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Austerity, where?? America is going into debt a trillion dollars a year. Trillion with a "T" that is not Austerity. So if the Republicans get there way and knock that down to 1 or 2 hundred billion you are still a long way from austerity.
You have a progessive tax system that favors low income workers fairly well already don't you. What is it the left wants. If you make more you are going to have more what is wrong with that. Thats what drives people to make more. Join a Omish colony if you want everyone the same. The Hutterite colonies in Canada are always looking for new blood. Just think everyone gets the same house, food and they all work the same amount. Perfect for most Dems by the way you all talk. Then you can leave the rest of us to better ourselves in the free market system. its a win win
This tragedy is related to the real reason we should be concerned about GMOs, and points to the danger of considering all GMOs as bad rather than seriously evaluating what is being genetically modified and why. Some genetic modifications have more positive value than others. For example, engineering traits for drought tolerance or better nutrient production or less reliance on fertilizers or (with more caution) direct pest resistance have great value.
What Monsanto has done is to genetically modify certain crop plants (like soybeans) to be resistant to Roundup. The message they sell to the farmer is that if they plant the Monsanto GM seeds they can keep their fields weed free by blanket spraying the field with Monsanto's other product: Roundup. For the farmer this is cheaper than the original way of paying junior high and high school students to pull the weeds out of the beans or more recently having workers spot spray the weeds with Roundup. After all it is better to give those wages to Monsanto than to students or low-educated workers. It frees up these displaced workers' time and gives them an incentive to earn money other ways, like making meth from the nitrogen fertilizer that Monsanto also sells to the farmers. Even the old spot spraying method put orders of magnitude less of the chemical in the environment and was much less likely to make it to the streams and water table in run off. This orders of magnitude increase in field application made possible by their Roundup resistant crop varieties is the reason for the massive and growing problem with the kidney disease.
If one wanted to push a legislative solution the appropriate way to frame it would be to ban more generically the sale of crops that have been engineered for resistance to any pesticide rather than fighting each pesticide individually. Almost any corporate product strategy based on increasing indiscriminate application of a company's pesticide by engineering its resistance into a crop plant is bound to create these larger contamination and health problems. Banning glysophate resistance specifically will only encourage a replacement with another pesticide that may be even more dangerous.
Recursive? It points to itself over and over....like a snake swallowing it's tail. And speaking of snakes swallowing things..have you seen the python that swallowed a crocodile? I think that was in Australia.
But, of course, you are right about: "If you're going to raise a ruckus, include all the bad actors, such as Union Carbide, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, FMC, Bayer, Valent, Sumitomo, BASF, etc." They are all culpable for poisoning us!
If China ever imposed sanctions on the US, I think the US economy would sink to the bottom of the Black Sea.
As of 2 hours ago:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/6/us-tasks-navy-destroyer-b...
I always find it a bit odd that People vote for successful business to hold public office. And here is why. I think People hold successful, wealthy, or seemingly and relatively “leisure class” individuals as their aspiratory group. They hold them esteem for their money accomplishments. But when it comes to whether or not you want to put a members of this aspiratory group in public office, People take another leap in thinking that the successful business person will somehow impart their Midas touch to all members of the 99% and/or a non-profit public governmental entity whose metrics for success aren’t necessarily denominated in dollars of surplus cash but intangibles like “quality of life” or “public service”.
Successful business People are nothing more than that – successful business People. They knew how to get themselves rich – period. And I mean PERIOD! Don’t endow them with other abilities like making someone else or everybody else rich. Time and time again, I watch successful business People get elected to public office only, it seems, to spend the vast majority of their time making themselves rich – period. After all it is what they do. It’s what they know. It is their “track record” and we were wrong to think that they would change their spots and becomes servants to the public! Think about it….really – “servants to the public”?! oh, hell no. They wouldn’t have the first clue of how to go about that and you’d be a fool to vote for them thinking that’s what they’d do once they’re in office. Being successful at Public service is, for the most part, a different beast.
Another thing that blows my mind is voters who demand “experience” out of candidates for national office. Are you nuts!? There is such a thing as bad experience. So, when some such candidate puff’s up his or her chest and claims superiority because they’ve been in public office for the past such and such years….during which time 1) the US has fallen flat on it’s face, 2) wealth has concentrated to an absurd extent, 3) the planet on which the country resides has been dealt a death blow, 4) labor has hit the pooper, etc etc etc etc ad naseum….I say take your experience and get the hell away for public service and avoid it forever more! You are NOT the candidate I want to see in office given what has allowed to occur over the course of your "experience". And I don’t want to hear any excuses, spin, how it is not the candidates fault, its the other party etc.
