Strange Happenings in San Diego July 2-10 ,2012

[Steven Gaal]

Thirteenth round: July 2-10, 2012, San Diego, USA

============================================

The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations—like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America—are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement. [...] More than two months after receiving the proper security credentials, my staff is still barred from viewing the details of the proposals that USTR is advancing. We hear that the process by which TPP is being negotiated has been a model of transparency. I disagree with that statement.[45]

a b 2012 Congressional Record, Vol. 158, Pg. S3517{{{3}}} (May 23, 2012)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New World Order Blueprint Leaked 6/21/12 Rudy Avizius

http://www.marketora...ticle35265.html (see link for video mentioned ,click word video there)

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

On June 12, a leaked copy of the investment chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was made public. This copy was analyzed by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and has been verified as authentic. This agreement has been negotiated IN SECRET for 2-1/2 years and no information has ever been released until this leak. So why have the details of this negotiation been so secret? This agreement has been framed as a “free trade” agreement and yet out of 26 chapters only two have anything to do with trade. The other 24 chapters grant new corporate privileges and rights, while limiting governments and protective regulations.

If implemented, this agreement will hard code corporate dominance over sovereign governments into international law that will supercede any federal, state, or local laws of any member country. This document alone should set alarm bells ringing, but if one steps back and looks at the larger picture, the future ramifications look even more ominous. After completing this reading, see what your conclusions are.

This video is a must see for anyone who wishes to more fully understand the implications of this secretly negotiated agreement. This article will also show how if this agreement is considered in the context of other recently passed legislation and developments, and the “dots are connected”, the results would be total corporate global governance with an accompanying police state. In this new system the role of elected governments would be to serve as subservient agents for the transnational corporations, while the armies, police, and courts would serve the interests of these transnational corporations. The status of the member states would be locked-in, similar to countries once they are inside the Eurozone.

The TPP is being negotiated by some of the same characters that brought us NAFTA, CAFTA and other so called free trade agreements. Some of the provisions in this document include the establishment of a parallel system of justice to be administered by 3 attorneys with no conflict of interest limitations. This 3 attorney tribunal could order sovereign governments to use taxpayer money to pay these transnational corporations for any environmental or regulatory costs that these corporations expended to meet local standards. Many existing laws would need to be rewritten and no new regulatory laws could be passed.

Governments that tried to pass regulations such as limits on the financial industry using risky bets such as derivatives would have the burden of proof to defend such regulations in a court system controlled by the corporations. The taxpayers would pay should a corporation prevail in one of these “private courts”. In fact over $350 million of taxpayer money has already been paid out to corporations under the NAFTA style deals, because of zoning laws, toxic bans, timber rules and other regulations. This TPP agreement is like NAFTA on steroids. This corporate tribunal bears a resemblance to the private US Supreme Court approved binding arbitration that corporations use to severely limit an individual’s or a group’s right to sue for damages. With binding arbitration we essentially have a “private corporate court system” outside of any government judicial system where the corporations choose the arbitrators and pay for their services. This creates an apparent conflict of interest because the arbitrators know that if they do not rule favorably to the corporations in the majority of cases, they will not be hired back.

The kangaroo courts setup by this TPP agreement will have binding corporate guarantees with both trade and cash sanctions. These cash sanctions would effectively transfer taxpayer money to transnational corporate coffers. Can you imagine the excesses we will see in the financial industry as they challenge regulations within their own private court system forcing governments to pay or eliminate them? The result of these corporate tribunals will be to setup a race to the bottom, where if one country chooses not to regulate something, then the corporations would be able to sue the other nations inside of the TPP to have taxpayers cover their losses for any such regulations. These other countries would be vulnerable to corporate led lawsuits to be decided in the corporate tribunals.

So how could such an extreme agreement that literally gives corporations everything they could possibly want have been negotiated with little or no resistance? The answer is that the ONLY way this agreement could ever pass is if everything is done in secret and the details never see the light of day. Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch recently said:

“These agreements are a little bit like Dracula. You drag them in the sunshine, and they do not fare well. But all of us, and also across all of the countries involved, there are citizen movements that are basically saying that this is not in our name. We don’t need global enforceable corporate rights. We need more democracy. We need more accountability."

These talks have been so secret that Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Trade Committee in the Senate which has jurisdiction over trade agreements has been denied any access to information on the negotiations for over 2-1/2 years. This is a man who is on the Intelligence Committee and has access to nuclear secrets, yet he cannot see this TPP agreement? On the Democratic side, Senator Wyden has introduced legislation to force the Obama administration to make the details of these secret negotiations available to the Senate Committee.

On the Republican side, Representative Darryl Issa has also questioned the Obama administration’s extreme levels of secrecy on this agreement. This is not a liberal cause, this is not a conservative cause, this is a common cause. It is vital that the public be aware of this TPP agreement because BOTH of the 2012 presidential candidates are supporting this agreement. Since TPP was negotiated under the watch of the Obama administration, and Mitt Romney has indicated that he wants to quickly complete negotiations of this bill, the results of the next election will be irrelevant to the future status of this bill.

With the corporate takeover of sovereign governments, we see the very essence of a global fascist system. When most people think of fascism, they think of Hitler brown shirts marching through the streets, however, that is not the real definition of fascism. Fascism was defined by President Franklin Roosevelt:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group”

Polls show that most Americans from both major political party believe that money exerts far too much influence on public officials, effectively making these elected officials the “hired servants” of the wealthy elites. Both the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement believe that there is too much influence of money on our legislators. Our representatives are essentially the puppets while the corporate elites are the puppeteers. What this TPP agreement does is to take this puppet metaphor to the international level. Our elections have been reduced to the people choosing who will be the “hired servants” of the power elites from a list preapproved by these same elites.

This TPP agreement is nothing less than a power grab by the largest corporations on the planet to establish a legal framework for global corporate government making all sovereign governments subject to international law enforced by corporations. Passage of this bill would essentially be corporate coup against all member states.

