I proudly endorse the Brexit campaign in the upcoming European Union referendum in the United Kingdom, in which British voters will be asked whether the UK should remain part of the EU or leave the EU altogether. Therefore, I am asking British voters to vote “Leave” in the June 23 EU referendum in the UK.
The EU has played a significant role in destroying the Greek economy by imposing austerity demands on Greece. If the UK were to vote to remain in the EU, the EU will, at some point in time, impose the same austerity demands on the UK that they placed on Greece. If the UK were to remain a part of the EU, the UK will, at some point, be forced to replace the Pound sterling with the Euro, meaning higher prices on goods and services for Britons.
Furthermore, the entire concept of the EU is rooted in a German imperialist mindset straight out of the 1930’s and 1940’s. The only differences is that Britain isn’t being bombed and a full-blown fascist isn’t Germany’s leader. People should learn from history, not repeat it.
Last, but not least, remaining in the EU would further threaten the sovereignty of the UK, which is vested in the British monarchy. Britain’s national anthem isn’t “God Save Europe”, it’s “God Save The Queen”!
After over six years of, outside of a few issues like Social Security and domestic spying where he’s sided with the far-right Republicans, largely relying on progressives as a base of support, President Barack Obama has launched a full-on War on Progressives by openly antagonizing opponents of proposed free-trade agreements, including the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that would destroy most of what little sovereignty America still has.
This is what President Obama said at an Organizing for Action (OFA) summit in our nation’s capital:
When people say this trade deal is bad for working families, they don’t know what they’re talking about…I take that personally. My entire presidency has been about helping working families.
If there’s anyone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to international trade, it’s President Obama and his corporate allies in both major parties in this country. In fact, the fact that the TPP and other free trade deals and policies
For many decades, tariffs and other trade protections made America great by building a strong economy and manufacturing sector that provided middle-class jobs and American-made goods that Americans could actually purchase. Now, because of NAFTA, CAFTA, Most Favored Nation status for China, and other agreements and laws that have loosened American trade policies, most goods sold in the United States are made in foreign countries
Over the last three and a half decades, we’ve seen the effects of current free-trade agreements and other free trade policies between the U.S. and foreign countries, and they’re almost entirely negative. For several very brief periods in the early 1980’s, the U.S. actually had a very small trade surplus. Since then, because of free-trade policies that have been pushed by every president from Ronald Reagan onward and a bipartisan corporate coalition in Congress, wages in this country have been driven downward, the manufacturing sector of our economy has been annihilated, our trade deficit with foreign nations has exploded, the vast majority of goods sold in this country are foreign-made, and the American economy has become an economy full of low-wage jobs. Here’s a graph showing how our nation’s trade deficit has exploded since 1980:
U.S. Balance of Trade 1980-2015 (Graph Courtesy of Trade Economics)
For someone who professes to be a constitutional scholar, President Obama clearly doesn’t understand that the TPP itself and the fast-track authority for it are both blatantly unconstitutional.
The TPP itself is in blatant violation of Article III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes the structure of our nation’s court system. Article III, Section 1 reads as follows:
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
(emphasis mine)
While I’m not an attorney, I interpret Article III, Section 1 as allowing for the creation of a single Supreme Court of the United States and any number of federal courts that are below the single Supreme Court. Since the TPP would create the Investor-State Dispute System (ISDS), a de facto court system that is effectively above the U.S. Supreme Court, this means that the TPP is blatantly unconstitutional.
The fast-track authority for free trade agreements blatantly violates a different part of the Constitution, specifically, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, which reads as follows:
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
(emphasis mine)
Again, I’m not an attorney, but I interpret Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 as requiring approval by two-thirds of U.S. Senators who are present for such a vote, for ratification of any treaty negotiated and signed by the President on behalf of the United States. However, since fast-track authority, among other things, allows for free trade agreements, which I consider to be a type of treaty, to be ratified by a simple majority of members of both houses of Congress who are present for votes on such agreements, fast-track is blatantly unconstitutional.
I know I’m going to say something controversial, but I’m willing to say it: President Obama and his corporate allies in both parties in Congress have a deep-seeded hatred of the concept of American economic sovereignty, and they are pushing to enact a corporate globalization agenda in order to drive down wages, pollute our environment, and destroy the American economy without any regard for the U.S. Constitution or the American people. While some international trade is necessary due to consumer demand, globalization and weak trade protections are destroying America and our economy, and we certainly don’t need more of the same.
For President Obama to effectively claim that the overwhelming majority of those who twice elected him President of the United States are stupid is absolutely disgusting and traitorous.
Make no mistake about it, those in either house of Congress who support the Keystone XL pipeline are effectively voting against American sovereignty.
If approved and built, the Keystone XL would not only hurt the environment in more ways than one, it would effectively make the United States of America a puppet state of Canada. Keystone XL would only add a few dozen or so permanent jobs (it’s not clear how many of those would be in the United States) and pump tar sands oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast in order for the oil to be shipped to China. Therefore, Keystone XL is of no real benefit to the United States, since the risks of the proposed pipeline vastly outweigh any benefits of the pipeline to this country, and would leave this country at the mercy of TransAmerica, the Canadian company who wants to build and operate the pipeline.
I’m not going to sit idly by and watch America’s political and economic sovereignty be systematically destroyed by Republicans and corporate Democrats. I strongly encourage members of the U.S. Senate to vote NO on the bill to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Progressive Midwesterner 