If you care about the Confederate flag either way, you are a chump

The rich and powerful continue their no-holds-barred assault on the working class of the United States.  It’s now official that enough Senators and Representatives have been bought, and they have voted to enable legislation that they have not even read – really the only reason for an elected representative to vote for something that they don’t know what it is, is because their vote has been paid for.  

Although from wikileaks and what one would expect from a corporate whore like Obama, and a piece of legislation that has been crafted in secret by corporate lobbyists, I think we can be pretty sure what's in it.  Stay tuned for being ruled by unaccountable corporate lawyers meeting in secret, whose decisions can be neither appealed nor amended by democratic actions, who make their own rules, and whose judgments have unlimited authority.  It’s not looking pretty.

Yes just like the German enabling acts of 1933, where the parliament signed away its power to legislate and democracy died, the US Congress is in the process of irreversibly signing away its powers to a bunch of corporate lawyers.  (If there is a bright side to this, it’s that as the power of Congress goes away, the going rate for bribing them will also decline.  What if a US senator offered to sell out the national interest for money, and they didn’t get any takers?  Oh, the humanity!)

So what’s in the news?  Obviously – GAY MARRIAGE!  Oh, and the Confederate flag.  This is obviously a ploy by the well connected to distract us from what really matters with flashy nothings.  

So it’s true, the Confederate flag was never the official flag of the Confederate states.  Instead, it was the battle flag of one of the Confederate armies – whose officers had betrayed their republic, and who fought a bloody civil war against their fellow Americans in defense of human slavery.  Later on the flag was taken up by the KKK.  So maybe not a great start there.

However that was a long time ago.  Today it seems more like a harmless symbol of the American South.  Remember: any flag has, at one time or another, been flown over good things and bad.  What counts is what you do with it today.  But.  IT DOES NOT MATTER EITHER WAY.  IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CONFEDERATE FLAG ISSUE THEN YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO OBAMATRADE/TPP/ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION/CORPORATE WELFARE etc.etc.etc.

We are being trolled, baited, and tricked into wasting our energies on ephemera while our enemies go straight for the carotid.  This a game that we cannot win.  Faced with a heads-they-win tails-we-lose scenario, the only sane response is not to play.

1. Suppose the rednecks all go ‘well I didn’t mean anything hurtful, but I can see how people might be offended so I’ll give up the Confederate flag and stick with the classic Old Glory.’  It would yield nothing.  Blacks would still have their jobs taken by illegal immigrants and outsourcing to low-wage countries, they still would not be able to support a family through honest work, and poverty and social collapse will continue apace.  And it would not settle the issue!  Having seen how easily we can be baited, the rich will move on to statues of George Washington, or apple pie, or streets named Washington, or the American flag itself…  the more ridiculous the better to rile us up.

2. Suppose the rednecks win and they get to keep their Confederate flag.  So as you are reduced to third-world levels of poverty, and one of your kids dies of a curable disease because you couldn’t afford the drug costs, and the other two are scrawny and malnourished, and you had to kill your dog the other day because you couldn’t afford to feed it, well, you can still paint a Confederate flag on the hood of your broken down rusted pickup truck out back.  This is a victory, how?

The only way to stop these bogus debates is to ignore them.  The rich are only playing games with us because they know they can manipulate us.  

So here’s something you can do.  Forget about the Confederate flag.  Look up how your Representative and Senators voted for fast-tracking Obamatrade.  If they voted against, call and thank them for their service.  If they voted for, call and politely express your displeasure that they would sell you out, and vow to never vote for them again.

And if they mention gay marriage or the Confederate flag, just laugh.

SENATE:  (YEA=traitor, NAY=patriot)

YEAs —62
Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennet (D-CO) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Capito (R-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Cassidy (R-LA) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT)	Ernst (R-IA) Feinstein (D-CA) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ) Gardner (R-CO) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) Kirk (R-IL) Lankford (R-OK) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)	Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Perdue (R-GA) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rounds (R-SD) Rubio (R-FL) Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Shaheen (D-NH) Sullivan (R-AK) Thune (R-SD) Tillis (R-NC) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Warner (D-VA) Wicker (R-MS) Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —37
Baldwin (D-WI) Blumenthal (D-CT) Booker (D-NJ) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Heinrich (D-NM) Hirono (D-HI)	King (I-ME) Klobuchar (D-MN) Leahy (D-VT) Lee (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murphy (D-CT) Paul (R-KY) Peters (D-MI) Reed (D-RI)	Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-NM) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI)

Not Voting – 1
Enzi (R-WY)

HOUSE:  (YES=traitor, NOES=patriot)

                                                       —- YES   219 —

Abraham Allen Amodei Ashford Babin Barletta Barr Barton Benishek Bera Beyer Bilirakis Bishop (MI) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Blum Blumenauer Boehner Bonamici Bost Boustany Brady (TX) Brooks (IN) Buchanan Bucshon Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Chaffetz Coffman Cole Comstock Conaway Connolly Cooper Costa Costello (PA) Cramer Crawford Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Curbelo (FL) Davis (CA) Delaney DelBene Denham Dent DeSantis DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Dold Duffy Ellmers (NC) Emmer (MN) Farr Fincher Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flores Forbes Fortenberry Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gibbs Goodlatte Gowdy Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA)

