ucrdem

ucrdem's Journal

January 31, 2015

The point of TPP is to boost US exports. That's why PBO is behind it.

Exporting what, you ask? Well, how about "flexible computer chips that can be woven into everything from the gears in a helicopter to the fabric in your shirt"? It's probably true that we stopped making TVs in the US a while back, but that train left the station long before Obama entered the picture. So here's his TPP agenda in a nutshell, from a speech last December 11:

Our businesses have added almost 11 million jobs over the past 57 months. This year our economy has already created more jobs [than] in any year since the 1990s, with still a month to go. All told, since 2010, we've created more jobs here in the United States than Japan, Europe, and all advanced nations combined.

And one of the reasons that we've been able to create so many jobs here in the United States is because our exports have been strong. Last year our businesses sold a record $2.3 trillion of Made in America goods and services. And these exports support more than 11 million American jobs -- typically, by the way, jobs that pay higher wages.

{snip}

I've said before I will go anywhere around the world to go to bat for American companies and American workers. We're going to keep on pushing trade agreements that benefit American companies and American workers and ensure that we've got a fair and even playing field, particularly in the fastest-growing markets.

{snip}

We're also announcing -- because manufacturing has been a real bright spot in our growing economy -- some additional measures to boost manufacturing here in the United States so we can sell more manufacturing goods overseas. We're announcing today more than $290 million in new investments to launch two additional high-tech manufacturing hubs. One is going to be focusing on flexible computer chips that can be woven into everything from the gears in a helicopter to the fabric in your shirt. Another is going to focus on advance sensors that can dramatically cut energy costs for our factories.

So far, we have launched eight of these hubs, and we intend to get 16 done, so we're more than half of the way there. And they’re helping us to compete for the next generation of manufacturing.

Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2014/12/20141211311946.html#ixzz3QMeoR4Ur

So if we're going to complain that Obama hasn't created enough good jobs, he's still creating them, and TPP is part of the mix.

January 21, 2015

[French PM Manual] Valls vows to tackle French ‘apartheid’ after Charlie Hebdo killings

Source: RFI

Article published the Wednesday 21 January 2015

In the wake of this month’s Charlie Hebdo attacks, France's Prime Minister Manual Valls told journalists on Tuesday that a form of apartheid exists in France. While some on the right judged Valls’s words “excessive”, politicians of right and left agreed that the government must build “social cohesion”.

“A territorial, social and ethnic apartheid has imposed itself on our country,” Valls told the press. “Social misery is coupled with the everyday discrimination over not having the right family name, skin colour or gender. This is not a question of making excuses - we have to face the reality of our country today."

Valls pledged to fight inequality in deprived areas on the outskirts of French cities, where there is often mass unemployment and a sense of exclusion from French social life.

Without referring specifically to this month's attacks by French-born Islamists in Paris, Valls said more needed to be done to ensure people from these areas felt like part of the nation.

“Every day we have to fight the terrible feeling that there are second-class citizens or some voices matter more than others,” he said.

Read more: http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20150121-valls-vows-tackle-french-apartheid-after-charlie-hebdo-killings

This is about a speech on Tuesday, but he's giving a long speech right with lots of details. Lots of euros for security forces etc. Hate to say it but it sounds like a French Patriot Act.

January 3, 2015

"USTR Fact Sheet on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Outline"

posted Nov. 13, 2011:

link: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/11/20111113202959su0.4597829.html#axzz3Nij1eFRg

January 3, 2015

A US State Dep't site search returns 790 texts and transcripts using "Trans-Pacific Partnership,"

the latest from Dec. 18 2014:

See for yourself: http://search.state.gov/search?oe=UTF-8&ie=utf8&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=0&getfields=%2A&lr=lang_en&client=emb_en_iipdigital&proxystylesheet=emb_en_iipdigital&site=emb_iip_en&q=Trans-Pacific+Partnership&ulang=en&ip=68.177.49.70&access=p&entqr=3&entqrm=0&entsp=a&wc=200&wc_mc=1&ud=1&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1#axzz3NiiqQ5DV

One of these is a detailed "USTR Fact Sheet on Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Outline" that has been available online, in three languages, since Nov. 13, 2011:

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/11/20111113202959su0.4597829.html#axzz3Nij1eFRg

Can someone please explain what it is we're not being told about TPP, and why Liz and Bernie appear to be unaware of the State Department's website?

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Gender: Male
Hometown: El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles
Home country: US
Current location: East of East L.A.
Member since: Sun Jan 20, 2013, 08:15 PM
Number of posts: 15,512