Democrats approved platform draft with Sanders' imprint

[OrwellwasRight]

22. Wow so many issues to address.

a) not everything that is legal is OK. Cops shooting children in Cleveland, tax avoidance, chopping up and selling mortgages as speculative investments. These are things that have been determined to be "legal" under the US justice system. And they all suck. They do not set a standard that what is legal is OK. What is legal is often OK, but certainly in many cases it is not a high bar. Thus all the time progressives spend trying to change the laws!

b) The TPP is not about "foreign policy." It is about "domestic policy." Case in point: we will never ever be able to lower the market exclusivity period for biologic drugs to 7 years, as President Obama proposed in numerous budgets, because the TPP sets the minimum as 8 years. If we lowered it to 7 it would be a trade violation, and we would be forced to repeal it just like we recently had to do for country of origin labeling for meat (which was determined by the WTO to be a trade violation). It also allows foreign corporations to sue the US in private tribunals over domestic policies that they consider "unfair" and a threat to their 'reasonably expected profits." Other democratic countries that have withdrawn or amended laws in response to cuh suits include Canada, Germany, and Mexico. Certainly there is a chilling effect on domestic policy as a result of TPP. These are domestic policy issues that "trade negotiators" gave away.

c) Um, you may not have understood my post at all. So let me try to be clear: the Paris climate talks and the WIPO talks and even some WTO talks ARE negotiated publicly and transparently, so no they do not support the proposition that the TPP had to be negotiated secretly, nor do they support the proposition that all agreements that touch on "foreign policy" have to be negotiated secretly.

d) Um, what makes you think I have not considered the substance? Try reading this is you want to learn about the substance: http://www.aflcio.org/content/download/174701/4156463/LAC+Report--Final+12-2-15+As+Adopted.pdf. I have considered it, and it is awful.

e) Telling me that I am "pissing and moaning" is not only inaccurate, it is insulting and not very "civil." Please point out what phrases I used that constitute "pissing" and which constitute "moaning."

Regards,
Orwell