The Times, San Mateo Times and Daily News Leader, January 31, 1972, front page:

Gulf, State Settle Suit

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California has settled its suit against one of three oil companies accused of making hidden contributions to the campaign to defeat an antipollution ballot measure.

Secretary of State Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced Sunday that in return for dropping the year-old suit, Guil Oil Corp. agreed to donate $25,000 to antismog research being conducted in Riverside.

"Gulf's $25,000 contribution to the University of California's smog research program is $5,000 greated that the amount the firm contributed against Proposition 18," Brown said.

[This is how things worked in my country back when I volunteered to serve.]

The bombs that were dropped on Japan saved hundreds of thousands American lives from being wasted on an attempt to attack Japan on their main island. It is a little too late to convert back to 2 mules and 50 acres! My only question is how do you propose we take over the farms, ranches and all the other entities involved in feeding the World? All I hear is how bad the corporations are and how they have destroyed the earth. So you know people who have taken their talents and money and screwed mankind. Seriously, I would like to hear a realistic plan on how to change all the corruption that is now feeding a large portion of the world, instead of the complaints. I am not for the type of crony capitalism we are faced with. So let’s hear a realistic plan that would work without shutting everything down and starting over. When you went shopping at your local super-market did you walk around all the abundance of food and curse the corporations for making life easier for you? How do you propose shutting down all the evil corporations and run things the way you think they should be? I am not a corporate kind of guy, but I do know when things can be changed and when they cannot because we have already chosen a path. Did any of you stand outside your local food distributor (market) and protest against all the food you have readily available to you? Seriously, besides complaining about everything, what have you done to change things? I would really like to know, because I haven't seen any of you on the news channels (the channels you hate, but watch anyway) protesting corporate greed and unfair practices they use. It is easy to bitch and be an arm chair warrior, it is harder to actually come up with a plan and implement it with positive results. We all talk a good game with very little being done, except to complain. So when you figure out how to change everything, please let me know.

Trusting technology to solve our world-wide food problems, means trusting the corporations that run the technology. And unfortunately, it is those very corporations that created most of the food shortages and are even now trying to make the food shortages worse. These are the corporate executives who patented rice in India, forcing poor farmers to pay every time they plant the rice that they harvest from their own fields- the same rice that their great-great-great grandfathers planted in those same fields, and now the corporation is saying that IT owns all rights to that form of rice. Check out Vandana Shiva, PhD, who has done outstanding work in revealing what corporations are trying to do to poor, starving people all over the world. Technology is fine, but the people who own almost all high-level technology are sociopaths.

In South America, a corporation bribed a government into selling all of the water rights, which meant that every time an indigenous person drank rainwater that fell on the roof of their house, they had to pay the corporation, which owned all water. It took the very real threat of an armed revolution to force that corporation out of there. Again, technology is fine, but the people who own almost all of the high-level technology are consciousless monsters who have made a sick hobby out of harming humanity.

In Canada, a canola farmer planted seed that he owned. Then pollen from a nearby Monsanto genetically-modified canola farm blew onto his property and fertilized the farmer's canola plants. Monsanto sued the farmer for "stealing" their patented canola genes, when in fact the farmer should have been suing Monsanto for polluting his healthy, natural canola plants with their dangerously unhealthy technological abomination. It cost that farmer all of his savings to defend himself against Monsanto corporation's baseless legal attacks.

I have a friend with a doctorate in genetic engineering. Once he got the doctorate and started working in genetic engineering, he quickly realized that the only jobs available to him were jobs where he would be working for people who want to pervert nature for profit. He quit and has not looked back.

When another friend got his degrees in electrical engineering, biomechanical engineering, and nuclear engineering, he got job offers in the cancer research field, and was going to do it, but first he talked with a friend of his who was already in cancer research working for a research department funded by a prominent cancer charity. One day he discovered something that killed a certain type of cancer cells. Delighted with himself, he told his supervisor. His supervisor got the full explanation of what it was and how it worked, then said, "Leave that alone. I want you to look into this other area."

The researcher said, "But this substance kills cancer cells, and we all know that the stuff you want me to look into doesn't have any promise at all."

His supervisor looked at him coldly and said, "Do as I say, or I will blackball you and you will never again work in medical research in this country."

My friend decided to go into nuclear engineering, where he felt he had a fighting chance of at least preventing America from glowing in the dark. And what he found out once he started working at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard supervising the decomissioning of nuclear warships, is that our navy routinely disobeys its own regulations for handling nuclear waste, and was even selling radioactive plastics and metals to manufacturers who made children's toys and dentures out of it. And when my friend got them in trouble for it, they arranged for congress to be bribed into passing a law making it legal to sell radioactive waste to manufacturers without telling the manufacturers that it's radioactive. When he made it clear that he was on humanity's side in terms of preventing dangerous radiation from harming people, his supervisors passed him up for promotion time and again, even though he was the most highly-qualified, intelligent, and competent guy there. When he retired, they tried to prevent him from getting the retirement he had worked for twenty-five years to get.

