Is imgur aware of the TPP? You should be, it's not good.

A.K.A SOPA redux. Help stop it coming to pass.

I've been signed up to Fight For The Future since DMCA/Fair Use petition. I've been receiving emails about the TPP from them for some time now, but they don't seem to be garnering anywhere near the support they should, thanks in no small part to the US election news smothering it.

What is the TPP? In short: A very toxic, consumer/creator-unfriendly piece of legislation that would see money poured into the coffers of corporations that don't deserve it, as well as threatening jobs, the environment and potentially even people's lives.

Taken from the Fight For The Future site:

"Its supporters call it a “free trade” proposal, but only 5 of the TPP’s 29 chapters actually deal with trade issues. The rest of the 5,544-page text is packed with special-interest handouts and new ways for multinationals to challenge democratically-passed policies.

At the heart of the TPP is the creation of a new tribunal system that multinational corporations could use to win taxpayer-funded compensation from TPP countries that pass laws or regulations that they believe would limit their potential for profits. These tribunals would be decided by private lawyers who would be allowed to rotate between serving as arbitration judges and working as advisors to the corporations bringing the cases to the tribunal.

And then there are the thousands of pages of provisions straight from the wish lists of special interests that weren’t able to get their policies passed through the regular legislative process. These provisions threaten good-paying jobs, Internet freedom, access to medicine, environmental protections, and much more.

For example, copyright notice-and-takedown procedures similar to SOPA, the web censorship bill that was defeated by the historic Internet blackout protest, has been resurrected in the TPP. Other “zombie” proposals in the TPP include limits on competition for pharmaceutical companies, increased fracking through automatic approval of gas exports, and lower food safety standards in the US by allowing big food companies to import meat and seafood from countries with lenient inspection practices."

You can sign their petition, even if you're not within the US, here: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/2016/Stop-TPP-corruption You can also donate some spare change, if you wish.

tl;dr: You should click the link and sign the petition because:

Pharmaceutical monopolies would be protected. [1]
Environmental protections would be slashed. [2]
SOPA-like censorship would threaten free expression on the Internet. [3]
Good-paying jobs would be sent overseas. [4]
An international shadow court would be set up to force TPP countries to pay multinational corporations when they pass laws or regulations that may limit corporate profits. [5]

[1] http://www.msfaccess.org/spotlight-on/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

[2] http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership

[3] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/02/03/tpp-problematic-partnership/

[4] http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/blog/2015/11/07/how-the-tpp-harms-jobs-the-environment/

[5] https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/foreign-investor-protections-trans-pacific-partnership (The link initially provided in the email led to a 404, however this is the same file on the same Canadian policy alternatives site. Download and read it or don't, I'm not the boss of you.)

Further tl;dr: Click link, sign petition, be happy you tried to make a difference, regardless of potential outcome.

Cat tax.

I do not own a cat for the tax, so here is Ball-cat, instead.