So while this TPP agreement should frighten anyone who is still breathing, the threat does not end as the corporations make their ultimate grab for power. Here are some of the other forces that are potentially focusing the power of the corporate state:

National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) ++

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the passage of the NDAA, our legislators overrode constitutional protections so that Americans who are “suspected” of providing “material support” to a terrorist organization can be detained indefinitely on American soil, without access to legal counsel, and without any charges being filed. Think about this for a minute, you do not even have to be charged with a crime and you can be locked up indefinitely? What exactly does “material support” mean? Exactly what is a terrorist? Some states have actually declared that people who secretly video record animal mistreatment as “terrorists”, even if no property damage was done. If nonviolent protests can be declared as terrorist acts, it does not take a great leap of the imagination to see how NDAA might be applied. Imagine if the government used NDAA legislation against journalists or whistleblowers such as Julius Assange, Russ Tice, or even Daniel Elsberg? How will we ever know what is happening in a corporate state if the corporations are successful in indefinitely detaining those who would shed light on their activities?

This NDAA is another example of dangerous legislation being passed in darkness. This bill was signed by Obama on December 31, 2011, during the Christmas break when the media attention would be minimal. In an effort to divide the opposition to the indefinite detention of Americans, Obama promised that his administration would never use the provisions. The questions most people should be asking is: ”what is to prevent any future president or even Obama himself from using indefinite detention, and if there is no need for concern over this, why was it necessary to make that signing statement?” Progressive and conservative groups such the ACLU, Gun Owners Foundation, Tea Party Movement, Institute of the Constitution, US Justice Foundation, Tenth Amendment Center, Occupy Wall St, and many other groups are joining forces to fight this legislation. On social media, resistance in the form of a Facebook group called “Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for NDAA” has been formed. Now, in the context of the TPP, think of how useful this NDAA law could be to a global corporate government in silencing its critics.

Citizens United Ruling ++

-----------------------------------

Americans have long had a sneaking suspicion that there was a “hidden hand” directing our government in Washington and the states, and they were right. The “hidden hand” was actually the corporations, unions, and other self-serving special interests that contribute literally $billions to our politicians in order to influence legislation that will favor them. This has happened even with limits that had been placed on these groups that prevented them from directly contributing to campaigns. Thursday January 21 2010, will go down in history as a dark day. This is the day that a divided Supreme Court, in the Citizens United v. FEC ruling, removed all limits on corporate political campaign spending. If you thought our politicians were corrupt and beholden to corporations before, things are about to get a LOT WORSE now that all limits have been removed. Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy swept aside decades of legislative restrictions on the money from corporations in political campaigns and ruled that companies can use corporate funds to support or oppose candidates. This ruling will certainly take its place in history alongside other shameful rulings such as Dred Scott v. Sandford, and Plessy v. Ferguson. These 5 justices opened the floodgates of unlimited funds to influence elections. The strangle hold the banks have over the nation’s wealth will now be amplified by this Supreme Court ruling now that all limits on campaign financing by corporations have been removed.

This black day will go rightly go down in history where the Supreme Court officially validated the takeover of the government by the corporations. The 2012 primary election cycle has already seen where approximately 4 dozen people have contributed massively to the super PACS and decided the outcome of the elections. This type of money influence will cut both ways regardless of which political party you support. One donor has stated that he is willing to spend $100 million in this election cycle. This one single donor “donated” the same amount as 2 million families sending a check for $50. This type of funding by large donors undermines the very foundation of our government and creates an environment conducive to corruption. Now in the context of the TPP, think of the impact that huge global corporations will have on governments with their ability to spend unlimited money anonymously.

Corporate domination of media ++

-----------------------------------------------

Media ownership has now become so concentrated that six corporations effectively control US media today. These companies are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Murdoch’s News Corp, CBS Corporation, and NBC Universal. With this type of concentration, it becomes very difficult to find diversified news in order to form independent opinions. One aspect of this concentration is the increasing number of negative political ads, many of which have no accountability as to their factual accuracy. This will end badly if we do not stop the media from undermining the foundations of our election system. This concentration of media ownership allows billionaires and corporations to ensure that the politicians who will work to pass self serving legislation favoring these wealthy elites are elected to office.

One place where the corporate media has not met with great success in controlling is the independent media on the Internet. Attempts have been made to control access to it, to create “toll system” , as well as extreme copyright rules. We have seen a veritable alphabet soup of acts designed to enhance corporate profits and limit the flow of information. Some examples include PIPA, SOPA, CISPA, and it seems as soon as they are knocked down due to public resistance, another threat arises. For now, the Internet has remained free and a diverse source of information, but vigilance must be maintained. Now, think of the effect that the loss of an open Internet and the increasingly concentrated media ownership will have on the electorate when combined with the unlimited funding that the Citizens United ruling allows, as well as the power that the transnational corporations could gain under TPP.

Increasing Use of Drones for Domestic Surveillance ++

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The use of drones for domestic surveillance is becoming more and more common. The FAA has approved drones for use over the United States and projects that 30,000 drones will be over our skies by 2020. The EPA is actually using drones to monitor cattle ranchers in Iowa, police and universities are using them, and cities are using drones to keep an “eye on things”. New much smaller drones the size of birds and insects are now in development. These smaller drones will be cheaper to produce and deploy which will likely raise the 30,000 estimate significantly and will be much harder to detect. Under a government subservient to the corporations, these drones would effectively be controlled and “regulated” by the corporations. Can you imagine the misuse of this technology to violate any privacy we may have left and to conduct clandestine surveillance?

Militarization of Police Forces ++

The militarization of our police forces is proceeding rapidly. After 9-11, the Department of Homeland Security gave generous grants to police forces across the nation. Some of the purchases included riot gear, armored personnel carriers, and even acoustic weapons for small towns. A nexus has formed between vendors of military equipment and the nation’s police forces. There are certainly consequences to this militarization of police forces. Once a police officer is deployed into a situation with full riot gear and military training, the chances of violence increases significantly even when the protests remain peaceful. There is significant evidence of this during the Occupy demonstrations.

The roles of police and military are totally different. The police are trained to protect lives, the military is trained to take lives. Consider how these same military trained riot police would be used when they are under the effective control of the transnational corporations and how they would be utilized to silence their critics.

Privatization of Prisons ++

------------------------------------

The privatization of prisons is expanding rapidly. In most societies prisons are run by the state where the incentive is to have fewer prisoners with a lower recidivism rate. In a private system the perverse incentive is to maximize the number of prisoners, and raise the recidivism rate in order to maximize profits. This results in higher numbers of prisoners, broken families, poor healthcare for inmates, and few resources spent to prepare inmates to reenter society. This has contributed to the shame of the US having largest prison population on the planet whether measured in absolute numbers or on a per capita basis, with most prisoners serving time for non-violent crimes. The private for profit prison industry is growing and has actually influenced immigration legislation in Arizona in order to gain more inmates and raise profits. Think of the impact that private prisons, private policing, private contractors providing soldiers for hire, all with loyalty to $$$ instead of their country. We will quickly devolve into a fascist controlled state. This aspect of corporate control should be one of the most frightening to everyone who holds freedom and democracy dear.

