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from the not-surrendering-to-corporations-for-now dept.
Common Dreams reports
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said [August 25] that the U.S. Senate will not vote on the 12-nation, corporate-friendly Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) this year, buoying progressive hopes that the trade deal will never come to fruition.
[...] McConnell told a Kentucky State Farm Bureau breakfast in Louisville that the agreement, "which has some serious flaws, will not be acted upon this year".
Common Dreams also reports
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has "de facto failed", admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
"Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed because, of course, as Europeans, we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands", Sigmar Gabriel told the German news station ZDF [1][2] in an interview that will air at 7pm German time [August 28], according to Der Spiegel. [1]
"Everything has stalled", Gabriel said.
[1] In German [2] Content behind scripts
Reported by BBC, in English.
In 14 rounds of talks, the two sides had not agreed on a single common chapter out of 27 being discussed, Mr Gabriel said. "In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it," said Mr Gabriel.
He suggested Washington was angry about a deal the EU struck with Canada, because it contained elements the US does not want to see in the TTIP.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Monday August 29 2016, @01:26PM
I suspect this is bait and switch. Announce "oh it has failed" . Convenient distractions from the pantomime election in the US, we know Hilary is pretending to not like it, and Trump probably doesn't know yet. And then one day we wake up and it has been signed "because $FUD".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:58PM
Trump promises to slap huge tariffs [reuters.com] on goods imported from China (45 percent) and Mexico (35 percent). So that's about the opposite of TTIP/TPP.
Unless he was being sarcastic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @03:51PM
If only republicans would stop being bigots. Not saying Trump is, but he's intentionally presenting an act attractive to bigots. Other people become bigots this year, or perhaps they always were but just hiding it under a congenial veneer.
It's a sad state of affairs. We've all been skillfully played by the MotU.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @05:05PM
Bigotry is at the core of their politics.
It goes back to when the Dixiecrats [wikipedia.org] all bailed out of the Donkey party during the Voting Right/Civil Rights era that sought to end Jim Crow.
(Harry Truman desegregated the military and Strom Thurmomd ran for president in 1948 as a segregationist.)
Next came Nixon's Southern Strategy. [wikipedia.org]
Reagan continued with this when he made his first speech as the GOP candidate at Philadelphia, Mississippi [wikipedia.org] (where civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner had been murdered; see also "Mississippi Burning").
Lee Atwater made a science of dogwhistle politics. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [wikiquote.org]
Now, Pachyderms didn't even have to say the actual words.
They could speak in code and all of them knew what racist attitudes were being expressed.
Again, racism is at the heart of the GOP.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @12:34AM
So according to you, one day they might not actually be racist, but because of code words that supposedly exist, and are counted by their political opponents according to some hidden conspiracy theory style list, they can always be painted as racists forever.
Because everything's a dog whistle. Protecting middle class jobs (from competition with brown people)? Protecting America (for white people)? Balancing the budget (by not paying money to/for brown people)? Opening the gates of commerce (to enrich white people at the expense of brown people)? Creating tariffs (to protect white people against brown people)?
Any political statement can be turned into a racist slur. I could do a five finger exercise and duplicate this for any party you care to name. So how about, instead of fabricating a fairy-tale to support mudslinging, you pay attention to substantive racism?
(Score: 1) by boxfetish on Monday August 29 2016, @11:17PM
Not sarcasm, but rather faux populism. He doesn't give two shits about the working class. He will never impose a tarriff on a damn thing, nor will he speak out against any trade deals once elected (a long shot anyway).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday August 29 2016, @02:03PM
Trump probably is in favor of it, because it would make it easier for Donald Trump to make more money, and as far as I can tell that's one of the few things he really cares about.
I absolutely agree with you that Clinton will change her official public position on the TPP sometime between November 9 and January 20. She only pretended to be against it, really, to prevent Bernie Sanders from using that as a way of exposing her as a corporate tool. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Obama administration took care of it in the lame duck session so that Clinton doesn't have to take the flak for signing it. After all, she'll be plenty busy dealing with all the congressional investigations that are sure to come her way.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @02:11PM
Trade agreements have to be approved by the US Senate, so Obama can't do bupkus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @03:45PM
Joseph Biden can vote if there would otherwise be a tie vote. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @05:21PM
We've been over this before. [soylentnews.org]
A *treaty* has to be approved by a supermajority in the Senate.
A trade agreement is clearly an arrangement between 2 or more countries and comes under the rule.
They've queered the rule, however, and are treating TPP as something else, requiring only a simple majority of both chambers.
The Constitution got shredded a long time ago.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Monday August 29 2016, @02:48PM
because it would make it easier for Donald Trump to make more money
If you mean him as a symbol of "rich dude" in general you're probably correct, but if you mean him as an actual individual dude, impoverishing the populace has never been a winning strategy for real estate developers.
A despotic world where a handful of people have all the money is what we came from and what we're headed rapidly toward, but specifically a real estate developer like Trump can't make money if only 10 people in the world have all the money and power and everyone else is dying in dirt huts. Not many deals to make with ten mansion/castle buyers in the world.
I guess a really simplistic way of looking at it, is globalization turned out great if you were already wealthy because now you're wealthy times ten and the general population is poorer, but if your thing was owning real estate in Detroit maybe globalization didn't turn out so well.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 29 2016, @05:42PM
Yeah, I'm sure a real estate developer is totally opposed to cheaper building materials.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday August 30 2016, @02:56PM
That's pretty much a wash. If it's more expensive for him, it's more expensive for all his competitors too.
The ones who would make out like bandits are any who have been stockpiling, either by holding actual stockpiles, or by building but not yet selling.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday August 30 2016, @05:01AM
There's a lot of Chinese billionaires driving up property values to insane levels around here (Greater Vancouver area) and I understand all up and down the west coast. Real estate developers are making out like bandits with the Provincial governments mantra that the only problem is we're not building fast enough.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday August 30 2016, @07:45AM
No, that's what Trump U is for. Prerequisite for the current course is having signed up for the follow-on course. The instructor is helpfully able to make it happen at the beginning of the first class. The instructor also has the loan application forms that you will need. Of course, you can't come to class until the loan has been approved and Trump U has received the money.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday August 30 2016, @03:48PM
Sounds like Scientology to me.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @10:53PM
Yeah, trump clearly only cares about money, what a tool, whereas Clinton, well! She cares about money AND power. That's so much more balanced.