What Snowden says Edward Snowden is the man who has been "spilling America's political secrets." Or at least, that is how I just heard him described on a cable news program. Since the former NSA contractor outed himself, I've heard him called many names by people from both official and "unofficial" spokespeople of Washington - the pundits, paid thinkers and writers who are part of that well-groomed group. For those unlucky people who can't experience the joy of watching domestic television, allow me share a few of the descriptions I've heard and read. Snowden has been called "a traitor, high school dropout, loser, slacker, and a man with messianic aspirations." So to sum it up, most of the people who have access to professional microphones are targeting him with labels that would make any human being feel like a skinny, acne covered High School freshman with lice. This has an impact beyond Snowden’s self-esteem. I can't tell you how Americans really feel about NSA surveillance.
Canada - Trade Countries and regions Canada The European Commission proposed the signature of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) to the Council of the EU in July 2016. If the Council approves the agreement, it will need the European Parliament consent for it to be finalised. If the Council ratifies the agreement, it can be provisionally applied in areas where the governments of EU Member States deem the EU to have responsibility. The national parliaments of the EU Member States would then also need to ratify CETA for the areas which fall under their responsibility to take effect. This ratification procedure follows the release of the legally reviewed CETA text in February 2016. For more details read the factsheet "Trade Negotiations Step by Step Small businesses across Europe already export to Canada, or want to do so. Trade picture In 2015 Canada was the EU's 12th most important trading partner, accounting for 1.8% of the EU's total external trade. EU-Canada: Trade in goods
The democratic clock turned back Financial markets rallied last week when the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, announced he was dropping plans for a referendum on the terms of his country's bailout. Bond dealers liked the idea that the government in Athens could soon be headed by Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy think Papademos is the sort of hard-line technocrat with whom they can do business. Silvio Berlusconi's long-predicted departure as Italy's prime minister will no doubt be greeted in the same way, particularly if he is replaced by a government of national unity headed by another technocrat, Mario Monti. A former Brussels commissioner, he is seen as someone who could be relied upon to push through the European Union's austerity programme during the next 12 months, watched over by Christine Lagarde's team of officials from the International Monetary Fund. From the perspective of the financial markets, this makes perfect sense.
MAI: Anti-Democratic International Treaty On Investment Reprinted from The Common Good, no 6, Advent 1997 www.catholicworker.org.nz MAI: Anti-Democratic International Treaty On Investment Bill Rosenberg Do we ever stop to consider what state our democracy is in? Despite colourful rhetoric, the broad policies of all five recent governments have been very similar. If there really are fewer policy choices available, the real problem is that the politicians we elect have been disempowered, and are willingly disempowering future elected representatives from making the real changes the public want. A little publicised international agreement the government is currently negotiating illustrates this point radically. Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) The international agreement I refer to deals with foreign investment. Yet the impact of the agreement, if signed, will be profound. MAI: all rights and no responsibilities The purpose of the MAI is to restrict a government’s right to regulate foreign investment. What can you do?
Jak nám Evropská komise lže o obchodní dohodě, která bude mít katastrofální následky pro všechny Je správné, že se lidé ptají. Evropská komise trvá na to, že její Transatlantické partnerství pro obchod a investice musí obsahovat toxický mechanismus, který se jmenuje Urovnávání sporů mezi státy a investory. V těch případech, kdy byl tento mechanismus včleněn do jiných obchodních dohod, umožnil velkým korporacím, aby žalovaly vlády u tajných arbitrážních panelů, které se skládají z podnikatelských právníků. Tento mechanismus ohrozí téměř všechny prostředky, jejichž prostřednictvím by vlády mohly chránit své občany anebo přírodu. Evropská komise nyní seznala, že o věci už nemůže mlčet, a tak si vypracovala strategii jak nám lhát. Evropská komise se snaží tvrdit, že obchodní dohoda se týká "vytváření růstu a pracovních příležitostí" a "neohrozí regulaci a existující míru ochrany v oblastech, jako je zdravotnictví, bezpečnost a životní prostředí". I když Evropská komise nyní tvrdí veřejnosti, že ochrání "právo státu regulovat", něco jiného říká korporacím. Poslanci mlčí.
