Don Quijones — Uruguay Does Unthinkable, Rejects Global Corporatocracy [TiSA]

Often referred to as the Switzerland of South America, Uruguay is long accustomed to doing things its own way. It was the first nation in Latin America to establish a welfare state. It also has an unusually large middle class for the region and unlike its giant neighbors to the north and west, Brazil and Argentina, is largely free of serious income inequality.

Two years ago, during José Mujica’s presidency, Uruguay became the first nation to legalize marijuana in Latin America, a continent that is being ripped apart by drug trafficking and its associated violence and corruption of state institutions.
Now Uruguay has done something that no other semi-aligned nation on this planet has dared to do: it has rejected the advances of the global corporatocracy.…

Despite – or more likely because of – its symbolic importance, Uruguay’s historic decision has been met by a wall of silence. Beyond the country’s borders, mainstream media has refused to cover the story.…

This post is more about the spread of Global Corporatocracy through trade agreements being spearheaded by the US. It is about TiSA in particular, which includes more countries that TTP and TTIP combined.

Important.

Good summary of what we know about TiSA as the installation of neoliberal global corporatocracy and why not only Uruguay but also China and Russia are right in opposing it. It is the end of liberal democracy and the institution of plutocracy. Since the US has written the rules, it would give the US power elite and their cronies permanent global hegemony to extract rent without limitation.

The contents of TiSA would not be revealed publicly until five years after ratification.

There agreements are being designed as the final step enclosure and the suppression of democratic governance by neoliberal global corporatocracy.

This is a power play on a grand scale and little Uruguay has courageously said "nothing doing" to the gringos.

Pass this on.

Wolf Street
Uruguay Does Unthinkable, Rejects Global Corporatocracy
Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET

Gaius Publius — All you need to know about the TPP "trade agreement" — corporate sovereignty

A year or so ago I wrote that coming into office, Obama had four high-priority "legacy" items: 

▪ Health care “reform” — a privatized alternative to Medicare expansion
▪ A “Grand Bargain” in which social insurance benefits are rolled back
▪ Plentiful oil & gas, and passage of the Keystone pipeline
▪ Passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement

While he accomplished the first almost immediately, and while we now have "plentiful oil & gas" (not a good thing from a climate standpoint), the other three remain stalled. But look for each of them to re-rear its head, thanks to the strengthened bipartisan corporate majority in Congress.…

Leaked clauses in the TPP would allow foreign banks to sue the U.S. to overturn bank regulations — a wet dream for Wall Street. Programs to "buy American" could be effectively outlawed, since the redress when a corporation wins in the "tribunals" is payment by the losing entity (the sovereign state or local government) of lost future profits.

Bottom line, this enshrines into the Constitution (via the Supremacy Clause) a set of corporate-controlled tribunals that are higher in standing than the U.S. Supreme Court.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; 

Treaties like these — TPP, TTIP and all their cousins — create a network of enforceable international laws in which corporations hold sovereign power. That's all you need to know to explain and oppose them. (And if you're wondering why Barack Obama, of all people, would be in for them, I suggest you don't know Barack Obama.)

Hullabaloo
All you need to know about the TPP "trade agreement" — corporate sovereignty
Gaius Publius

Joyce Nelson — Monsanto and Ukraine

Hidden from mainstream media exposure, the World Bank and IMF loan has opened up Ukraine to major corporate inroads, writes Joyce Nelson. Loan conditions are forcing the deeply indebted country to open up to GMO crops, and lift the ban on private sector land ownership. US corporations are jubilant at the 'goldmine' that awaits them.
Ukraine and, to a wider extent, Eastern Europe, are among the most promising growth markets for farm-equipment giant Deere, as well as seed producers Monsanto and DuPont. 

Finally, a little-known aspect of the crisis in Ukraine is receiving some international attention. 

The California-based Oakland Institute recently released a report revealing that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), under terms of their $17 billion loan to Ukraine, would open that country to genetically-modified (GM) crops and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture. 

The report is entitled 'Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict'. 

