[mpen-dayton4] FW: "Progressive Breakfast: A Look At The Fast Track Bill Shows It's The Wrong Thing To Do " and more

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·         FW: You live in Ohio. We need your help on this vote today.

·         FW: Progressive Breakfast: A Look At The Fast Track Bill Shows It's The Wrong Thing To Do

·         FW: Action Page: Fast Track TPP Is A Big Secret Trade Fraud

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From: Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos
Subject: You live in Ohio. We need your help on this vote today.

Over 40,000 people e-mailed their U.S. Senators—urging them to reject fast track for the corporate Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal we are not allowed to read.

The Senate Finance Committee will meet tomorrow to debate the TPP, and your senator from Ohio is a member. Please click here to send them another e-mail today.

Momentum is on our side, as six Democratic senators on the Finance Committee have said they will not support fast-track approval—and are not buying a "compromise" being hashed.

These six Senators need the reinforcement to stand firm, and the rest of the Committee must know that their constituents oppose a deal that some are calling "NAFTA on steroids."

Click here to sign and send an e-mail to your Senator on the Finance Committee. A brief message today will go a long way at shaping tomorrow morning's debate.

P.S. If you happen to be in the Washington, D.C. area tomorrow, our allies will hold a rally at 9:00 a.m. outside the Dirksen Senate Office building. Click here for details, and to R.S.V.P.

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Date: April 17, 2015 1:31 P.M.
From: Paul Hogarth, Daily Kos
Subject: TIME SENSITIVE: Ohio signatures needed to stop the trade deal you aren't allowed to read

This is a do-or-die moment to stop the corporate Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal—and we need your help right now to contact your U.S. Senators. Please sign and send the petition: No fast-track for corporate free trade deals.

Senator Ron Wyden (ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee) has joined with Republicans to support a "fast-track" bill that would give the President free rein to approve the TPP. Incredibly, he is willing to support this bill if the Senate passes a few concessions.

What "concessions" are we talking about?

• That some parts—but not all—of the secret trade deal would be made public, so that we can read about how our government is letting multinational corporations ship our jobs overseas and ruin the environment. But we still wouldn't be able to do anything about it, because the President would have "fast track"
• That a bill to help the people TPP would hurt is passed simultaneously with TPP. But that's crazy--have you ever heard of passing a bill, and then simultaneously passing a bill to help the people you are hurting with the other bill? Maybe you just shouldn't pass the the first bill at all.

Some Senate Democrats are not buying this—which is why we can stop this awful legislation dead in its tracks. We might even be able to kill it in the Senate Finance Committee.

Sign and send the petition to Ohio's two senators today, and tell them no "fast track" to these corporate trade deals.

 

 

From: Campaign for America's Future
Subject: Progressive Breakfast: A Look At The Fast Track Bill Shows It's The Wrong Thing To Do

TODAY: HIllary Competes With Sanders, O'Malley for the Left | Fast-Track Backlash | Is Greece Near Default? | House, Senate Republicans Seek Budget Deal

MORNING MESSAGE

Dave Johnson, A Look At The Fast Track Bill Shows It's The Wrong Thing To Do

Though it was announced that this year's fast track bill was the result of a "deal" between Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) the 2015 bill is nearly identical to the 2014 bill that died in Congress without support for a vote. ... It is unclear from this comparison why the "negotiations" between Hatch and Wyden took so long, and what Wyden got that enabled him to put his name on it, enabling the bill to be sold as "bipartisan." ... If you don't want to get mired in the wording and details of the fast track bill, here is a shortcut to deciding if you are for it or against it.

Hillary Competes With Sanders, O'Malley For The Left

Hillary aims to win over progressives. AP: "Clinton's supporters say her recent comments, particularly on inequality, do not reflect a shift in position [But] Clinton is not in the clear with liberals yet … Her decision to accept political donations from lobbyists … may undercut her efforts to change the campaign finance system. Obama's push for a trade pact with 11 Pacific nations will put Clinton between the centrist wing of her party and union leaders who oppose the deal."