Lack of Prosecution For Financial Fraud ++

-------------------------------------------------------------

If a criminal gets away with committing a crime, there is a strong likelihood that they will commit it again. The lack of prosecution for the major financial fraud that brought about the 2008 economic collapse almost guarantees that it will happen again. Justice Department officials have stated that these are difficult and complex cases. However, during the Savings & Loan crisis, there were thousands of successful felony convictions, despite the fact that it was 1/70 the size of the 2008 crisis. In fact when the 50 Attorneys General were close to starting their own prosecutions due to the lack of any federal action, the Obama administration stepped in and negotiated its own agreement.

To paraphrase David Petrovich, the Executive Director for Society For Preservation of Continued Homeownership:

“This agreement granted immunity to the big banks for the criminal robosigning where they forged documents and fraudulently tried to present them in courts across the country. This was essentially another bailout of the banks only this time the bailout was not in the form of money, but rather where changes were made in the law to retroactively transform banks’ illegal behavior into legal behavior. (Watch how this concept of “retroactive” immunity comes up again.) Think about what would happen if you or I forged notarized signatures and tried to pass them off in court. We certainly would serve prison time. Yet, these huge banks were let off the hook even after forging tens of thousands of these signatures and illegally foreclosing on peoples’ homes.”<

We also recently had the spectacle of the Senate Banking Committee “questioning” one of its largest donors. While wearing presidential seal cuff links, presumably to show his powerful connections, JP Morgan chair Jamie Dimon, easily handled all the softball questions asked of him. Dimon lost over $3 billion (and growing) on risky derivative bets and yet these same senators actually had the audacity to ask him for input and advice on regulating his bank. Think about the implications of total immunity from prosecution for financial crimes in an environment where the TPP has been approved and global corporations are the effective government.

Lack of Protection for Whistleblowers ++

---------------------------------------------------------

The increasing prosecution and harassment of whistleblowers has a chilling effect on government transparency . The government often prosecutes the whistleblower rather than the crime that the whistleblower reveals. The Obama campaign in 2008 promised to protect whistle blowers, but instead he has been waging a relentless war against them. Bradley Manning was declared guilty by Obama BEFORE he was even charged with any crime, yet the shooting of the journalists by the US helicopter crew and their callous statements during the shooting was ignored. When William Binney blew the whistle on the NSA’s huge surveillance program, the FBI raided his home in an effort to quiet and intimidate him. Corporations as well as government also often retaliate against whistle blowers. In a corporate state, how would the citizens know about the activities of the corporations if there is no protection for whistleblowers?

Corporate Spying On Americans ++

-------------------------------------------------

The information William Binney made public dramatized the huge scale of the (at that time ) illegal surveillance that was being done on Americans. It also included the fact that AT&T as well as other communication companies were deeply involved in this illegal spying on US citizens. Later, as lawsuits against the corporations started to look like they would be successful, the Obama administration claimed state secrets to kill the lawsuits. Since the telecommunications industry is another VERY large “contributor” to political loyalists, Congress showed its gratitude by passing legislation to grant the telecommunication companies retroactive immunity. (This concept retroactive immunity comes up again.) The questions that should come to mind are: “if no crime was committed, why were the corporations granted retroactive immunity, or if crimes were committed, why were these corporations granted retroactive immunity?” Think of the implications of this in a corporate state, with the increasing use of smaller and smaller drones in an environment that allows corporations to legally spy on you. Then also consider this concept of governments granting retroactive immunity for criminal actions in order to please their major corporate donors. How will the transnational corporations use these “tools” to maximize their profits or to silence opposition?

Summary

========

What we see is a confluence of forces that has the potential to solidify a shift towards corporate fascism and encase it in international law. Governments will merely be the tools of the corporations to provide a degree of separation from the inevitable police state that will accompany this corporate global governance. Sovereign governments even with all their failings still have at least some concern for the general welfare of their citizens. Corporations by their very nature have only one purpose and that is to generate profits. If an individual whose sole purpose was to blindly enhance profits, without any regard to the standards of what is wrong and what is right in society, would likely be considered a sociopath by mental health experts.

If the TPP were to be enshrined into international law, these same sociopath corporations would now lord over sovereign governments, indifferent to criminal law, and beyond the control of nation-states. They would have the ability to utilize the militaries of some states to wage war on other “less complaint” states.

Doug Casey of Casey Research recently wrote: “It’s most unfortunate, but the US and its allies will turn into authoritarian police states. Even more than they are today. Much more, actually. They’ll all be perfectly fascist – private ownership of both consumer goods and the means of production topped by state control of both. Fascism operates free of underlying principles or philosophy; it’s totally the whim of the people in control, and they’ll prove ever more ruthless. “

There are those who would say that it is unpatriotic to be against corporations, however should corporations be in the business of governing? An open public debate on the future role of corporations is needed.

It is vital that the details of this TPP agreement become widely known and circulated. Once it sees the light of day, it will be defeated because people will oppose it. Sorry, corporations really are NOT people, they are merely state created entities.

What Can You Do? Get money out of politics

Until we get money out of politics, corporate control of our government will continue and because of the Citizens United ruling, will most likely increase. Attempts at a corporate coups such as this TPP agreement will continue and will keep resurfacing in various re-invented forms until one day one will be successful. We have already seen this pattern with the repeated attempts to impose limits the Internet. There are organizations that are working towards eliminating the corrupting influence of money. Find out more about them and support their efforts. Some of them include:

Public Citizen http://www.citizen.org Common Cause http://www.commoncause.org United Republic http://unitedrepublic.org

End the secret TPP negotiations

Until we bring this process into public view, there is the danger that it will be passed quickly and secretly with little or no congressional or public input. Once the details of these agreements are made public, the TPP will defeated, or at the very least modified.

There are organizations that are fighting this TPP agreement and they deserve your efforts and support. Some of them include:

http://www.citizen.org/tpp

http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/

http://www.straight.com/article-688656/vancouver/prointernet-community-must-fight-tpp-weekly-update-openmediaca

##################################################

We have reached a crossroad where either we allow the corporations to take control of our nations, or we stop them in their attempts. Take an evening off from the TV and make the effort to make a difference so that you leave your children a better future. Don’t expect others to do this vital task.