Most of the meat and produce supplied to American citizens used to come from family farms. When you buy food from one of your neighbors, there is a very strong element of accountability built into the transaction. Corporations, on the other hand, have as the basis of their very existence a legal denial of accountability and a denial of responsibility for their actions and for their failures to act. Corporations started buying up family farms. And they started bribing congress to pass laws unfriendly to small farms. And bribing congress to pass laws friendly to huge agri-corporations. And putting vast amounts of highly toxic chemicals on the land that grows our food. And bribing congress to not pass laws against the use of those toxic chemicals. A guy with sixteen mules and 50 acres, is unlikely to do much harm to anyone. A corporation that farms 50,000 acres, is very likely to harm lots of people and the environment, because the only reason corporations exist, is to get as much money as possible in as short a time as possible.

I know a guy who used to run a corporation that sold pollution control devices for factory smoke stacks. A very good use of technology. But as the years passed he realized that he could make much more money at a different job. Now he is a republican and the CEO of a corporation that outsourced its plastic foam factory to Mexico, where there are no pollution laws and where his employees are horribly mistreated and paid crap wages with no health care, no workers rights, no nothing. That guy has been seduced by the dark side of technology. I wouldn't know how to count the number of people he has harmed or quite possibly killed.

We invented the atom bomb to "protect" ourselves against our enemies. And when world war two ended too soon for us to try out our new atomic bomb, well, we dropped a few of them on Japan AFTER Japan had surrendered.

Personally I love technology. I love its promise, I am fascinated by the concepts, by the brilliant minds that formulate pioneering ideas. There's the TED Talks, the biomimicry folks, and other examples of very good science out there. Which leads me to my entire point: if humanity survives these very dangerous times, we will do it only by recognizing and very clearly dealing with the difference between corporate technology and humanistic technology.

WOW, Mr. GrowthBusters your attitude is just as sad to me, but unlike yourself I chose not to give an air of piety to my comments. I do have faith in my fellow mankind, those that are educated enough to understand the ramifications of their actions. Unlike the West and the Industrialized World many people in this world do not have the capability to understand what the outcome of generating more people will have on them and their children. They just see more hands to work the land or whatever is needed to survive. We were all not lucky enough to have been born in this country where Planned Parenthood was crammed down our throats in the 1970's. But as a matter of record, I too practiced Planned Parenthood and have one daughter. I put her through college and she now holds a master's degree in education. So please do not look down your nose at the people who advocate science as one of many tools that will allow mankind to survive. As a matter of record, science once doubled its knowledge about every 100 years. In the latter part of the 20th, century it was every 10 years. Now, science takes about 1 to 5 years to discover what it once took 100 years to acquire. We as a nation have the ability to feed most of the world if we desired to do so on a charitable basis. But in a capitalist society we give very little away, that we (the corporations) can make a profit on. I do believe that mankind has the ability to feed the coming generations and we are discovering new ways to do this every year. When America's desire to feed the rest of the world grows to the same capacity as its ability to do so mankind will survive with the help of science and with good will towards other humans. So you see I do have faith in my fellow mankind, but I am also a realist who is educated enough to know people do not always do what is in their best interest. And until that time comes, I will continue to put my faith in science as well as in educated people.

Yes, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain of The Benghazi coverup. It is most important that we move on with the Money in elections. The outright lies and deception by this administration should outrage all Americans and we should demand answers on who authorized this coordinated effort to deceive. This will be the real story in watching how the Obama spin machine will manipulate the dumbed down electorate into moving on. The October surprise will be some stupid event/shiny object to grab our attention. It is so predictable.

What most of you dreamers fail to acknowledge is that half (50%) of our nation rallies behind the flag of the right wing. I do not agree with most of what they prescribe too, but Obama is just the same as Romney when it comes right down to 95% of what he supports. With the exception of Obama Care as it is called, what the hell is the difference between the two? And, if Obama truly cared about American health care he would and could have passed a single payer system. But it was not in the best interest of the insurance companies, so he claimed it was too difficult to pass. What? He had the House and the Senate and could have passed anything he deemed important! And less we forget the other 50% of America has the same rights to accept or reject any concept they choose too! I will now vote for the Independent candidate this election cycle, simply because Mr. Obama is just the opposite side of the coin that includes Mr. Romney. They are both backed by the Banksters on Wall St. and both receive funding from the super wealthy. So tell me my fellow citizens, by voting for either candidate what do you expect to change for the 99% in this nation? And, for those who call for rebellion by the people, the government is ready to put down that scenario with the military, police and Dept. of Homeland Security. How many of you are willing to shed your blood in the street for change. My guess would be not many, if any at all. So sit back and enjoy what liberty and comfort you now have, because it may not last for long once the banksters get the politicians to enforce a form of strict austerity for all of America, to pay for their crimes against humanity.

