Republican Congressman Wants to Prevent States from Labeling GMO products

Rep. Mike Pompeo must be busier than a one-arm paper hanger.  Or in his case, busier than a single-mouthed CEO-blower.  Mike Pompeo is already the Koch Brothers' favorite boy toy.  And on top of that, he's giving 24/7/365 blowjobs to Monsanto executives as well.

He's introduced the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act.”  George Orwell couldn't have come up with a better name than that for a law that's designed to protect food companies from having to list their ingredients. 

So far, not a single state has passed a law requiring food labels to disclose the presence of genetically modified (GMO) products.  Several states have had this proposal on a ballot initiative, and these initiatives have always been voted down after a $20-40 million dollar ad blitz financed by the Monsanto/Agribusiness syndicate.

But just in case one of these states actually does pass a GMO labeling requirement, Mike Pompeo wants to preempt this little problem at the federal level.  States' rights, doncha know.

With Monsanto's jism squiring out of his mouth, Pompeo spluttered out something that sounded like:

“We’ve got a number of states that are attempting to put together a patchwork quilt of food labeling requirements with respect to genetic modification of foods.  That makes it enormously difficult to operate a food system. Some of the campaigns in some of these states aren’t really to inform consumers but rather aimed at scaring them. What this bill attempts to do is set a standard.”

Very good, Mike!  Excellent job of reciting exactly what Monsanto told you to say.  OK, you can wipe off your mouth and stand up now, and — oh wait, not so fast!  A group of Grocery Manufacturers Association lobbyists just walked in, and they want sloppy seconds.  Get back on your knees!

Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA): the new Koch Industries

When it comes to corporate juggernauts, the Grocery Manufacturers Association is right up there with the fossil fuel industry, the banking cartel and “defense” contractors.  Or maybe the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would be a better comparison.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce does intense lobbying and bribing on behalf of its corporate members.  And when they make political “donations,” nobody knows which company provided the funding.  All we know is, the money was contributed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This is called money laundering.  And this is exactly what the Grocery Manufacturers Association does.  When the Grocery Manufacturers Association bribes politicians and purchases elections, nobody knows which members of the Food Syndicate provided the funding.  Was it Safeway?  Tyson Foods?  Pepsi?  Burger King?  Nope, it was the Grocery Manufacturers Association.  That's all you need to know.  Move along.

I hadn't even heard of the Grocery Manufacturers Association — what an innocuous-sounding name — until last Fall when they spent tens of millions of dollars convincing Washington voters that they didn't really want this cumbersome new law that would have required all GMO foods to be labeled.  Washington voters had originally thought they wanted this GMO-labeling law, but after a relentless ad campaign, they realized what an expensive intrusive law this would be; and the initiative got voted down.  (This exact same sequence happened earlier in California.)

The State of Washington has strict campaign disclosure laws, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association had to pay a fine for not revealing the specific companies that had financed their campaign.  Plus they ultimately had to disclose these companies' identities anyway.  The Grocery Manufacturers Association reacted the way all good corporate citizens react when they've violated a law:  They're suing to have Washington's campaign disclosure laws overturned.

And at the national level, the Grocery Manufacturers Association is bribing Congress to pass a federal law that would prevent states from passing any GMO-labeling laws in the future.  Washington and California were too close for comfort.  One of these years, a state's voters might actually be smart enough to vote for a GMO-labeling initiative no matter how many jillions of dollars Monsanto and the GMA have spent to brainwash the voters.  Can't let this happen.  Thank God the Grocery Manufacturers Association is nipping this little problem in the bud.

Washington Voters: Bought and Paid For by Monsanto

Washington ALMOST became the first state to require labeling of GMO products.  When the initiative — I-522 — first got enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, it looked like a slam dunk.  Who could be against a simple labeling requirement?  Food companies already have to tell us when their products contain maltodextrin, xanthan, BHT and hundreds of other additives.  Why should genetically modified organisms be any different?  Methinks Monsanto is hiding something.

Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association — a huge money-laundering organization that enables food companies to make anonymous political donations without jeopardizing their public image — together spent $22 million to purchase the election.  That’s more than twice as much per voter as they spent in California to defeat the same initiative, Proposition 37.

Out of that $22 million, exactly $550.00 came from within Washington State.  The other $21,999,450.00 came from national/global corporate conglomerates.  This fact was widely reported, but unfortunately it didn’t have any effect on the gullible voting public.

In other election news:  Chris Christie coasted to re-election (as we all knew he would), setting himself up to be Hillary’s most likely opponent in 2016.

It was generally a bad day to be a Teabagger. Thank God.  Ken Cuccinelli got defeated in his run for Governor of Virginia, mostly because wealthy Republican donors didn’t donate to him.

Same story in Alabama.  In a congressional GOP runoff, mainstream Republican Bradley Byrne defeated Teabirther candidate Dean Young.  Maybe the mainstream/non-teatard Republican Party is getting its groove back.

New York City’s Mayor-Elect, Bill de Blasio, has been described as the first genuinely liberal New York City mayor since John Lindsay, who was — this is not a typo — a Republican.

The “No on I-522” Campaign: a Guide to the Skankiest Prostitutes

If you’re a resident of Washington State, you’ve already been swamped with brochures and TV/radio ads warning about the “dangers” of Initiative 522.  If you live in California, I-522 is the same as Proposition 37:  requiring food labels to say whether or not their products contain any genetically modified organisms (GMO).  Food companies have been required to label all of their ingredients since at least the early 1970s.  What’s different about GMO products?  What’s the GMO syndicate trying to hide?

California’s Prop. 37 was way ahead in the polls, until Monsanto spent tens of jillions of dollars to scare California voters.  It worked.  Prop. 37 ended up losing.  And now Monsanto and its allies are flooding Washington with gazillions of dollars worth of lies, hoping to defeat I-522.

As of now, I-522 is heavily favored by the public.  We’ll have to hope Washington voters will be smarter than their California counterparts.

Monsanto has a long reach.  It has more tentacles than anyone ever imagined.  Monsanto’s little black book is a Who’s Who of highly paid prostitutes.  The Seattle Times had a full page editorial last Sunday urging a “No” vote on I-522.  I wonder how much they got paid for that, and who paid it?

A former Washington attorney general, Ken Eikenberry, is one of the ringleaders of the No on I-522 campaign.  How the mighty have fallen.  He once held one of the highest elective offices in a large progressive state.  Now he’s spending his retirement years sucking Monsanto’s dick.  How sad is that.

Another large contributor to the No on I-522 campaign is the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).  The GMA is like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — basically just a huge money launderer.  The GMA has  donated $2.2 million to the No on I-522 campaign.  And they’ve refused to name the food companies whose money this is.  These companies want to purchase an election but they’re afraid to crawl out from under their rocks and show us who they are.  Enter the money launderer.

And it gets worse.  Monsanto and the GMA even have a judge listed in their little black book.  Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham not only ruled against a group that had filed a suit to find out the anonymous donors to the GMA — he also fined the plaintiff $10,000 for having filed the lawsuit.  The plaintiff — Moms For Labeling — was also ordered to pay GMA’s court costs in addition to the $10,000 fine.  Moms For Labeling’s attorney said:

“This sets an incredibly scary precedent for future concerned citizens who speak out against powerful corporations who violate our public disclosure laws.”

Scary indeed.