Clinton prepares to take spotlight in NH. W. Post: "Clinton will visit a small, family-owned children's furniture and toy manufacturer in Keene, N.H., on Monday and a community college in Concord on Tuesday. Like the roundtable-style discussions that she held last week in Iowa, the New Hampshire campaign stops are intended to look and feel low-key."

Sen. Sanders turns up heat on Hillary Clinton in Fox News Sunday interview: "What the secretary will have to convince the American people is, in fact, based on her past record and views today that: she is going to break up the major banks on Wall Street; she is going to ask the wealthiest people in this country to start paying their fair share of taxes; that she's going to end the abomination of major corporations making millions of dollars, stashing their money in the Cayman Islands and not paying a nickel in income tax; that, in fact, she's prepared to deal with … our disastrous trade policies [including] the TPP."

Martin O'Malley makes his pitch on CBS' Face The Nation: "I guided [Maryland] through this recession, and I did so with results that actually mattered, the highest median income in the country, middle class that is upwardly mobile, greater participation, and fuller participation of my citizens in the economic, social, political life of our state, doing difficult things like passing marriage equality, passing the DREAM Act, doing commonsense things that allow new American immigrants to fully participate, pay their taxes, play by the rules, and take care of their families. That is the inclusive America that I believe all of us want to move to."

Fast-Track Backlash

Left livid at Sen. Ron Wyden for striking deal on fast-track. Politico: "Wyden has been hounded at home by union groups and other opponents of the trade bill … Why has Wyden put up with all the heat? His home state is heavily dependent on exports, particularly to Asia … Hatch did ultimately agree to many of Wyden's 'smart track' proposals [including] a new requirement that the White House publish the full text of trade pact 60 days before signing it … But critics remain unsatisfied. They say the final provision for potentially stripping fast track from a trade agreement was too weak to make a significant difference."

NY AG argues TPP will "gut state laws" in Politico Magazine: "One provision of TPP would create an entirely separate system of justice: special tribunals to hear and decide claims by foreign investors that their corporate interests are being harmed by a nation that is part of the agreement … it is particularly worrisome to those of us in states, such as New York, with robust laws that protect the public welfare …"

Is Greece Near Default?

Tensions rise as May payment looms. NYT: "Unless the creditors agree soon to release the next allotment of bailout money, Greece could have trouble making a $763 million payment to the I.M.F. on May 12. It almost certainly would not be able to meet the €11 billion in payments to the European Central Bank, the I.M.F. and payments on Treasury bills in June and July."

Greece "defiant" reports Bloomberg: "Greek officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, remained defiant over the weekend, saying the government won't betray its electoral promises and worsen the pain that came from previous austerity measures … Greece won't cut wages and pensions, introduce new taxes or sell assets, Alternate Health and Social Security Minister Dimitris Stratoulis told Athens-based Skai TV on Saturday … While 'so-called' partners … want to 'blackmail' Greece … 'we won't betray the people's mandate,' Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said…"

NYT's Paul Krugman visits Greece: "I came away from the visit fearing that Greece and Europe may suffer a terrible accident, an unnecessary rupture that will cast long shadows over the future."

House, Senate Republicans Seek Budget Deal

House and Senate budget talks hung up over Medicare. The Hill: "The House budget includes [Rep. Paul] Ryan's proposal to convert Medicare into a premium support system in 2024 … The problem is that Senate Republicans must defend 24 seats in 2016 to keep their majority, and they are not excited about jumping into a battle with Democrats over a sensitive entitlement program ahead of the election … The GOP hopes to get to a deal in the next few weeks."

Final budget may get junked after passage. Politico: "…some rank-and-file Republicans are already expressing interest in a much bigger deal that would adjust those caps, sweep away the still-developing blueprint and ease the budgetary pressure on the Pentagon — and, grudgingly, domestic programs if necessary … To crack open the 2011 budget law that put the caps in place, however, they're going to need buy-in from the White House and its Democratic allies in the Senate, who will demand more spending on nondefense programs in exchange for any loosening of the Pentagon's purse strings."

