By Jon Rappoport
Is the US Senate a representative body or a mafia?
(Read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed.)
“In acting, sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” — George Burns
In a previous article, I asked: on what legal basis must US (and other nations’) legislators obey a code of silence about the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty?
They can only read partial drafts and summaries of the trade pact, and then they can’t tell anyone what they’ve read.
It’s a version of “pass the bill and then you can read it and find out what’s in it.”
No problem, except a significant chunk of 12 nations’ futures are riding on the details of this treaty, which, from the leaks we’ve seen, is a boon for mega-corporations and a nightmare for populations.
In the US, Senators, who must vote for the treaty in order for it to pass, go into sealed rooms and look at text—excerpts from drafts, summations—and then emerge, knowing they can be arrested if they open their mouths to anyone.
A source close to the treaty negotiations has given me the legal basis for this law of omertà:
National Security classifications that designate levels of secrecy for government data.
What? That old justification?
Yes. The relevant laws and regulations are long-standing. They are enforced by the Department of Justice. Various levels of classified data are set by agencies within the Executive Branch.
I asked this source (he has read TPP draft-sections and summaries) what the punishment would be for revealing what he knows.
He laughed. “I’m not about to find out,” he said.
Applying “Secret,” “Top Secret,” or other classifications to a treaty that must be voted on, in order to become law, is a unique situation.
It’s one thing to say a federal scientist can’t publicly publish details on how to build an H-bomb. It’s quite another thing to say US Senators can’t reveal, to the American people, what they’re voting on.
There is no Constitutional basis for such an assertion. In fact, it’s a direct violation of the Separation-of-Powers principle.
By assigning National Security secrecy-status to the details of the TPP, the Executive Branch is arbitrarily muzzling the Congress.
We’re witnessing a stunning farce.
Knowing they’ll be arrested, Senators should be spilling details of the TPP to anyone who’ll listen. They should be intentionally creating a Constitutional crisis.
They should be blowing the whistle on the covert attempt to put all Americans under the gun of a secret treaty.
Oh, but wait. That would be a Senate with conscience, and with balls. Not this menagerie of sold-out puppets and twits and party hacks and drunks and shysters and blackmail bait.
That would be a Senate out of some old Hollywood movie, which as a body suddenly rises up in a moment of great decision.
Obama has the chutzpah to tell dissenting members of Congress their criticisms of the TPP “aren’t specific.” He’s baiting them and tickling them, because he knows they’re not allowed to be specific about what they know.
Is there even one Senator who will accept the dare, who’ll step forward, in front of cameras, and recite everything he knows about what’s in the TPP?
If the FBI arrests him, that would set the stage for a fantastic courtroom scene.
We could use a good Constitutional crisis.
It could create a sudden acceleration of fizz in the rotting decaying swamp of Washington DC. It could loosen a few tongues, and a few more choice stench-ridden secrets could come spilling out.
But oh, there I go again, talking about a fictional Senate, one that would require men and women, not ruined shells.
Not hideous caricatures, pretending to be honorable by obsequiously obeying “see something, say nothing.”
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine.
The only senator who seemed to oppose this legislation was Jeff Sessions from Alabama. No International Treaty has been good for American entrepreneurs only helps corporatocracy.
I don’t think Sessions is the only one; there is one honest senator in the bunch and that’s Justin Amash. We would do well to have him as POTUS. Unfortunate that we have a bunch of spineless senators that are supposed to be representing the people but only want to do this self serving POTUS and themselves by lying and lining their own pockets.
I absolutely agree with you concerning Justin Amash. We unfortunately have a short list of honest politicians.
Thank you. We can probably count the good ones on one hand or less. Unfortunate!
The answer is simple: 2nd Amendment. Stock up.
The USA congress and senate are a bunch of fkng children.
Really.
In their little corporate candy crèche.
“You cant read the bill until you’ve voted it through!”
“If you talk about TPP you’re gonna get a hiding”
Fkng sickening!
Doesn’t Mitch McConell look like the creepy old grandfather or uncle you won’t let your kids sit on his lap or be alone with him.
I seem to recall Obama-‘care” was going to save us money and provide stellar care for all.Hummm… had to read it to know what was in it. So why would we trust Obama on an international scale?
Our leaders (with few exceptions) have sold us out and our constitutional rights are becoming a thing of distant past.