###################################################

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

wiki background http://en.wikipedia....mic_Partnership

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Edited June 23, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

STRANGE HAPPENINGS IN SENATE JULY 19th

-----------------------------------------------------------

URGENT: Vote tomorrow on the Bring Jobs Home Act

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Angel - NYC

Tomorrow, the Senate will be confronted with a choice — either stand with the American people in desperate need of jobs or stand with the big corporations who outsource those jobs overseas

http://fromthetrench...home-act/17931/

=======================================================

#################################################

We have reached a crossroad where either we allow the corporations to take control of our nations, or we stop them in their attempts. Take an evening off from the TV and make the effort to make a difference so that you leave your children a better future. Don’t expect others to do this vital task.

###################################################

Edited July 18, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Kossor]

I'm offering this essay about the practical and psychological roots of the 11/22/63 coup that gave us the government and corporate-intelligence establishment that has continued to exploit and despoil worldwide human and material resources with relentless vigor. I suggest that we have an obligation to future generations to offer advice and potential solutions that may enable them to recover from the institutionalization of corporate and intelligence interests within the American government. I'm offering my suggestions to help find a way out of the climate of fear that has been nurtured in us by those entities. If we don't move beyond the search for truth in the Kennedy assassination and also do whatever we can to encourage future generations to hope for and work toward a future free of covert CIA and corporate-intelligence manipulations, we will expire without having accomplished more than documenting the horror that has befallen us.

Emotional Memories

New ideas evolve by linking together the known with the possible within a vessel made of memory. There are two kinds of memory: cognitive and emotional. Cognitive memories are what we know. Emotional memories are how we feel about knowing. Healthy emotional memories give us hope and courage about using what we know. Negative emotional memories give us pessimism and fear about using what we know. Emotional memories always trump cognitive memories. Minds poisoned by negative emotional memories will believe things that are not true, correct, adaptive or healthy. When too many people become afflicted with negative emotional memories, hope turns to despair and courage is overcome by fear.

Former leaders of deposed foreign governments over the past 100 years learned about this as they were being overwhelmed, struggling for survival against the onslaught of negative emotional memories being implanted and nurtured in their own people by outsiders. In both the foreign "target" country and in the domestic population as well, these outsiders go about implanting negative emotional memories to coerce the population to embrace changes that are not adaptive or healthy, but which meet the needs of the outsiders. Weapons of mass destruction threaten us all and must be destroyed!

Large portions of both the foreign and domestic populations come to embrace the take-over because its necessity is confirmed by the negative emotional memories that have been implanted and nurtured in them. The last straw in the overthrow of foreign governments is the replacement of the former leaders by outsiders. That is how the government of Hawaii was overthrown in the 1800's, and how the overthrow of other foreign governments in the 20th century has been accomplished through the covert actions of US corporate-intelligence operatives, as Stephen Kinzer has documented in Overthrow (Henry Holt & Co., 2006). John Perkins gave us an insider's view of the process in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Plume, 2004).

There is a script. Twentieth century corporate-intelligence leaders have learned from and expanded upon the tactics of their forebears. They utilize modern technology (especially the press and news media in all their forms and popular culture outlets) implant negative emotional memories that further their ends and conceal their machinations. Greed and fear make the machine work.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and motion pictures are a thousand times more powerful than a thousand words. Modern architects of governmental overthrow know this and use motion pictures to implant unhealthy emotional memories. Outrage over and opposition to any motion pictures that compete by creating alternative (healthy) emotional memories is as predictable as it is virulent. Hitler and Goebbels understood this better than most and applied their understanding to devastating effect on the people of Germany and elsewhere, preparing their minds for the final solution long before its implementation was obvious and undeniable. Emotional memories trumped cognitive memories then, as they always do.

Titans of industry, those committed architects of governmental restructuring based on the acquisition, preservation and controlled exploitation of other peoples' resources have been thriving in the US since the late 1800's. Their need to create strong, enduring negative emotional memories to further their ends has never diminished. They have always used the tools available to them and the learning curve has persisted as it always does, with new tools being brought into service as soon as they become available. Kermit Roosevelt (son of the Rough Rider himself) spoke softly, carried a big economic stick, and used it with great success for American oil interests in the Middle East in the 1940's. The ranks of unprincipled liars, cheats and scoundrels (so-called “Economic Hit Men”) have been swelling ever since, fertilized increasingly by government intelligence agencies operating their own war machines and underground economies with the tacit (if not overt) approval of elected officials. Greed and fear continue to make the world go ‘round.

In 1963, the inevitable happened. Our own government lost control over its plotters of change in foreign governments. They turned their tactics against our own leaders and against our own people. It's worked for the past fifty years, and the manipulators of unhealthy emotional memories (nobody can ever really know the truth, nobody can really be trusted because everybody is out for themselves, a bad end awaits anyone who causes trouble, the future could be much worse, you have nothing to fear from monitoring if you have nothing to hide, etc) mean to keep it that way.

In the last fifty years, as the threads of the Kennedy assassination cover-up started to unravel, renewed efforts were made to create reinforcing negative emotional memories to sustain the old ones. New books and motion pictures emerged, filled with unhealthy emotional memories. They pandered to the same dismal, pathetic, pessimistic views of ourselves and our future – saying things like: “It could be so much worse….” How we responded to this has determined the path of our country, just as it determined the future of every other overthrown government for the past 100 years. That path has been downhill.

There is new hope today, because we have some things that didn't exist before -- the internet and digital technology -- but knowledge isn't enough. It takes strong healthy emotional memories to pursue and achieve the healthy changes that we need. Healthy emotional memories are created by the presentation of simple observations that are emotionally compelling and healthy. Some examples include: We can take the action necessary to fix our situation without compromising our Constitution. We can honor it by restoring power to those we elected and stop allowing secret abuses of it. We will strive to honor and practice, truth and justice. If we have gone astray in the past we will correct our course and move forward confidently, not secretively. Hypocrisy, deceit and greed will not be encouraged by rewarding it.

The corporate-intelligence community that persists in creating unhealthy emotional memories has to be smashed into 1,000 pieces, as President Kennedy threatened to do after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He was seduced by the allure of secret intelligence and James Bond, but he bristled at being cast in the role of a puppet (that is the only role permitted by the corporate-intelligence community for elected officials). He wanted to rule, and he thought he could. Regrettably, he told his opponents "I'm going to knock you out in the 10th round" and they knocked him out in the seventh.