Graves (MO) Grothman Guinta Guthrie Hanna Hardy Harper Hartzler Heck (NV) Hensarling Herrera Beutler Hice, Jody B. Hill Himes Hinojosa Holding Hudson Huelskamp Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hurd (TX) Hurt (VA) Issa Jenkins (KS) Johnson (OH) Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Kelly (PA) Kilmer Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger (IL) Kline Knight LaMalfa Lamborn Lance Larsen (WA) Latta Long Loudermilk Love Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marino McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McMorris Rodgers McSally Meehan Meeks Messer Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moolenaar Mullin Murphy (PA) Neugebauer Newhouse Noem Nunes O’Rourke Olson Palazzo Paulsen Peters Pittenger Pitts

Poe (TX) Polis Pompeo Price, Tom Quigley Ratcliffe Reed Reichert Renacci Ribble Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Rigell Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rokita Rooney (FL) Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Ross Rouzer Royce (CA) Ryan (WI) Salmon Sanford Scalise Schrader Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Sessions Sewell (AL) Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (TX) Stefanik Stewart Stivers Stutzman Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiberi Tipton Trott Turner Upton Valadao Wagner Walberg Walden Walker Walorski Walters, Mimi Wasserman Schultz Weber (TX) Wenstrup Westerman Whitfield Williams Wilson (SC) Womack Woodall Yoder Yoho Young (IA) Young (IN) Zinke

                                                                            —-NOES    208 —

Adams Aderholt Aguilar Amash Bass Beatty Becerra Bishop (GA) Boyle, Brendan F. Brady (PA) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Brown (FL) Brownley (CA) Buck Burgess Bustos Butterfield Capps Capuano Cárdenas Carney Carson (IN) Cartwright Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clawson (FL) Clay Cleaver Cohen Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Conyers Cook Courtney Crowley Cummings Davis, Danny DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Donovan Doyle, Michael F. Duckworth Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Edwards Ellison Engel Eshoo Esty Farenthold Fattah Fleming Foster Frankel (FL) Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Garrett

Gibson Gohmert Graham Grayson Green, Al Green, Gene Griffith Grijalva Gutiérrez Hahn Harris Hastings Heck (WA) Higgins Honda Hoyer Huffman Hunter Israel Jackson Lee Jeffries Jenkins (WV) Johnson (GA) Jones Jordan Joyce Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Kildee Kirkpatrick Kuster Labrador Langevin Larson (CT) Lawrence Lee Levin Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski LoBiondo Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Lujan Grisham (NM) Luján, Ben Ray (NM) Lummis Lynch MacArthur Maloney, Carolyn Maloney, Sean Massie Matsui McCollum McDermott McGovern McKinley McNerney Meadows Meng Mooney (WV) Moore Moulton Mulvaney Murphy (FL) Nadler

Napolitano Neal Nolan Norcross Nugent Pallone Palmer Pascrell Pearce Pelosi Perlmutter Perry Peterson Pingree Pocan Poliquin Posey Price (NC) Rangel Richmond Rohrabacher Rothfus Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Russell Ryan (OH) Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sherman Sinema Sires Slaughter Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Speier Swalwell (CA) Takai Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tonko Torres Tsongas Van Hollen Vargas Veasey Vela Velázquez Visclosky Walz Waters, Maxine Watson Coleman Webster (FL) Welch Westmoreland Wilson (FL) Wittman Yarmuth Zeldin

                                                                           
                                                                       —- NOT VOTING*    8 —

Byrne Clyburn Davis, Rodney

Gosar Jolly Kelly (MS)

Payne Young (AK)

Voting for Fast-Track TPP Obamatrade is Treason

The leaks about Obama’s secret TPP corporate-governance agreement continue fast and furious, and with every revelation the full scope of the corruption becomes larger and larger.  Make no mistake: this deal is utterly toxic, it basically is a corporate coup d’etat.  American sovereignty would be essentially eliminated, and there would be de-facto rule by unaccountable foreign lawyers meeting in secret, who will mostly be working for the same corporations they are ruling on, and whose judgements will have NO APPEAL and NO LIMITS.

It’s important to realize: it’s not just the law that matters, but who gets to interpret the law.  If the letter of the TPP says that there will be exceptions for national security, and the secret TPP courts get to determine what is or is not a legitimate national security interest, with no possibility of appeal or overturning by a democratic process, then no, there is no exception for national security.  Or for anything – labor laws, human rights, the environment, child slavery – no exceptions, not on anything.  The big multinational corporations, because they will define how the law is to be interpreted, will be able to do ANYTHING.

And of course the TPP is full of all sorts of rubbish about how the Congress gets to be involved in setting 'negotiating points.'  So the Congress could express its desire that a foreign industry not be allowed to import slave labor into the continental United States (I know, banning slavery will be condemned as slavery by many modern conservatives - people should be free to choose to employ slave labor! - but bear with me), and this desire will then be communicated on official looking documents to an international tribunal, which will then ignore them.  Or something like that.  You get the idea.

