Prison Planet.com » Rule By The Corporations

Paul Craig Roberts
Prison Planet.com
June 2, 2015

The
Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade and Investment Partnerships have
nothing to do with free trade. “Free trade” is used as a disguise to
hide the power these agreements give to corporations to use law suits to
overturn sovereign laws of nations that regulate pollution, food
safety, GMOs, and minimum wages.

The first thing to understand
is that these so-called “partnerships” are not laws written by Congress.
The US Constitution gives Congress the authority to legislate, but
these laws are being written without the participation of Congress. The
laws are being written by corporations solely in the interest of their
power and profit. The office of US Trade Representative was created in
order to permit corporations to write law that serves only their
interests. This fraud on the Constitution and the people is covered up
by calling trade laws “treaties.”

Indeed, Congress is not even
permitted to know what is in the laws and is limited to the ability to
accept or refuse what is handed to Congress for a vote. Normally,
Congress accepts, because “so much work has been done” and “free trade
will benefit us all.”

The presstitutes have diverted attention
from the content of the laws to “fast track.” When Congress votes “fast
track,” it means Congress accepts that corporations can write the trade
laws without the participation of Congress. Even criticisms of the
“partnerships” are a smoke screen. Countries accused of slave labor
could be excluded but won’t be. Super patriots complain that US
sovereignty is violated by “foreign interests,” but US sovereignty is
violated by US corporations. Others claim yet more US jobs will be
offshored. In actual fact, the “partnerships” are unnecessary to advance
the loss of American jobs as there is nothing that inhibits jobs
offshoring now.

What the “partnerships” do is to make private
corporations immune to the laws of sovereign countries on the grounds
that laws of countries adversely impact corporate profits and constitute
“restraint of trade.”

For example, under the Transatlantic
Partnership, French laws against GMOs would be overturned as “restraints
on trade” by law suits filed by Monsanto.

Countries that
require testing of imported food, such as pork for trichnosis, and
fumigation would be subject to lawsuits from corporations, because these
regulations increase the cost of imports.

Countries that do not
provide monopoly protection for brand name pharmaceuticals and chemical
products, and allow generics in their place, can be sued for damages by
corporations.

Obama himself has no input into the process. Here
is what is going on: The Trade Representative is a corporate stooge. He
serves the private corporations and will go on to a million dollar
annual salary. The corporations have bribed the political leaders in
every country to sign away their sovereignty and the general welfare of
their people to private corporations. Corporations have paid US senators
large sums for transferring Congress’ law-making powers to
corporations.http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/corporations-paid-us-senators-fast-track-tpp When
these “partnerships” pass, no country that signed will have any
legislative authority to legislate or enforce any law that any
corporation regards as inimical to its bottom line.

Yes, the great promiser of change is bringing change. He is turning Asia, Europe, and the US over to rule by the corporations.

Only
those who have sold their integrity for money sign these agreements.
Apparently Merkel, a Washington vassal, is one of them. http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150530/1022740004.html

According
to news reports, both of France’s main political parties have sold out
to the corporations, but not Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party. In
the last EU elections, the dissident parties, such as Le Pen and
Farage’s, prevailed over the traditional parties, but the dissidents are
yet to prevail in their own countries.

Marine Le Pen objects to the secrecy of the agreements that establishes corporate rule. As Europe’s only leader, she speaks:

“It
is vital that the French people know about TTIP’s content and its
motivations in order to be able to fight it. Because our fellow
countrymen must have the choice of their future, because they should
impose a model for society that suits them, and not one forced by
multinational companies eager for profits, Brussels technocrats bought
by the lobbies, and politicians from the UMP [party of former president
Nicolas Sarkozy] who are subservient to these technocrats.”

It is vital that the American public also know, but not even Congress is permitted to know.

How
does it work, this “freedom and democracy” that we Americans allegedly
have, when neither the people nor their elected representatives are
permitted to participate in the making of laws that enable private
corporations to negate the law-making functions of governments and place
corporate profit above the general welfare?

Paul Craig Roberts
was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and
associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for
Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He
has had many university appointments. His internet columns have
attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

This article was posted: Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 6:01 am

http://www.prisonplanet.com/rule-by-the-corporations.html