Just by choosing Nike to visit, Obama was saying a lot.

[cali]

He was sending several messages:

1) Outsourcing isn't bad.

2) exploitation and oppression of workers are acceptable practices in the trade game of "there are winners and losers in ftas.

3) American corporations with uniformly hideous records on outsourcing and treatment of foreign labor are part of his fold.

4) His strong contempt for liberals and those who oppose him on this.

There were sure as hell other venues he could have used to push for the TPP. It says VOLUMES that he chose one of the worst offenders when it comes to outsourcing and mistreatment and exploitation of workers.

Sorry, but...

[Bonobo]

1. But remember where we WERE! nt

[Scuba]

5. I see what you did there.

[cascadiance]

2. And Nike has been instrumental in propping up corporate personhood in court...

with the Nike vs. Kasky case. Just one more court case that provided the layering of court precedents falsely drawn from a head note that established it in Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad, and therefore established the basis for Citizen's United, which every Democratic politician should stand against!

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/

One more reason for Obama NOT to have been campaigning there just down the street from where I live here in Beaverton.

[cali]

4. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the link

[LuvNewcastle]

3. He should have gone to Foxconn.

Oh yeah, that's in China. We're trying to beat China in the race to the bottom. It makes me ill to see the President pimping this abomination.
.I just hope we have enough people in Congress to stop it.

[Thespian2]

6. Obama loves him some Nike

whose CEO wrote his thesis on out-sourcing jobs from the US to Pacific rim countries...Fortunately, he is a billionaire who could give a shit about human beings other than himself...certainly says that Obama is another corporate whore...

[LuvNewcastle]

9. That's all he is,

just like every other President in my lifetime, maybe excepting Carter. Carter was different from the others, but he was no saint. I think that if by some miracle Sanders was elected, he wouldn't live very long. I feel like I still have to try to change things, though. I guess I want to be able to tell people in the future that I was among those who tried.

[cali]

10. A) I don't know his motives or his "heart"

and I don't particularly give a fuck. What I look at are results.

B) He's not a billionaire

C) It doesn't matter to me, but you're likely to get a hide for that name calling.

[Thespian2]

11. Some people

like to hide the truth...Obama's money will pour in once he is out of office...similar to Clinton gaining millions..

[RiverLover]

12. Political prostitutes...its how our political system is set up.

This is no way to run a country.

[ibewlu606]

13. He is one!

Thespian2, you are correct in calling him exactly what he is. I worked hard to get my members to vote for him in 2008. But after 6 months in office, I could see that Bushama was on the corporate payroll and in 2012 I didn't lift a finger to get him re-elected. I hope the moderators DON'T hide your response, because it way past time we start calling the third-way, blue dog, corporate hacks out for what they really are.

[RiverLover]

15. I agree. I canvassed for him as well in 2008. Saw him speak on 2 occasions.

I'd never before been so excited for a person to be president.

And then he got into office & candidate Obama disappeared. Corporatist Obama took the mask off.

[think]

7. Multi-billionaire Nike owner pays workers $.83 per hour and charges $100 to $200

For a pair of shoes. What's not to love.....

Phil Knight

hilip Hampson "Phil" Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American business magnate. A native of Oregon, he is the co-founder and chairman of Nike, Inc., and previously served as the chief executive officer of Nike. In 2014, Forbes named Knight the 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$22.3 billion.[2] He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika.

Full entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Knight

The Trans-Pacific Partnership will lead to a global race to the bottom

~Snip~

In November, Zachary Senn, a college student reporter at the Modesto Bee, spent three weeks in Indonesia living with and interviewing workers who make goods for Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse. When you hear Obama talking about those “high-quality jobs,” think of RM, a 32-year-old mother who told Senn that she works 55 hours, six days a week and makes just $184 a month after 12 years at the PT Nikomas factory, a Nike subcontractor that employs 25,000 people. That’s 83 cents an hour or $2,208 a year.

Full editorial:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/the-trans-pacific-partnership-will-lead-to-a-global-race-to-the-bottom

[jeff47]

19. It must take 120 hours to make one pair of shoes

[cali]

8. Nike has a horrible history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_sweatshops

and it damn well is still terrible.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. Well, I guess that's one message that could be heard ...

but to have heard that, one would have to be in a certain space from the start.

I got none of that.

[cali]

16. then you are woefully uninformed.

You clearly know nothing about Nike or the long struggle against their atrocious labor practices.
You clearly didn't hear his rhetoric.

can't really discuss things with people who live in denial world.

[PowerToThePeople]

17. Modern day America as seen by third way and Republicans

Overseas slave owners.

If you buy into this idea you will make in in the US economy. If not you will struggle to survive.

[ibegurpard]

18. Anyone checked to see if Nike has given much money to Wyden?

[RiverLover]

20. Nike isn't on the list of his biggest donors. but Google is. And they're ALL in for the TPP & TTP

But with PACs giving to candidates anonymously now thanks to Citizens United, Nike could well be his biggest sponsor & we wouldn't know.