House of Representatives Goes Down on Monsanto

On Thursday, July 23, 2015, Monsanto called a meeting of its Harem (formerly known as Congress),  whipped out its dick and commanded its prostitutes to suck on it.  275 congressmen quickly fell to their knees and cried out “How hard, Sir?!?”  “Shall I spit or swallow, Sir?!?”

The lewd scene described above has given birth to the twisted love child known as the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, which hereby prevents state and local governments from requiring GMO foods to be labeled.  The bill was more accurately nicknamed “Deny Americans the Right to Know Act” aka the DARK Act.

Who is Congress' Busiest Skankiest Prostitute? Mike Pompeo

Hands down.  Mike Pompeo is so far ahead of the rest of the harem, it doesn't even matter who comes in second.  It might even be halfway defensible for Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) to be the Koch Brothers' favorite boy toy, since Koch Industries is headquartered in Wichita.  But why Monsanto (headquartered in St. Louis)?

Spreading his legs for Monsanto AND the Koch Brothers?  Mike Pompeo is one busy little beaver.

Mike Pompeo has introduced H.R. 4432, euphemistically named the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act. H.R. 4432 would prohibit any state from passing a law that requires GMO products to be labeled.  And needless to say, H.R. 4432 would invalidate the already-existing GMO labeling laws that several states have already passed.

H.R. 4432 is more accurately called the Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act, aka the DARK Act.

It must be a tough choice for a prostitute/legislator:  Honor the 90% of Americans who want GMO products to be labeled, or keep giving endless blowjobs to Monsanto and the Koch Brothers.

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!

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.

Bayer Throws Tantrum over Pesticide Ban, Sues Europe

At this rate, Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta will be starring in their own dystopian documentary — “It Sued The World.”

Bayer and Syngenta are suing the European Union in order to preserve their right to keep dousing the world with pesticides.  Scientific research has concluded that neonicotinoid pesticides — manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta — are the cause of the worldwide honeybee die-off.  In response, the European Union established a two-year ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, in the hope of saving the bee population.  Or in other words, saving the world’s food supply.

Hence the lawsuit. 

Here are some more links.

If the Poison Industrial Complex is successful in their lawsuit against the European Union, who will they sue next?

Please sign this petition asking Bayer and Syngenta to drop their lawsuit against the European Union.

Seventy-Three U.S. Senators Went Down on Monsanto

Yesterday the U.S. Senate defeated a farm bill amendment which would have allowed states to require the labeling of genetically modified foods.  Again, this amendment didn’t require GMO foods (genetically modified organisms) to be labeled; it simply left the matter up to individual state legislatures.

What happened to that “local autonomy” and “states’ rights” that conservatives are always blubbering about?

And why the fuck are we still arguing about food labels???  In 2012???  Since at least the 1970s we’ve been checking the ingredients labels to see what we’re buying.  Hello?!?!?!

This is just as retarded as dragging those 1960s birth control arguments out of mothballs and into the 21st century, just so rightwing demagogues can keep their inbred Biblehumping “base” all fired up.

Forty-nine countries require all GMO foods to be labeled.  The U.S. is going backwards.  Again.

The defeated amendment had been introduced by Bernie Sanders and co-sponsored by Barbara Boxer and Mark Begich.

Over 3,000 food ingredients are currently required to be listed on the label.  What are Monsanto and other GMO companies afraid of?  They claim their GMO products are the greatest invention ever, but they don’t want you to know when you’re buying it?!?

Organizations that are concerned about the possible hazards of GMO foods include:  Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Food Safety, American Public Health Association, Public Citizen, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the National Cooperative Grocers Association.

The U.S. Senate stabbed 300 million Americans in the back when they voted — 73 to 26 — to prohibit GMO labeling.  Seventy-three U.S. senators should all have big signs pointing to their mouths that say “Monsanto’s dick goes here.”

Monsanto running the Food and Drug Administration

In a world full of megalomaniac corporations, Monsanto stands head and shoulders above the rest.  Monsanto is poisoning the world’s food supply with their genetically modified  Frankenfoods.  And the company doesn’t even want the public to know whether or not they’re buying Frankenfood (officially known as genetically modified organisms, GMO).

Monsanto’s cutthroat business practices have driven thousands of small farmers to suicide (mostly in India).  The list goes on and on.