In late 2013, the then president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected a European Union association agreement tied to the $17 billion IMF loan, whose terms are only now being revealed. 

Instead, Yanukovych chose a Russian aid package worth $15 billion plus a discount on Russian natural gas. His decision was a major factor in the ensuing deadly protests that led to his ouster from office in February 2014 and the ongoing crisis.

The (not so) hidden agenda. As always, follow the money.

Counterpunch
Monsanto and UkraineJoyce Nelson

Don Quijones — The Global Corporatocracy Is Just A Pen Stroke Away From Completion

Quietly, subtly, almost imperceptibly, the rules governing global trade and financial markets are changing. It is not happening by accident, but by wilful design. Despite the enormous impact it will have on all our lives, the public is not being consulted on any aspects of the process. Most people are not even aware it is happening.

The main driver of this change are the bilateral and multilateral trade and investment treaties being negotiated in complete secrecy and behind closed doors between corporate lobbyists, free trade activists and our own elected “representatives” (a term I use in the loosest possible sense, especially given the context). The ultimate goal of these treaties is to reconfigure the legal apparatus and superstructures that govern national, regional and global trade and business – for the primary, if not exclusive, benefit of the world’s largest multinational corporations.

Repost of a June, 2014 article.

Why is this so important other than for the obvious neoliberal "new world order" reasons? Because it threatens national sovereignty, and national sovereignty is presently the basis for legal rights, including civil liberties and human rights. Erosion of national sovereignty threatens civil liberties and human rights in the absence of international legislative, executive, and judicial institutions including courts to deal with them. What is more important, contracts involving property rights, or civil liberties and human rights?

Based on the draft copy recently released by Wikileaks, the treaty seeks to (among many other things): 

• “Lock in” the privatisations of services – even in cases where private service delivery has failed – meaning governments can never return water, energy, health, education or other services to public hands.
• Restrict a government’s right to regulate stronger standards in the public’s interest. For example, it will affect environmental regulations, licensing of health facilities and laboratories, waste disposal centres, power plants, school and university accreditation and broadcast licenses.
• Specifically limit the ability of governments to regulate the financial services industry at exactly the time when the global economy is still recovering from a crisis caused by financial deregulation.

The trade treaties are not just about rewriting laws; they are also about enforcing them. As the author of Debt Generation, David Malone, explained in a recent talk on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements (essential viewing for anyone interested in the subject), what gives trade treaties such as TTIP and TISA their “claws and teeth” is the inclusion of an innocuous-sounding provision called the “investor-state dispute settlement.” This effectively allows private companies to sue entire nations if they feel that a law lost them money on their investment.

The outcome:

As I warned in early November 2013, the global corporatocracy is almost fully operational. The intentions of those negotiating the multiple trade treaties are now crystal clear: to place complete power and control over our economies in the hands of the largest global corporations, many of which bear the lion’s share of responsibility for the economic and environmental mess we’re already in. 

In the meantime, the clock continues to tick down. At any moment, a few quiet strokes of a pen behind the tightly closed doors of a luxury conference room could usher in a new age of corporate domination. With it will come a new kind of dystopia, bearing an uncanny likeness to the inverted totalitarianism foreseen by Sheldon Wolin.

Raging Bull-shit

The Global Corporatocracy Is Just A Pen Stroke Away From Completion
Don Quijones

Wikipedia — Inverted totalitarianism

Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 to describe the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin believes that the United States is increasingly turning into an illiberal democracy, and he uses the term "inverted totalitarianism" to illustrate the similarities and differences between the United States governmental system and totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.[1][2][3][4] In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, inverted totalitarianism is described as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics.[5] In inverted totalitarianism, every natural resource and every living being is commodified and exploited to collapse and the citizenry are lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in their government by excess consumerism and sensationalism.

Contents
1 Inverted totalitarianism and managed democracy1.1 Managed democracy2 See also3 Notes4 References5 External links

See also
SuperpowerCorporatocracyNeoliberalismIlliberal democracyTotalitarian democracyAmericanism (ideology)Prison-industrial complex

Inverted totalitarianism
Wikipedia