And austerity is what the west (and Europe) wants to impose on the Ukraine. But Russia upset the schemers by giving the Ukraine big Rubles...with no austerity attached. This really ticked off the greedy schemers and so they instigated and fomented internal dissent in the Ukraine....just as they have done in other countries. The west overthrows other "democracies" because they can't control them. Oh, won't you be my puppet? Seig Heil! And now the US puppet masters are using asinine hypocritical rhetoric condemning Russia for attempting to do the exact same thing that the US has done so many times before...invade and impose their will, and steal natural resources from other countries. I don't blame Russia for worrying about US/European hegemony. The Ukraine has a lot of natural resources and the capitalist pigs want to control it all. If Russia sent in people and money to foment unrest and an and "internal" revolution and overthrow of Mexico or Canada or even any of the Central or South American countries the US would be sending in their troops to "stabilize" things as well.
Would you accept bitcoins? ;-} I know...I've heard this quite a lot lately from people approaching me from various places...filling stations, shopping center parking lots, etc. What really gets me though is the woman sitting down at the entrance of a grocery store with her little children. One other woman entering the store, as I was leaving the store, spoke to the sitting woman and said "shouldn't your kids be in school?".
I have $1.78 left and no gas.
Yes, I agree! And one might believe that slavery no longer is an institutional thing....but what was it about slavery that is foremost in most people's minds when they think about slavery? No independence. No freedom to travel anywhere one would like. Immobilization. Threats of starvation if one did not adhere to the slaver's designs. Beatings. And, I'm sure some people could think of others.
And so now that old southern-style historic slavery is largely believed to be ended...what of the new style of institutional slavery that has morphed from the old?
The extent of the modern-day institutionalized slavery depends upon how wealthy you are. If you are a wage-slave that has seen his/her wages decrease (or at least not keep up with the cost of living) and benefits squeezed out of existence then you are likely not able to afford to travel anywhere or whenever you would like. All of the above things I mentioned about the old slavery could easily strongly resemble our condition in the new slavery. Dare to rebel and demonstrate your complaints and you will likely be beaten (cops will use violence against you).
And the similarities are increasing as the capitalist pigs put the squeeze on us. Maybe one has spent his/her working lifetime saving in slaver-created schemes like 401k plans, housing scams, or other Wall Street Casino capitalist "investment" schemes and you might believe that you had solidified your nest egg for retirement. You had spent your life time limiting your ability to buy things like nice trips abroad...or, perhaps you had taken those trips but financed them by using the other trap...credit. Then, when it's time for retirement, you find that not only are you deeply in debt but the capitalist pigs have stolen back a large portion of those "investments". Many people have actually found it so unbearable that they have committed suicide. The slavers don't even need to hang us anymore...they get us to do it for them. Culpable deniability!
They preached that it was wise to invest for the long term while they stole our investments in the short term using high speed computerized trades capable of thousands of trades per second...and various Wall Street schemes that depleted our "investments".
So, what they did was: used our labor all our lives to make themselves wealthy and made the big-lie-promises that all will be well in retirement heaven in the end. And we now realize that we got a retirement hell...of poverty. What little money we managed to save will not last in the contrived price increases. So, in effect, we were all used and abused as slaves all our working lives. We were duped into being slaves...thinking we were "free". We were all tricked into working virtually as a slave.
And now that "they" have us under constant surveillance we cannot exist anywhere without privacy. The only last vestige of freedom is being able to espouse our views publicly...on the internet...and "they" are trying desperately to squelch that "freedom" as well. But, even that is illusive...because what we are all doing is enslaving ourselves even more....unless something useful comes out of it...like full-scale violent overthrow of the criminal slavers.
Knowledge is power, and those who have every bit of detail about us is all powerful. They control us! The only way to change things is to do what, historically, has been done successfully...and playing the slaver's illusive games of voting in a rigged game is not one of them.
In answer to your question "If we know that Monsanto's poisonous chemical is killing people..." the answer is that we don't know that this renal disease is positively linked. I actually read the article which you did not reference, and the hypothesis is very provocative, indeed, but is just that: a hypothesis. This is why you should leave science to scientists. There are preliminary experiments and excellent suggestions for follow-up. There is strong epidemiological correlation. There are also ten other common rice pesticides mentioned, all with known toxicities, many renal, and many known to form complexes with metal ions, not to mention published renal toxity data. Monsanto didn't make glyphosate; they acquired it from Staufer. There are manufacturers from all quadrants of the globe involved in the researchers' "compound X". The report is very interesting, and will be followed up on by professional pesticide and toxicology researchers to the tunes of millions of research dollars. This is no exageration. Research is extremely expensive.
