UPDATED: Spectrum Health is owned by Betsy Devos...THE RUSSIA CONNECTION?

Banana Republic!

 Connie Comeaux's post.

Connie Comeaux

• 
  

TRUE?

Seniors for a Democratic Society

Courtesy Terry Kok:
Well here's a funny little coincidence (not) Mariya Putin, Vlads eldest daughter just so happens to run a children's endocrinology charity, guess who specializes in endocrinology? Spectrum Health of Michigan. The same site that all the computer traffic was going to and from Trump Tower and Alfa Bank of Russia. Spectrum Health is owned by Betsy Devos. LOL That ladies and gentlemen is called an implausible coincidence. Devos didnt get a cabinet position because she was qualified(an understatement)! She got that job because she's right smack in the middle of all this! They used her companies computer servers to communicate with the Russians and they thought no one would notice! I'm sure she's terrified right about now, If we all know what she did you can best be sure Robert Mueller knows what she did!
Jane Kraft
And Erik Prince is her brother!!!

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION: 

Sources: FBI investigation continues into 'odd' computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization

EXCERPT: What puzzled them was why a Russian bank was repeatedly looking up the contact information for mail1.trump-email.com.

Publicly available internet records show that address, which was registered to the Trump Organization, points to an IP address that lives on an otherwise dull machine operated by a company in the tiny rural town of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

From May 4 until September 23, the Russian bank looked up the address to this Trump corporate server 2,820 times -- more lookups than the Trump server received from any other source.

As noted, Alfa Bank alone represents 80% of the lookups, according to these leaked internet records.

Far back in second place, with 714 such lookups, was a company called Spectrum Health.

Spectrum is a medical facility chain led by Dick DeVos, the husband of Betsy DeVos, who was appointed by Trump as U.S. education secretary.

Together, Alfa and Spectrum accounted for 99% of the lookups.

This server behavior alarmed one computer expert who had privileged access to this technical information last year. That person, who remains anonymous and goes by the moniker "Tea Leaves," obtained this information from internet traffic meant to remain private. It is unclear where Tea Leaves worked or how Tea Leaves obtained access to the information.

Tea Leaves gave that data to a small band of computer scientists who joined forces to examine it, several members of that group told CNN, which has also reviewed the data.

Data Patterns Reveal Trump Tower/Spectrum Health Ran a “Stealth ...

https://teapainusa.wordpress.com/.../data-patterns-suggest-trump-towerspectrum-healt...

Apr 3, 2017 - Spectrum Health, owned by Michigan's powerful Devos family, attempted to explain the IP activity as “Voice over IP traffic”, whereas Alfa Bank ...

Trump's alleged computer server connection with a Russian bank ...

www.salon.com/.../trumps-alleged-computer-server-connection-with-a-russian-bank-c...

Mar 10, 2017 - ... conducted by Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain for which Dick DeVos, the husband of Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, ...

What an odd coincidence. Russia and servers and Trump and DeVos

https://www.dailykos.com/.../-What-an-odd-coincidence-Russia-and-servers-and-Tru...

Dec 1, 2016 - ... follow that tweet thread a little farther, you'll find that Spectrum Health is connected to our newly named Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

Donald Trump's alleged Russian email server communicated with ...

www.palmerreport.com › Opinion

Feb 11, 2017 - This makes clear that Spectrum Health is at least partially controlled by the Dick andBetsy DeVos family. So where does this leave us?

Russia hacks Trump during campaign using Devos-controlled company ...

www.mmo-champion.com › Forum › Off-Topic Forums › General Off-Topic

Mar 3, 2017 - 1 post - ‎1 author

... Trump-and-DeVos Further connection to Spectrum Health: Betsy Devos's ... I wonder if Putin found anything incriminating on Trump or Devos ...

Evidence emerges that Blackwater's Erik Prince managed a ...

markmaynard.com/.../evidence-emerges-that-blackwaters-erik-prince-established-a-co...

Apr 3, 2017 - And here I thought that maybe Amway heiress Betsy DeVos got the job as ... and Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain that Betsy DeVos's ...

Principal owner in Alpha Bank (Group) has decided to expand his ...

https://twitter.com/i/moments/810459365010472960?lang=en

Betsy Devos Trumps pic for Education Secretary....who can get this out in mass? ... interest in investing billions in US health care, including Michigan's Spectrum.

Spectrum Health computer activity with Trump organization server ...

www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/report_ties_spectrum_health_to.html

Mar 10, 2017 - Dick DeVos, husband to Trump-appointed U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, is listed as an emeritus trustee on the Spectrum Health ...

