Links!

Links!

Negotiations broke down without concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership! "Too many issues could not be resolved. Too many public protests oppose relinquishing national sovereignty by allowing a secret agreement to override legal protections for which popular movements have struggled: laws and regulations that protect local agriculture, health & safety, labor rights & human rights & animal rights as well as laws and regulations that protect the environment." Yeah, no doubt! I mean, look at this: "Trans-Canada is preparing to sue the US government using ISDS in NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement 1994) for lost income if the Obama administration prohibits the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that is scheduled to bring filthy tar sands oil from northern Canada through the mid-west breadbasket to be refined on the Gulf Coast and exported to Asia. TPP would give pharmaceutical corporations extended patent protections that would force generic medicines off the market and cause drug prices to skyrocket. Tobacco companies threaten to use ISDS in TPP to block governments from educating children to the dangers of smoking or helping people to quit." What makes any of that look like a good idea?! But it's not the end of TPP, unfortunately - not yet, anyway.

The Crimes of Children "The juvenile justice system was designed to 'hide youthful errors from the full gaze of the public.' But the extra penalties attached to these sentences have ruined many lives."
The Children of the Drug Wars

Steampunk Gypsy