Our Manchurian President
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We've been waiting for the final term of the Obama administration. When it came it started off well. Even though he had to deal with a Republican Congress and Senate he started issuing executive orders when nothing else was getting done. Immigration? Check. Opening relations with Cuba? Check. A full throated defense of the ACA? Check. Women’s rights? Check.
But then things started getting wonky. There was this thing called the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) and it had been classified so that even members of the appropriate legislative committees could only read the draft provisions of the agreement but were legally enjoined from revealing anything about them. The groups drafting the TPP were composed of representatives of the largest corporations in the world and represented virtually every industry from pharmaceuticals to oil and gas.
It was very strange indeed.
Then Obama started pushing for fast track authority on the TPP (it will extend to other agreements as well). Hard. Harder than he ever pushed for anything.
He wanted fast track authority that would allow him (or his successor) to push through the TPP without modification of any kind. No amendments. No nothing.
When the Democratic leadership balked because of some of the details on extra-national tribunals, intellectual property rights, and a complete lack of anything to compensate those that will most likely lose their livelihoods if the TPP is enacted (if you thought there was a giant sucking sound when NAFTA was enacted wait until the TPP)—well he joined up with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. Yesterday, 6/23/15 it looks like Obama got his fast track authority.
Which brings me to my central metaphor—Obama is the Manchurian Candidate made flesh. But the plot is not by the Communists. It is being run by the corporatists. If you look back at the last 50 years it has been the large corporations that have been pushing for everything from financial deregulation to the granting of constitutional rights to corporations.
I always thought that it was awfully damn easy for Obama, a freshman Senator from Illinois, to ascend to the Presidency. The national media (owned by a small handful of the largest corporations) got behind him. The Republicans ran a completely inept campaign that was doomed once Sarah Palin was selected as McCain’s running mate. The most powerful people in the land jumped on board without hesitation. The election was a complete rout. And so was the next.
Throughout it all the Republicans played the heavies--fighting Obama tooth and nail on everything—even the things they agreed with him on.
If Obama was for it they were against it.
The ACA was patterned on a plan put forth by the Heritage Foundation that was actually implemented by Romney in Massachusetts. The outrage—the vitriol and bile heaped on Obamacare was (and still is) unrestrained.
Mitch McConnell publicly said that his number one goal was to ensure that Obama did not serve a 2nd term and worked hard on delivering that. Boehner , well he’s like Mikey, he hated everything that Obama ever did.
Until the last couple of weeks. Suddenly, he and Mitch and Obama well…they’re working together now to get that fast track authority and then the TPP. Boehner, who has tolerated all sorts of bad behavior from his tea party crew dropped the hammer on three of the most uncooperative and yanked them off their committees. Obama all of a sudden looks like LBJ on this issue—twisting arms and making late night phone calls. McConnell, who has never met a filibuster he didn’t like especially if it is to stop something that Obama wants to do—well, he’s helping line up his entire caucus and helping line up Democratic votes.
It makes me wonder… what if it was all just theater all along?
The TPP, based on the little I’ve been able to get to, allows for the creation of an extra national power structure that can sue and win against national governments if a corporation’s ability to make profits is constrained.
The ruling body will be extra judicial. The proceedings will be binding to the signatories. The proceedings will also be secret.
Intellectual property rights will be vastly expanded and lengthened. Patents on drugs will be extended with ease if small modifications are made to the existing formula. If local regulations and law get in the way they can be challenged in a secret tribunal—a tribunal whose rulings are binding on signatories.
Barriers between countries will be erased.
The little I know about the TPP leaves me with the impression that the largest global corporations in the world were given a seat at the table and they have written a draft that is the wish list of every corporation in the world. This is an agreement that could fundamentally alter the balance of power between governments and large, globe spanning corporations.
The TPP did not just start this year or the year before. This has been going on a long time.
What if this was the end game all along? What if this was Obama’s primary task—to make sure that this became solid reality. What if that is why his way into the White House was so smooth and his inauguration almost a coronation? What if all that happened after that was to distract us from what has really been the goal all along—cementing globalism into place?
I feel that sickening feeling that tells me that the other shoe is dropping. Based on the little I know I see a global, corporate based hegemony being established. This hegemony will exist completely independently from the nation states that have negotiated it into existence. I believe that we are seeing to creation of global corporate governance that will render much of our law, customs, and traditions moot.
What if this is what was planned all along and Obama was our Manchurian Candidate?
That’s sure what it looks like from here.
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