I'm big on Call of Duty. I play on PS4 under "ParaquatGSX" if anyone wants to add me.

Anyway, the latest one had a very interesting plot, under the tag line "Power changes everything".
The plot synopsis:
A mercenary company (a la Blackwater) called Atlas is for hire to the higest bidder.
Atlas eventually becomes more potent than the US Military.
Atlas now challenges the military.
It's all fantasy, and I enjoy playing it. I enjoy the IDEA of the plot.

Quick video with a voice over by one of the main characters played by Kevin Spacey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFu5qXMuaJU


If you're only going to watch one video, watch this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUysNWHffWg

In the game, Spacey boasts that "Atlas has the largest standing military in the world" and "...answers to no country".

At one minute, 40 seconds in during a meeting with the chiefs of staff , one states,
"An operation on foreign sovereign soil would be an act of war without congressional approval.
To which Spacey angrily replies,
"Atlas is an internationally registered private company. We don't need congress."

It's interesting considering it's a year old already.
But then, yesterday, I heard about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Companies, as individuals, can sue countries over things like worker's rights and EPA regulations.
An interesting part of this agreement is that it can't be discussed for 4 years after it's voted in?

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/12/the_10_biggest_lies_youve_been_told_about_the...

I'm out of time for my morning break but I'll chime in with more articles later. This whole thing is fishy and giving corporations WAYYYY too much power.


--Steve

https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/press.html

Current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei. The TPP is the largest economic treaty in history, including countries that represent more than 40 per cent of the world´s GDP.

The Investment Chapter highlights the intent of the TPP negotiating parties, led by the United States, to increase the power of global corporations by creating a supra-national court, or tribunal, where foreign firms can "sue" states and obtain taxpayer compensation for "expected future profits". These investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals are designed to overrule the national court systems. ISDS tribunals introduce a mechanism by which multinational corporations can force governments to pay compensation if the tribunal states that a country's laws or policies affect the company's claimed future profits. In return, states hope that multinationals will invest more. Similar mechanisms have already been used. For example, US tobacco company Phillip Morris used one such tribunal to sue Australia (June 2011 – ongoing) for mandating plain packaging of tobacco products on public health grounds; and by the oil giant Chevron against Ecuador in an attempt to evade a multi-billion-dollar compensation ruling for polluting the environment. The threat of future lawsuits chilled environmental and other legislation in Canada after it was sued by pesticide companies in 2008/9. ISDS tribunals are often held in secret, have no appeal mechanism, do not subordinate themselves to human rights laws or the public interest, and have few means by which other affected parties can make representations.


Derived from:  Classification Guidance  
dated March 4, 2010
Reason:   1.4(b)
Declassify on:  Four  years  from  entry  into
force of the TPP agreement or,
if  no  agreement  enters  into
force, four years from the close
of the negotiations.


--Steve

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 05/15/15 at 09:25:14:


I havent done enough investigation yet, so I'll surmise.

Who came up with it? A consortium of some sort.
What does it do? Makes a corporation, under the protections of an individual, more powerful than entire COUNTRIES.
It lets the corporation do whatever it wants, regardless, or it has the power to SUE the offender.


--Steve

Now, now, Art, That can't be true because I've been talking about it and saying it was coming and Nothing I've said has ever happened. Ask Web.
Hell tell you.