Has everyone noticed that the TPP has vanished from public discussion?

Yep. All of these “free trade” (investor rights) agreements are negotiated out of the public eye (NAFTA, GATT, NAFTA, TPP, etc. And don’t forget TTIP and the recent leaks from Greenpeace). Even during the NAFTA fight in the 90s, when the Clintons were trying to slip this through, I found it difficult to find people who had even heard of it or understood why progressives, labor, environmentalists, and “the left” were so opposed.

It’s important to point out that it’s not conspiracy theory to point out that most of our news sources are just large corporations. In general, corporations are not in the habit of taking actions that will hurt their bottom line. Class, so-called trade agreements, etc are not often discussed unless they are forced upon the media. And even then, the perspective is completely from the owning, corporate class.

Vanished? It’s been out of sight for most people the whole time.
Sure, politically astute people know what the TPP is, but I bet you if asked 10 random people, 2–3 people will know, or at least heard of, the TPP.
Kinda the same as people knowing who their senator or congressman is…
And as @donotknowmuch points out, we have a corporate owned media, whose board members sit on many other large corporations, who stand to benefit from these trade deals.
While many people think the main purpose of corporate media is for ratings, I think their main purpose it to pursuade public opinion.
“THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.” Edward Bernays

We have an administration that really doesn’t want to get in a fight, one candidate who is sitting on the fence about it, one who everyone knows is opposed, and a whole party who doesn’t understand it. Add to all that with a Senate that checked out for vacation a year ago.

For it or against it, it may languish forever.

A big part of Trumps’s appeal is that he is perceived as a deal maker and has gotten a lot of mileage out of thrashing the “lousy” deals that America has made and how the TPP is just another bad deal in the making. Hiding the TPP deal from public view steals some of Trumps thunder.

That being the case, can we expect him to drag the issue up, to the great consternation of those in favor of it?

Not sure @stanleybmanly He has already semi-stepped in it by saying China has been taking advantage of our lousy deals with them and China is not part of the TPP. The press tried to take his sound bite to task in how he was uniformed but he qualified his statement later and showed he actually knew what he was talking about. He also said China may backdoor their way into TPP which has some validity to it and he IMO correctly asserts that TPP is lousy in part because it lacks any protections against currency manipulation that China is more than expert in.

IMHO I think he could hurt himself if he proposes to deep six the whole TPP but he could gain if he simply highlights how he could improve that trade deal so China will no longer resist participating in the deal.

Toilet Paper Product? What was the debate? Over or under? ~

What happened to the burning issue of the Supreme Court Nomination? Every actually knows what that is, and what the debate is about.
Are the Republican’s now comfortable with the idea of a President Trump nominating the next couple of justices?