Why I Am Not a Fan of Obama Part One

I have not been happy with Barack Obama's performance in office for quite some time now. Two of his egregious offences concern the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and his recent visit to Saudi Arabia. In this post, I will deal with the T.P.P.

In truth, the T.P.P. has been in the pipeline for some time now. Its progenitor was known as Pacific Three Closer Economic Partnership according to Wikipedia and first reared its head as near as I can figure in 2002. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership]. Obama seems to be involved in the summits which have occurred since 2010 in some way that I cannot figure.

The thing is, the T.P.P. is comprehensive and lacks transparency unless you happen to be a Big Corporation. The rest of us, the public, have pretty much been left in the dark. This monster has proceeded and gained momentum without any input from those of us who are the public. Fortunately, Wikileaks has obtained a leaked document [https://wikileaks.org/tpp/#QQG] which was released in November 2013. Regardless of what you think about Julian Assange, if you care at all about intellectual property laws, the criminalization of D.R.M.-ripping devices in order to make copies for one's own use, the monitoring of your activities on-line by your I.S.P. and more, then go here [https://wikileaks.org/tpp/static/pdf/Wikileaks-secret-TPP-treaty-IP-chapter.pdf] right now and download your own copy of the thing. Then read it. At least read the parts pertaining to copyrights.

Copyrights are not the only thing at stake in the T.P.P. Concerns have also been expressed about benefits to Big Pharma at the detriment of specifically New Zealand. Doctors Without Borders [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership] and The Lancet [http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/66226074/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-may-raise-drug-prices] have raised concerns about what the T.P.P. will do to drug prices.

Also at stake are product safety rules [http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/16/trading-us-democracy-for-corporate-profits-with-tpp/] for agricultural products coming into the United States. They will not be as stringent as the current safety protections that we have are. There is concern about jobs [http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/letter-urge-congress-to-reject-trans-pacific-partnership-20150216], and a lessening of "environmental and health safeguards" [https://www.citizen.org/tpp].

After the T.P.P., watch out for the T.T.I.P. [http://americanfreepress.net/?p=22700] Trans-Atlantic Trade Investment Partnership which will be more of the same geared at Europe.

radical sapphoq says: The T.P.P. is due to be fast-tracked in D.C. sooner rather than later. There will be zero amendments or alterations allowed. Quite frankly, I intend to vote out of office any rep in my geographical region that votes yes on this monstrocity.

References [in no particular order]:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/66226074/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-may-raise-drug-prices

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/66223914/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Trade-deal-secrecy-par-for-the-course

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/16/trading-us-democracy-for-corporate-profits-with-tpp/

http://americanfreepress.net/?p=22700

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/letter-urge-congress-to-reject-trans-pacific-partnership-20150216

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

https://www.citizen.org/tpp

http://tppinfo.org/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/09/1362851/-Why-isn-t-President-Obama-talking-about-the-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-deal

https://wikileaks.org/tpp/#QQG

https://wikileaks.org/tpp/static/pdf/Wikileaks-secret-TPP-treaty-IP-chapter.pdf