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From EFF:
The U.S. Senate has paved the way for the passage of Fast Track legislation, to give the White House and the U.S. Trade Representative almost unilateral power to negotiate and finalize secret anti-user trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Yesterday a "cloture" vote was held—this was a vote to end debate on Fast Track and break any possibility for a filibuster, and it passed by the minimum votes needed—60 to 37. Today, the Senate voted to pass the legislation itself. TPP proponents only needed 51 votes, a simple majority, to actually pass the bill, and they got it in a 60 to 38 vote. Following months and months of campaigning, Congress has ultimately caved to corporate demands to hand away its own constitutional mandate over trade, and the President is expected to the sign the bill into law as early as tonight or later this week.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:47AM
Holy cow, I just pointed this out in the other thread. It really struck me as odd that overnight almost all media sources were going off on this Confederate flag thing. Then I read about TPP fast track passage and it clicked. I don't think it is exactly collusion between all mainstream press, but if one outlet publishes something prominently, they all seem to fall like dominos. I would however be totally unsurprised if the initial suggestion for the flag story came from politicians or businesses highly interested in getting fast track authority passed, because once that happens, it's practically a done deal. Well, now it has, and now it will be.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zz9zZ on Thursday June 25 2015, @03:49AM
Well, not much collusion is needed when most outlets are owned by the same corporation... However it is also the good old ratings effect. What would get more readers, complicated international trade agreements, or an emotionally charged american flag issue. Its evident right here as someone pointed out, way more comments about the flag than the TPP. Although, there isn't much discussion to be had about the TPP beyond "sucky deal forced down our throats" where this flag issue has a lot of social facets we can discuss.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @01:43PM
Maybe the white guy who shot up a black church after telling his buddies he wanted to start a race war, and posted pix of himself waving a Confederate flag, might've had something to do with the media attention?
Nah, there has to be more to it than that. Keep digging, theorists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @06:10PM
"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. … It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries." --David Rockefeller 1991