Trade Deals for Dummies

By the way, guess who the dummy is? That's right friends, YOU... the non-billionaire American.

The Senate Republicans have just given President Obama carte blanche to do any damn thing he wants with this new Asian trade bill. Of course the bill will NOT be made public because we don't live in an open society any longer (democracy is WAY too messy). Our Republican heel hounds are dutifully doing their masters bidding, and since the US Chamber of Commerce and Obama are on the same page, it's all good. So screw our 80% trade gap with China, let's GIVE 'EM MORE! In fact in addition let's let the PRC tax Americans directly, but Obama is already working on that in the UN from what I gather.

Do you happen to recall a little loudmouth bantam rooster by the name of Ross Perot? Come on, you remember, he's the guy who put Bill Clinton in office by syphoning off 19% of George HW Bush's votes. Well Perot wasn't that big a fan of that 90's trade bill everyone was so crazy about (NAFTA). He kept talking about that giant sucking sound from South of the Border (oh, FYI, for you ex NAVY he was referring to jobs, not a Tijuana street walker). And so it came to pass. With NAFTA (and other hair brained trade agreements) and Simpson Mazoli  we have about a quarter of the working population foreign born with 30% of the jobs we used to have being now located overseas.

So who benefits by all this (it sure as shit ain't the middle-class). The elites of course (corporate and otherwise) and Wall Street, that's who. Borders and tariffs and trade restrictions are a pain in the ass when it come to the American market. It's ok when the Japanese tariff the shit out of our snow skis because "their snow is different". And so what if there's a trade "deficit"? Hell, they got banks overseas don't they? It's easy enough to get around those silly laws if you're a billionaire. No, what's required is access to foreign CHEAP AS DIRT labor and the American market. Too many Trumka types in America, best go elsewhere.

Look, I'm all for reciprocating trade deals. But my trade deal would be two lines long.
You have unrestricted access to our markets, transportation system and financial infrastructure. We have unrestricted access to your markets, transportation system and financial infrastructure. Please sign here.

But what we are doing is trading away our wealth, our political independence and I would argue the freedom and hope of mankind. We with our "inclusion" have entertained and tolerated ideas that have corrupted our souls and acted like a cancer on our body politic. We are the last generation of the American dream, of American exceptionalism that made us incredibly wealthy and the only bulwark against the thugs and killers that have led this planet throughout the ages. Our failures are not the failure of the American people, they are the failure of our elites who have turned greedy and cynical. My only hope is that one day they will be held accountable for what they have done.