Secretive #TPP Trade Deal is a Threat to Democracy + Bernie Sanders: No Fast Track for the TPP

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Dandelion Salad

democracynow on Apr 16, 2015

democracynow – Senate Finance Committee leaders Republican Orrin Hatch and Democrat Ron Wyden are expected to introduce a “fast-track” trade promotion authority bill as early as this week that would give the president authority to negotiate the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and then present it to Congress for a yes-or-no vote, with no amendments allowed. On Wednesday, more than 1,000 labor union members rallied on Capitol Hill to call on Democrats to oppose “fast-track” authority. We speak with two people closely following the proposed legislation: Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, and Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida.

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (#TPP) – Investment Chapter

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WikiLeaks
Press Release
March 25, 2015

WikiLeaks releases today the “Investment Chapter” from the secret negotiations of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) agreement. The document adds to the previous WikiLeaks publications of the chapters for Intellectual Property Rights (November 2013) and the Environment (January 2014).

Noam Chomsky: Driving Forces in US Foreign Policy + Q&A

Dandelion Salad

with Noam Chomsky

Image by Nuclear Age Peace Foundation via Flickr

ZKM | Karlsruhe Jun 5, 2014

May 30, 2014

Social critic and peace activist Noam Chomsky is the most cited public intellectual of today.

His works in linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science have earned him the title the “father of modern linguistics”. His critical publications on mass media, politics and globalization have put him on the forefront of civil activism starting as anti-war activist in the 1960s and now as supporter of the Occupy movement.

Wrongful Secrecy, Snares, and Delusions by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
January 10, 2014

You’ve heard the refrain “we live in the information age.” We have fingertip access to the Internet, providing us with massive amounts of information. There are no longer any excuses for us to say we don’t have the information; it is there, but up to us to act on the information.

Kristen Beifus: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (#TPP)

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talkingsticktv on Sep 8, 2013

Interview with Kristen Beifus, Executive Director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). 

The Biggest Assault on Our Democracy Is Coming from the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government by Fred Branfman

by Fred Branfman
Writer, Dandelion Salad
originally published on Alternet, September 4, 2013
September 7, 2013

Image by Mayu ;P via Flickr

The Executive justifies its actions, like all authoritarian institutions, on the grounds that it is protecting us. We must reverse the tide.

“America no longer has a functioning democracy. This invasion of privacy has been excessive, so bringing it to public notice has probably been beneficial —President Jimmy Carter

Millions of Americans will face a basic question in the coming decade: how much loyalty do we owe a U.S. Executive Branch which extracts huge sums from us to spy upon and lie to us, on the false grounds that doing so is protecting us? Or do we owe our moral allegiance to the ideal of democracy, which requires us to fight the Executive which is its enemy?

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Stop ‘NAFTA on steroids’! + TPP = Corporate Power Tool of the 1%

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http://ran.org

President Obama’s Most Inexplicable Failure by Melvin A. Goodman

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Melvin A. Goodman
t r u t h o u t
15 July 2010

President Barack Obama has been a major disappointment to a liberal community that rallied to his call for genuine change. His administration has made no attempt to investigate the crimes that were committed by the Bush administration, including torture and abuse, secret prisons and renditions. President Obama rescued Wall Street, but not Main Street. And he has expanded the self-destructive war in Afghanistan, where there is no end in sight. President Obama cannot be blamed for the failure to close Guantanamo, but he continues to favor preventive detention. But the president’s most inexplicable failure, in view of his Harvard Law School background and commitment to constitutional rights, is his unwillingness to name a statutory inspector general (IG) at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Peter Dale Scott: Continuity of Government Planning

Dandelion Salad

with Peter Dale Scott
Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
July 14, 2010

Military Space Planes – First-Strike Systems by Bruce Gagnon + X-37B: Secret plane launched

by Bruce Gagnon
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
April 23, 2010

The new military space plane, called the X-37B, was launched yesterday from Cape Canaveral strapped to an Atlas V rocket. The X-37 will spend up to 270 days in space before landing at Vandenberg AFB in California. The space plane will mostly fly on “autopilot” since there is no human inside the craft.

Meanwhile yesterday at Vandenberg AFB, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also test launched another space plane – the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, known as the Falcon.