The modern slave trade, TPP and the Obama Administration

[Kelvin Mace]

Given this story in The Nation, I find it very hard to judge this action by the Obama Administration as anything other than totally evil. The obvious first defense of the president would be that this was done WITHOUT his complicity. If this is true, then I expect to shortly hear that he has rescinded this "reclassification" of Malaysia. If nothing is done, I am left with no alternative to the view that he is just as evil and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. That when it comes to a decision of money or humanity, he will pick money.

http://www.thenation.com/article/obama-wont-let-some-mass-graves-stop-tpp/

Obama Won’t Let Some Mass Graves Stop the TPP
The Nation


Malaysia is home to many “outsourcing companies” that are, in reality, professional slaving operations: foreign workers, often refugees fleeing desperate situations in nearby countries like Burma, are recruited to the country with the promise of legitimate work but then subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The State Department and international human rights groups have routinely concluded the Malaysian government does very little to inhibit the traffickers’ operation.

Senator Robert Menendez inserted language into the Senate version of fast-track prohibiting the use of fast-track for a trade deal with a Tier 3 country, presumably with an eye on Malaysia. The Obama administration and Republican leaders in the House tried to have the language removed but were unable to excise it due to the complicated path the fast-track bill took through Congress.

Observers were then unsure what would happen next. Would Malaysia be thrown out of the deal? Would the United States lean hard on the Malaysian government to crack down on human traffickers so it could sign the trade deal? Was there any chance fast track would be disengaged for the TPP?

 Instead, the Obama administration appears to have chosen another path that has shocked the human-rights community: It will simply reclassify Malaysia. Reuters has reported that when the Trafficking in Persons report comes out next week, Malaysia will no longer be a Tier 3 country.

There is essentially zero evidence Malaysia has done anything to earn this reclassification. Just two months ago, police found 139 mass graves along the Malaysian border that contained migrant workers that had been trafficked or held for ransom.

Is "Denari Über Alles" now the Democratic Party motto?

[HooptieWagon]

1. It looks like Obamas position is....

Confederate Flag-bad, Slavery-good. I'm just shaking my head...

[Kelvin Mace]

2. I am waiting for all the folks that told me

my views of Obama's ethics are wrong to explain this to me.

I guess I may have to post this with a more "attention getting" title.

[Marr]

6. Pretty much DLC politics in a nutshell. Stand up when it doesn't cost the 1% anything...

cater to their every whim on actual policy.

[Uncle Joe]

7. He wouldn't be the first, that's what General Sherman thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman

Although his brother John was well known as an antislavery congressman, Sherman did not oppose slavery and was sympathetic to Southerners' defense of the institution. He opposed, however, any attempt at dissolving the Union.[29] On hearing of South Carolina's secession from the United States, Sherman observed to a close friend, Professor David F. Boyd of Virginia, an enthusiastic secessionist:

You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.[30]

almost perfectly describing the four years of war to come.[31]

[GoneFishin]

3. If it's an option for the President to just make shit up to get what he wants, then I hope the next

President uses that principle even more liberally to side-step and dismiss the fucked up and anti-democratic terms of TPP.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Zornick strangely seems to have more vitriol for Obama and TPP

than for the human rights issues in Malaysia... Just saying...

I do hope that for the sake of consistency Zornick and any DUers outraged at this story start a unilateral boycott of all U.S. corporations heavily vested in the Malaysian economy; along with all Malaysian-made goods...

Good luck...

[GeorgeGist]

5. I take it you have no problem with slavery ...

just saying.

[LondonReign2]

8. What a bizarre and sad defense

Some corporations are invested in Malaysia? Well then, I cause we can only shrug our shoulders.

[Marr]

9. You seem to be much more interested in Obama's appearance than human rights issues.

Odd that you'd try to turn that around.