Click here to say NO
Sedona AZ (December 9, 2013) – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor about a Wikileaks exposure of secret, controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations by the U.S. Government and other nations in Singapore in an attempt to bypass the U.S. Congress and allow the president to sign trade deals and control the internet without any Congressional or public oversight as mandated by the Constitution to keep the power in the hands of citizens and not the executive branch. The deal is expected to be signed this week.:
Dear SedonaEye.com,
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been called “SOPA on steroids” — and for good reason.
Negotiated behind closed doors by the governments of a dozen countries (including ours) colluding with corporate interests, this secret “trade” deal (much of which has little to do with actual trade) would grant unprecedented snooping and censorship powers to ISPs, copyright holders, and governments.
A draft of the “intellectual property rights” chapter of the TPP was leaked recently, and according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it “reflects a terrible but unsurprising truth: an agreement negotiated in near-total secrecy, including corporations but excluding the public, comes out as an anti-user wish list of industry-friendly policies.”1
The first stage in the plan to pass the TPP is a big push for Congress to pass fast-track trade authority, which would short-circuit the typical legislative process when trade deals like the TPP come up for a vote.
Tell Congress: Say NO to fast-track trade authority. (Click to say NO)
Fast-track trade authority would allow the president to sign a trade deal before Congress has an opportunity to review or approve it. Then the president could send it to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Fast track would mean there would be no meaningful hearings, limited debate and absolutely no amendments to the deal. And there would be tremendous pressure on Congress to rubberstamp anything the president signs.
The recently leaked drafter chapter is a huge red flag about the kind of terrible policies the Obama administration wants to include in the TPP.
As George Washington University professor Susan Sell recently told the Washington Post:
From this text it appears that the U.S. administration is negotiating for intellectual property provisions that it knows it could not achieve through an open democratic process. For example, it includes provisions similar to those of the failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that the European Parliament ultimately rejected. The United States appears to be using the non-transparent Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations as a deliberate end run around Congress on intellectual property, to achieve a presumably unpopular set of policy goals.2
And that’s only one chapter, when there are many other chapters that haven’t been leaked.
Tell Congress: Say NO to fast-track trade authority.
It’s the job of Congress to fully vet trade deals and ensure they work for everyone, not just giant corporations. In fact the Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority over trade. And it would be a deeply irresponsible abdication of responsibility for Congress to pass fast track when we know the TPP is coming down the pike, especially when we know the consequences of the TPP could be disastrous.
That is why hundreds of groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, National Nurses United, the Sierra Club, Democracy for America, and Public Citizen have spoken out against fast track.
Under the TPP, Internet freedom would be a joke. But it would cause all sorts of other problems. Developing countries would lose access to lifesaving medicines. Unsafe foods and products could pour into our country while we’re powerless to stop them. Gone would be the days when the United States could regulate coal exports. And the excesses of our crazy intellectual property laws that privilege corporate control over innovation would be both exacerbated and extended internationally.
You might think such a far-reaching proposal would be subject to intense public debate. But the text of the proposed deal is considered classified by our government and even members of Congress have been given extremely limited access to it.
We know the little we do know about the deal because drafts of some of its chapters have been leaked.
Yet, while the government has kept the public and Congress largely in the dark about the TPP, it has given 600 corporate advisers access to the full text of the proposal.
Pressured by giant corporate interests that stand to make huge amounts of money on the deal, and faced with a public that has purposefully been kept ignorant about this deal, it’s not hard to see how the TPP could be rammed through Congress if fast-track trade authority were in place.
In fact, the reason the corporate lobby is pushing fast track is that they know the TPP could not get through Congress without this extraordinary power grab. So the first thing we need to do to fight back is to ensure Congress does not tie its own hands by passing fast-track trade authority.
Tell Congress: Say NO to fast-track trade authority. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/go/1630?t=6&akid=9595.7465237.5BrOqV
Matt Lockshin1″TPP Leak Confirms the Worst: US Negotiators Still Trying to Trade Away Internet Freedoms,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, Nov. 13, 2013.
2″Five key questions – and answers – about the leaked TPP text,” the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, Nov. 15, 2013.
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This current government would not do anything to by pass the Congress. Ohhhh, they have, what?
Arizona Senators of the 113th Congress –
Flake, Jeff – (R – AZ) Class I
368 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4521 Contact: http://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-jeff
McCain, John – (R – AZ) Class III
241 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2235 Contact: http://www.mccain.Senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Statistics & Lists: Rejected Treaties from US Government website
The vast majority of treaties have been ratified by the Senate. Since 1789, only twenty-two treaties have been rejected by the full Senate.
Sen. Flake to Deliver Address on Trade Policy at American Enterprise Institute
Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday Dec. 10, United States Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), will deliver a policy address at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on Congress’ role in expanding trade opportunities and increasing market access for U.S. businesses. His remarks will be followed by a panel discussion on the current status of trade promotion authority in Congress, and the trade agenda of the Obama administration.
Who: U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake
What: AEI hosts: “Opening markets, unlocking opportunity: Senator Jeff Flake on trade promotion in Congress” Sen. Flake to Deliver Address on Trade Policy at American Enterprise Institute
When: Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Sen. Flake’s remarks will begin at 10:00 a.m.
