So, acc to this, Mr O'Malley is just putting on a show for us Liberals~

[djean111]

54. Thanks for that article. I stand corrected. Anyone who can read that article and still pimp for

the TPP (and TTIP) is either a corporate tool or hopelessly delusional about what constitutes being a corporate tool.

What are the larger concerns about the TPP?

There are two major concerns about agreements like this. One is that these agreements continue a transition from a democratic system toward one in which the rights of foreign corporations can trump laws passed by legislative bodies. As Lee put it, “Every time you have a new trade agreement you expand the number of companies who can challenge American laws.”

The second concern is far more frightening. America’s dependence on China was not an issue in 1992, when NAFTA was signed. Today, it is. Lee noted, “We’ve put ourselves in a very vulnerable position because of the concentrated source of supply on critical resources, whether it’s China or elsewhere. I don’t agree that the TPP is the answer to this. In my view TPP, if anything, will exacerbate this. In TPP what’s being discussed are fairly weak rules of country of origin. Some of these countries may get substantial inputs from China. The TPP could become a conduit for the U.S. to become more dependent on China.” Barry Lynn spelled this out in a hypothetical disaster scenario, in which American tensions with China cause genuine friction. This isn’t far-fetched, as America is positioning military assets in the region.

“Officials [in China] do not even need to impose some sort of across-the-board trade embargo to achieve their ends. Far more effective would be to put the squeeze on one industrial system or other, or one company or other, day after day, in a systematic fashion, until Washington cried uncle. The Pentagon has sketched out complex plans for how to respond to any use of force by China. Far more useful would be to know how the United States as a nation would respond when, suddenly, grandma can’t get her medicine. Or when, suddenly, the store shelves empty of batteries and lightbulbs. What does the president do when he has General Electric and Wal-Mart both on the phone, demanding the restoration of normal trade? Or when Apple’s stock plummets because the company can’t move any of its iPhones through Chinese ports?

That BUT CHINA!!! boogeyman is ridiculous. The whole thing reeks, and it is disheartening, no, disgusting, to see people pimp for it because of whose name is currently on it, or because of who helped write it. This is how Democracy is killed.