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(Picture from citizen.org)

Anyone who grew up playing sports is probably familiar with the term head-fake. A head-fake is a classic misdirection move. A player looks one way, gets their opponent turned in that direction, and then darts off the other way, leaving the confused defender staring into space. Right now, our president and many other political leaders, as well as the media, are head-faking us. While the attention of the American public is being turned towards residual evils lingering from an ill-conceived confederation of the past, a dangerous, new, corporate confederation is being concocted just outside of our periphery.

I’ve voiced my opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership before. TPP is the latest so-called “free trade” agreement, that has very little do with trade, and is, in fact, designed to counter certain democratic freedoms that corporate fat cats consider pesky. One American liberty that is particularly annoying to our capitalist kings is the freedom to pass and enforce national laws pertaining to the environment, labor, immigration, intellectual property, etc. Any law that raises the costs of doing business, such as a tax on pollution, a fine for oil spills or an increased minimum wage, is bad for their bottom line, never mind the benefits that such laws may provide for the vast majority of the population. TPP aims to create a mechanism by which wealthy, multi-national corporations can essentially override these tiresome national laws. That mechanism is an international arbitration panel, composed of corporate lawyers, which would allow corporations to sue a country, including the U.S., in the event that a national law eats into the company’s projected profits.

My purpose in writing this article isn’t to examine the specifics of the TPP, but rather to question the way in which it has been intentionally kept out of sight from American public. Think about what you’ve seen in the news this week. Every major news station has been reporting non-stop on the tragic shooting in Charleston, SC. Republican politicians have suddenly started rallying people to abolish the Confederate flag, as though that is the mystical source of racism within this country. Obama is delivering the eulogy of a person who he never even knew in order to show his support for ending racism in America. He even threw out the notorious N word in an interview on the subject to stir the pot and keep people talking about this horrific shooting, and speculating as to the real, root cause. Meanwhile, right beneath our noses, the Senate has advanced a measure that all but ensures the acceptance of the TPP. Our entire system of governance is about to take on a completely new, and constitutionally dubious dimension, and we’re focused on President Obama’s use of the N word. That, my friends, is a head-fake.

I’m not saying that the Charleston tragedy doesn’t deserve our attention. What Dylan Roof did was undeniably despicable, and it does serve as a reminder that racism still exists in this country. However, if this trade agreement is quietly adopted while the American public is obsessing over how abhorable this isolated incident was, the consequences will far eclipse the evil perpetrated by Dylan Roof. That statement probably comes across as pretty callous to a lot of people, which is exactly why this is such a good head-fake.

The cruelty of senseless violence and overt racism are deeply disturbing to the majority of Americans, and people in general. They excite our emotions and confound our ability to reason. We cannot help but grasp for an explanation, and demand some kind of retribution when these types of heart-rending events occur. When we are constantly exposed to, and reminded of them, as we have been in this instance, we tend to get tunnel vision. We naturally react with anger, fear and a sense of injustice that commands our attention and clouds our judgement. That is exactly what the proponents of the TPP want for us at this critical moment. They want us to be fired up about something totally unrelated to the appalling attack on American freedom and sovereignty that they are currently plotting. They want us to be off our guard, looking in the other direction when they slip this atrocious piece of corporate, profit-mongering legislation right past us.

We, the public, as well as our elected representatives, have not been made privy to all the specifics of this gargantuan trade agreement. Only the President and his corporate co-conspirators, who wrote the agreement under the auspices of “consultants,” know the entirety of what’s contained within it’s nebulous abyss of legalese. Obama has kept the trade documents classified as a “matter of national security.” I find that justification highly suspect, as almost every other nation in the world has been able to review the document. Elizabeth Warren says that “national security” is not the real reason why Obama has refused to reveal the details of this agreement. Senator Warren claims that supporters of the deal have told her that the TPP’s content has to be kept secret because “if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.” I’m already scared to death of what I do know about this agreement, and I can only imagine the obscured dangers lurking within.

Obama has been railing against the lingering artifacts of ill-advised, national policies from the distant past, but we need to be focused on potent threats posed by the national policies that might manifest themselves in the imminent future. We are at a critical turning point in American history, and at this pivotal moment, we, the defenders of democracy, can’t afford to get head-faked.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]