Where: American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Twelfth Floor
1150 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
The event will also be live-streamed at http://www.AEI.org/events.
This is why monopolies are bad and unregulated capitalism and 1% of the people now controlling the biggest chunk of money & power in this country. Canada’s middle class has now overtaken us as the worlds richest.
We are on a slippery Slope. We can’t stop spending on Trillion Dollar wars, instead of on our country & don’t forget the other trillion dollar war on drugs & it’s 1/2million or more casualities in our newest mistake, private prisons, where they don’t release you until they Can fill your bed.
We only had a powerful middle class in this country when unions were around to at least add a little Democracy to wage earners!
Tomorrow, Demand Progress will support the Reset the Net project to take steps toward blocking illegitimate government surveillance from the web. Momentum is growing — just yesterday Google, Mozilla, CloudFlare, and dozens of other major sites announced they’ll be joining our effort to secure the web.
And, we’ve gotten word of an extra exciting announcement coming from Edward Snowden himself.
More on that soon. Here’s what you can do to help us keep up the momentum right now:
Everyone — join this social media Thunderclap today to help tell your friends and family to secure their part of the web TOMORROW, June 5th:
Click here to join the Thunderclap: http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1260?t=1&akid=2625.2449649.wHlSpN
It only takes a second — you can sign up with your Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr to join a huge simultaneous social media post on June 5th and promote free, open source privacy tools to your friends and family.
Got a website, blog, or tumblr? We’re raising the Internet Defense League’s “Cat Signal!” Get the code now to run the Reset the Net splash screen or banner to help make privacy viral on June 5th:
Click here to get the code for your site: http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1261?t=2&akid=2625.2449649.wHlSpN
Tomorrow Reset the Net will launch a privacy pack where normal Internet users will find free, easy to use encryption tools that directly disrupt dragnet surveillance. There are so many other exciting announcements flying around right now that it’s hard to keep track of them all — more on them tomorrow, in your email and in the news. It’s going to be exciting.
More soon.
-Demand Progress
Uggh. After massive outcry — by more people than ever before on an issue before the Federal Communications Commission — President Obama’s FCC is still trying to end true Net Neutrality!
We need to convince President Obama to act now to protect the Internet — and his legacy — even as his FCC goes rogue.
Call a White House staffer and demand that President Obama rein in the FCC and protect Net Neutrality.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call
The Wall Street Journal reports that Pres. Obama’s FCC head Tom Wheeler is trying to ram through a sham deal that would allow Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) to discriminate between online content and charge sites extra fees if they want to avoid being slowed down. And it’s being enacted under an authority that means that even these weak rules would likely be struck down in court.
In light of the electoral results, it’s going to be terribly difficult for Obama to move a progressive agenda through the Congress.
But he can still save Net Neutrality by making sure that his FCC enacts strong rules this fall.
Tell Pres. Obama to rein in his FCC before it’s too late! This is a problem he created through weak leadership and being in bed with big business. Fix it now!
The FCC is spitting in the eyes of the millions of Americans who demanded real Net Neutrality by reclassifying ISP’s as Title II services.
We need the FCC to implement a strong Title II rule that bans fees and discrimination.
If they don’t, President Obama will go down in history as the president who broke the Internet.
Please call the White House right away!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call
Thanks for defending the Internet.
Internet Providers Sue to Kill Net Neutrality , National Journal, March 23, 2015
Go read it. http://act.demandprogress.org/go/1520?t=5&akid=3054.3300762.4-QnhR
1. “Why Charter Thinks Their Plan To Buy TWC Is Different Enough To Succeed Where Comcast Failed,” Consumerist, 5/26/15
2. “U.S. Internet users pay more and have fewer choices than Europeans,” The Center for Public Integrity, 4/1/15
3. “Census: Computer ownership, internet connection varies widely across U.S.,” Pew Research Center, 9/19/14
Why aren’t people listening??
1. Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached, The New York Times, October 5, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-reached.html?_r=1
From the article…The pressure now builds on Hillary Rodham Clinton…She promoted the trade talks as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state…
….Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders called it disastrous and a bad deal…
“Clinton friend McAuliffe says Clinton will flip on TPP, then walks it back,” Politico, July 26, 2016″
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/terry-mcauliffe-hillary-clinton-tpp-trade-226253
She lost this Democrat’s vote. Trump won’t. He’ll get mine. This only issue that counts for me.
The TPP would give unprecedented control of our economy to huge corporations. Unfortunately, President Obama keeps saying he will push through the TPP during the lame duck session after Election Day. The TPP would be a disastrous giveaway to corporations. It would make it cheaper for companies to ship jobs overseas and give unprecedented new rights for corporations to challenge U.S. laws in front of an unaccountable tribunal of 3 corporate lawyers. Even though the TPP would cover 40% of the world economy, it was negotiated in secret, with hundreds of corporate advisers invited into the process and the public shut out. Hillary is pro-TPP (she and Bill Clinton stomped the circuit telling businesses that jobs going to Mexico and China and elsewhere would only make them stronger), she fought for the TPP with President Obama. Only Bernie and Donald were vehemently opposed. Donald will get my vote, it’s that important to me, a lifelong Democrat.