Hindsight is 20/20, but we have to open our eyes. The evidence is indisputable. The Zapruder film has been unequivocally unmasked as an edited record of the events in Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was killed in 1963.

http://assassinationscience.com/johncostella/jfk/intro has some of the scientific proof of these edits (more is coming to light as new researchers study the film's frames). No "lone nut" could do the editing that was finally discovered 48 years later when technology finally caught up with the perpetrators. Only the intelligence community and those responsible for President Kennedy's security could have done this editing -- to conceal their involvement in the crime and prevent the smashing of their organization into 1,000 pieces. Recently released recordings of in-flight conversations aboard Air Force One as it returned to Washington document more holes in the scheme to murder the President that has been successful only by the thinnest of margins, and that margin is constantly eroding. Kennedy's assassination and the doctoring of the evidence was so much more than "a mafia hit." The edits of the Zapruder film prove it unequivocally. Those who play the "mafia hit" card are missing the fact that the deck is stacked.

We desperately need leaders who have the courage to take government funding away from the occult corporate-intelligence war making machine. It cannot be allowed to run toward goals that violate our Constitution. We have to rein in and sever the tentacles that have spread out for the past 100 years that are threatening our own nation's vitality and survival. The roots of the CIA were created to help the President get untainted information during a World War, and those roots should have been cut down drastically at the end of the war, as President Truman ashamedly admitted after Kennedy was assassinated.

Instead, they have grown, spread and metastasized into the most pervasive, intrusive and perverted thing imaginable in the body of the world. This cult of corporate-intelligence blinds us to the unscrupulous profiteers of foreign and domestic strife in our midst until their misdeeds require such enormous "bail-outs" that future generations are maimed and kept in a state of fear that is ever more paralyzing and from which no escape seems possible but in which greater sacrifices, harder work and closer monitoring is required. Only a tiny portion of the population is "insulated" from such deprivations by their connections to the perpetrators. Eventually even they will fall, because a system so selfish and exploitive inevitably feeds on itself, but that is certainly no consolation for the prey today.

We need to recognize that intelligence agencies and their corporate collaborators in the US have rationalized, justified and perpetrated the assassination of elected foreign leaders for over 100 years -- and that domestic leaders have been their targets too. We have to recognize the harm that their predatory covert homicidal practices has done to America’s reputation in the world.

It won't matter who we elect in 2012 or thereafter if they shrink away from the abyss of the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath. That will continue to fertilize an unspeakable cult of corporate coercion, subversion and perversion of our constitutional republic's ideals. The members of that cult are "the outsiders" who believe that sitting in perpetual grammar school is the vision of the future best suited for the rest of us. For the past 100 years, schools in America have been primarily responsible for manufacturing citizens who are incapable of weighing costs and benefits, unable to make thoughtful decisions after deliberating facts (that takes time), and who seek only the most superficial means of showing their adequacy: getting the right answers on tests and moving up to the next grade every year. John Taylor Gatto’s books, especially An Underground History of Education in America (Oxford Village Press, 2006) document the devastation wrought by the corporate-intelligence interests that have insinuated themselves into the school business and effectively hijacked the future of the American people.

So what can we do? Well, we can learn. The last 50 years of US history can show us the way out.

First and foremost, we must learn not to run to a fight. We rushed to judgment in 1964 under the pretense of avoiding a global nuclear holocaust, preventing World War III, and other such imagined catastrophes and concluded that a "lone nut" killed the President of the United States. Good, honest people were terrified and willingly assisted in the cover-up of the crime because they were rushed to the conclusion that, to do anything else would be too dangerous for the country or to themselves. They were threatened with court martial (anyone in the military knows how utterly devastating that would be), exposure of their indiscretions by a corrupt and malevolent FBI whose director called his office “the seat of government,” or killed outright as so many have been. Still, many have talked. Their stories were unpublished and unreported, or vigorously discredited, by the mainstream media “assets” of the corporate-intelligence cult. But healthy emotional memories persist and continue to fuel the urge that almost all of have: to tell the truth. There are more outlets for the truth now than ever before, as long as the Internet remains freely accessible. Imagine the power of a people who know the truth and have enough healthy emotional memories to put that knowledge to good use….

Whenever a governmental agency says "we must do this NOW because to think about it anymore, or to waste any more time would be courting disaster" we should fight the urge to comply. The misguided "search for weapons of mass destruction" that occurred a decade or so ago would not have been launched if we had resisted the urge to "run to a fight." The misguided "bailout" of fabulously wealthy individuals whose fortunes were made by exploiting the naivety of others would not have been made if we had insisted upon taking the time necessary to weigh options, consider costs and benefits rationally and objectively, and made decision as to where and how to intervene thoughtfully, rather than on the basis of ignorant bliss as the problem was growing or manufactured fear as the evidence seemingly exploded into view. Congress reacted to manufactured fear in 1964 in founding the Warren Commission to suppress independent investigations of the Kennedy assassination. It happened again in 1990 to justify going to war in Iraq. In 2008 when fabulously wealthy and comparably amoral thieves had failed to run their businesses responsibly for decades, taxpayers were hit with a bum's rush and gave away $700 Billion dollars to save the US economy. It won't be nearly enough of course, because the outsiders remain in charge here.

Prescient author Michael Crighton, in State of Fear (Harper Collins, 2004) argued for removing politics from science and used global warming and real-life historical examples in the appendices to make this argument. In a 2003 speech at the California Institute of Technology he expressed his concern about what he considered the "emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science—namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy." By focusing on the controversy over global warming, his real message has been successfully obscured. Children are no longer taught "the scientific method" in school and are rendered defenseless against false claims about virtually everything as a result, from the fields of nutrition and product safety, to the need for (and the effectiveness of) government intervention in education, economics or disaster relief.

It has become painfully obvious that modern schools exist primarily for the benefit of their union members and that the education of students is at best, an accident. If children are not taught how to approach problem-solving effectively, and do not acquire the foundation skills of reading, coherent writing and arithmetic reasoning, they cannot teach others to do these things. The outsiders remain protected. That is why the foundering of public schooling in America has been progressing incessantly for the past 100 years and why we have finally raised a generation that cannot expect to have a higher standard of living than its parents. They understand that they need and deserve government assistance, that entrepreneurs are “workaholics,” and that their attention is supposed to be captured by things, not self-directed. We desperately need to supplement the "education" our children receive so that they are inoculated against these toxic, negative emotional memories and can all become successful entrepreneurs themselves some day.