'16ers Cruz and Paul both back flat tax. The Hill: "…advocates also insist that a flat tax would give a spark to the economy by drastically reducing the top marginal tax rates … tax analysts say they expect other GOP candidates in the 2016 race to at least propose slashing the top rate for individuals and businesses, especially after conservative critics have dinged the tax plan of Sen. Marco Rubio, another presidential candidate."

Republicans slow-walking Obama nominees across the board. Politico: "Sen. John McCain has an explanation for Obama administration appointees whose confirmation votes are languishing in the GOP-led Senate: It's payback for Democrats using the so-called nuclear option to push through scores of nominations in the previous Congress … There are 18 nominations waiting for a vote on the Senate floor — including Loretta Lynch's nomination to be attorney general — and more than 130 idling in committees … After three months of no new judges on the federal bench, the full Senate got the trains going on [two] judicial nominations last week … 23 judicial emergencies [exist] across the nation's courts."

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's Future. more »

 

 

From: tbacane
Subject: FW: Action Page: Fast Track TPP Is A Big Secret Trade Fraud

Many of us who normally support the President are in complete disagreement with him on the issue of the TPP.  Anything done in secret even without our Representatives being completely involved is a nonstarter.  We strongly urge the President not to support the TPP!    - tbacane
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From: The Pen
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In the many years we have spent fighting for good, progressive policy change, we have had occasion before to have dire revelations.

When President Obama, in early 2010, was pushing a complete sell out to special interest health insurance corporations, we protested as vociferously as we could, warning loudly that it would lead directly to the swift decimation of Democratic majorities in Congress, leaving the Democrats incapable of passing any actual progressive legislation even if they wanted to.

No prophet has ever made a more sad or accurate prediction.

Now President Obama is pushing a trade deal so secret that not even policy staffers of members of Congress are allowed to see it. Worse yet, he is trying to cut Congress completely out of the law making loop by demanding that they "fast track" and not have any meaningful say at all over its terms.

Unless he and his primarily Republican accomplices in this are stopped, we tell you now that it will result in the PERMANENT destruction of our middle class. The giant sucking sound Ross Perot warned of about NAFTA (and wasn't that itself prophetic) would become an F5 tornado.

Here is the action page. Stop Secret Fast Track Trade Fraud Action Page:
   http://www.peaceteam.net/stop_fast_track_tpp.php

And here is the petition text sent by the action page, to which you can also add your own personal comments:

Late last week, President Obama uttered some of the most bald-faced lies that have ever passed the lips of an American president. He promised that the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership would help us write the rules for the new global economy.

But we know from documents, leaked by people being threatened with prison for doing so, that to the contrary the TPP would transfer all real rule making power to a handful of corporate lobbyists with multi-national corporations, in World Bank tribunals to protect and maximize private corporate profits over all other considerations.

President Obama has obviously not read the agreement himself and does not know what's actually in it. Instead, he's just reading off of a corporate PR statement written by someone else and handed to him.

How can Congress even consider passing fast track legislation to abdicate their own oversight, when not even congressional staff members are even allowed to read the agreement?

President Obama, who promised the most open and transparent administration ever, has regretfully instead created the most secretive. Unless the American people are allowed to actually read the TPP, under no circumstances can it be allowed to pass, and certainly not by some form of fast track hustle.

--END PETITION TEXT--

This one is literally life and death.

If you want your children to live as impoverished serfs under global corporate domination, all you have to do is sit on your hands, hold your tongue and do nothing now.

But if each and every person who reads this message will just click a mouse one time to submit the action page, which sends a real time fax to each of your members of Congress and President Obama as well on this, and if you will now forward this message to everyone else you know, the most hideous corporate power grab in history can and will be stopped.

And after you submit the action page, feel free to request one of our "Expressway To Trade Hell TPP" bumper stickers. We will send you one for no charge, not even shipping. And you can request it directly from this page.

All Bumper Stickers: http://www.peaceteam.net/all_bumper_stickers.php

Of course, if you can make a contribution of any amount, this is what makes it possible for us to send free bumper stickers to anyone who cannot make a donation right now.

You may forward this message to any friends who would find it important.

Contributions to The People's Email Network or ActBlue are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes.

If you would like to be added to our distribution list, go to http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

 

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