Monsanto Knows What's Good For You

 Another black eye for the president.  First, he signed the NDAA - authorizing sweeping changes that expand his powers and move us one step closer to a police state.  Now he's appointed the fox to watch over the hen house - making Monsanto-boy Michael Taylor an advisor on food safety for the FDA.  Couldn't you just die laughing?

 Family farmers are about to go to court, suing Monsanto for contaminating their organic crops with GMO seeds. FoodDemocracyNow.org writes:  "In the past two decades, Monsanto’s seed monopoly has grown so powerful that they control the genetics of nearly 90% of five major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

 

In many cases farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 144 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. Due to these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy."

And our president has appointed Michael Taylor, a Monsanto-VP, to advise on food safety.

Did I miss something?  Didn't Monsanto make floor cleaners?  Now they're a massive chemical company.  And we want their advice on food safety?

Monsanto Man to Advise on Food Safety

Michael Taylor - Monsanto's Man in the FDA

Angry yet?  Start yelling.

write to the White House

Land of the Tax and Home of the Papagallo

I've been trying to keep my mouth shut, remembering my mother's advice about what to do when you don't have anything good to say.  But what Americans accept as a presidential primary campaign is too much for me.  The hypocrisy on every side is remarkable, but the stupidity and mindless acceptance of well-funded lies by the voting public is mind boggling.

I am not immersed in this - it makes me too angry.  I can just skim off the top of the headlines and explain why I cannot dive deeper - there is no clean air down there at all.

Yet a nation of bobble head dolls believes what it hears, or worse, knows it's all crap and rationalizes it away.


Allow me to begin with Newt Gingrich (what an perfect name for such a lizard) - the man of the people who will take on the Washington "insiders".  He was Speaker of the House, a lobbyist for Freddie Mac (a government agency) and he made millions for other lobbies by helping them gain access to government decision makers.   Am I expected to believe that because you say you're not part of the corrupt, incestuous system, Newt, you're not?

In your twisted brain, the answer is probably yes.  You live by the mantra of do as I say, not as I do.  That is evidenced by your behavior - you were the first Speaker of the House to be disciplined for an ethics violation, your personal behavior is serially repugnant and rather than take responsibility for it, you blame your ex-wives and the press.  It's the behavior of a two year old - throw dirt on someone else in hopes your own filth isn't noticed.  You are not only an insider with huge wealth amassed because of your public career, you're morally destitute.

Yet I heard a home-schooling evangelical mother who drove several states to campaign for the lizard explain away his behavior, saying, "If he's made his peace with God, and I believe he has, I can't ask for more."

Oh yes you can.  And I do.  I expect a hell of a lot more from a man who wants to lead a country.  Why doesn't everyone?

Mitt Romney - he's the man who seems destined to be no one's favorite, the wealthy handsome guy who somehow just doesn't do it for anyone.  There's not a poor man among any of the candidates, but he's become the Richie Rich of the GOP field.  That's what seems to bother most voters.  Plus he's too moderate, too reasoned and just a little too inclined to waffle.  Voters appear to want a snarling, snapping junkyard dog, not a photogenic cardboard cutout.  He is running simply because it's his turn to steer.

Rick Santorum - another candidate with a twisted sense of how the rules apply to him.  He's not a fan of public schools - in fact his own kids were home schooled.  That's a wonderful luxury in a world where most folks can't pay the rent if both parents don't work. But he also enrolled his kids in an online charter school (which came under investigation for other reasons) for which Santorum's home school district in Pennsylvania had to pay the bill.  Just one problem - they were living in Virginia.  When the story broke, the charter school offered to let the kids stay for free if Santorum would pay just the costs for the technology they used.  Santorum pulled the kids out.  The state ended up paying $55,000 to the school to settle up.

Then there's Ron Paul.  He's got a lot to say that resonates with folks who are fed up with an insatiable system that's only goal is to perpetuate itself.  But he's also been the author of a newsletter that's spewed some incredible quotes - were gays really better off when they were forced to stay in the closet, Ron?  He's made some sweeping generalizations about minorities that literally make me cringe.  He's a man comfortable with conspiracy theory and survivalists.  I don't mock the conspiracy theorists - just because you're paranoid doesn't mean everyone isn't out to get you.  But there's a thin line between skepticism and paranoia and Ron Paul gets too cozy with the extreme side of those questions.

Lest I leave anyone out, let me say that the irony of the fact that our president, the winner of the Nobel Prize, has proven to be the most effective assassin of any president in recent memory is not lost on me.  The massive power grab of the NDAA - giving him the authority to indefinitely detail any belligerants, including US citizens - is a solidification of an imperial presidency that somehow the public is still able to ignore.

This is not a democracy.  Let's stop pretending it is.  It's not socialism, either. That's a smokescreen.

