Blog Post 8

With all the discussion on the ruling by the SCOTUS today I wanted to take this post in a different direction. Today I had a heated debate with one of my friends in regards to the significance of today's sudden clarity by government to make unconstitutional the right to ban gay marriage. Unless you had not been paying attention, this was inevitable as the laws put into place and the mental gymnastics by the people who made them who would have made the legislators of Jim Crow gleam with pride were frankly, ridiculous. Gay marriage was far and away one of the most socially popular movements of our time and it was just a matter of time and rightfully so, people deserve to make their own decisions about their lives and no one should infringe on another person's free will so long as it doesn't harm anyone else. Having said that, this post is not about gay marriage. This post is about how the government used a conveniently fantastic distraction to prevent the media from focusing their attention on another major issue. Today, president Obama passed legislation that effectively made him the only person in charge of the TTP and TTIP, the two most important trade agreements of the 21st century, two secret agreements between corporations and countries that we, the citizens, are not allowed to know about, and after today are unable to vote on. I know what you're thinking, "Sushen, why am I not allowed to be happy about this monumental historical moment in time?" And I agree with you, I am the quintessential wet blanket, however while this is something to rejoice about, the timing could not have been better for the executive branch to unilaterally extend itself power while distracting the masses about something else. Only time will tell what the details are about in the TTP and TTIP, though leaks have been made available on Wikileaks if anyone is curious, however I for one am not comfortable about the lack of media coverage on these two monumental trade agreements, both of which are rumored to threaten our very sovereignty, while the increased media coverage on issues of controversy such as confederate flags and gay marriage which incite crowds raise suspicion in my mind.