In 2012 and 2013, Utah played host to two conventions for groups overseeing the further decline of economic culture, wages and worker rights and the dismantling of national sovereignty in favor of corporate “rights.”
The first of these was the 2012 convention of the American Legislative Exchange Committee (ALEC), that fraternity of corporate lobbyists and complicit representatives scheming to turn the United States into a minimum-wage haven for every corporate interest imaginable.
The second was the 2013 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) conference. For both of these fraternities of privilege, no wage is too low, worker rights are a horrendous wrong and CEO compensation and corporate welfare subsidies, in all their forms, are never too high. Under these “free-trade” agreements,” job exporters seem to benefit most of all. I give praise to the ALEC Welcoming Committee for their determined nonviolent disruption efforts in 2012 and the hastily planned TPP protest in 2013 in bringing public awareness to both gatherings.
In 2013, Utah also played host to the Baby Killer of Baghdad, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. When asked several years ago about the 1990s Clinton-era Iraqi sanctions she was party to that resulted in the deaths of 500,000-plus Iraqi children, she calmly said it was worth it. Like Dick Cheney before her (who spoke at BYU in 2007), this international war criminal was treated as a person of honor and wisdom.
And the NSA metadata cyber gulag where the U.S. Constitution went to die brings things to an even higher level. With this trend, what will 2014 see? Some counterbalance is needed.
Clee P. Ames
Eureka