This is the Empire of America and it is led by an elite ruling class and supported through the taxation of the public, which has the privilege of choosing which of a limited field of elite players will be chosen to make future policy.

In a land where corporations are people and the serfs pay ever-increasing premiums to the empire to be allowed to work until they can't work anymore, where children are sent to centers to be kept safe while both parents work to pay the bills, where those same children are later sent to die in wars that are about profit while a flag of principle waves over the real motives, where health care and higher education are not a right but a privilege, where basic education is increasingly under fire, where the old and the sick must fight for basic care and dignity, how can we use the word democracy? 

Let's call it what it is - it's an empire.  And don't tell me there's a presidential race that needs to be decided.  It's already decided - it doesn't matter who wins - the nuances may be different, but the basics are the same.  The machine will not allow any serious diversion from the only path that matters - the path that leads to the continued growth of the machine.

I knew a man who told me his father used to ask him his opinions of world events.  When he spewed back whatever he'd heard or read, his father chided, "Papagallo...parrot!  Don't tell me what you heard.  Tell me what you think!"

If you must participate in this farce, at least do your research and don't rationalize away hypocrisy. 
Demand answers and accountability.

If you're not speaking out, you're not paying attention

Today's story is a farm bill hammered out in secrecy and planned to be slipped into another bill and voted on without debate.  That, as I recall, is not how policy is supposed to be made in a democracy.  You can read here.
DesMoines Register

The question, to me, is whether I'm willing to take responsibility for knowing what's going on, for educating myself, and for doing something about it.  Emails to legislators work.  Social media helps spread information.  And unless I'm willing to make the effort to be aware and then spread the word, I have no right to complain.

It's hard work.  We can't possibly know all that's going on but we can pay attention to what other people reveal.  Then comes the harder work - getting educated.  Knowing the pros and cons and learning the questions to ask.  And next step is to start talking.  Bring up whatever concerns we encounter - whether they're the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing, the unhealthy impact of mass production and chemicals on our food supply, the inextricable ties between policy makers and big business, the failure of our educational system and the destruction of the middle class. 

It's good work.  It's essential work.

Radical Term Limits - a simple solution

I interviewed Frances Moore Lappe tonight - an inspiring woman who, forty years ago, wrote "Diet For A Small Planet."  She's been advocating for a more sustainable food system, and a better, more sustainable world, ever since.  Her newest book is "Ecomind- Changing the Way We Think To Create the World We Want."

Hunger, poverty, climate change, war - it all boils down, she says, to the need for a "living democracy."  That means a system that actually is for the people and by the people.  And the way to achieve that, she says, is to get the money out of politics.

I've been thinking much the same thing, and my idea is simple:  Radical Term Limits.  Politics was never meant to be a career.  It was a public service.  Let's go back to that concept.  Here's how:  no one, absolutely no one, can hold political office for more than two terms at any level.  Two terms at a local office, two terms at a state level, two terms at a federal level.  Thank you very much for your service. Go home.  Someone else has to step up.  No multiple offices at any level. 

This has to be accompanied by strict transparency requirements for all donations, disclosure of all interests in any businesses, ironclad restrictions on lobbyists.  But radical term limits is the key.

We'd have to have a lot more people involved in government.  That means we'd better educate our population, because a lot of them are going to have to serve.  No one would be in office long and that would make buying politicians a poor investment.  No political insiders - the turnover is too great.

Job security wouldn't be a worry - there wouldn't be any.  Instead of serving their own wallets and career aspirations, politicians would represent the voters who elected them.  Otherwise, one term only.  And the two term limit would ensure that there would be a sense of urgency to accomplish something.

Radical term limits.  Spread the word.

Corporate America - Meet the New Boss

I don't consider myself a raving conspiracy theorist.  But recent events make me wonder if I should reconsider and become one.

The Occupy Movement's central theme is disgust with what corporations are doing.  They control health care. They control media.  They control finances and they control what we eat.  They control energy and they want to control the earth's water supply.

And the bottom line, for all of it, is profit.

I recently interviewed one of the authors of "Good Company", a book that studied the behaviors of the Fortune 100.   They established a list of criteria that studied them as employers, as producers and as stewards of the environment and communities.  And most of them scored no better than a D.

The good news is that the study also showed that those companies who scored better also were more profitable.  Consumers respond positively to good companies.  But most companies studied aim for a quick profit and chew up employees, communities, the environment and produce poor quality products while skirting regulations or break laws while building the cost of fines into the price of doing business.

While researching a story on the shortage of psychiatrists in my region, I found that insurance companies manipulate the market.  They collect profits while offering seemingly-sufficient panels of specialists.  But those panels are composed of doctors who don't accept new patients, who no longer accept their insurance, or who've been dead for years.  Other psychiatrists take only cash because they cannot spend the time filling out the reams of paperwork required by insurance companies.  Treatment centers have to fight with insurance companies to get continuing coverage for patients who still need care.

