Citizens United is not a big deal, TPP is not a big deal ... don't worry about anything, we'll take care of you.
That's what we are told, time and time again by elected officials who don't want to rock the boat.
"Now is not the time to discuss our gun violence problem" ... "the climate science is inconclusive" ... and on and on.
Some say too many people running our government are either naive, or malicious, but I think the truth is they are waiting for the American public to snap out of their stupor.
That's the saddest thing about this situation, the people with the power to stop TPP or do something about climate change (the voting middle and upper middle classes) are letting it happen — bought off with plasma TVs, a tsunami of food, drink, American Idol, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad distractions on a 24/7 loop that never allows them to think outside the little box of a life that requires them to accept that all they need to do is concern themselves with how they are going to make their first million and satisfy their every urge, all of which can be done at the click of a button ... meanwhile, the machine that's sucking up the earth to deliver all this material wealth is happily running on auto pilot as it takes us over the global warming cliff.
Hillary Clinton is right, the 1% need to be toppled. But I am not so sure enough of those who are going to vote in 2016 are ready, willing or able to take on the issues at the heart of our problem — changing an economic system that is on a 20th-century status quo loop.
Because that would mean they would probably have to accept a little less. It would mean thinking outside of a comfortable box, and it might be risky.
But maybe now that Californian's are realizing fresh water is a finite resource, a light has switched on and it is dawning on more people that economic and trade policy is effecting not just wages and upward mobility, but something more fundamental — our ability to simply deliver fresh water to people.
Just maybe, the middle and upper classes might be ready to face the realities of a system that works for the 1% but not the 99%, that works for the 1% but not the planet.
The real intent of these provisions is to impede health, environmental, safety, and, yes, even financial regulations meant to protect America's own economy and citizens. Companies can sue governments for full compensation for any reduction in their future expected profits resulting from regulatory changes. ... American supporters of such agreements point out that the US has been sued only a few times so far, and has not lost a case. Corporations, however, are just learning how to use these agreements to their advantage.
And high-priced corporate lawyers in the US, Europe, and Japan will likely outmatch the underpaid government lawyers attempting to defend the public interest. Worse still, corporations in advanced countries can create subsidiaries in member countries through which to invest back home, and then sue, giving them a new channel to bloc regulations.
Joseph Stiglitz on TPP
Many of the same people who told us Citizens United would not lead to untold billions corrupting our electoral process are now telling us TPP is nothing to worry about.
They say "trust us" and they keep the details hidden not just from the public, but from the public's representatives. Sure, our congress men and women can see the document ... in a guarded room where they cannot take notes or bring staffers who are versed in trade policy.
TPP is an important issue - more important than a lot of Democrats seem to realize.
And heading into 2016, more than unity and "going along to get along", we need leadership to solve these problems. We need leaders to shine a light on the heart of the problems we face:
To fix the economy for average Americans," Stiglitz and company write in Rewriting the Rules: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity, "we need to tackle the rules and institutions that have generated low investment, sluggish growth, and runaway incomes and wealth accumulation at the top and created a steeper hill for the rest to climb. It would be easier, politically, to push for one or two policies on which we have consensus, but that approach would be insufficient to match the severity of the problems posed by rising inequality."
It's hard to read that last line as anything but a direct appeal to Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
WaPo