TTIP including TTP, CETA & TiSA

[biffvernon]

This a seriously good read from Norman Finkelstein, who knows a thing or two about Jewish history.

Did you create the controversial image that Naz Shah reposted?

I’m not adept enough with computers to compose any image. But I did post the map on my website in 2014. An email correspondent must have sent it. It was, and still is, funny. Were it not for the current political context, nobody would have noticed Shah’s reposting of it either. Otherwise, you’d have to be humourless. These sorts of jokes are a commonplace in the U.S. So, we have this joke: Why doesn’t Israel become the 51st state? Answer: Because then, it would only have two senators. As crazy as the discourse on Israel is in America, at least we still have a sense of humour. It’s inconceivable that any politician in the U.S. would be crucified for posting such a map.

Shah’s posting of that image has been presented as an endorsement by her of a ‘chilling “transportation” policy’, while John Mann MP has compared her to Eichmann.

Frankly, I find that obscene. It’s doubtful these Holocaust-mongers have a clue what the deportations were, or of the horrors that attended them. I remember my late mother describing her deportation. She was in the Warsaw Ghetto. The survivors of the Ghetto Uprising, about 30,000 Jews, were deported to Maijdanek concentration camp. They were herded into railroad cars. My mother was sitting in the railroad car next to a woman who had her child. And the woman – I know it will shock you – the woman suffocated her infant child to death in front of my mother. She suffocated her child, rather than take her to where they were going. That’s what it meant to be deported. To compare that to someone posting a light-hearted, innocuous cartoon making a little joke about how Israel is in thrall to the U.S., or vice versa…it’s sick. What are they doing? Don’t they have any respect for the dead? All these desiccated Labour apparatchiks, dragging the Nazi holocaust through the mud for the sake of their petty jostling for power and position. Have they no shame?

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/jamie- ... ism-scanda

[kenneal - lagger]

In danger of being lost down the newsroll:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-0 ... ate-change

Looks like Obama has gone over to the dark side to fund his upcoming retirement. Another recruit to the Prostitute State. No wonder he's campaigning so hard for the UK to stay in Europe.

[kenneal - lagger]

Thanks for that, Biff. It's good to know that the Jewish sense of humour/humor is still alive and kicking, in some parts of the world anyway.

I was struck by the trivialisation of the memory of the Holocaust by the detractors use of the words "Anti Semitism" to stop even limited criticism of the Israeli government. Perhaps I should use the word Zionist in future to make absolutely clear my distinction between Jews and Jewishness, with which I have no problem, and Zionists and their actions which I find as problematic as the Holocaust itself.

I have received criticism for my criticism of Israeli/Zionist actions from some Jewish friends so perhaps this points to a certain amount of support for Israeli actions amongst the Jewish community in the UK. If they feel criticised they should not automatically shout "Pogrom" or what ever. they should just get used to the fact that political criticism is alive and well in the UK and long may it continue. The same goes for Islamism.

If you don't like it find a "nicer" country to live in, one where only the right sort of criticism can be aired. See if you enjoy living there quite so much.

[emordnilap]

...the talks have involved controversial issues and have been taking place when trust in politicians and business has rarely been lower. The main driving forces behind TTIP have been multinational corporations and business lobby groups, who stand to gain from harmonised regulations. With information about the secret negotiations having to be chiselled out by groups hostile to TTIP, voters have drawn the obvious conclusion: the aim of the talks is to enrich big business even if it means playing fast and loose with environmental and health standards.

Source: TTIP has been kicked into the long grass … for a very long time

Let's hope he's right. Even if he is, it'll be back. The gains for the .1% are too great. I reckon that elements of TTIP will find their way in somehow, possibly piecemeal.

ISDS is a huge moneymaking goal for multinationals plus they see human and environmental safety as 'barriers to trade'.

The pressure against and the vigilance towards these anti-democracy advocates has to continue.

[UndercoverElephant]

Whole text of TTIP leaked.

https://www.ttip-leaks.org/

[kenneal - lagger]

With past performance of the EU and its Commission in mind the TTIP won't be kicked into touch until those Commissioners who have colluded with the corporations are sacked, barred from holding office ever again and also barred from taking a job with a multinational corporation or its subsidiary to show their replacements where their loyalties should lie!

Multinational corporations also need to be bought into line. Any that go broke should be allowed to do so and should be broken up into little bits with a bar on takeovers over a certain size. There should be laws on maximum market share so that the Tescos of this world will have to split up. 8% or even 5% should be the maximum market share that any one company can own in the retail sector so that there is true competition in both purchasing and selling.

[raspberry-blower]

Michael Krieger: What happened when an Irish MEP tried to read the TTIP text

[woodburner]

That's it then, decision made, definitely voting for leaving the great protecting democracy - the EU.

[kenneal - lagger]

With any luck it would then take us at least five more years, as promised by Cameron, for any new trade deal for us to be negotiated. By then we might have voted the Tories out!

And our local LibDem MEP supports this scam! What is she getting out of it, I wonder, because that could be the only reason for supporting it.

[woodburner]

I suspect the reason for giving support is ignorance rather than knowledge. That applies to all other supporting politians too.

[emordnilap]

Michael Krieger: What happened when an Irish MEP tried to read the TTIP text

Don't be put off by the Dubliners look. Ming's intelligent, firmly on the side of ordinary people and quite a hero to many of us over here.

[kenneal - lagger]

Who was put off? I think he summed it all up very well. It certainly had me insensed and I already knew of the problem.

[woodburner]

Exactly.

Who was put off?

[emordnilap]

No-one, I hope, you being such a liberal-minded lot. It's just that occasionally people can be...discombobulated on first encountering some of our native politicians. Look out for some video clips of Jackie Healy-Rae, for instance, a good example of a rural Irish politician. Or some snaps of Mick Wallace. A good man, but not the image of, say, one of your lot in the house of commons.

[woodburner]

I'd rather trust Ming thn Cameron, Osbourne, Duncan-Smith or many of the other truth manglers.