FBI still investigating Trump server link to Russian bank - Axios

https://www.axios.com/fbi-still-investigating-trump-server-link-to-russian-bank-2308...

Mar 9, 2017 - ... the Trump server, but another 19% came from Spectrum Health, a company owned by the husband of Betsy DeVos. What's the explanation?

99% of all connections to this server came from Russian Alfa bank and ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/esist/.../99_of_all_connections_to_this_server_came_from/

Mar 10, 2017 - Spectrum Health is a non-profit integrated healthcare system in west michigan that has gotten a ton of financial support from the DeVos family ...

FBI Investigation of Russian Bank's Link With Trump Organization's ...

www.newsweek.com/fbi-investigation-trump-organisation-server-russian-lookup-ong...

Mar 10, 2017 - Along with the lookups from Spectrum Health, a medical facility chain run by the husband of Betsy deVos—the woman who later became ...

DeVos, a Russian bank, and $1 trillion in student loans | Enrique ...

https://www.linkedin.com/.../devos-russian-bank-1-trillion-student-loans-enrique-balo...

Mar 21, 2017 - DeVos, a Russian bank, and $1 trillion in student loans ... of Trump's education secretary,Betsy DeVos, serves as chairman of the board. ... It remains unclear what Spectrum Health could possibly have been doing looking up ...

TPP: Banana Republic

ALSO SEE: Wyden, Feinstein Led Pro-TPP Democrats

By One Vote, Obama Gets His Fast-Track Authority

By Associated Press

23 June 15

The Senate hit the exact number of votes needed to avoid a filibuster on Tuesday, which makes the agenda well-positioned to become law

arack Obama’s trade agenda has survived a crucial Senate vote and seems well-positioned to become law.

The Senate voted 60-37 on Tuesday to begin full-blown debate on Obama’s request for so-called “fast track” negotiating authority, which would make trade deals such as the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the EU possible. That was the exact number needed to avoid a filibuster.

The vote continued a revival process that began last week when Obama’s trade allies resurrected the legislative package in the House and won a crucial vote there.

Previous presidents have enjoyed fast track authority. It lets them propose trade pacts that Congress can reject or ratify but not change.

Unions strongly oppose it. They say free-trade deals cost US jobs.

Obama and most GOP leaders say US products must reach more markets.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/30893-focus-by-one-vote-obama-gets-his-fast-track-authority

10 Ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic

This has been a sad process to watch.

When those with health care oppose the Affordable Care Act and pretend that health care is available to Americans, it ignores the statistics included in #10 that are unacceptable.

10 ways America Has Come to Resemble a Banana Republic

What will it take for America to reverse its dramatic decline?

AlterNet / By Alex Henderson

In the post-New Deal America of the 1950s and '60s, the idea of the United States becoming a banana republic would have seemed absurd to most Americans. Problems and all, the U.S. had a lot going for it: a robust middle-class, an abundance of jobs that paid a living wage, a strong manufacturing base, a heavily unionized work force, and upward mobility for both white-collar workers with college degrees and blue-collar workers who attended trade school. To a large degree, the nation worked well for cardiologists, accountants, attorneys and computer programmers as well as electricians, machinists, plumbers and construction workers.

In contrast, developing countries that were considered banana republics—the Dominican Republic under the brutal Rafael Trujillo regime, Nicaragua under the Somoza dynasty—lacked upward mobility for most of the population and were plagued by blatant income equality, a corrupt alliance of government and corporate interests, rampant human rights abuses, police corruption and extensive use of torture on political dissidents.

Saying that the U.S. had a robust middle-class in the 1950s and '60s is not to say it was devoid of poverty, which was one of the things Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was vehemently outspoken about. King realized that the economic gains of the post-World War II era need to be expanded to those who were still on the outside of the American Dream looking in. But 50 years after King’s "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963, poverty has become much more widespread in the U.S.—and the country has seriously declined not only economically, but also in terms of civil liberties and constitutional rights.

Here are 10 ways in which the United States has gone from bad to worse, and is looking more and more like a banana republic in 2013.

1. Rising Income Inequality and Shrinking Middle Class

In a stereotypical banana republic, income inequality is dramatic: one finds an ultra-rich minority, a poor majority, a small or nonexistent middle class, and a lack of upward mobility for most of the population. And according to a recent study on income inequality conducted by four researchers (Emmanuel Saez, Facundo Alvaredo, Thomas Piketty and Anthony B. Atkinson), the U.S. is clearly moving in that direction in 2013.

