USTR Says TPP Must Be Kept Secret, Because The Public Is Too Stupid To Understand It
from the democracy-in-action! dept
While TPP negotiators had hoped to finish off the negotiations in Singapore over the past few days, it appears that did not happen, though they claim to have made substantial progress and will meet again next month. From the reports of people there, the negotiators made sure that public interest groups were excluded from even the press briefing about the negotiations, which should tell you all you need to know about what the negotiators think of the public. But, in case you weren't sure, the USTR, Michael Froman, has finally explained why the TPP negotiating positions must be kept secret. Apparently, all of us in the public, are too fucking stupid to understand the important work that he's doing, and we might "misunderstand" it. Therefore, we peons must be kept in the dark, while important people like himself negotiate on our behalf. According to Jamie Love:Froman said if the text was public, people would misunderstand "negotiating positions."In other words, the USTR is not a fan of democracy.
If you think the public is too stupid to understand the public policy positions you're negotiating for, then you shouldn't be in that job.
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Filed Under: democracy, michael froman, secrecy, tpp, transparency, ustr
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Knowledge is required for education, and you don't educate and help people to understand a topic by withholding information.
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Reminds me of...
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Re: Reminds me of...
http://youtu.be/ltp3QMtZizE?t=3m40s
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WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: We Won’t Be Fooled By Rigged Corporate Trade Agreements
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/the-trans-pacific-partnership-we-wont.html
The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of 'free trade'
The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. It's a win for corporations
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/19/trans-pacific-partnership-corporate -usurp-congress
Lawyers invented legal fictions called corporations precisely so that crimes can be committed without personal responsibility, only money fines.
08:17:41[j-290-5]
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Re: WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
Blue not reading articles shouldn't come as a surprise I guess.
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on top of that, i think he is scared that there are members of the public that are far more clever than he could ever hope to be and know exactly when and how they are being ripped off, ripped up and thrown to the sharks!
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WOW. Hell Froze Over
But, OOTB, you forgot the other reason lawyers created corporations: So they could print their own funny money and sell it on the market for whatever they could convince people to pay...
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Re: WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
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Negotiating positions
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Re: Negotiating positions
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Re: Negotiating positions
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I've said this with taxes, patents/copyright, and other complicated legal BS:
If it's too complicated for people to understand, it shouldn't be a law. I mean how else are people supposed to follow laws they can't understand?!
Oh yea, it just makes opportunities for lawyers, accountants, etc to take money from everyone else...
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FTFY, Mr. Froman.
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Misunderstand? No, I think the problem you have is that we won't misunderstand your positions.
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I understand it all too well. TPP is being pushed for the same reason that copy'right' lasts way too long and keeps getting retroactively extended. TPP is all about politicians and regulators getting their campaign contributions and revolving door favors so they can afford to have nice houses and expensive cars without merit or having to work for anything.
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And that would not have surprised me.
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Re:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/04/uk-govt-ip-address-is-intellectual-property-address/
ht tp://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111216/12082717110/dear-congress-its-no-longer-ok-to-not-know-how-i nternet-works.shtml
For anyone to even think that your average politician or regulator is remotely as knowledgeable about this stuff than those criticizing it is laughable at best. Politicians are about as clueless as they come and not just what it comes to the Internet, technology, and innovation but when it comes to just about anything.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130402/21100522556/djs-dihydrogen-monoxide-april-fools-p rank-results-suspension-possible-felony-charges.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040315/11522 30.shtml
These people aren't worthy to regulate us and they certainly aren't worthy to tell us that we can't understand something when our intelligence and level of understanding is clearly well above theirs.
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It's like we're witnessing a Zeroth Law Rebellion
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By refusing to explain themselves, the USTR is basically telling the public to assume the worst.
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Re: WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
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Re: Negotiating positions
Using that interpretation, the trend of several extreme positions with potential to hurt consumers, is in itself an unfortunate prospect. Negotiation tactic or not, the direction in itself is worrying.
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and like SOPA and ACTA
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Re: Re: WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
Prove it.
In any case, by that reasoning (if your mental masturbations can be called like that), technology as a whole (computers, tablets, smartphones, any device capable of internet access, the internet itself, etc.), facilitate copyright infringement/piracy, not only search engines, or in this case, I assume you're talking about Google.
Attacking the messenger is not, by any means, a reasonable argument.
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If their mission is to complex for citizens to understand, their mission is incorrect.
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average_joe and out_of_the_blue just hate it when due process is enforced.
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Your statement makes me wonder - where the hell are you hanging out?
If one were to address the facts rather than simply spew bullshit, the conclusion would be that a vast majority is indeed intelligent enough to understand what these douche bags are attempting to do to us and would be quite pissed about it.
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1) population of us approx. 313.9 million
2) 100 people is certainly a reasonable sample size considering they are not statistically chosen samples
3) roughly .000032%
4) I'm convinced, do you have a bridge for sale?
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Inverted Totalitarianism
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Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure
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They violate the 1st Amendment by caging protesters and banning books like "America Deceived II".
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by allowing TSA to grope you.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars.
Impeach Obama.
Last link of "America Deceived II" before it is completely banned:
http://www.amazon.com/America-Deceived-II-Possession-interrogation/dp/1450257437
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Re: Negotiating positions
It's far more likely that the problem is, that if the other parties know that the general public *on both sides* is opposed to these alleged "negotiating ploys" {yeah, riiiight}, they will be in a much better position to prevent them from being pushed through.
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Re: Re: Re: WELL, Mike, so far you fail to understand it's CORPORATISM.
How about even a somewhat plausible argument?
(But bare assertion against readily verifiable documentation/evidence right at hand, salted with crude ad hominum, just doesn't cut it).
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It tells you something about the government too, doesn't it?
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Response to: fogbugzd on Dec 10th, 2013 @ 10:50am
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TPP
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Re: Inverted Totalitarianism
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TPP kept secret?
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