Bernie Sanders
In reply to the discussion: Do you see this? [View all]Baobab
(4,667 posts)There is a speech "The Change that the believe in" by Robert Fitch to the Harlem Tenants Association (also found as "Fitch on Obama" )
https://web.archive.org/web/20140210011351/http://www.scribd.com/webber3292/d/92392289-Fitch-on-Obama
or maybe
https://bigham.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/the-late-robert-fitch-on-obama-the-change-they-believe-in/
The TTIP energy deal is part of a really big trade deal, the biggest ever, and its about much more than just fracking,
Chemicals- many much needed changes likely are being prevented by TTIP so that businesses can have stability even in the face of scientific discovery. The US has successfully hobbled regulation of harmful chemicals for 30 years, even as the science has exploded. The goal is to reverse Europe's "Precautionary Principle" with its doppelganger (evil twin) a law that charges taxpayers for government doing their jobs, and in practice it effectively cripples regulatory action, the trade deal will block change in dozens of countries unless a special stacked panel approves it.
This is despite an urgent pressing need for changes (in the regulatory, no the deregulatory direction) involving countless chemicals discovered over the past several decades, for example, endocrine disruptors -(which are clearly extremely damaging to health. We know, for example that they are hideously expensive in Europe - costing hundreds of billions of Euros i disease each year). The deals create a new requirement for compensation of corporations instead of victims, before any change is allowed to occur. They may shift the potential costs of biopersistant EDCs and many other environmental problems onto taxpayers in a blame-agnostic way, making taxpayers pay the polluters instead of the other way around..
TTIP energy deal and the globalization of fuel poverty.
The deregulation of natural gas export from the US, alleged to be required by both GATS and included in TTIP is likely to cause a lot of disruption in housing due to the precarious legal position of rent stabilization laws nationally, which the trade deal could result in the abolition of. -because of a substantial projected rise in the price of natural gas (effecting both electricity and heating) and the age of the US's housing stock. It will also provide opportunity for the world's building industry, and they should result in an economic stimulus to the successful low bidders, from whatever country hey hail. A great many urban Americans may be displaced from affordable but older rental and owned housing by the jump in energy prices. It wont be simply a matter of finding another apartment because the rate of increase in the rentel cost of housing has far exceeded wages so the difference between renters pre TTIP rents and afterwards may be astronomical all other things being equal. Also, many older buildings may be simply torn down and replaced with condominiums, not rentals. Longtime urban dwellers may be hard put to adapt to the changes. Many may not even know how to drive -