Mark Fiore is very cross about TPP transparency. This one's a little painful to watch.

[madfloridian]

Watch: Obama Trades Transparency

After a little smack-down by the Senate, the Most Transparent Administration Ever is still trying to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the Most Transparent Way Possible. If by “transparent” you mean members of Congress having to read the actual text of the trade deal in a secure basement room with no cell phones or notes allowed and subsequent mention of the trade deal’s specifics forbidden.

Methinks there is more than meets the eye in this boring ol’ trade deal. What little we do know about the deal is that there are many aspects that stink to high heaven. Higher priced drugs? Check. Corporate tribunals outside of any legal system? Check. Bogus claims of transparency? Yup.

What is being trumpeted as the most amazing trade bill since, um, forever, seems to be more like a trinket-filled goodie bag for various corporate interests. Ah, to be a pharmaceutical company in love. Enjoy the cartoon and be sure to take a closer look at the additional links behind the cartoon!

Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist based in San Francisco, where his work has been featured on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, SFGate.com, for over ten years. His work has also appeared on Newsweek.com, Slate.com, CBSNews.com, MotherJones.com and NPR’s web site. Fiore’s political animation has been featured on CNN, Frontline, BillMoyers.com, Salon.com, and cable and broadcast outlets across the globe.

[tblue37]

1. KnR. nt

[n2doc]

2. The truth is often painful to watch

Which is why many will avoid it, or try to explain it away.

[madfloridian]

3. So true.

[daleanime]

6. +1

[Plucketeer]

16. I always find the truth refreshing

no matter it's content. That's why I am behind Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren.

[think]

4. K&R

[Fred Sanders]

5. Fiore may be a Pulitzer Prize cartoonist, but he is not getting one soon for writing skills. Or logic.

"Stinks to high heaven" is a somewhat lame argument.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. You didn't watch it did you ... no where did it say that

At least be honest

[madfloridian]

23. Too much truth.

This whole thing worries me, not just the trade deal but the way the party leaders are willing to treat those who disagree. It's like we are not supposed to think for ourselves anymore.

[Skittles]

42. the usual Tiger Beat bullshit

[bvar22]

24. I'll bet you thought the same thing about...

...Pulitzer Prize Winners Snowden and Greenwald.

[Fred Sanders]

25. I have not seen those journalistst's cartoon creations, so hard to say how I would feel.

[daleanime]

27. That's because it's not an argument.....

it's a description.

[JDPriestly]

36. So you agree with Paul Ryan on the TPP?

“Completing these trade deals is my No. 1 priority,” Ryan said Thursday at a Washington International Trade Association event in Washington.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?468481-TPP-Ryan-launches-trade-agenda

[BlancheSplanchnik]

57. ugh.

That puke loves it?
Along with Invisible Hand of the Free Market Man.

[sabrina 1]

47. Just watch it!

Fiore is brilliant.

[Enthusiast]

8. Kicked

and recommended!

[madfloridian]

33. ....

Thanks so much.

[JEB]

9. Not funny, but right on.

[madfloridian]

12. You are right. Not funny at all.

Just the opposite, really.

[bullwinkle428]

10. OUCH!

K&R.

[Auggie]

19. Indeed ...

and another K&R

[raindaddy]

11. How do you get from this.....

"Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use."

To this?

The guard says, ‘you can’t take notes.’ I said, ‘I can’t take notes?’” Boxer recalled. “‘Well, you can take notes, but have to give them back to me, and I’ll put them in a file.’ So I said: ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to take notes and then you’re going to take my notes away from me and then you’re going to have them in a file, and you can read my notes? Not on your life.’”

-Barbara Boxer

[daleanime]

14. +1

[delrem]

26. Simple. It's in the phrase "consistent with law and policy"

So, make the deal a national security secret, etc., and the "law and policy" for total opaqueness is in place.
Then consistency is assured, and the zombies can be given a set of smug TPP apologetics to reassure them while the corporate raiders run rampant.

Isn't that what happened?
Nothing has "changed" -- it's a 100% bipartisan system.

[raindaddy]

31. Maybe we need our own law firm.....

Never thought about it like this but the public needs it own law firm just to clarify terms and warn us about the loopholes.. Especially since the DOJ now works for Wall Street and the "corporate raiders"...

[jtuck004]

41. But do we still have to pay for the old one that left us? It was supposed to be ours. We had a title

and everything.

[whereisjustice]

35. When I point out the duplicity, I'm told I should have known he made shit up to get elected.

[raindaddy]

38. That's why Bernie's so refreshing..

Tired of perching on top of the turnip tuck for these people.

[whereisjustice]

39. amen, the political elite like Hillary are so twisted up in schemes and self-interest they cannot

govern with the best interests of the people who form this nation in mind.

So sick of pandering and triangulation from Democrats covering the asses of the 1%.

[raindaddy]

40. Amen!

[daleanime]

13. K&R.....

[Dont call me Shirley]

15. K & R

[GoneFishin]

17. kick.

[FloriTexan]

18. K&R!

[Buzz Clik]

20. ...

I tell you what you should see
On this tricky topic
You cannot see for yourself
Because you're myopic
Hear the details of each liar
and horrid opportunist
Tho details are secret, trust me:
For I'm a cartoonist

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. We all shoudl love TPP and TTiP

he is just wrong!

And we must TRUST the president.



After this morning ahem, events, I am all but impressed with a few here.

Nor am I interested in sharing what is happening in my state, let alone my town. We are not part of the United States... that is clear by now.

[KoKo]

22. Recommend!

[madfloridian]

28. ....

Thanks. Hi, KoKo

[Oilwellian]

29. Fiore always nails it

K&R

[madfloridian]

30. He really usually is right on target.

This was a tough one to watch.