Their report asserted that the U.S. now has the highest income inequality and lowest upward mobility of any country in the developed world. They found that while the picture grows increasingly bleak for American’s embattled middle-class, “the share of total annual income received by the top 1% has more than doubled from 9% in 1976 to 20% in 2011.” And earlier this year, a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD also found that the U.S. now leads the developed industrialized world in income inequality.

2. Unchecked Police Corruption and an Ever-Expanding Police State

Journalist Chris Hedges made an excellent point when he said that brutality committed on the outer reaches of empire eventually migrates back to the heart of empire. Hedges asserted that with the increased militarization of American police, drug raids in the U.S. are now looking like military actions taken by American soldiers in Fallujah, Iraq. And, to be sure, there have been numerous examples of militarized narcotics officers killing innocent people in botched drug raids or sting operations gone wrong.

To make matters worse, narcotics officers who kill innocent people rarely face either civil or criminal prosecution; they essentially operate with impunity. And in addition to the abuses of the war on drugs, the U.S. government has far-reaching powers it did not have prior to 9/11.

Between the drug war, the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, and warrantless wiretapping, the United States is employing the sorts of tactics that are common in dictatorships.

3. Torture

During the Cold War, the U.S. supported many fascist regimes and banana republics that engaged in torture. But it didn’t openly flaunt such tactics itself. That changed after 9/11. Post-9/11, the U.S. crossed a dangerous line when the CIA used waterboarding on political detainees with the blessing of the George W. Bush administration. Waterboarding and other forms of torture are not only bad interrogation methods that do nothing to decrease or prevent terrorism, they are a blatant violation of the rules of the Geneva Convention. As Amnesty International observed, “In the years since 9/11, the U.S. government has repeatedly violated both international and domestic prohibitions on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the name of fighting terrorism.”



4. Highest Incarceration Rate in the World

According to the London-based International Center for Prison Studies, the U.S. has 716 prisoners per 100,000 residents compared to 114 per 100,000 in Canada, 79 per 100,000 in Germany, 106 per 100,000 in Italy, 82 per 100,000 in the Netherlands or 67 per 100,000 in Sweden. Even Saudi Arabia, which has an incarceration rate of 162 per 100,000, doesn’t imprison nearly as many of its residents as the United States. One of the main reasons the U.S. has such a high incarceration rate is its failed war on drugs, which has emphasized draconian sentences for nonviolent offenses.

The prison industrial complex has become quite a racket. From prison labor to construction companies to companies specializing in surveillance technology, imprisoning people is big business in the United States—and the sizable prison lobby has a major stake in keeping draconian drug laws on the books. Further, the drug war has included harsh asset forfeiture laws that, in essence, place the burden of proof not on the courts, but on people whose assets have been seized.

5. Corrupt Alliance of Big Business and Big Government

Trends forecaster Gerald Celente has asserted that the U.S. has become a “fascist banana republic” and now lives up to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s definition of fascism: the merger of state and corporate power. Celente, a frequent guest on the cable news network RT, has repeatedly said that systemic corruption in the banking sector has not decreased since the financial crash of September 2008 and the bailouts that came after it, it has gotten worse, and too-big-to-fail banks now operate with impunity.

That union of corporate and state power fits Mussolini’s definition of fascism, which was followed by a long list of dictators in banana republics. In a democratic republic, banks and corporations are not above the law; in a banana republic, they are—and with the legislation and reforms of Roosevelt’s New Deal (which did a lot to prevent banks and corporations from enjoying unchecked power) having been undermined considerably (most notably, by the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933), the U.S. is looking more and more like a banana republic.

6. High Unemployment

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the U.S. decreased to 7.4% in July 2013. But that figure is misleading because it fails to take into account the millions of Americans who have given up looking for work (that is, they have been unemployed for so long the BLS no longer counts them as part of the work force) or workers who have only been able to find temp work.

And according to economist/researcher John Williams, the unemployment crisis in the U.S. is much more dire than the BLS’ 7.4% figure. Williams’ research counts the millions of Americans the BLS excludes, and his newsletter, Shadow Statistics, reported that in June 2013, the U.S.’ actual unemployment rate was a disturbing 23.3% (which is only slightly less than the unemployment rate in 1932). Also, BLS figures don’t take into the account the fact that most of the new jobs created in 2013 have been low-paying service jobs. Clearly, much of the American population is growing poorer while the 1% are doing better than ever.

