At the risk of sounding like a right-wing talk radio Hillary hater frothing at the mouth, I will just go ahead and say this anyway: it is hard to watch Hillary Clinton for even thirty seconds announcing that now she is suddenly against the TPP, without becoming nauseous.
The latest, ambitious, “free trade” deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has cleared almost all final hurdles of passage, now that “fast track” was secured for President Obama thanks to his newfound allies in the Republican party, and the 12 member nations have reached an agreement on the details. This trade deal, negotiated at a level of secrecy not seen before in past trade deals, has been opposed by virtually all labor unions, environmental groups, and progressive politicians and advocacy groups. Senator Bernie Sanders has been a strong opponent from the beginning, as was Elizabeth Warren, and as Martin O’Malley, the lesser known Democratic primary opponent of Mrs. Clinton.
The long haul to expand the power of transnational corporations across the globe, destroying organized labor, environmental laws, and national sovereignty, for the sake of opening up more sweat shops employing slave labor to drive down wages globally and create greater worker insecurity, deregulation of financial institutions, as well as the extension of patents and protections for pharmaceutical companies that will kill millions in the Third World by denying them affordable medication, is nothing new. President Bill Clinton managed to secure NAFTA years ago, proving that Ross Perot’s prediction of hearing a “giant sucking sound going South,” the loss of American jobs, was not prophecy, but common sense, and certainly foreseen by its architects. Since that wonderful “free trade” deal, we’ve seen many more like it. The evidence always demonstrates what critics have charged against these trade agreements from the beginning: wages are driven down, national laws are undermined, and millions of poor people die as generic life saving drugs are taken from them in order to ensure maximum corporate profit.
The TPP has been in the works for years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was a huge supporter of it, speaking many times of how this trade agreement would be better. She even boasted as Secretary of State that it was the “gold standard” of trade deals. During this time, when the Obama Administration was trying to build support for the deal as members of his own party were opposing it, the deal was shrouded in an unprecedented level of security and secrecy. The ongoing negotiations of the trade deal were classified, like military intelligence. To read the rough draft of the trade deal, members of Congress had to read it alone, one at a time, in a basement, without cellphones or the ability to take notes, while being watched. They were sworn, legally, by executive branch audacity that screams of contempt for democracy, to not revealing any details to the public – you know, us citizens of our country they are elected to represent – at the risk of being punished for revealing classified information. Many elected officials were outraged at this, and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders spoke out loudly in public against the constraints. It does not take a genius or anyone with even casual knowledge of politics to know that something that is kept that secretive, before being “fast tracked” to Congress for an up or down vote without any chance for amendments, is nothing but another horrible trade agreement, written in secret by corporate lobbyists and their puppets in the White House and Congress, that the public would never accept if the details were known before hand.
Up until now, Candidate Hillary Clinton, has refused to endorse or oppose the TPP. As the battle for Fast Track authority played out in recent months, and as primary opponent Bernie Sanders railed against it and fought in in the Senate, Candidate Clinton refused to take a position, unlike Secretary Clinton before. She gave half-assed excuses of course, just like she did about her refusal to take a stand on the Keystone Pipeline (also until now), about how she didn’t want to undermine ongoing negotigations, and with regards to the TPP, how she suddenly didn’t know what the “details” of the trade deal were, she’d have to see it first. She didn’t have any trouble promoting it before all the “details” were available when she was Secretary of State of course, and we can assume she was on board with keeping those details secret by classifying the material. But suddenly Candidate Clinton didn’t know enough to comment one way or the other.
Now that the deal is closer than ever to being passed, and now that the first Democratic Primary Debate is taking place next week, Mrs. Clinton has apparently gained enough knowledge of the details to be courageous enough to take a position against a deal who’s fate will already be sealed by the time she or anyone else becomes the new President. Recall only recently her answer at a campaign event when told a crowd of her supporters that should she become President and the Keystone Pipeline still be undecided, “then I’ll tell you what my position is.”
She’s gaining a lot of confidence now that it looks like the TPP will already be voted on (and most likely passed) and she won’t have to decide. It’s now safe for her to speak out against a deal she promoted as Secretary of State.
Even the Clown News Network, once known as the Clinton News Network, formally still going by the name CNN, ran this piece pointing out a mere 45 times that Hillary Clinton promoted the TPP:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/politics/45-times-secretary-clinton-pushed-the-trade-bill-she-now-opposes/
I want to be very clear, because I am sometimes asked by nervous liberal or Democrat friends, “will you at least vote for her if she is the nominee?”
No, I absolutely will not. I am sick and tired of reluctantly voting for the “lesser of two evils.” I have supported mostly independent candidates for President in my lifetime, from Ross Perot to Ralph Nader, and in every case was always blamed by the losing side of a two-party oligarchy system for being a “spoiler.” Let me say loud and clear that this time, any of you who knowingly and willfully vote for Hillary Clinton or one of the Republican party’s Establishment candidates, are the spoilers. Knowing what we all know now, with all the information available, and with President Obama (whom I voted for both times) proving that puppets will say one thing in a campaign while doing as they are told by their corporate sponsors once elected. . . knowing what we know now, and certainly without a shred of doubt as to Hillary Clinton’s true nature as an opportunistic liar and warmonger, you should be be ashamed and recognize how your, mine, and every voters’ cowardice over the years, has played its part in “spoiling” our political system. I will no longer give any legitimacy by means of my vote, to any puppet candidate, out of fear of the other puppet candidate, in order to continue to propagate the illusion of democracy put forth by the true swine that rules our country and world.
I suggest that this presidential voting cycle, the most important vote you can cast is in the primaries. If you are a Republican or conservative, by all means, vote in the primary. At least vote for the candidate that the Republican Establishment doesn’t want, give us a real choice in the election. If I were going to pick a Republican candidate, I would vote in the primaries for Donald Trump. Since I want a progressive candidate, I will be voting in the Democratic primary for Bernie Sanders. Our only chance to have any meaningful choice for President is to participate in the primaries and chose a non-puppet. This is always an uphill battle. The corporate owned media will do all they can to dissuade you from doing so. Don’t fall for it this time. Register to vote in your state for the primaries. After the primaries are over, the media will tell you how the puppets from both parties are now “moving to the center” where they will tell you, elections are won. This “center” they speak of is nothing more than an acceptable choice, either way the election goes, for the corporate elite. You can vote for either of their two puppets, that is the “center.” Don’t be fooled. And don’t be afraid. If my primary choice loses, you can bet your ass I will not be acting like a slave by saying ‘yes master’ and giving Hillary Clinton an undeserved vote because I hope she will whip me less severely than the other master.
If Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush wins their party’s nomination, I will not vote for either one. I will no longer be a spoiler by giving a hint of legitimacy to our country’s real owners. I’ll let the late, great, Mr. George Carlin sum that up for you: