A disturbing, but unfortunately accurate analysis by Dr. Brian Moench. He uses a descriptive analogy we’ve been using at USTV Media for many years now, that of the corporate “deathstar,” and deserves bonus points as well for equating Mitt Romney as a “corporate Vishnu” (which makes sense when you come to grips with the documented record of the man’s work).

People really need to understand the scope of what is happening right now, especially in regards to this global abomination called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Moench isn’t some fringe radical writing for a local blog. He was recently nominated to be a potential recipient of a “Champion of Change” award from the White House. In this excellent essay, he outlines the challenges facing our capacity to make meaningful change, and the serious consequences we will likely face if we don’t rise to that challenge. Most importantly, he lays lie to the notion that “working within the system” is going to provide any meaningful change, considering it is the system itself which is the cause of most of these problems in the first place.

An in-house editorial in the New York Times on July 5, began, “For all its rabid partisanship, Congress has shown time and again that it is willing to come together to deregulate corporate America.”

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While the public and the media sleep, the real corporate “Death Star,” the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), is being forged in secret. The term “partnership” hardly sounds ominous. But for the last two years TPP negotiations that could have unprecedented consequences to citizens throughout the world have been going on among a dozen Pacific Rim nations. No information has been made available to the press or the public - and only extremely limited access has been allowed to a few members of Congress. But last year a document was leaked to the watchdog group,  Public Citizen , revealing the current US position and the reason for the secrecy. The contents are surreal and shocking, and prima facie evidence for how corporations have become the master puppeteers of government.

The leaked document reveals that the trade agreement would subordinate domestic law and policy to a binding international  governance system . Specifically, TPP would (1) severely limit regulation of foreign corporations operating within US boundaries, giving them greater rights than domestic firms, (2) extend incentives for US firms to move investments and jobs to lower-wage countries, (3) establish an alternative legal system, creating “investor states” that give foreign corporations and investors new rights to circumvent US courts and laws, allowing them to sue the US government before foreign tribunals and demand compensation for lost revenue due to US laws they claim undermine their TPP privileges or their investment “expectations.” 
 
Despite NAFTA’s failures, corporations are arm-twisting the federal government to pursue trade agreements as inevitable and necessary for economic progress. But 26 of the 28 chapters of this agreement have nothing to do with trade. TPP was drafted with the oversight of 600 representatives of multinational corporations, who essentially are awarding themselves whatever they want: new ground rules for environmental and public health protection, worker safety, and further off-shoring of what was once a domestic workforce.

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Some might say that “Death by Corporation” is just another way to tell the age-old story of greed or lust for power. But in today’s world, with the global reach of corporations, and their technological capability for destruction, those unrestrained pathologic urges smoldering within just a few key individuals are hurtling us all toward consequences unimaginable, and a future irredeemable.

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