 Doctors are pressured to prescribe the newest medicines because they have a better profit margin.  Companies spend millions on ad campaigns to get you to ask your doctor for them.

And it's so "normal" we haven't even stopped to ask what the hell is going on. It's capitalism run amok - create the demand to satisfy the needs of an ever hungrier group of investors.  Maximize profit, minimize expense.  Taken to extremes, it means shortcuts.  Cheap labor.  Defective, insufficiently tested products raced to market.  Minimal care with maximum profit.

Thank you, Occupy Wall Street.  You're forcing a second look.  And the view is disturbing.

I Should Do Something --- but What?

I find myself, for the first time, thinking about protesting.  With each day's headlines, I wonder if I should make some sort of grand gesture, even if it's futile.The evidence that we're heading down a bad road continues to pile up and I am seeing no signs of an imminent change of course.

1.  During Republican debates, the audience cheers at the prospect of letting people die.  And executing people.

2.  The US supports the Arab Spring everywhere but in Palestine.

3.  General Electric paid no taxes in  2010.  In fact, we paid THEM to keep making profits.

4.  During the recession, the largest banks have made a massive profit; but Moody's is now downgrading them because of the possibility that if their speculative investments begin to crash, it's possible the US government won't bail them out.  And that could create the very bank crisis scenario the pundits are dreading.

5.  The London riots got front page, first block coverage for days on every news station.  Protesters occupying Wall Street are being ignored by most press outlets.  But not by the NYPD.

6.  Our president will not sacrifice his ambition to the greater good. He made it clear from day one he wanted two terms.  Now, when nothing has made much of an impact on the recession, he will continue to play it safe to ensure his campaign coffers are full for his re-election campaign.

7.   There is no press but the Internet.  Rick Perry didn't win the Florida primary.  Neither did Mitt Romney.  Or anyone else I'd ever heard of.  But I still can tell you nothing about the man who won because the nightly news (NBC, in this instance) simply mentioned what a stunning upset it was, then did another story on the two candidates they already had stories on:  Mitt and Rick.
  Nice, Lester Holt.  Are you executive producer when you're at that fancy desk?

8.  College students can't find jobs.  So they're racking up more students loans to stay in school, hoping things will improve in a year or two.

9.  8.8 million people worked part time in August because it's the only work they could find.  16.1 percent of American workers are underemployed.  31% of the workforce was underemployed at some point in 2009.

10.  Desperation for cash is a major part of the conversation as states consider hydraulic fracturing, the effects of which were illustrated so pointedly in "Gasland".

There is fast money to be made.  The long term environmental impacts may be far more expensive to deal with.  How much does it cost to import enough drinking water for an entire state?  Several states?

That's just ten items off the top of my head.  The actual list is far longer.  I haven't even mentioned our multiple wars, the fortunes being made by hired mercenaries, our unhealthy mass produced food, our continued discrimination against people who don't look like us.

It's feeling like last days of the Roman Empire to me.  And the thought that keeps crossing my mind is that I should just start walking.  Walk from New York to California and back to Washington.  Criss cross the country, bring a recorder and document what I find along the way.  I know I'm a speck in the ocean, but if I did it long enough, maybe it might get some notice.  Maybe it'll force a conversation.  Or maybe I'm mixing up political activism with Forrest Gump.


 

Maybe a hunger strike?  I suspect I would starve to death before any real change occurred.

And so I feel helpless.  For now.  But if there were enough people like me, who are tired of emotional toddlers running the world, maybe there is something we could accomplish together.

The UK Is Burning

I have been listening to the news from the UK and it is both terrifying and heartbreaking.  It is also ominous.

Terrifying because the thought of gangs of angry, destructive people roaming the cities in packs, destroying everything in their path, is one that makes me feel particularly powerless.  How do you reason with a pack?

Heartbreaking because the "authorities" whose authority is being rejected are reacting like disapproving parents.  I actually heard one government spokesman say, "If they'll go home and behave we'll talk to them."  Behave?  Up until now, they have.  And no one talks to them.  That's not how the game is played.  Power talks to dissent when it can no longer ignore it.

Heartbreaking because there has to be a reason this is happening.  People don't just suddenly explode into violence.  They burn, slowly and steadily, for a long time.  They simmer.  If the heat isn't turned down, they boil.  And at some point, they boil over or blow up.

I don't condone violence.  I don't argue that there's anything justified about the destruction, the looting, the theft.  But I know there has got to be a REASON.  I found a Londoner's blog today that offers a damned good guess at what's happening.  Everyday people have nothing to lose and that is dangerous.


Meet Penny Red.  And pay attention.  Don't think this is a strictly UK phenomenon, you great embarrassments in Washington.

Panic in the Streets