IT’S NOT THE CONFEDERATE FLAG, BUT …
|| By FITSNEWS || Whatever one thinks of the Confederate flag, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on either side of that debate arguing in support of slavery. Sure there are those who reside at the fringes of any public discourse, but
Which is why it’s so ironic America’s first black president – who has been an unmitigated disaster for black Americans – is making sure his crony capitalist trade deal will benefit one of the world’s worst countries for human trafficking.
According to Reuters, Obama’s State Department – led by John Kerry – is upgrading the nation of Malaysia from “Tier 3” to “Tier 2” status on its annual human trafficking watch list.
Really? This upgrade comes a month after a mass grave of 139 people was uncovered on the country’s border with Thailand – part of network of slave camps hidden deep in the jungle. It also comes amid a decline in prosecutions for slave traders in the Southeast Asian nation.
“Human-rights advocates had expected Malaysia to remain on tier three this year given its slow pace of convictions in human-trafficking cases and pervasive trafficking in industries such as electronics and palm oil,” The (U.K.) Guardian reported.
That didn’t happen …
So why is Obama’s administration trying to cut Malaysia a break the country doesn’t deserve? That’s easy: “Tier 3” nations aren’t permitted to participate in Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“I thought the list of betrayals in the Obama administration’s trade agenda couldn’t swell any further,” David Dayen wrote last week for The Fiscal Times.
He was wrong.
From Dayen’s piece …
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the State Department would, at the bidding of the White House, undermine the integrity of a report that shames countries’ indifference to slavery within their borders. But it’s a complete perversion of the logical steps America normally takes to impact other countries’ human rights records. Instead of hitting them with sanctions until they improve — Tier 3 status can lead to withholding of foreign aid — the administration is instead granting Malaysia trade benefits and then hoping for more influence once they’re inside the trading regime. It looks nakedly political, a reward for Malaysia’s involvement in TPP.
Plus, these slaves produce the very goods that would get duty-free access to U.S. markets under the TPP. Forced labor is reportedly high in the agriculture, electronics and textile industries in Malaysia, yet the United States is apparently willing to overlook that to complete the trade deal. So consumers like you and me who unwittingly buy things made in Malaysia could be implicated in the slave trade as well.
Amazing …
This website wrote exhaustively in opposition to Obamatrade – debunking the GOP’s claim that the deal was “free trade.” It isn’t. We’ve also written extensively on how TPP is bad for the national economy and for the economy here in South Carolina.
Hell, supporters of the deal even pushed for a massive taxpayer subsidy to cover all the jobs it was going to cost American workers.
Lawmakers who voted to advance this dangerous deal sold out American workers and consumers – all so politicians in Washington D.C. could gift-wrap competitive advantages to wealthy Wall Streeters and Hollywood liberals (including the taxpayer-subsidized outsourcing of U.S. jobs).
They also participated in a fundamental usurpation of democracy – with all sorts of pernicious consequences to follow.
Thanks to the votes of “Republican” lawmakers – including U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and U.S. Reps. Trey Gowdy, Tom Rice, Mark Sanford and Joe Wilson of South Carolina – Congress now has absolutely no say in the negotiation of TPP.
No public hearings will be held. No amendments can be offered. The legislation – which includes no protections against foreign currency manipulation, privacy invasions or the erosion of the rule of law in America – cannot be filibustered.
It gets a simple up or down vote.
Graham, Scott, Gowdy, Rice, Sanford, Wilson and their “Republican” allies in Washington have one more chance to make this right. If they fail to do so, then they are complicit not only in the loss of jobs here at home … but the enslavement of human beings around the globe.
19 comments
Wouldn’t “free trade” mean no restrictions with any countries, Tier 3 or not?
Yup. Dubai? Clean white girls for sale in the malls, but tier one.
yeah! we should bomb malaysia into submission. while maintaining our strict non-interventionst foreign policy and not being the worlds policeman. and bomb the shit out of them!!
Does Malaysia have oil? If so you have a great idea.
Malaysia Products Directory
http://www.matrade.gov.my/en/malaysian-exporters/showcasing-malaysia-export/directory/malaysian-products-directory
Libertarians say they support FREE TRADE, no Crony deals. Why should the SLAVE TRADE be restricted?
Depends if you mean “Libertarians” or “libertarians”. I can’t tell because you started the sentence with the word capitalized as a manner of correct syntax/grammar so I don’t know which you are referring to. (no fault of yours)
But, I will answer for “libertarians” so that you are educated as to their beliefs.
“Why should the SLAVE TRADE be restricted?”
Because it violates the core belief of “libertarianism”, which is the “non aggression principle”.
It is an act of aggression to enslave someone involuntarily, hence “verboten” to a libertarian.(voluntary slavery is a separate issue)
Now what would a “Libertarian” believe on the matter? I have no earthly idea, as they don’t hold to the non-aggression principle.
One further note, it doesn’t require a government or state to “restrict trade” for a libertarian….you just make the choice based on your personal beliefs and more interestingly, the NAP doesn’t mean pacifism and under that notion you could actually justify personally using violence/force to free involuntary slaves….
Well, because it is inhuman, immoral, cruel … and as practiced in el president’s home country of Kenya, legal.
If you like your slavery you can keep your slavery.
These are little yellow people, right? No worries sailor!
It’s a Civil War reenactment. Malaysia is playing the part of a Southern state. Barack Obama is playing the part of Abraham Lincoln and trying to preserve the Union.
Will this be the second time that democrats have endorsed slavery? I guess they will form a KKK over there, too. I thought they had changed. I thought they didn’t endorse slavery anymore. I guess they didn’t change anymore. The Party of Byrd lives on.
The Party of Byrd lives on.
——
In Republican media.
From a party with no morals.
Is that you Brian Williams?
No morals
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fighting endless wars based on lies with money spent off the books, bailing out the richest men in America for bankrupting our economic system without accountability, duping evangelicals into thinking Republicans are “Christian,” manipulating Southern voters like hillbilly snipe hunters, using Tea Party supporters to gain power, and then brushing them off like a bad habit, promising to end Obamacare 200 times, failing to make any headway on abortion, gay marriage, foreign aid, education, infrastructure…
All Republicans are good for is funneling money from the middle class to the richest in America and calling for more and more boots on the ground.
Republicans not only have no morals, they go on television and claim to be “Christians,” when it’s as plain as the hair on Trump’s head, that nothing could be further from the truth.
Republicans are, simply and succinctly – scum.
upvote
No.He’s Heath Ledger. Brokeback Mountain,Batman and all
Everyone wants to keep their panties in a twist about 160 years ago but keep their eyes squeezed shut when it comes to 2015. That is why I see this flag shit as manufactured drama for political power’s sake, oh and media life support.