President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address warned: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Later in that same speech, Eisenhower said: "Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow." That Congress has failed our children and mortgaged their financial future in a fast-buck "bailout" scheme of grotesque proportions is an incontrovertible fact. They ran to a fight.

Finally, former President Truman warned us on December 22, 1963 in the Washington Post about the monster that the CIA had become through its covert operations capability that he had absolutely never intended it to have. He wrote: "I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency—CIA. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President. .... But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field—and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere."

As the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination approaches, we can learn from history and do what is necessary to save our country, or we can ignore it as students of "Social Studies" in grammar school are supposed to. We need get out of grammar school -- and stay out -- no matter how much other people want to keep us in.

Steve Kossor

[Steven Gaal]

Mr. Kossor very thoughtful post. Hawaii takeover ,very few people have that in their

historical memory !!

Please let me add these two references.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Confronting Imperialism: Essays On Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League

by Jim Zwick

====================================================================

"Prodigally Endowed with Sympathy for the Cause": Mark Twain's Involvement with the Anti-Imperialist League

In the United States, the twentieth century began with a "Great Debate" about the country's role in the world. With the annexation of Hawaii during the Spanish-American War, and of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines at its close, the United States gained recognition for the first time as a world power. Concerned that the development of an overseas empire was inconsistent with the country's democratic and anti-colonial traditions, a group of prominent Boston citizens formed the Anti-Imperialist League (1898-1921) to protest U.S. annexation of the former Spanish colonies. When the Philippine-American War began in February of 1899, the Philippines became the League's primary international concern.

At the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain for twenty million dollars. But the Filipinos, who had been fighting for their independence since 1896, actually controlled the archipelago. U.S. troops were confined to Manila and its suburbs. To establish its control over the islands, the United States had to defeat the Filipino army and abolish the newly formed Philippine Republic. On February 4, 1899, with the peace treaty that closed the Spanish-American War still under debate in the U.S. Senate, American troops fired on a group of Filipinos and the new war began. Then called the "Philippine Insurrection," this undeclared war officially lasted for more than three years (1899-1902); skirmishes and local rebellions continued long afterward.

Returning to the United States in October 1900 from nearly ten years living abroad, Mark Twain immediately declared his opposition to imperialism and was soon made a vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League. He quickly became the country's most outspoken opponent of the Philippine-American War. His turn-of-the-century protest now serves as a reminder that the nation was far from unanimous in its support for overseas expansion. What Henry Luce would later name the "American Century" began with the United States embroiled in its first protracted war in Asia and with its citizens deeply divided over the issues raised by the war. In Twain's time, many people did not want the United States to become a world power. Looking to both historical and contemporary empires, they saw imperialism as bringing an array of "evils" the country had mostly avoided. In his widely circulated tract, The Conquest of the United States by Spain, William Graham Sumner of Yale University listed the things that would hasten the demise of American democracy and herald the beginning of a despotism similar to Spain's. These were: "war, debt, taxation, diplomacy, a grand governmental system, pomp, glory, a big army and navy, lavish expenditures, political jobbery-in a word, imperialism." Now, some of the same issues are being raised again, it seems, as the Pentagon is having a tough time convincing others that the country should lead a "one-superpower world."

Although he served as a vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death in 1910, Mark Twain's association with the League was quickly forgotten. It was not mentioned by his official biographer (1912), and in 1947 the first major study of his anti-imperialist writings, William M. Gibson's "Mark Twain and Howells: Anti-Imperialists," stated that "so far as the evidence shows,... Mark Twain had not become a League ‘member.'" Then Louis J. Budd apparently found a letterhead listing Twain as a vice president of the League. His Mark Twain: Social Philosopher (1962) stated that he was an "honorary vice president" for "as long as it could afford stationery." In his 1986 anthology, The Anti-Imperialist Reader, vol. 2, The Literary Anti-Imperialists, Philip S. Foner quoted an open letter of condolence from the Anti-Imperialist League addressed upon his death to Mark Twain's family and friends. Now it was known that Twain was a vice president of the League until his death. But what did he do during those ten years? What role did he play? ***

Because

so little had been published about Twain's relationship with the League before I began my own study of his writings about the Philippine-American War, it has had to be documented almost entirely through the use of contemporary sources. Especially important were the unpublished letters by and about him that can be found in the manuscript collections left behind by Twain and other leaders of the League; the League's many pamphlets, leaflets and broadsides; and contemporary periodicals, especially those such as the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, the New York Evening Post, City and State (Philadelphia), and The Public (Chicago) that were edited by prominent anti-imperialists. Twain was much more actively involved with the League than previously thought and many of his writings were influenced by its contributions to the contemporary debate about imperialism.

The Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist League was formed in Boston in November 1898 when it became clear that the U.S. government was not going to free Puerto Rico, Guam or the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. Its first appeal for membership proclaimed: "We are in full sympathy with the heroic struggles for liberty of the people in the Spanish Islands, and therefore we protest against depriving them of their rights by an exchange of masters." Citing such documents as the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, the League based its appeal against imperialism squarely upon America's democratic and anti-colonial traditions. "These principles abandoned," it argued, "a republic exists but in name, and its people lose their rights."

Many of the nation's most prominent politicians, businessmen, educators, social reformers, and literary figures added their support to the anti-imperialist movement and local Anti-Imperialist Leagues were soon formed throughout the country. Highlighting the positive values they advocated, some of these organizations called themselves Liberty Leagues or American Leagues. In October of 1899, a convention was held in Chicago to form the national American Anti-Imperialist League headquartered in that city. This organization united the various local Leagues under a platform that declared that imperialism was the "paramount issue of the day."