And now, in the most grotesque example EVER of hiring the fox to guard the henhouse, President Obama has appointed a former Monsanto executive to be the senior advisor to the FDA Commissioner.  Michael Taylor was a vice president — and after that a lobbyist — for Monsanto.  His resumé includes pushing Monsanto’s GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH) onto the public.  Monsanto not only wanted the public to be kept in the dark about whether the milk they purchased contained rBGH.  Monsanto also threatened legal action against any milk company that advertised that their milk DIDN’T contain rBGH.

And now this murderer is in charge of protecting our food and drug safety?!?!?!

If you would like President Obama to appoint somebody NOT connected with Monsanto to be in charge of our food and drug safety, please sign this petition.

Too Much Medical Testing — If You Can Afford It

American medical patients seem to be divided into two categories:

1. Those who don’t have access to medical care. Can’t afford the high insurance premiums, pre-existing condition, got dumped by the HMO after committing the heinous crime of getting sick — you know the drill.

2. Patients who are getting tested and poked and prodded and X-rayed and treated to death. And over-prescribed and over-medicated and referred to one specialist after another after another.

Sick people are either not getting any medical care whatsoever, or they’re being tested and treated within an inch of their lives.

There’s kind of an odd similarity with the employment situation. Either you’re out of work because you’ve been downsized, or you still have your job and you’re doing the work of five people. And you don’t dare complain about carrying the workload of your downsized co-workers; you’re just grateful to have a job.

Sort of an odd parallel here, no? A certain syndrome. Is there a name for it?

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In Norway, there’s a doomsday seed vault with half a million seed samples. It’s the world’s most diverse repository of seeds. It contains one third of the world’s crop seeds.

It’s a great idea and all that, but — does Monsanto know about this?

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And now it’s time for our Family Values Lesson of the Day. Utah’s house majority leader Kevin Garn will preach the Gospel:

“And Jesus said, go ahead and violate my teachings all you want, as long as you pay off the bitch and tell her to keep her fuckin’ mouth shut.”

Monsanto: Wanted for Murder in India

Well, technically it isn’t murder. And Monsanto isn’t the only culprit; they’re just the biggest.

Tens of thousands of farmers in India have committed suicide during the past few years. A large part of the problem is Monsanto’s increasing stranglehold on the world’s seed supply. Their patented seeds cost three times as much as most other seeds.

But the neatest thing about these seeds (if you’re a Monsanto executive) is that they’re designed to self-destruct at the end of the growing season. Farmers are no longer able to save their own seeds for the next planting. Now they have to buy new seeds every year — a huge expense if you’re already teetering on the edge.

Predatory bankers are the other half of the equation. Their loans and interest rates are practically guaranteed to be impossible for the farmers to repay. And then the banks get to seize their land.

One local moneylender agreed to be interviewed anonymously. He was pretty blunt: “It’s not a nice business. But you earn a lot of money. When we loan them money, we are quite sure whether or not they can pay. We know it’s going to be our land eventually.”

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Government “Regulators” and Big Business: Goliath and Goliath

Sometimes it seems like government and industry are so closely intertwined that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. In one of the most blatant examples of this, some state governments have teamed up with Monsanto to PREVENT food companies from labeling their ingredients accurately.

Ben & Jerry’s has been advertising that their ice cream doesn’t contain the synthetic bovine growth hormone made by Monsanto. This hormone was approved by the FDA in the 1990s in the United States. Canada, Japan and the European Union have never approved the drug because of safety concerns.

Just when you think you’ve seen the most absurd intelligence-insulting Astroturf organization yet, the bar gets lowered even further. American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology is the "grassroots" organization that's trying to prevent Ben & Jerry's from even telling you that their ice cream doesn't contain rBGH. Take a wild guess: this gang of douchebags consists mostly of (A) farmers; or (B) Monsanto lobbyists.

psssst! The answer is (B).

And just to make the whole situation even more Orwellian, a Monsanto spokesperson said “Monsanto is really an advocate in support of accurate labeling of dairy products in the dairy case.”

So now we have a popular organic ice cream company being squelched by two 800-pound gorillas (hereafter referred to as David vs. Goliath & Goliath).

Monsanto’s growth hormone (rBGH) was banned in most other countries for the effect it has on animals. It doesn’t directly affect humans. But rBGH causes increased levels of another growth hormone in cows; and that hormone is believed to cause cancer in people.

sssshhhhhh!!!! Move along! Nothing to see here!

cross-posted at Bring It On!