{"id":182848,"date":"2015-05-24T19:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/05\/24\/bob-menendez-shafts-barack-obama-on-tpp\/"},"modified":"2015-05-24T19:28:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T00:28:00","slug":"bob-menendez-shafts-barack-obama-on-tpp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/05\/24\/bob-menendez-shafts-barack-obama-on-tpp\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Menendez Shafts Barack Obama on TPP"},"content":{"rendered":"

He managed to get an amendment in the Senate’s TPP<\/abbr> bill, which has the effect of toughening human trafficking requirements of member countries, which means that Malaysia’s horrific human trafficking record would make the treaty ineligible for fast track<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Remember, passing Fast Track in the Senate was supposed to be the easy part. Not only did Fast Track get rejected on its first try \u2014 \u201cWelcome aboard the S.S. Lame Duck, Mr. President!\u201d \u2014 now we get this. Ryan Grim explains<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate approved a bill to \u201cfast-track\u201d trade agreements negotiated by the president. The agreement will prevent Congress from amending or filibustering Obama\u2019s controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The TPP<\/a> deal would have a hard time surviving without fast-track authority.<\/span>
But a key crackdown on human trafficking survived the legislative jujitsu. The White House considers the provision a deal-breaker, as it would force one of the nations involved in the TPP<\/a> talks \u2014 Malaysia \u2014 out of the agreement<\/u>. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the US State Department<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Malaysia (Tier 3 [the worst<\/a>]) is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and children subjected to sex trafficking. The overwhelming majority of trafficking victims are among the estimated two million documented and two million or more undocumented foreign workers in Malaysia. <\/span>
Foreign workers typically migrate willingly to Malaysia from other countries in Asia\u2014primarily Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Nepal, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Thailand, and Laos\u2014in search of greater economic opportunities. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here I pause to note that somebody decided that it would be a good idea for the US to take in the Rohingya<\/a>, the Muslim boat people who have turned to traffickers to escape a slow motion Burmese genocide, after which the Malaysians offered temporary, one-year status<\/a> to such Rohingya as actually reach their shores. <\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> Complicating any efforts to \u201cfix\u201d the bill, however, is the possibility of an alliance between feminist factions in the Democratic party, and Christianist<\/a> factions among the Republicans, both of whom take strongly principled positions on human trafficking.<\/span>

<\/span> Complicating the picture even more, when you think about it, is the potential for agita in 2016. Suppose Obama, very ironically, gets the anti-slavery provisions \u201cfixed,\u201d i.e. removed, and the bill passes in time. The campaign ads practically write themselves. \u201cA vote for TPP<\/a> is a vote for human trafficking.\u201d \u201cWhy does Senator X support slavery?\u201d Cue the ominous music. Cue pictures of skeletal women and children. Cue the die-ins on the trail. I\u2019m sure campaign shops on both sides are practically drooling with joy, because the only way TPP<\/a> will pass is with bipartisan support. Getting that amendment in there was GENIUS<\/b><\/i>, and we\u2019ll get to how that happened in a moment.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what we are seeing here is a pissing contest between Menendez and Obama.<\/p>\n

The time line is:<\/p>\n