Pesticides are primitive technology of the 19th and 20th century that we work every day to find alternatives to so that we can feed a hungry planet. Yelling "Monsanto!" at every offence is tiresome for those of us seriously engaged in replacing pesticides. If you're going to raise a ruckus, include all the bad actors, such as Union Carbide, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, FMC, Bayer, Valent, Sumitomo, BASF, etc. I have no love for Monsanto and their modern recursion to sharecropping courtesy of their onerous Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement, but they are only the most visible. They are not the only pony in the GMO stable. They are insignificant in comparison to the public manipulation practiced by the pharmaceutical industry and their synergy with the health insurance industry.
p.s. - Have loved your show for years Thom!
If we know that Monsanto's poisonous chemical is killing people, why aren't we doing something to stop it? - See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/03/another-reason-say-no-monsanto#sthash.6nwfmjvT.dpuIf we know that Monsanto's poisonous chemical is killing people, why aren't we doing something to stop it? - See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/03/another-reason-say-no-monsanto#sthash.6nwfmjvT.dpufIf we know that Monsanto's poisonous chemical is killing people, why aren't we doing something to stop it? - See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/03/another-reason-say-no-monsanto#sthash.6nwfmjvT.dpuf
If a stimulus program dumps $ into the paper system (stock market, finance, insurance) which sits on piles and piles of money, we have shot ourselves in the foot. That was what got us in trouble in the first place, remember? The same $ in the hands of those who will buy real stuff would bring back the real economy if we stop taxpayer subsidizing of corporate transfer of factories overseas and set up reasonable import taxes.
DAnneMarc made a good point! It IS a "Crime against humanity" and they should be prosecuted for such!
Better living through modern chemistry!
It's time we all became environmentalists and activists so our our politicians will court the environmentalist vote! It's the only way we will ever get the strong EPA action required. Then we need to spread it to other countries so the G8 will move on environmental issues and ban the export of these dangerous chemiclas and ideas like geneticly modified crops
Bill.
Austerity, The history of a Dangerous idea
They've known this since 1943 when the US had full employment.
Thom..since you're obviously good buddies w Bernie, you may know that Vermont has a fairly high level of (not just opiate, but) heroin abuse in its adult, slowly becoming impoverished, middle class.
Being our finest Senator, he could initiate a major reform policy in his state by, as in Western Europe, etc., making it (heroin) available by medical Rx...and opening the national drug scene's vision a bit more...and pissing off the cartels, ? Maybe..
Reading Elioflight's post, I have to wonder just how far people will be pushed before they're pushed right over the edge. I'm not a violent person, yet I find myself fantasizing about violent uprisings against the likes of Monsanto when all else fails. Living under the constant threat of lawsuits and financial ruin if the wind contaminates your crop with Monsanto's patented crap, not being able to drink your own water, suffering from cancer, watching your dogs and your neighbors die of cancer... my god, how bad does it have to get?!! - Aliceinwonderland
Not being critical, but just wanted to point out that Round-Up is a herbicide, not a pesticide.
The most frustrating thing about Round-Up is that the end result of widespread use is herbicide resistant weeds. Yes, just like cockroaches have adapted to the pesticides we use for them, the weeds have become herbicide resistant, just like the GMO corn and soybean.
In my opinion, these large agribusinesses are going to destroy our food supply by upsetting the balance of nature. We may die of starvation before climate change kills us.
How can we combat this? By buying locally produced food from farmers that are willing to do it the right way. Be prepared, it will be more expensive. We produce true-organic, free-range eggs on our small farm. Our production costs exceed the selling price of factory farm eggs found at the local grocery store.
Grow as much of your own food as possible. Even if it's a container garden on your apartment window sill.
I live to see Monsanto destroyed.
I live in the middle of Ohio grain farm country. Our house is surrounded by farm fields. The local farmers have taken out ALL of the fencerows--for an extra bushel of corn/soybeans. They offered to take out our fencerows--I said over my dead body and told them to leave my property. The soil blows away and up against our house and outbulidngs and the chemicals fly--we keep bees and garden organically--or TRY to do do. Our home is surrounded by thick fencerows and forest to keep out the majority of chemicals. Several of our dogs have died from cancer from drinking our water--we don't drink our water and the animals don't drink our water anymore--as farm run-off flows onto our property and into our well--no doubt--and no amount of complaint has helped.
Many of our neighbors have cancer or have died from it--lung (non-smoker), brain, liver, pancreatic, and hormonal cancers. I developed estrogen breast cancer with NO risk factors--I am the healthiest most prevention prone person in my family. The Cleveland Clinic recently bought our small cancer clinic. Scarey that there must be more than enough to pay the bills to interest a large hospital system like the Clinic.
Monsanto and its evil disreguard for human life and the environment is criminal.
One of the most beautiful places on Earth was physical perfection preserved by a people who were in tune with nature and worked perfectly with nature. BALI.
