So a friend spotted me his private jet in Mombasa so I could check out the great energy plays here in Africa, and his pilot must have overheard some of my conversation, because he started asking me about Peabody Energy as an investment.  And you know, I like to humor these people–  asking about “investments.”  He was worried that Peabody was “risky because it has a long history of repeated labor violations, damaging the environment, dodging taxes, and generally being a bad actor in the communities in which it operates.”

I have to laugh on the inside.  These guys…this poor schlub…he thinks those are red flags…but to me, and guys like me, those are green lights.  And green means go where I come from.  And Peabody offers more…much more!  You have to lift the skirt up to see how far these legs go, and they go all the way up on this gal.

First you got a global foot print…then you got different corporate entities, then you got creative accounting, and most of all you’ve got a board room that’s packed with people from the only place that matters– Wall Street! Peabody energy is not a domestic US energy company, it’s really an international financial company.

It isn’t run by guys that ever mined coal or drilled a well.  These aren’t guys that handled shipping or managed sales in those industries, they didn’t invent technologies that operate deep under the earth.  No no my friend– these guys came up making deals!   And right now these guys are on the inside of the biggest deal for corporate citizens in history…I am talking about the TPP.  The Trans Pacific Partnership! It’s the secret plan that gives corporations like Peabody absolute power over your life.

Now my friend’s pilot is a US Air Force veteran and a perfectly nice guy.  He’s probably making some good coin flying my friend’s bombardier 700 around, and I certainly get his impulse to make money.  But he doesn’t understand that his future is not about the earnings from his investments, it’s about the loss of his powers as a US citizen.

Mayday mayday— you’re about to lose your democracy and national sovereignty to global corporations!  Assume the crash position!