ThirstyFish

A lot of people - all over the world and increasing in numbers - are feeling that way. Although all signs point to an impending environmental collapse if we don't rethink our dependence on fossil fuels very soon, we are finding out that 88% of Congress is on the gas industry payroll. While President Obama is giving speeches on economic mobility, he is secretly attempting to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another "free trade" agreement with potential grave consequences. The TPP threatens jobs here in the U.S., and will lead to the deregulation and reconfiguration of every aspect of the economy, from healthcare, to environmental laws, intellectual property laws, the Internet and more. Past trade agreements and past deregulation left us with NAFTA which led to the loss of 700,000 jobs, and the 2008 financial crisis. One has to ask, unreservedly, who can be the real beneficiaries of a "secret" trade agreement, negotiated by over 600 "corporate trade advisors" that is hidden from the congress, i.e., until it is ready to be rubber-stamped?

In 1938, the "great" American public intellectual, writer, political commentator Walter Lippmann concluded that: Public opinion is irrelevant to the policy-making process. Political leaders ignore public opinion because most Americans can neither "understand nor influence the very events upon which their lives and happiness are known to depend". This idea has determined the political discourse ever since - that, we the people, do not know what is good for us, whereas, politicians and corporate executives do. So, the media keeps us in the dark on serious issues, and politicians do as they please. But what happens to, us the people, when politicians serve only corporations, and corporate executives serve politicians? I guess Lippmann overlooked that fine point.

I usually write these daily posts up a few days before they come online. The Huffington Post just put up two damning front page headlines: "Company Man" and "Leaked Documents: Obama Administration Seeking Radical New Political Powers For Corporations". Remember this post? "You can not give a 'I feel your pain, everything is going to be alright' speech one day, and sign political powers away to corporations the next"!