If you are among the group that wants to keep Trump/Pence out of the White House at any cost, be clear that the vote you make also comes with consequences. Let's be sure to understand how Clinton/Kaine stand on major issues that will have an impact on all American citizens, recognizing there is a "pecking order" and where Black people fall on the list (usually at the bottom):
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) There are advantages and disadvantages
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multinational trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. The main problems are two-fold:
(1)
Intellectual Property Chapter: Leaked draft texts of the agreement show that the IP chapter would have extensive negative ramifications for users’ freedom of expression, right to privacy and due process, and hinder peoples' abilities to innovate.
(2)
Lack of Transparency: The entire process has shut out multi-stakeholder participation and is shrouded in secrecy.
The twelve nations currently negotiating the TPP are the U.S., Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei Darussalam. The TPP contains a chapter on intellectual property covering copyright, trademarks, and patents. Since the draft text of the agreement has never been officially released to the public, we know from leaked documents, such as the
May 2015 draft of the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter, that U.S. negotiators are pushing for the adoption of copyright measures far more restrictive than currently required by international treaties, including the controversial
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Other issues raised by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren include:
Organised labour in the U.S. argued, during the negotiations, that the trade deal would largely benefit corporations at the expense of workers in the manufacturing and service industries.
[111] The
Economic Policy Institute and the
Center for Economic and Policy Research have argued that the TPP could result in further job losses and declining wages.
[112][113] In 2014, linguist
Noam Chomsky warned that the TPP is "designed to carry forward the
neoliberal project to maximise profit and domination, and to set the working people in the world in competition with one another so as to lower wages to increase insecurity."
[114] (Translation: American workers will be out of a job because our wages are higher than most other countries due to successful unions and collective bargaining. So jobs will be outsourced to participating TPP countries where wages are lower, which will increase corporate profits and be devastating to Americans working in the manufacturing and service industries.) Senator
Bernie Sanders (
I-
VT) argues that trade agreements like the TPP "have ended up devastating working families and enriching large corporations."
[115] Economist
Robert Reich contends that the TPP is a "Trojan horse in a global
race to the bottom."
[116][117]
At first, Clinton supported President Obama and was in favor of the TPP and so was Kaine her pick for vice president. Now apparently, both of their positions have changed and they are against it.
"As abrupt and full circle as it may be, the change to Kaine's position isn't particularly surprising. Clinton and Kaine have to present a united front, and the TPP has been an unexpectedly hot button issue in this election. Sanders supporters, whom
Clinton is still fighting to win over, vehemently opposed to deal, and Kaine's apparent change in opinion may have a placating effect for those who were hesitant to throw their support behind the new VP nominee."
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