Wow, Ken Ware. Very sad. You expect the worst from people and you expect technology to repeat the miracles of the last century made possible only by burning through millions of years of stored sunlight energy. Good luck with that. And yes, I decided as a young adult to limit my family size to two children.

Jean, I agree with you. But I'm a little more worried for the futures of our girls and women than I am Citizens United. If it were on the ballot, of course I'd vote to delete their right to be considered a person, along with all the other super PACs. But it's our daughters, grandaughters, and great-granddaughters for whom I have the most fear. CU, if need be, can live to fight us back another day. But taking away Women's Rights AT THIS TIME is far more important that CU and even the debt, right now. You and I and our generation have fought far too hard to let the Tea Party, the Evangelicals, and a Mormon Clone outlaw our rights to privacy and choice. This election is more about a women-takeover than it is electing a President. If Daddy Romney & darling Annie get into the White House, they will roll the women and our votes back 60 years. Plus, I still have faith in our President.

In my opinion the most important issue in our country right now is the overturning of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The amount of money pouring into political campaigns is obscene and unbelievable. Am surprised there's not more outrage in the country over what is happening.

The "New Right-Weyrich" WILL rig the machines as they did for Bush's elections. We will be unable to catch it anymore since 19 states have now eliminated Exit Polls, too. Romney's big $$ in Diebold and old Bain buddies owning Scytl does not help. They will NOT allow anyone to scrutinize the software. Election Fraud is going on all over (McCotter, MI; FL, CO, etc). What bothers me is that so many vets have fought and died for 'others' right to vote; yet, they stand behind the New Right's taking ours away. I know we can't get Limbaugh off the overseas radio they listen to and I know the NRA has made MANY false claims against Obama and the 2nd Amendment (I got a call from them saying he was a communist!); but, what is wrong with people? It's a fight on websites with them telling me that democracy never should have been and we aren't a democracy. What the heck is wrong with people!! The $$ they are spending to defeat our form of gov't should be a Red Flag; but, they are backing it -- because they are prejudice? because they really want a Theocracy/Oligarchy! Recently, a vet was at a Gun/Knife show asking for donations for vets. He had an AK-47 on the table. When I asked him why we need those, his answer was to defend our country against the socialists! He is going to turn that weapon on me? on us? I see that I WILL remain active and I will fight!

Dark Money many times worse than Manchurian Candidate situation. Which candidates are sock puppets for criminals, criminal organizations, corporations, and foreign governments? Which candidates just want to watch the US and the world burn? Many candidates already appear brainwashed by representing insane political positions. If the air is polluted, the water and the earth get polluted in addition to our homes, cars, clothes, pets, etc. If the air, earth and water are polluted, crops cannot be eaten and neither can the livestock. Fine particulates are inhaled to reside in our lungs until we die. Suffocating is a lousy way to die. Ironically, those with the finest home, art, cars, etc., suffer just as much if not more. The particulate saturates the fabric of their clothes, carpets, linens and furniture. It also covers their pets. When water is contaminated, other scary things happen. We cannot drink it, water with it, swim in it, boat in it, or even wash our clothes. Contamination of the earth by water, air and other forms of pollution causes the land to be worthless. Pollution can kill the economy by killing the farm industry, travel industry (who wants to paddle around in a cess pool), realestate industry, and in turn every other industry. In the spring of 2007, while doing HP AIO printer tech support, I had a very scary conversation with a currency trader. He is from Germany. In the 1950s, he saw a similar financial situations playing out. At the time, gold was about $650/oz. He was dumping US dollars in favor of British Pounds Sterling, Swiss Francs and Gold. The prediction was for the dollar to be worth about a quarter of its current value at the time. Low and behold, Gold is just under $1800/oz. Others are now predicting a new event where land becomes worthless as does the dollar. The deficit will have to be reigned in immediately to head the coming financial crisis off, if it is even possible. I have read that we all should be arming ourselves with assault rifles because of the coming civil instability. I have been advised to get a conceal and carry permit as well. It appears those with the means will have to reside in armed compounds with body guards. So the predictions say. Without limits on donations and transparency, I sincerely think the current predictions will come true.