Remember also: the TPP is a 'living document'.  Once signed, the multinationals will be able to revise it and add new members or change the terms etc. without having to go back to a democratically elected legislature.  

It’s really like the German enabling act of 1933, where the legislature gave up its power to write or amend legislation to the central executive.  At that point the legislature became irrelevant, and democracy died.

Now some people will claim that nobody can criticize the TPP etc. because they don't really know what's in it (because it's secret).  Therefore they reserve judgement until more is known.  Cretins.  Suppose I said that you have to sign a contract with me, and that you can only know what you have contracted to after you've signed it.  Do you:
1. Say: Hey, I can't PROVE that the contract is bad (because it's secret), so therefore I have no way to judge it.  Therefore I'll sign it and only then will I be able to judge it.
2. Say: "Bite me."

The bottom line: when someone is trying to get you to sign a contract without your reading it first, standard legal practice is to assume the worst-case scenario.  It's the only sane approach.

Already fast-track has passed the US Senate.  Astonishingly, most of the senators who voted for fast track – which is also a vote for the TPP and all other such related toxic fascist treaties – did not even bother to read these agreements that they were voting for!  (They didn’t even have their staffs try to analyze them). 

Now think about this: why would an elected representative vote for a law that they had not even read, that they did not know what it was?  There is only one reason: because they are corrupt.  Because they have sold out their nation for money.  Because they don’t care what they are voting for, only what they are getting paid (if not explicitly in cash, then certainly in connections, business opportunities, campaign funding, after-public-office speaking fees, whatever). 

Now some say that voting for the fast-track process is not the same as voting for specific agreements like TPP.  False.  Any member of congress who votes for fast-track is voting for the TPP (and all related toxic laws).  Period.  They may not be voting for TPP right now – but if they are voting to make it easier for the TPP to pass, then they are voting for it. 

Suppose that a Senator votes for fast-track.  Then the Senator reads the text of the TPP, and goes ‘oh my goodness I had no idea how horrible this thing is now that I do of course I will vote against it’ – but because of their previous vote for fast-track, now the TPP can pass with just 50% of the vote, instead of 67% (vice-president Joe Biden, previously known as ‘The Senator from Mastercard’, gets to cast a tie-breaker).  If the TPP passes with fewer than 67 votes, the Senator in question is responsible for it.  In this case: the Senator voted for the TPP when his/her vote mattered, and against it when it didn’t.  That’s fake.  And voting for something when you have no idea what it is, and then later on going ‘oh how terrible I had no idea that Obama would do something so bad!  I feel betrayed’ – well, it’s called crocodile tears.

Suppose you hired a lawyer to help you evaluate a contract.  Normally such a person would read the contract very carefully, right?  Suppose your lawyer advised you that ‘neither you nor I need to read the contract, just sign it’.  Surely you would think, either the lawyer is utterly incompetent, or the lawyer is not really representing your interests.  Correct?

Here are the listings of the Senators who voted for and against fast-track TPP Obamatrade.  Don’t forget.

TRAITORS TO THE RUPUBLIC.  NEVER FORGET: THESE SENATORS VOTED FOR TPP AND EVERY OTHER TOXIC TRADE AGREEMENT IN THE SIX YEARS THAT FOLLOW MAY 2015. YEAs —62
Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennet (D-CO) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Capito (R-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Cassidy (R-LA) Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Cotton (R-AR) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT)	Ernst (R-IA) Feinstein (D-CA) Fischer (R-NE) Flake (R-AZ) Gardner (R-CO) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hatch (R-UT) Heitkamp (D-ND) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) Kirk (R-IL) Lankford (R-OK) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Moran (R-KS)	Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Perdue (R-GA) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rounds (R-SD) Rubio (R-FL) Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Shaheen (D-NH) Sullivan (R-AK) Thune (R-SD) Tillis (R-NC) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Warner (D-VA) Wicker (R-MS) Wyden (D-OR)
?? A STEALTH SELL-OUT? Not Voting – 1 Enzi (R-WY) STILL GOT SOME DECENCY LEFT.  REMEMBER YOUR FRIENDS.  ESPECIALLY THE FIVE REPUBLICANS, AND MOST ESPECIALLY SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS. NAYs —37
Baldwin (D-WI) Blumenthal (D-CT) Booker (D-NJ) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Donnelly (D-IN) Durbin (D-IL) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Heinrich (D-NM) Hirono (D-HI)	King (I-ME) Klobuchar (D-MN) Leahy (D-VT) Lee (R-UT) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murphy (D-CT) Paul (R-KY) Peters (D-MI) Reed (D-RI)	Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-NM) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI)

Now it moves into the House.  Will the oligarchs be able to bribe the Representatives as easily as they have bribed the Senators?  Stay tuned. 

But if you have a few minutes, CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW AND DEMAND THAT THEY VOTE AGAINST FAST-TRACK/TPP/OABAMATRADE.  Forget blogging: it’s fun (I do it, obviously – but I put calling my senators and representatives as of an even higher importance) but right now the only thing standing up against organized money is how hard the public yells.  It may be the most important phone call that you ever make.