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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: Shoring up Britt Hall ... Guest Opinion: Why syn-grass medians are a bad idea ... Aggressive deer encounters prompt city forum ... Our View: Shoring up Britt Hall ... Guest Opinion: Why syn-grass medians are a bad idea ... Aggressive deer encounters prompt city forum ... GUEST OPINION Guest Opinion: Duopoly supports Trans Pacific Partnership Comment By Andy Seles DailyTidings.com By Andy Seles Posted Jul. 21, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Andy Seles Posted Jul. 21, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Polls showed 55 percent of U.S. citizens were against Fast Track trade promotion authority (TPA), a rigged procedure that keeps our representatives from meddling with corporate-written agreements. Yet, by one vote and some back-room maneuvering by Messrs. McConnell, Boehner and Obama, it escaped a procedural Senate cloture vote on June 22 and was passed. TPA smoothed the pavement for an upcoming House vote on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Speaking of highway metaphors: “We had plenty of bumps along the road. Frankly, a few big potholes too,” Senator McConnell said before the final vote. “But we worked across the aisle to get through all of them. That’s an example of a new Congress that’s back to work for the American people.” This unprecedented bipartisanship is best explained by Christopher Ferguson (director, "Inside Job"): "Far from being in an era of brutal partisan warfare, as conventional wisdom holds and as watching the nightly television news might suggest, the United States is now in the grip of a political duopoly in which both parties are thoroughly complicit. They play a game: they agree to fight viciously over certain things to retain the allegiance of their respective bases, while agreeing not to fight about anything that seriously endangers the privileges of America’s new financial elites…The current arrangement all but guarantees the continuing decline of the United States as a nation, and of the welfare of the bottom 90 percent of its citizens." The sad truth is that few in Washington are “back to work for the American people.” If TPP passes, Big Pharma, Big Ag, and Wall Street will rejoice while the “jobless recovery” continues. Even if you don’t begrudge the well-connected plutocrats their undue influence with their elected cronies, here’s why you should most care: It’s not the inevitable loss of jobs, unenforceable environmental and labor standards or TPP’s missing requirement to keep member countries from gaming the deal by manipulating their currencies. The most important reason you should oppose the TPP is as simple as the concept of the nation state itself. Because the TPP, like previous trade deals, contains something called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement (I.S.D.S.) that grants investors (including U.S. foreign subsidiaries) the right to sue governments: Federal, State and Local, if they believe current or future profits have been compromised by unreasonable laws. Consider the scope of such suits: constitutional issues, jobs and wages, net neutrality, environmental and other regulations. I.S.D.S. cases are not heard in domestic courts; they are decided by international arbitration tribunals comprised of three corporate lawyers. If such suits seem unlikely, think again. In our race to the bottom, the U.S. has bent over backwards in recent trade deals to “harmonize” (read that: “compromise”) food, labor and environmental safety standards that might make us vulnerable to I.S.D.S. suits. TPP proponents will argue such suits are rare. Au contraire. Historically, such suits replaced so-called “gunboat” diplomacy as a way to stop foreign governments from seizing investor assets. Today, as James Surowieki points out in The New Yorker, “they’re becoming a growth industry. Nearly a hundred have been filed in the past two years, as against some five hundred in the quarter century before that.” We are entering a world where the nation state increasingly exists in name only, a symbolic convenience for flag-waving politicians to seduce nostalgic citizens into voting against their own interests. Those interests should be defined by a truly free market, not one rigged to favor non-patriotic, globalized, multi-national monopolies. The TPP, in throwing ice water on Federal, State and Local policy, will allow bona fide nation-states like China and India to freely and quickly adapt to trading trends, outside of those pesky I.S.D.S. courts. Let’s hold politicians accountable for putting transnational corporations’ interests ahead of the Republic’s. Ignore the duopoly’s sleight of hand with their latest wedge issues du jour and contact YOUR representatives. Tell them that if they support the TPP you will actively oppose their re-election. Andy Seles is a retired teacher living in Ashland. By Andy Seles DailyTidings.com By Andy Seles Posted Jul. 21, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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