7. Inadequate Access to Healthcare

The United States continues to be the only developed country that lacks universal healthcare. And since the economic meltdown of September 2008, the number of Americans who lack health insurance has increased. According to a study the Commonwealth Fund conducted in 2012, 55 million Americans lacked health insurance at some point last year—and that 55 million doesn’t even count all of the Americans who are underinsured, meaning that they have gaps in their coverage that could easily result in bankruptcy in the event of a major illness. Americans have some of the highest healthcare expenses in the world but are plagued with much worse outcomes than residents of Canada, Australia, New Zealand or any country in Western Europe. From medical bankruptcies and sky-high premiums to a lack of preventative care, the American healthcare system is a disaster on many levels.

The U.S. took a small step in the direction of universal healthcare with the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, but many proponents of health insurance reform have been quick to point out that it doesn’t go far enough. According to Robert Reich, “Obamacare is an important step, but it still leaves 20 million Americans without coverage.”

8. Dramatic Gaps in Life Expectancy

In many banana republics, it is common knowledge that the poor die much younger than the wealthy minority. The disparity in life expectancy rates dramatically illustrates the severity of the growing rich/poor divide in the United States. Life expectancy for males is 63.9 years in McDowell County, West Virginia compared to 81.6 years in affluent Fairfax County, Virginia or 81.4 in upscale Marin County, Calif. That is especially alarming when one considers that life expectancy for males was 68.2 in Bangladesh in 2012 and 64.3 for males in Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, in 2011.

The news for many American women isn’t very good either. According to the United Nations, American women on the whole fell from #14 worldwide in life expectancy in 1985 to #41 in 2010.

And in September 2012, the New York Times reported that nationally, life expectancy was down to 67.5 years for the least educated white males compared to 80.4 for more educated white males. The Times also reported that life expectancy was 73.5 years for less educated white females compared to 83.9 for more educated white females.

9. Hunger and Malnutrition

In the 1950s and '60s, hunger was a word one associated with developing countries rather than the United States. But with millions of Americans having slipped into poverty during the current economic downturn, the number of people who are now poor enough to qualify for food stamps has increased from 17 million in 2000 to 47 million in 2013. Only one in 50 Americans received food stamps in the 1970s; now, the number is one in seven.

According to Share Our Strength, 48.8 million Americans now suffer from food insecurity. In 2010, Ariana Huffington came out with a book titled Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream. That title was no exaggeration; the U.S. is, as Huffington said, “on a trajectory to become a Third World country,” and the fact that food stamp use has more than doubled since 2000 bears that out.

10. High Infant Mortality

Earlier this year, the organization Save the Children released the results of its 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers Report. The report found that “the United States has the highest first-day death rate in the industrialized world” (babies dying the day they are born) and that the European Union has “only about half as many first-day deaths as the United States: 11,300 in the U.S. vs. 5,800 in EU member countries.”

Poverty, racism and stress are likely to be important contributing factors to first-day deaths in the United States,” said the report. Save the Children also reported that the U.S. had a rate of three first-day deaths per 1,000 births, the same rate the organization reported for developing countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Peru and Libya. Meanwhile, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador and Costa Rica were among the Latin American countries that had only two first-day deaths per 1,000 births. So, a baby born in El Salvador or Mexico has a better chance of living to its second day than a baby born in the United States.

***

What will it take for the United States to reverse its dramatic decline? Robert Reich, in a video released on Labor Day 2013, called for six things: 1) a living wage for more American workers; 2) an earned income tax credit; 3) better childcare for working parents; 4) easier access to good schools and a quality education; 5) universal health insurance; and 6) union rights.

Those are all excellent ideas. The U.S. also should replace the war on drugs with a sane drug policy (something Attorney General Eric Holder recently addressed), abolish the prison industrial complex, rebuild the U.S.’ decaying infrastructure, abolish the Patriot Act and the NDAA, restore the Glass-Steagall Act and break up too-big-to-fail banks. Obviously, accomplishing even a third of these would be an uphill climb. But unless most or all of those steps are taken, the U.S. can look forward to a grim future as a banana republic.

Alex Henderson's work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, Billboard, Spin, Creem, the Pasadena Weekly and many other publications. 

 

 

http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-ways-america-has-come-resemble-banana-republic?page=0%2C3

The March to Destroy Public Education

Historically, there are a number a things that set this great nation apart from others.

FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION was one of them.

Look around the world....EDUCATION was withheld from the poor, those unable to afford the cost....those nations failed to thrive.