*** almost conspiratorial ?? How could a beloved American be anti-imperialistic ??

Thus, Mark Twain would be a communist, the history would have to be suppressed. ((Gaal))

#################################################

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.culture-of-peace.info/ppa/chapter12-36.html

7. For readers who are interested in brain physiology, the evidence for the direct neural inhibition of anger by fear is contained in the following publications: Motivational Systems of Agonistic Behavior in Muroid Rodents: A Comparative Review and Neural Model, Aggressive Behavior, 6: 295-346, 1980 (see pages 328-329); J.W. Mink and D.B. Adams, Why Offense is Reduced When Rats Are Tested in a Strange Cage, Physiology and Behavior, 1981, 26: 567-573; and Brain Mechanisms for Offense, Defense, and Submission, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2: 201-241, 1979

8. For many of the readers of preliminary versions of this book, the question of anger has been the most controversial. One effective activist wrote to me, "There is a wealth of scientific research showing that anger is a harmful emotion. Indeed, my own observations are that peace groups tend to be much less angry than groups that oppose peace groups. True, even many peace groups slip into some anger on occasion. I think that this weakens the impact of their work and certainly does not strengthen it or given it energy....We don't need another firebombing for peace and I am afraid that that is where anger too often leads." Another person wrote that "I would focus on love and oneness rather than anger, because I believe that the great problems of injustice in society are not solved at all by the behavior of activists....activists end up becoming just like the aggressor, if you will. I have found no love in any of the peace groups in which I have been involved, and certainly no peace. All I have experienced is anger and aggression. In my view this is not transcendence, but rather a perpetuation of the stalemate." This latter comment is from a psychotherapist who has been, as indicated, both active and affiliated, but has given up on it. I think that it supports the view that anger, and the acceptance of anger, is necessary for consciousness development. For a history of the suppression of anger in U.S. history, see Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in America's History, by Carol Zisowitz Stearns and Peter Stearns, University of Chicago Press, 1986.

9. In a study of student activism, Sarah Bosch and I found that students who believe that war is part of human nature are less likely to engage in peace activism. This seems to be a true causal relationship because the correlation holds up after other factors are removed by the statistical method of partial correlations, including the influence of family, friends and school, belief about the efficacy of action, and level of anger. Our paper, The Myth That War Is Intrinsic to Human Nature Discourages Action for Peace by Young People, has been published in the book Essays in Violence by Ramirez, Hinde and Groebel, University of Seville, Spain, 1987. Our results replicated preliminary findings reported from Finland by the peace researcher Riitta Wahlström. Dr. Wahlström and I were among 20 scientists who took part in drafting The Seville Statement on Violence, which states categorically that war is not intrinsic to human nature. The Statement is available on the Internet and may be found at the following site: http://www.unesco.or...rights/hrfv.htm.

10. Every mass peace movement in this century in the U.S. has been attacked by anti-communism, and in many cases actually destroyed. When William Jennings Bryan ran for President in 1900 on an anti-imperialist platform put forward by the Anti-Imperialist League, he was attacked as "communistic" The People's Council of America, the mass opposition to World War I was literally smashed by government agents who seized their mail, raided their offices, and imprisoned their leaders - all in the name of anti-communism. The peace movement of the 1930's opposed to the rise of fascism was split into two competing organizations, one that included Communist participation and the other that was based on anti-communism. The opposition to the Cold War that culminated in the Wallace Presidential campaign was not only destroyed by anti-communism, but is not even mentioned in today's "official" histories of the peace movement (see footnote 3). And opposition to the Vietnam War was set back by the anti-communism of the traditional peace movement organizations such as SANE who refused to take part in demonstrations alongside such organizations as SDS because they were "communist." For further details, see

================================================================

Edited July 22, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Kossor]

Thanks for appreciating what I posted. Your understanding of things in this realm of imperialism is obviously far beyond my own and I appreciate your sharing the additional insights. The world's most influential "ad man" in history, David Ogilvy, used to say that "Greed and Fear" make the world go 'round (or something to that effect). Keeping the majority of Americans indebted to credit card companies (a large part of Ogilvy's clientele in the '60s and onward) nurtures greed and the extent to which all media prey upon peoples' fears to sell product is notorious. Why not use those "skills" and "tactics" to keep the good people of America in the trenches with their heads down, right? Kids need to learn that this is what manipulation looks and feels like, and that they can combat it with information and "positive emotional memories." Unfortunately, the richest source of such memories are parents, but kids have been systematically and conscientiously alienated from their parents by school curricula and popular media for the past 50 years. Home schooled kids seem to be the best "innoculated" against government/media manipulation, but there are pitifully few of them, although the homeschooling "movement" is maturing and expanding with the growth of "cyber charter schools" that can usually provide more robust curricula if the parent/child desire it.

Good to see someone else has the spelling of Steven right.

Steve

Best wishes.

[Steven Gaal]

Thank you for the kind words on imperialism. I am no great expert,but I direct you to this link that has immediate and current relevance.

http://mycatbirdseat...m-of-the-fools/ (click on read more at bottom)

############################################

Senate Kills Anti-Outsourcing Bill; Democrats Point to Romney

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/senate-kills-anti-outsourcing-bill-democrats-point-to-romney/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate has rejected further consideration of a bill Democrats say would have eliminated existing tax breaks for employers who ship their jobs overseas. While Republicans sought to squash it as political theater, Democrats admit quarreling over the “Bring Jobs Home Act” was openly influenced by the 2012 presidential campaign.

“It’s fairly easy to see why Republicans are blocking our bill to stop outsourcing,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at a press conference before the vote. “They’re obviously defending their presidential nominee, who of course made a fortune by shipping jobs overseas.”

=============================

and so it goes...................

Edited July 21, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

UPDATE

You could have to pay a fine for simply clicking on the wrong link

http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/you-could-have-to-pay-a-fine-for-simply-clicking-on-the-wrong-link/19104/

[Len Colby]

UPDATE

You could have to pay a fine for simply clicking on the wrong link

http://fromthetrench...ong-link/19104/

Kooksite, no citations.

[Steven Gaal]

http://stopthetrap.net/

You could have to pay a fine for simply clicking on the wrong link.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Right now, a group of 600 industry lobbyist "advisors" and un-elected government trade representatives are scheming behind closed doors (1,2) to craft an international agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Why the secrecy? We know from leaked documents (3) that the TPP includes what amounts to an Internet trap that would:

1.Criminalize (4) some of your everyday use of the Internet,

2.Force service providers to collect and hand over your private data without privacy safeguards (5), and

3.Give media conglomerates more power to fine you for Internet use,(6) remove online content—including entire websites—and even terminate (7) your access to the Internet.

4.Create a parallel legal system of international tribunals that will undermine national sovereignty and allow conglomerates to sue countries for laws that infringe on their profits.

The TPP's Internet trap is secretive, extreme, and it could criminalize your daily use of the Internet. We deserve to know what will be blocked, what we and our families will be fined for.

