The investment chapter is to remain classified for 4 FUCKING years after the TPP is

[cali]

81. I read it. dog shit.

Wow. So the admin says it's a good deal.

1. The first thing the administration says is that this is a good deal: when the text is finalized and released publicly, people will be surprised by how different from its predecessors this trade deal really is. They note that Obama ran for office promising to renegotiate NAFTA, and while that didn't happen, this deal fully reflects his thinking about what went wrong with NAFTA — particularly in the weak enforceability of its labor and environmental standards


Particularly love the passive NAFTA didn't happen. Try the President never even proposed anything.

3. That said, the unions really do know a lot about what's in this deal. And they still oppose it. Pressed on this, the White House's answer is one that liberals have heard from the Obama administration before, and that they never fail to find frustrating: TPP may not be perfect, but it's a lot better than the alternative.

Yes, yes.. Boogie Man China will dominate if we don't.

One really important dimension of the debate around TPP is intellectual property protections. This is an area where American businesses feel hugely disadvantaged overseas, and the administration thinks it's giving them a big win. But there are economists — Krugman is one — who think IP protections have already gone too far, and even if it gives Paramount or Pfizer a bit more protection, the result will be to make the world poorer without obviously making American workers much richer.

Oh, yes. Poor wittle American corporations. And not only will it not make American workers richer, it'll hurt sick people.

The result is that even where there is transparency, it's a form of transparency that can only really be navigated by politically sophisticated, highly motivated actors — which is to say it's a form of transparency that quickly becomes a venue for lobbying. That's one reason these deals end up including so much ... stuff. The process is constructed in such a way that the negotiators get a lot of special pleading from individual industries and interests. Responding to those requests feels like responding to the public, but it isn't, and it leads to deals jam-packed with individual provisions that look a lot like giveaways.

NO KIDDING

Piece of dog shit.