s Miami-Dade Office
2555 Ponce De Leon Blvd
Coral Gables, Florida
Contact: Deborah Dion, dion.deborah@gmail.com

ILLINOIS
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Kirk)
Tuesday, June 23 * 10:30am
Dirksen Federal Building
219 S Dearborn St
Chicago, IL
Contact: Mara Cohen, marajai51@gmail.com

MARYLAND
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Cardin)
Tuesday, June 23 * 10:00am
Senator Cardin’s Bowie Office
10201 Martin Luther King Jr Hwy, Ste 210
Bowie, MD
Contact: Maya Goines, Mgoines@aflcio.org

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Shaheen)
Monday, June 22 * 11:30am
Senator Shaheen’s Manchester Office
1589 Elm Street, Ste 3
Machester, NH
Contact: Daniel Justice, Djustice@aflcio.org

OREGON
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sen. Wyden)
Monday, June 22 * 5:45pm
Senator Wyden’s Portland Office
911 NE 11th Ave
Portland, OR
Contact: Elizabeth Swager, elizabeth@citizenstrade.org

WASHINGTON
Rally to Stop Fast Track (Sens. Murray & Cantwell)
Monday, June 22 * 5:30pm
Henry M Jackson Federal Building
915 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA
Contact: Gillian Locascio, gillian@washingtonfairtrade.org

Whether or not you can attend a rally, can still make a real difference by forwarding this message to friends and family, and by emailing your Senators now.

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