OBAMA’S DESPERATE AGAIN, HE’S TALKING TO CBC ABOUT TPP

(Laughing) You know that President Obama is scraping the bottom of his friendship barrel at this point since he’s now talking to the Congressional Black Caucus about—

Wait. That sounds awfully familiar…

Anyway, President Obama must be desperate again—he’s talking with the CBC about helping him pass a bill that will give him carte blanche authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, and without congressional checks and balances. Some Beltway operatives have even suggested that denying #44 of this executive authority smacks of an additional layer of racial hostility lodged against the nation’s first President of African descent.

Finding additional people on Capitol Hill to support this oligarch bonanza disguised as a trade agreement is becoming more difficult, thus the desperation move.

And since very few Americans inclusive of most legislators in Washington have not been permitted understand the details of TPP—although Wikileaks document posts helped to confirm that the treaty is socially dangerous—the House granting the green light to this executive trade authority would be akin to a Chris Paul no-look alley-oop to Blake Griffin.

Except I don’t trust Congress’ ability execute an assist, nor do I trust Obama to do the right thing with the ball once he gets it.

Needless to say I don’t trust the Congressional Black Caucus with any trade vote. I’m still simmering after I read that the overwhelming majority of the 48-member legislative block that positions itself to be the sole barrier between Black folks and the nightmare of being steamrolled by racially insensitive Washington policies, voted against Rep. Alan Grayson’s (D-Fla.) 2014 amendment to de-fund aspects of the Pentagon’s 1033 program—the process which supplies state and local police departments of any size with military surplus equipment like tanks, camouflage, silencers and aircraft. The CBC followed up that vote later in the year with a “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” sideshow on the House floor in response to the #BlackLivesMatter movement’s ascent and the Ferguson, Missouri police department’s Fallujah-style response to largely peaceful demonstrations against the police killing of Michael Brown.

To be more specific, 41 out of 48 CBC members voted to continue the current course of police militarization. You can read the voting roll here.

And just like defense industry can buy a legislator’s heart and vote with a buck or two, how many of you suspect that Obama may think he can play “Name a Price” to woo a CBC member? Stay tuned…

song currently stuck in my head: “morning” – yusef lateef