If you were to read some of the audience’s comments in THIS diary, yesterday, you’d be misled to believe that Hillary Clinton’s “undecided” when it comes to her sentiments about Fast Track, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the other two corporatocratic, global trade deals (The TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP] and Trade In Services Annex [TISA] to the General Agreement on Trade In Services [GATS]), currently on the White House’s agenda for passage on Capitol Hill.
Luckily, Sam Knight provides the audience with some clarity as he tells it like it is, earlier today, over at the The Intercept’s new “Unofficial Sources” blog—and accounting for Occam’s Razor–providing a pretty clear indication that Hillary’s positions on these 99%-job-killing trade deals are, almost certainly, directly aligned with the White House.
This site’s owner tells us Hillary’s a true liberal. While I know that’s somewhat of a certainty on most social issues, it sure doesn’t appear to be the case when it comes to economic matters and foreign policy. With many of her State Department’s most senior staffers having passed through D.C.’s notorious revolving door of late, and now lobbying for Fast Track and the TPP on the Hill, how can it be?
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s Knight’s report from earlier this morning…
State Department Officials Pass Through Revolving Door, Lobby for Passage of TPP
By Sam Knight
The Intercept’s “Unofficial Sources” Blog
05/27/2015 6:44 AM
While Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is refusing to reveal her position on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, other former State Department officials are actively supporting the agreement. They’re just not bothering to reveal their conflicts of interest.
More than 30 former State Department officials, envoys, military officers and White House national security advisers who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents signed a letter last month calling the trade agreement “a defining test for American political and economic leadership in the Asia-Pacific region” and urging members of Congress to give President Obama “fast-track” authority to speed its passage.
Though the officials identified themselves in the letter using their prior government titles, many have since passed through the revolving door and now work at consulting firms focused on helping multinationals with interests in East Asia. Six of those with non-disclosed involvement in ventures that focus heavily on Pacific Rim trade served under Secretary Clinton.
The congressional letter was organized, in part, by Kurt Campbell, a former top aide to Clinton. Campbell served from 2009 until 2013 as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Metadata from the letter identifies the author of the document as Yong Kwon, an analyst with the Asia Group, a consulting firm founded by Campbell within days of leaving the State Department in February 2013.
Nirav Patel, the COO of the Asia Group and a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs under Clinton, also signed the letter…
(Bold type is diarist’s emphasis.)
Other signatories noted in the article include approximately a dozen more senior officials from the Bush and Obama administrations, including Andrew Shapiro, Hillary Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs.
When questioned about the letter, “…Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., said he was disappointed to see former government advisers failing to disclose that ‘they’re on the take.’”
Another widely-quoted TPP critic, Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker called it a “recurring problem,” and noted: “I guess the main thing that jumps out of me — it’s really kind of the norm. I’m not saying that’s good.” Knight also reported that Baker had “…seen [other] pro-TPP opinion columns that fail disclose similar conflicts of interest.”
The article ends with the following sentence…
…Despite calls by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to oppose the agreement, Clinton has not taken a definitive position on the accord.
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Hillary’s a “true liberal?” Compared to what?
SIDEBAR:
(A little music—one of my all-time favorites--to read by: “Compared To What?” by Les McCann and Eddie Harris. The lyrics seem quite pertinent, 46 years after this video was produced, too.)
Compared To What (Less McCann and Eddie Harris at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, 1969)
Les McCann & Eddie Harris – Compared To What Lyrics
I love to lie and lie to love
I'm hangin' on they push and shove
Possession is the motivation
That is hangin' up the goddamn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Everybody now
Tryin' to make it real compared to what
Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs
Twisted children killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old ladies kissin' dogs
I hate the human love of that stinking mutt
I can't use it
Tryin' to make it real compared to what
President he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt they call it treason
We're chicken feathers
All without one nut goddamn it
Tryin' to make it real compared to what
Church on Sunday sleep and nod
Tryin' to duck the wrath of God
Preachers fillin' us with fright
They all tryin' to teach us what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of nut
I can't use it
Tryin' to make it real compared to what
Where's that bee and where's that honey
Where's my God and where's my money
Unreal values a crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kind of brings to mind old young King Tut
He did it now
Tried to make it real compared to what
Tryin' to make it real compared to what
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