If enough of us speak out now, we can force participating governments to come clean. Your signature will send a message to leaders of participating countries. (8)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please sign our petition to make your objection heard.

102,621people have signed (and counting). (At site above)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Footnotes (GO TO ABOVE SITE TO GET LINKS BELOW)

[1] Find OpenMedia's backgrounder on the TPP here, and OpenMedia's press release about Ottawa's irresponsible participation here.

[2] The TPP suffers from a lack of transparency, public participation, and democratic accountability. In this letter, a number of U.S. civil society organizations detail and decry the opacity of the process.

[3] Public interest groups have obtained the February 2011 draft of the TPP's Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. In it, we can see that the TPP would drastically increase Internet surveillance, increase Big Media's Internet lockdown powers, and criminalize content sharing in general, with a likelihood of harsher penalties.

[4] See the Electronic Frontier Foundation's analysis to learn more about the ways the TPP increases the threat of litigation from Big Media. Under the TPP, Big Media could come after you in court even "without the need for a formal complaint by a private party or right holder".

[5] See infojustics.org's list of the TPP's effects on the intellectual property law in Canada and Mexico for more information on privacy implications

[6] See infojustics.org's list of the TPP's effects on the intellectual property law in Canada and Mexico for more information on penalties.Also see Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch talk about content fines here.

[7] Source: Public Knowledge: What's actually in the TPP?

[8] Your signature will send a message to leaders and trade representatives from the following countries: Australia, Chile, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, Vietnam, Canada

http://stopthetrap.net/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Edited August 10, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Len Colby]

It seems the fine/criminal penalties would only apply to people who who made unauthorized copies of copy-written material. I've done so myself but imagine they would only be interested in big fish.

[Steven Gaal]

OpEdNews - Article: TPP is Treason. WAKE UP! Globalization Goes For Check- Mate.

http://www.theprogre...d.info/?p=88237

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

#############################################

The corporate media is very persistent on purposefully missing some very important subjects - this time the secretly negotiated Trans-Pacific partnership.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o--o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Media Blackout As Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiated In Secret

http://blog.alexande...-secret-164721/

(innocuous ???? How does your GLOBAL KOOLAID TASTE ??, Gaal)

Two congresswomen are taking an interest in protection American sovereignty and its citizen from TPP. Reps. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) and Rep. Donna Edwards(D- MD) are the current leaders in exposing and challenging TPP. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the Trade Committee in the Senate which has jurisdiction overtrade agreements, has been denied any access to information despite persistent requests. Already a US senator lacks standing, or jurisdiction, within TPP regarding American interests. No elected official, other than Pres. Obama, is involved in the negotiations.

.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Len Colby]

There seem to be some serious reasons to oppose the TPP but there is no evidence it could subject Americans to "a fine for simply clicking on the wrong link."

[Steven Gaal]

The Government Is Putting Fair Use In Danger

http://www.webpronews.com/tpp-leak-shows-that-the-u-s-wants-to-restrict-fair-use-2012-08

The importance of fair use can not be understated. That’s why the recent leak from the fair use section of TPP has proponents so concerned. After promising that the revised TPP would contain strong fair use protections, the text of the bill actually restricts fair use. Here’s the text of the treaty acquired by KEI Online:

1. [uS/AU: With respect to this Article [(Article 4 on copyright) and Article 5 and 6 (which deal with copyright and related rights section and the related rights section)], each Party shall confine limitations or exceptions to exclusive rights to certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work, performance, or phonogram, and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.]

2. Subject to and consistent with paragraph (1), each Party shall seek to achieve an appropriate balance in providing limitations or exceptions, including those for the digital environment, giving due consideration to legitimate purposes such as, but no limited to, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.92]

As TechDirt points out, the leaked section on fair use actually does nothing to defend fair use or increase its reach. It pulls the text from the three step test that was introduced to the Bernes Convention in 1971. Here’s the text from the Berne’s Convention treaty:

It shall be a matter for legislation in the countries of the Union to permit the reproduction of such works in certain special cases, provided that such reproduction does not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

While the actual text doesn’t seem all that bad, it’s the interpretation that counts. When you leave the legality of fair use up to “not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author,” things are going to get messy. The problem is further compounded by a Supreme Court ruling in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that put the burden of proving fair use on the defendant. It’s so much easier to prove that a work is copyright infringing then to prove that it’s fair use. Thankfully, in the aforementioned case, the defendants were able to prove that their work was valid under fair use. One victory does not mean that all will be like that, and the rules of TPP make it harder for people to prove fair use.

What’s interesting is that only the United States and Australia are behind these excessive measures. TPP is being debated and written by a number of countries in the Pacific, but only the U.S. and Australia are behind the worst parts. In fact, countries like Brazil, Chile, Malaysia and Vietnam want to incorporate strong consumer protections into TPP that would strengthen fair use and allow consumers to own their digital content.

[NZ/CL/MY/BN/VN propose; AU/US oppose93: 1. Each party may provide for limitations and exceptions to copyrights, related rights, and legal protections for technological protections measures and rights management information included in this Chapter, in accordance with its domestic laws and relevant international treaties that each are party to.]

Do you think TPP should strengthen its fair use clause? Or are the current protections enough? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier, I used a Skyrim parody video to illustrate fair use. Unfortunately, we live in a world where real world examples of fair use and essential freedom abuses are easy to come by. We recently reported on a YouTube video being taken down due to copyright violation notices from CBS and the United States Department of Homeland Security. The main concern here is that the video, which only contains the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist, was taken down by a brach of the government.

The secondary concern is that the video falls under fair use. Even if it was the insane ramblings of a conspiracy theorist; he was using copyrighted content, a Sky News broadcast in this case, to provide commentary on world events. Such a case falls under fair use and copyright holders should know that. While there’s something to be said on how YouTube gives into copyright pressure too easily, it would only get worse if fair use was restricted.

While the changes to fair use are bad enough, we still don’t know the extent of the damage. TPP’s secretive nature has led to it being one of the more problematic treaties of our time. Fortunately, things can change for the better. If Sen. Ron Wyden has his way, TPP would be open for debate in Congress and among the citizenry. That’s really all we can ask for.

[Len Colby]

Nothing above contradicts my previous post, the only think I'd add/change would be to correct a typo:

"There seems to be some serious reasons to oppose the TPP but there is no evidence it could subject Americans to "a fine for simply clicking on the wrong link."

[Steven Gaal]

Comedian Ilic on the TPP's Internet Trap