TTIP is the farcically secretive, insanely corrupt trade agreement that the US and EU negotiated behind closed doors in parallel with the faltering Trans-Pacific Partnership.

On Monday, Greenpeace leaked the highly confidential negotiating drafts of the TTIP, a top-secret, big-business-friendly trade agreement between the USA and the EU.

Greenpeace has handed newspapers 240 pages of current negotiating documents from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a secretly conducted trade deal between the USA and the EU, which has run in parallel with the notorious Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is an EU-US "trade agreement" that will allow corporations to sue governments in secret tribunals to force them to repeal their safety, environmental and labor laws.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a secret EU/US trade agreement that "puts the right to profit above all other rights," in the words of one MEP.

In 2012, a winning combination of lobbying and street protests killed ACTA, a secretive, Internet-punishing copyright treaty. Now, protesters are being water cannoned in Brussels as they fight ACTA's successor, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It seems like the lesson that the powerful took away from ACTA wasn't to conduct trade negotiations with transparency and public feedback — instead, they're ruthlessly crushing all protest in the hopes of keeping it from growing.

Here's another reminder to avoid self-checkout scanners at Walmart and other stores. Meaggan Pettipiece, a former Olympic athlete, was arrested for failing to scan ham and asparagus at a Walmart self-checkout machine in Indiana on March 28, 2024. She paid $176 for the other groceries, but Walmart security called police. — Read the rest

Twitter recently imposed blue checkmarks, previously assigned only to people paying to use the site, on all users meeting a certain threshold of paid followers. And soon users assigned blue checkmarks will no longer be able to hide them.

The blue checkmark, originally a form of verification and implicit status, was turned into a paid feature after Elon Musk's takeover of the site. — Read the rest

Andrew Wodzianski is a DC-area artist whose work often riffs off of nerdy pop cultural touchstones and ephemera. His pieces make references to comic books, 8-bit video games, monster movies, and tabletop gaming.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, September 28, 1987, he created pieces of meme-styled art that draw inspiration from the Star Trek coloring books and ship blueprints of his youth. — Read the rest

With propagandists like Ron DeSantis likening drag shows to "child endangerment," you end up with stable genii such as the gentleman below.

"What do you think is more dangerous for children, going to drag shows or guns?" Jason Selvig of the Good Liars asked, to which the man answered, as if it were a no-brainer, "Drag shows, if you ask me!" — Read the rest

Jolyon Ralph created a guide to the rocks and minerals of Minecraft: "Have you ever wondered how similar the Minecraft resources are to rocks and minerals in the real world? Let's find out!"

"Wait," I hear you shout, "Dirt isn't a rock!"

One of the most repugnant features of international trade agreements, from TPP to TTIP to CETA, is the "Investor State Dispute Settlement" (ISDS) clause, which gives corporations the power to sue governments to repeal health, safety, and environmental laws if they interfere with the company's profits.

It's been just over a year since Jeremy Corbyn won the UK Labour Party leadership race with the biggest margin in history — an avowed socialist who would reverse the party's years of special gifts to the UK's legendarily corrupt finance sector, fight mass surveillance, pull out of secretive trade deals — a frugal man who walked his talk.

CETA — the "Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement" is a secretly negotiated deal between Canada and the EU, mirroring many of the most controversial provisions in notorious deals like ACTA, TPP, and TTIP — including the "corporate sovereignty" clauses that permit multinational corporations to sue governments in closed courts, and force them to repeal environmental, labour and safety rules (albeit dressed up in new clothes that make the provisions appear different, without making any real difference).

Trade agreements like TPP and the US-EU TTIP are notorious for their Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses, which let corporations sue governments in secret proceedings, in order to force them to get rid of environmental, safety and labor laws that reduce profits.

Canada's rock-ribbed bastion of pro-trade, pro-Tory ideology has come out against the Trans Pacific Partnership's Intellectual Property chapter in a leading editorial signed by the paper's editorial board.

ISDSes are the most controversial element of secret trade deals like TPP and TTIP: they let giant international corporations sue countries to repeal environmental, safety and labor laws that interfere with their profitability.

High Court judges ruled that the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (#DRIP) was inconsistent with the European convention on human rights.

This is the day that Congress votes on whether to give "fast track authority" on the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership, ending any meaningful debate about a treaty that will prohibit America from passing environmental, labor and Internet laws that interfere with multinational corporate profits.

Here's a good rule of thumb: Any time a president says new tech laws are to protect "our kids," you know something bad is on the way.