The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP as it's more commonly known, is a public health disaster waiting to happen.

 

According to leaked documents, the proposed trade deal, which I like to call the Southern Hemisphere Asian Free Trade Agreement - SHAFTA - would extend patent protections for drugs made by Big Pharma to prevent rival companies from making generic version of those same drugs. This a huge deal.

 

For hundreds of millions of people all over the world, generic drugs are a cheaper alternative to the more expensive drugs sold by Big Pharma. So if the TPP goes through, real live breathing people (Doctors Without Borders estimates about half a billion of them) will effectively lose affordable access to the medicine they need to survive. And that's just one small provision of SHAFTA - pretty much every major industry in the world has their own little honeypot in there.

 

The TPP would also let corporations sue countries in international courts owned and run by corporations, with judges handpicked from corporate law firms. In other words, if a corporation doesn't like a regulation, or thinks it'll diminish their profits, they can sue your town, state, or our federal government over it - and that would gut environmental and financial rules without any input from "We the People" or our elected representatives in Congress.

 

Considering what's at stake here, you'd think that the media would want to fill its broadcasts with wall-to-wall TPP coverage. I mean, half a billion people losing access to life-saving drugs just so Big Pharma can boost its profit margins? Corporate controlled courts? That's ripe material for a primetime special!

 

Apparently, though, the mainstream media could not care less about the TPP or its disastrous effects on public health, the economy, and the environment. According to Media Matters for America, during the 17 month period between August 2013 and February 2015, only one nightly network news show, PBS Newshour, mentioned the trade deal - and they only mentioned it just eight times. ABC, CBS, and NBC didn't mention the TPP once.

 

Read more here.

 

-Thom

  

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Best of the Rest: Will the internet be reclassified as a utility?
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PLUS, Kochs...bribing candidates to ignore climate change?
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Article: "Moussaoui Calls Saudi Princes Patrons of Al Qaeda" by Scott Shane.

Article: "Jordan executes 2 prisoners after ISIS video shows pilot being burned alive" by FoxNews.com.

Article: "Transcript: Bin Laden determined to strike in US" by CNN.

Article: "Bush Rejects Taliban Bin Laden Offer" by Kathy Gannon, 13 October 2001.

Letter: "Letter to John Holmes" by Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Apr. 22, 1820. "...we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go ... my only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it"

Book/film: Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill.

Article: "Ron Suskind, George W. Bush and the Aug. 6, 2001, PDB" by Tim Grieve.

Article: "Rebuilding America's Defenses" by PNAC.

Clip: "Iraq sits on top of 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, very significant reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia." Vice President Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, September 14, 2003.

Article: "Al-Qaeda's origins and links" by BBC.

Article: "Hey, Tea Party: Latin Was the Language of Ancient Rome" by Dbug.

Article: "My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings" by Cindy Sheehan, June 16 2005.

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Article: "Republican Activist Resigns After Racially-Charged 'Daily Show' Comments" by Maya Rhodan.

Bible: "Hosea 8:7". "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind"

Movie: "Charlie Wilson's War".

 

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Article: "Pentagon nominee Ashton Carter faces Senate over Ukraine, Isis and Afghanistan - live" by Alan Yuhas.

Article: "Congressmen join renewed attempt to have 9/11 inquiry declassified in effort to prove Saudi Arabia financed the attackers" by Darren Boyle.

Article: "Obama Meets DREAMers, Threatens Vetos Over Anti-Immigration Bills" by William McDonald.

Article: "U.N. chief warns South Sudan's warring leaders to put people first" by Reuters.

Article: "These Anti-Vaxxers Are Funding 'Ready for Hillary'" by Jackie Kucinich.

Article: "FCC Chairman Announces Strong Net Neutrality Rules" by Nicholas Salazar.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 2/4" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes - 2/3" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: TPP...Big Pharma wins, you lose
- Lori Wallach, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch  

Article: "TPP Would Leave Half A Billion People Without Access to Medicines" by Margaret Elkis.

Article: "Fast track (trade)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Trans-Pacific Partnership" (TPP) by Wikipedia.

Article: "North American Free Trade Agreement" (NAFTA) by Wikipedia.

Quote: "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution." - The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

 

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Book: Unveiling the Whole Truth: What the Media Failed to Tell American Voters by Wayne Perryman.

Book: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke.

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