The Republicans, ALEC, the Tea Baggers, the Koch-roaches would convince you that their extremist tactic make sense, creating a two-tiered system of education, denying the poor educational opportunities their families can't afford, forcing them into failing school system with failing libraries.

This two-tiered system not only further segregates education, but creates a legacy unable to compete in the future.

Short-sighted to say the least, but when did the Banana Republic Babes care?

Suit In Alabama Seeks To Stop School Choice Law

Debbie ElliottAugust 19, 2013

 

 

LISTEN

 

Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen discusses a federal lawsuit against the Alabama Accountability Act on Monday. Cohen says all students in Alabama can't take advantage of the law. (AP)

Parents in some rural Alabama counties are asking a federal court to block a new state law that gives tax breaks to families who transfer out of failing schools. They argue that their children aren't getting a fair shot at a quality education.

The law, passed in a controversial last-minute move by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature this year, provides a $3,500 tax credit for private school tuition or to offset the cost of transferring to a nonfailing public school. Tax breaks are also offered to people and businesses that donate to private scholarship funds to help students who can't otherwise afford to transfer.

Mariah Russaw, one of the plaintiffs, says she wants her grandson J.R., a seventh-grader, to finish high school. J.R. attends a school that is considered failing by state standards. Under the new law, the family is eligible for a tax credit to transfer to a better public school or approved private one.
Russaw says that's not really an option in their rural county.

"Lord have mercy. I would have to probably borrow money to get gas and I'd probably have to travel over 30 miles or longer, and I don't have the transportation to do that," Russaw says.

Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the lawsuit, says all students can't take advantage of the Alabama Accountability Act.

"The problem with the act is that it creates two classes of students: one group of students who can escape failing schools and another group of students who cannot by virtue of their poverty or where they happen to live," Cohen says. The lawsuit argues that Alabama's law violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection, Cohen says, trapping poor and rural students in bad schools.

"They go to schools or they're in grades where there are no nonfailing schools in their counties. They also don't have the means to send their children to private schools. Many of the private schools aren't even participating," he says.

As of the start of the school year on Monday, 56 private schools are participating in the program, most of them from urban or suburban areas.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Republican legislative leaders declined to be interviewed by NPR.

But in a statement, Bentley says the "goal is to have no failing schools in Alabama" and that the law is designed to help students in all public schools, no matter where they are located.

The equal protection argument is new. Most federal challenges to school choice thus far have centered on First Amendment issues, whether using state money to pay for parochial school tuition crosses the line of state-established religion.

Josh Cunningham, an education policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, says the federal lawsuit in Alabama that alleges poor and rural students aren't being treated equally could affect other states.

"It could have a tremendous impact because most of these programs are based on low-income students and students in failing schools," Cunningham says.

Cunningham says Alabama's law is among a flurry of school choice laws pushed by Republican-controlled legislatures since 2010. "This year, particularly, has been really active. In 2013, we saw 13 states either create or expand existing private-school-choice policies. That compares to eight states that did it in 2012 and seven states that did it in 2011. So it's been a pretty productive year for the school choice movement," he says.

Cunningham says in all, 21 states and the District of Columbia have enacted private-school-choice policies.


http://www.wbur.org/npr/213510484/suit-in-alabama-seeks-to-stop-school-choice-law

Banana Republic Here We Come!

Will you remain silent as even more jobs are shipped overseas?

NationofChange

If TPP passes it will override American law.

The giant multinationals are pushing a trade deal that will literally let them bypass our laws. This deal is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and it is coming at us in the next few months. The corporations are trying to switch this gravy-train onto the “Fast Track.” For them this deal is the light at the end of the tunnel of democracy and self-government that has been trying to reign them in. We need to get this runaway train back on the rails or We the People will be begging for scraps thrown from the caboose. Call your Senators and Representative today and let them know that people are paying attention and oppose “Fast Track trade authority.”

Fast Track

President Obama’s US Trade Representative (USTR) and lobbyists for the giant multinationals are asking Congress to yield its Constitutionally-mandated obligation to carefully review and amend the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. They want Congress to give the administration “Fast Track” “trade-promotion” authority (TPA) so they can get the deal done ASAP. ASAP in this case means literally in the next few months.

Politico has the story inside their story USTR headed to Japan to attack auto trade barriers,

[The US trade representative's] trip comes as the Obama administration hustles to make a major trade deal with Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries happen by the end of this year.
… The Obama administration needs Congress to approve “fast-track” authority guaranteeing that TPP would get a vote without amendments …. The administration has a short window of opportunity before campaigning revs up for the 2014 election, making it a near-impossible environment to get such a massive trade deal done.