The crocodile tears of the complicit: Iraq and the cries against humanity - Opinion A bit over a decade ago, in that liminal political period between September 11, 2001 and the US invasion of Iraq, I attended a reading by well-known German writer and Holocaust survivor Ruth Kluger of her just-translated memoir of life in the death camps, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. It was the height of the al-Aqsa intifada, and during the Q&A several audience members asked her about Israel's treatment of Palestinians. How could Jews, who suffered unimaginably under the Nazis, in turn oppress Palestinians? They wondered. Kluger's response, in the still heavily German accented English that has all but died out with the passing of the last of the World War II generation of German-speaking Jews, was as simple as it was profound: "The Holocaust wasn't a school," she responded. I have often thought about Kluger's remarks while travelling through the Middle East's many conflict zones. The enablers Justifying ignorance Journalists of conscience
Trade liberalisation: Canada doesn’t get any sexier than this “WORTHWHILE Canadian Initiative” is the most boring headline in history. So said Michael Kinsley, an American journalist and erstwhile contributor to these pages. The tedious title that inspired this vile slur on a worthy nation appeared above an article in the New York Times in 1986 hailing an effort to liberalise trade. Now, Canada is again proving to be a global leader in free trade—and in an exciting way. On October 18th it announced an agreement in principle with the European Union on a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). More than a blessing for insomniacs, CETA is a prototype for bigger things to come, especially the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) now under negotiation between the EU and the United States. Bilateral trade agreements are bittersweet for those, like this newspaper, who want across-the-world liberalisation. Yet CETA illustrates how a regional deal can still work. Today Canada, tomorrow the world
There Was a Class War. The Rich Won It. Real 1982 goods producing wage earner hourly wage What happens if there’s a class war and only one side bothers to show up and fight it? That’s what happened over the last thirty years. There was a class war, and the rich won. Period. It’s over, they kicked our knees out from under us, put on their steel toed boots and spent the last thirty years telling us that they were going to trickle on us and we’re going to like it and beg for more. Seems like hyperbole? So, if you’re an ordinary slob, you haven’t had a raise in over 30 years. This would be ok if the US hadn’t been getting richer, getting more productive, ever since then, but I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that, well, actually, productivity and whatnot has kept going up. Damon Silvers, whom we can thank for the wages and productivity chart, thinks it has a lot to do with a hostile anti-union environment and with the simultaneous decline of progressive taxation. So they made themselves rich. It was a death bet.
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): The Terrible Plutocratic Plan Thanks to Michael Feikema and Doug Hendren for inviting me. Like most of you I do not spend my life studying trade agreements, but the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is disturbing enough to make me devote a little time to it, and I hope you will do the same and get your neighbors to do the same and get them to get their friends to do the same — as soon as possible. I spend most of my time reading and writing about war and peace. I’m in the middle of writing a book about the possibility and need to abolish war and militarism. I hate to take a break from that. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a big fan of the supposed wonders of the hidden hand of the market economy says, “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. Of course, there’s nothing hidden about that fist. There is also, of course, nothing hidden about the hand of corporate trade agreements. What is hidden, in another sense, is the detailed negotiated text of the proposed TPP treaty.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of "free trade" Source: The Guardian The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It's a win for corporations A protestor demonstrates agains the Trans-Pacific Partnership in New York City. (image by Julia Reinhart/Demotix/Corbis) The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement among 12 governments, touted as one of the largest "free trade" agreements in US history, is running into difficulties as the public learns more about it. Most Americans couldn't tell you what "fast track" means, but if they knew what it entails they would certainly be against it. "[Fast track] authorized executive-branch officials to set US policy on non-tariff, and indeed not-trade, issues in the context of 'trade' negotiations." This means that fast track, which first began under Nixon in 1974, was not only a usurpation of the US Congress' constitutional authority "to regulate commerce with foreign nations." But the TPP and its promoters are full to the brim with ironies.
Dear George Bush and Dick Cheney, You Are Guilty of Murder: A Letter from a Dying Veteran Former Republican vice president Dick Cheney, pictured in 2011, advised his party's candidate in the upcoming US elections to pick a running mate with more experience than Sarah Palin. March 19, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. To: George W. I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks.
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership What Is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership?: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, is a proposed free trade agreement that would link the world's two largest economies: the United States, which produced $15.66 trillion in 2012, and the European Union, which produced $15.7 trillion. It would give U.S. businesses greater access to the world's largest economy, which the EU became in 2007. Most people don't realize that the U.S. trades more with the EU than with China. If successfully negotiated, the TTIP would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the world’s largest free trade area, with a combined GDP of $31.06 trillion, more than third of the world's total economic output of $88 trillion. These investments account for four million workers on both sides of the Atlantic being directly employed by the respective affiliates of U.S. or European-based companies. Pros: Some industries would benefit more than others. Cons: Obstacles:
Neo-liberal capture of the policy making process in Europe Mainstream macroeconomics has mounted a range of arguments over the years to argue against any discretionary involvement by governments or regulators in the economy. The claim is always that the ‘market’ will self regulate and weed out bad players and produce the best outcomes with the least resources each period of activity. Various fancy terms are introduced into textbooks that make these arguments seem to have scientific weight. It called on the European Commission (which is just about to change Presidency) “to tackle the persistent over-representation of corporate interests in European Commission ‘expert groups'”. ALTER-EU was formed in 2005. Two interesting research papers released by the group are: 1. 2. The 2009 Report examined the role of so-called ‘Expert Groups’, which are formed by the European Commission as consultancies to advise it on policy. Expert Groups play a significant role in the development of European legislation both through the Parliament and the Council. 1. 2.
What is TTIP? And six reasons why the answer should scare you | Comment | Voices | The Independent The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US. As a bi-lateral trade agreement, TTIP is about reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, things like food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations. It is, as John Hilary, Executive Director of campaign group War on Want, said: “An assault on European and US societies by transnational corporations.” Since before TTIP negotiations began last February, the process has been secretive and undemocratic. But worryingly, the covert nature of the talks may well be the least of our problems. 1 The NHS Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. The European Commission has claimed that public services will be kept out of TTIP. 2 Food and environmental safety 3 Banking regulations TTIP cuts both ways. 4 Privacy 5 Jobs 6 Democracy