Dear SedonaEye.com editor,
With the threat of sneaky TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) passage just after the election still a looming threat, we must do all we can to continue the resistance and help more and more people become educated on how bad it really is.
Harrison doing an amazing job of finding knowledgeable people to
interview on stopping the TPP, and here is where you can catch his
latest show on UTalk.
Harrison Against The TPP: https://www.utalk.us/?s=jvZplwqq24
Harrison leads off this week with Andrew Goldman, Counsel for Policy
and Legal Affairs at Ecology International, specializing in fighting international drug price gouging. They discuss the extreme secrecy of how it was written entirely by corporate interests with only corporate interests in mind, the literal corporate takeover of government the ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) chapter
represents and more.
And Harrison continues the TPP conversation, and other related
issues, with prominent national activist Jay Ponti, with more
surprise guests.
There is also a action page link right on the same listening page
above where you can continue to speak out against the TPP, so that we can put maximum pressure on Congress not to do this.
Encourage Harrison to keep hitting this as hard as possible, by
becoming a credited producer of the Go Harrison show, and there are
special links on the listening page dedicated for that, and Harrison will personally thank you on the air for a whole year.
But even if all you can do is kick in a buck or two, feel free to
browse our wide selection of UTalk progressive policy message gift
items, because it all helps to support Harrison’s original
journalistic work. Especially we encourage you to pickup one of our
widely distributed “Expressway To Trade Hell TPP” bumper stickers,
and there are links for bulk packs for that and all our issue related
bumper stickers right on this page.
Anti-TPP Bumper Stickers: https://www.utalk.us/?g=1:SE
We heard on the news yesterday a bunch of progressive groups just
presented a petition to Hillary Clinton calling on her to reiterate her opposition, insincere as it is, to the TPP and pledge to fight it during the lame duck session.
The problem is that Clinton is NOT the pressure point, at least not
anymore.
In the first place, Clinton does not have POWER to stop the TPP
during the lame duck session, even if she wins the election.
In the second place, Clinton does not WANT the power to stop the TPP.
She could have done something meaningful in that regard by putting express opposition to it, by name, in the Democratic platform which she controlled, and which represents the whole party. But she fought aggressively against that, aided and abetted by some of the same labor unions petitioning now, who put forward a watered down piece of nothing instead then.
If a bunch of Bernie delegates had brought forward a minority
platform plank on this at the Democratic convention, as we urged, we would have won on the spot. On our own initiative we emailed a number of key Bernie delegates on the platform committee to step forward and
press for this. But we could not find anyone to actually do it.
So that opportunity was lost.
Now, were she even to be elected, Clinton will make a token show of
wringing her hands, and President Obama will sign it regardless, as
he is so clearly determined to do, with the collusion of enough corporate Democrats to make up for the Republicans who don’t want
that permanent stain on their own records, though the vast majority
will still be Republican votes.
What must happen in addition to anything else, and it must happen
now, BEFORE the election, is for us to demand, in person, that
members of CONGRESS pledge to oppose the TPP. You can find out
exactly who voted for Fast Track in your district on this page.
TPP Lame Duck Hunt: https://www.utalk.us/?a=lame_duck_hunt
This is NOT a regular petition page.
ONLY submit the page above if you are down for doing more than
clicking a mouse, and are ready to attend an event for a
congressional candidate in your area and ask them a tough question
about the TPP in person.
Because the most powerful way to stop the TPP now is for actual
constituents to get in the faces of members of Congress NOW at their public events, town halls, debates, etc., and put them on the spot and on the record live so we can post cell phone video of their
hemming and hawing, and flak dodging and lame justifications, for all the rest of their constituents to see pre-election.
Nearly a thousand people have submitted the sign up page directly above for the lame duck hunt we proposed to do this. The bad news is that not one, not one, NOT ONE SINGLE person has followed up to say, “Hey, I’ve determined a place and time where we can run this member of Congress down at an event.”
We need to do better than this, folks. Can we find a couple hundred people who seriously want to win, and will take a step outside their front doors to join this mission?
Can we?
If the answer to that question is “Yes” we can change the world.
Fortune, “Americans Of All Stripes Strongly Want the FCC To Maintain Net Neutrality,” December 13, 2017
Call your representatives and tell them 80% of Americans say NO GOVERNMENT OR CORPORATE CONTROLS OVER OUR INTERNET – net neutrality now.
Apple slowed down my phone and I’m pissed off.
“Call your representatives”, why? They don’t want to hear from any of us once they’re elected. That’s especially true about our three state reps. They will not even defend state laws regarding municipality regulations so why would they be more concerned about federal decisions? We are nothing but fly-specks on a window to them. Maybe if we elect new blood next year? There’s always hope I suppose.
Eighty six percent of Americans oppose the repeal of net neutrality, including 82% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats. Opposition among Republicans has increased while Democrats have held steady showing. Voters have indicated support by their elected officials will factor in to support at the polls in upcoming elections. Works for me.