In Bali they did not use pesticides. The Balinese followed "...a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment." [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali#Agriculture ] For example, they herded flocks of ducks to their fields to eat troublesome insects.
But that all changed. Corporate/Finance thugs descended on Bali and forced the farmers to use the Western Agricultural Technology/Techniques and pesticides.
This successful, happy culture in balance with nature has now changed, been wounded, and all for the worse profit motives. What a great loss to the Balinese and all the world which could have learned so much from them.
This about Bali--
http://www.insideindonesia.org/weekly-articles/in-search-of-sustainable-...
Palindromedary, I share your concerns.
Cheap solar panels wear out quickly, expensive ones last longer. But even these require resources we are now recolonizing Africa to attain, at least that's what I'm gathering so far.
When the "green" solutions are made to mimick the non-green problems, I just can't be impressed.
Isn't it sort of like freeing the enslaved, but treating them the same way when they're 'free'? The moral rectitude is still missing somehow.
We've got to change the core motivations of the people and make them want a new way of living. These 'green' versions of the same resource-eating toys and lifestyle just can't hack it. People have got to be willing to change their lifestyle instead of just recasting it in what is SOLD as 'green'.
Alice there is no hell ,that is part of the problem .There is only life ! but there are consequences for ones actions .The life we are living is the mirror of the combined consciousness of all the beings on Earth .So to change the existing reality we have to raise the onsciousness of humans .Do what works ? And say whats so ?
This is what Thom is doing and being .If you get a chance read Tommorows God by Neale Donald Walsch .It,s a breathtaking look at what the next 20 -50 years could be like - it gives us hope .Never give up sometimes things get a lot worse before breakthrough happens.
Magicl blessings .
The human race is inherently good despite what the culture or religions say.They are misinformed and will eventually disappear if they do not change their belief system to acommadate a unity consciousness.
The only question would be .What would love do now ?
Only a race of beings with limited understanding could create such insanity's.
We have to see ourselves or some of ourselves as primitive beings still caught in our belief system of separation and survival of the fittest.The profit survival mentality is killing us all and the planet at the same time ! But there is hope as all the truth comes out we get to look at ourselves and what we are creating as human beings on this planet Earth.
Chemicals that we spray on our food we now know limit our bodies to function properly and have negative effects on our long term health as Thom,s above post clearly shows .So we are fighting a war against nature which cannot be won.Nature is there for our benefit to cooperate with it and understand it,s wonders to keep it in balance .Nothing is more cruel to nature than mankind and there are consequences to our actions as we are finding out .
The problem is one of beliefs and the cultural story we tell ourselves .We need to write a new cultural story that is based on reality and has life as it,s prime value .Create different guiding principles to steer humanity to a higher evolutionary path.
DAnneMarc: I never really got that close to anyone over there enough to know that the sand part was factual. You hear a lot of things over there that may not be factual. Although, I have seen them, pull off the side of the road and hike up their skirts (males I'm talking about here) and squat down to do their thing..nothing but sand everywhere...and TP is not normally used. I've seen plenty of Eastern hammams (their word for BR) and all they have is a hose...no TP. The western hammams have TP and regular western fixtures instead of just a hole in the floor. Although I have seen plenty of footprints planted on top of the seats of western hammams. We sit...they squat. So, it is not very likely that they carry TP with them on trips.
By the way, I'd bet the "yellow sand" is a lot healthier for us than what Monsanto puts in our foods! ;-P
I wonder, though, just how "green" is a vehicle that has to have lots of batteries that will have to be disposed of and replaced periodically. And then charging the vehicle has to come from somewhere...the local electric utility? Coal? Fuel? Nuclear powered? Of course if you want to eliminate those sources of electricity you can fill the roof of your house and even your back yard and front yard with very expensive solar panels..because that is probably what it would take to power both your house and an electric car...even a hybrid (I don't know...do you have to charge hybrids?). I guess if we really wanted to make a big dent in the carbon fingerprint we could all ride bikes..provided, of course, that it is not one of those fancy lightweight (and very expensive) carbon composite ones.;-}
Do you know how much more they are charging for a hybrid or all electric version of the cars? A lot more than gasoline powered cars.
Your gasoline bills may go down but your utilities bills will go way up. You go from being hooked "directly" on using fossil fuels to being hooked "indirectly" on the utility company's electricity charges...whose electricity comes from one of those nasty, undesirable sources. And just wait till you have to start replacing all those expensive batteries in a few years...
And that really goes double for solar panels...the initial investment will hopefully have long warranties...but those will eventually give out and so will the solar panels and the banks of batteries they charge. And they will likely be lead-acid. What will the impact be if everyone were using, and eventually wearing out, all those lead-acid batteries?