[madfloridian]

32. Stopping the poor from getting life-saving meds...

http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20150512/this-us-backed-pacific-trade-deal-could-stop-the-poor-from-getting-life-saving-meds

But the TPP also appears to have a darker side. Thanks to lobbying from the pharmaceutical industry, treaty drafts are thought to include a number of technical clauses, like longer patent periods, which would extend monopolies for eye-wateringly expensive brand name drugs.

That would cut off the supply of new, generic medicines — often up to 80 percent cheaper — for years or possibly even decades.

We say “appears” and “thought to” because no one outside the negotiations really knows. The talks are being held behind closed doors. And lawmakers in each of the TPP member countries will only be offered up-and-down votes on the entire treaty text, which will be thicker than an old-school phone book, once the negotiations have finished.

or patients without health insurance, like Ocampo, that could spell adios to the chance for new treatments for his prostate cancer.

Even for those covered by public or private health insurance, especially in poorer countries such as Peru and Mexico, that may put many treatments beyond already stretched health care budgets.

“The TPP agreement is on track to become the most harmful trade pact ever for access to medicines in developing countries,” warns Doctors Without Borders, an international aid organization.

[whereisjustice]

34. perfect

[JDPriestly]

37. K&R.

[zentrum]

43. Meantime, it's enlightening

….to read a little about NAFTA to see why the TPP is so dangerous.
.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTAs-Broken-Promises.pdf

[madfloridian]

44. I agree. Public Citizen has been right on top of the trade deals.

[zentrum]

46. Very clearly written too.

.

[awoke_in_2003]

45. He nailed trickle down economics. nt

[billhicks76]

48. Well That Was Awesome

[nikto]

49. Most of us here on this thread are of a certain type ...

For some reason, we are different from others on DU and elsewhere who seem not to be able
to deal with the troubling concept that someone they voted for,
supported and defended (against admittedly ridiculous attacks at times), meaning
Obama, Hillary and others, would actually really do anything to screw The People.

It's like, they voted for Obama, and he's so much nicer and gracious than those disgusting Republicans,
so he's got to be a good person who can't be hurting them with policies that favor elites because ...
... because ... ... because ... because ...He's Obama, that's why.

I voted for Obama twice.
I like his stands on social issues, Cuba, Iran, higher wages, etc etc.

But on most economic issues (aside from wages) Obama is mostly Reagan and Milton Friedman ---A philosophy I despised decades before I ever heard of Obama.

TPP reflects this.
Race-to-theTop, support for private charter schools and Arne Duncan as Ed Sec reflects this.
Drones and NSA policy are downright Neocon.
And Wall St remains un-touchable and above-the-law.

Being blind to the "dark side" of Obama, Hillary and others, will only make people blind to others in the future
who will talk like Progressives but act like Reaganites. That is the lingering danger.

Some of us here on DU can handle these truths, many cannot.
Some folks just can't abide troubling thoughts, even if they are true.
But...

To all of you out there who have, as I do, the capability to grasp these troubling truths about too many of
our Democratic leaders, I salute you!


And also ...
Go Bernie!

[nikto]

50. Obama sings his updated version of the James Taylor hit, "Don't Let Me be Lonely Tonight"

See the entire concert, here:
http://wearenotsoulsofunknownorigin.blogspot.com/2015/05/obama-sings-james-taylor.html

[cantbeserious]

51. Priceless

eom

[Evar]

52. The Questions No One Has Asked

Here are a couple of basic questions that no one, including Fiore, have bothered to address in the rush to judgment en masse against the TPP. Why would the president lie about the TPP, since he's spent the last 6 1/2 years trying to rebuild the American economy and bolster small businesses (which make the bulk of our exported products) and the middle class? Since when is President Obama the enemy? The call for complete transparency while the TPP is being crafted is a foolish notion, impractical in today's world, given the political climate and international competition. Each country has its own priorities and requirements, and they do not want those facts disclosed to all the other nations at this point. It weakens the bargaining process. Warren knows that. She, and the rest of the congress have been briefed, and they have access to the TPP in full. They're the proper group to review the TPP, because they were elected to advise and consent on the business of this nation. We the people have a stake in this, but we're not informed enough to understand the complexities. We have to trust our lawmakers to do that. The outrage about secrecy that's been fostered by progressives in disingenuous and unfounded. It's complete bunk, for the obvious reasons I mentioned, but it makes for sensational headlines in every blog. The other drum progressives are beating is that the TPP is another NAFTA. There are absolutely no facts to verify that assertion, but that hasn't stopped anyone from ranting and raving about it. I've been an ardent liberal my entire long life. I trust but verify. I question why Warren, whom I admire very much, is creating a false narrative with an agreement that has the potential to move America forward dramatically. Reducing our trade deficit, requiring needed environmental protections, leveling the international playing field for American workers while requiring sanctions and enforcement guarantees against nations that break the rules--all of this while expanding our trading potential is America's stake in the future. That is what the TPP is all about. The future.

[Sunlei]

53. I disagree, Sen Warren is not "creating a false narrative", the media reporting is.

I think Sen. Warren, Sanders and also President O. all work well together to create a robust political debate.

Once the stakeholder countries sign the trade agreements (its only an unsigned draft now), it will sit in public for quite a while before President Obama signs (or doesn't sign)

[madfloridian]

54. We asked the questions, but answers are not forthcoming.

We only heard the good stuff with NAFTA also.

[blackspade]

55. K&R

Thanks for posting.

[MrMickeysMom]

56. Ours is not to question "why?"

[kentuck]

58. I voted for this President twice...

....but he is wrong by taking the side of the corporations over the people. I wonder, does he really believe it?

[Jesus Malverde]

59. Yikes that stings

[wildbilln864]

60. k & r & thanks! n/t