Giant Multinational Corporations Hope To Push This Through

If TPP passes it will override American law. Again: we will not be able to pass laws that reign in the corporations. We will not be able to protect our jobs and wages because, as we have seen, companies can just close a factory and move your job to a country that pays very little, doesn’t protect the environment, and doesn’t let working people do anything about it. Of course the giant companies want these agreements — they let them tell us that if we ask for decent wages or benefits they will fire us and move our job out of the country.

Most news sources are funded by corporations and investors. Their goal is to drive people to advertisers while pushing the corporate agenda. NationofChange is a 501(c)3 organization funded almost 100% from its readers–you! Our only accountability is to the public. Click here to make a generous donation.

Right now because of trade agreements already in effect we are not allowed to make laws even putting information like “dolphin safe” on tuna can labels. El Salvador is being sued by a Canadian mining company for trying to require environmental permits, because of a similar trade agreement. This is what these trade agreements mean to our ability to reign in the giant corporations.

The giant, multinational corporations and their business groups are hopeful that they can push this through. The Financial Times explains, in Obama’s ‘fast-track’ trade push faces congressional delays,

Corporate lobbyists, who have been pushing for a quick and uncontroversial approval of TPA [Fast Track], say they are still confident the talks will be successful.
“We are seeing signs of good support and momentum for TPA legislation in Congress and from the administration,” said David Thomas, vice-president for trade policy at the Business Roundtable, representing big blue-chip companies.

They Will Push It Through Like The Iraq War Was Pushed Through


So here is what is coming — soon. Lobbyists for the giant multinationals have been working behind the scenes to slip Fast Track through their friends in Congress. They will argue that the usual process Congress holding hearings, getting everyone’s viewpoint and hearing everyone’s concerns, then amending as needed and carefully considering the bill before a vote (also known as “representative democracy”) will just get in the way of getting this done. They will want as much of this done behind the scenes because regular people will naturally be upset about our Congress handing over their authority like this.

If the multinationals get Fast Track pushed through there will still be a vote in Congress, but it will be rushed. That vote will occur after the corporate machine has cranked up a full-scale, mega-million-dollar PR push. It will become “conventional wisdom” among all of the “Serious People” that free-trade agreement “create jobs.” People worried about the agreement’s effect on jobs and wages, etc. will be marginalized, called luddites and dirty hippies who are “against progress” and are “killing jobs” and all the things working people have been called as other “free trade” agreements have been pushed through.

But these stakeholders have turned out to be right about these free trade agreements. Look at the results of past trade agreements — massive job loss, stagnant and falling wages, entire regions (think Detroit, Cleveland, Flint, etc.) devastated and look at the resulting inequality with the 1% now receiving all of the gains from the economy! (Last Year’s Korea-US free trade agreement has already cost 40,000 jobs and increased our trade deficit by $5.8 billion.)

From what we know about TPP (it is still secret, even though they want it passed within months) it looks to be more of the same.

Rigged Negotiating Process

The process for negotiating TPP has been rigged from the start. It has been negotiated in secret by corporate-interest with other stakeholders excluded. (Government employees involved move to high-paying corporate positions once the agreement is completed.) More than 600 representatives of corporate-interest groups have been “advising” while representatives of labor, human rights, civil justice, consumer, environmental and other stakeholder groups have been kept away from the negotiating table. Congress has also been kept out and has not yet seen the agreement. This is a rigged process that is designed to reach a conclusion in the interests of the giant corporations and not taking into account the interest of environmental, labor, human rights and other stakeholders who will be affected by the results.

Call Your Senators And Representative!

Call your member of Congress and both of your Senators and tell them not to yield Congress’ authority to “Fast Track.” Do this today.

We can not tolerate Fast Track after the way this agreement has been negotiated. Don’t let Congress put itself in the position of no see, no amend, no time to think it through, all while a huge corporate PR campaign is underway. With Fast Track Congress will not be able to make changes and will have no time to think about the consequences.

Corporations are supposed to be subject to the laws that We, the People make. The current trade-agreement process is the other way around. It sets up a situation where democracy is a competitive disadvantage, because things like good wages and environmental laws are a “cost.” It sets up a process of negotiations between corporate interests that sits above our laws, limiting what we can do about it. These trade agreements get democracy out of the way. “Fast Track” gets democracy out of the way so they can ram these agreements through. Don’t let them get away with this.


http://www.nationofchange.org/free-trade-job-loss-express-coming-straight-us-1376833184