The top issue that is pressing down on Americans right now, whether they know it or not, is the impending passage of HR 4853; a bloated behemoth bill purporting to give tax relief to the middle class. Inside this bill are many other hidden bills with name changes and opposing agendas. The senate debates and votes on this TOMORROW (Monday Dec. 13).
I'm hoping most of America watched Bernie Sanders speak Friday in the senate to a disgracefully empty senate chamber, despite the disrespectful and diverting move President Obama made to have a press conference with Bill Clinton! That is just all-time weird.
Senator Sanders eloquently and articulately defended the American people and thus prevented debate and a senate vote on this bill. He spoke for 8 1/2 hours, drinking only water. His generous and heroic act bought us a few days' time, (the weekend) but on Monday the senate goes back into session to debate and vote.
You can watch archived streams of Senator Sanders giving his speech at this link:
The most alarming bill in my opinion has been s.510, the Food Safety Bill. This latest version of it was introduced in 2009. The FDA has been trying to get its hands on food and natural supplements, herbs, etc. for a long time. This is the latest attempt. S.510 passed the senate 75 to 25 (roll call vote), but the senate did something illegal; they tried to appropriate budget funding for it, which is the House's job. Hence, the bill went back to the House, who squeaked it by only 6 votes (down from the last time they approved it).Note that this bill was voted on 8 times since November and was pushed to cloture (no filibuster allowed) several times. They want this bill to pass, by any means necessary! Last week, there was an amendment attached to it that protected small farmers better. Of course, republicans and corporate democrats want to overturn the amendment (the Tester amendment) because it weakens the FDA control and stranglehold on small farms. S.510 is now renamed hr 3082 and is hidden in deep in the bowels of the tax relief bill. I looked up hr 3082 and this is what I read (source govtrack.us) :
H.R. 3082: Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
its summary: Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.
Huh??? What other purposes? The title makes me think they're going to do something nice for veterans for a change, but the bill says nothing of the kind.The s.510/hr 3082 bill would give the FDA far more regulating power over our food supply than it has now, and would give them the power to crack down on natural supplements, something they've been trying to do since the 1980s. Michael Taylor, former lawyer for Monsanto, is top adviser to the FDA. No conflict of interest there, right? I wonder if any higher ups or lobbyists from Cargill are in the FDA or USDA. Likely.
Here's a quote from an article by Jeffrey Smith written for the Huffington Post in 2009:
"The Fox Guarding the Chickens
If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist."
Read about Taylor and his longtime shady dealings with the USDA, at these links:
And he's just one cog in the insidious gears of corporate-owned government. For years, corporate executives, lawyers, and lobbyists have bought their jobs in presidential administrations, set policy for their special interest groups, and gone back to the corporate fold with cushy jobs, bonuses, and pension plans when leaving their appointed government positions. That has really ramped up since the early 90s.
The food safety bill has a lot contained in it about search and seizure, crop destruction of "unsafe" crops, fees, filing and reporting on who buys and who grows and sells produce (a paper trail). The FDA, under the auspices of "safety", can seize and destroy foods they deign to be 'tampered' with. Will Monsanto's man Michael Taylor decide what foods are on the high risk list? Even labeling foods that are genetically modified is too little too late, since Monsanto-patented GMO seed has already cross-pollinated with organic seed and conventional farm seed worldwide. Taylor knows this fact, and a lot more the American people don't know.
Comparing how many people die of e-coli with how many people die from cancers, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, and more, all (in my opinion) from being fed GMO foods, I'd rather sign a waiver saying I won't sue for e-coli and take my chances on organics, unpasteurized dairy, and mom-and-pop farms.
Another tricky thing is in the wording of labeling. "USDA organic" means something VERY different than Certified Organic. You want Certified, which is free of chemicals, pesticides, bovine growth hormone, and biogenetics. USDA's idea of organic is bioengineered, toxic, hormone-laden food.
Monsanto, which was once a chemical company (still is) and is now also one of the world's largest megalomaniac biotech companies, can be credited with giving us poisons like Agent Orange, Roundup, Bovine Growth Hormone, PCBs, dioxin, saccharin, and DDT, to name only some of their poisons.
The food safety bill does not address organic farms or growers at all; there are no provisions to protect them or organic foods. The bill says small farmers and home gardens can still grow organic food (for now, and if they don't live anywhere near a Monsanto field being sprayed with Roundup!) but they likely still have to fill out reports, and the bill can be revised with amendments at any time, depending which corporate lobbyists want what. We all by now know how corporate politics works. Pass the bill. Then rewrite it to suit corporate agendas for more profit, control, and erosion of individual freedoms.
Picture this scenario: you live in a remote beautiful place and grow your own food. People buy bird feed or store-bought corn kernels (or other gmo seed) to feed the wild songbirds, and some of it germinates or is carried off by birds to germinate and grow elsewhere, unmonitored. Then the seed somehow is windblown or cross-pollinates (pollen travels far on bees and with birds) and now YOUR crop is tainted. Not only will it affect your seed adversely, but now Monsanto owns your seed! They can seize your crop, sue you, and make your life a living hell. Don't believe it? Click the link to this video:
full length investigative documentary on Monsanto's evil practices. Almost 2 hours long: A must see eye opener that details just a few of Monsanto's depraved and rapacious practices.
If you google Monsanto, you will get over 5,510,000 results. Many of them are articles detailing Monsanto's lawless and murderous practices in the U.S. and worldwide.
So, even if you think tax breaks for billionaires is a great idea, this one bill hidden inside the package should convince you that HR 4853 should be stopped. (More about the tax breaks below.)
What I suggest we do is flood the Capitol with phone calls, faxes, and emails against passage of the tax relief bill as it now stands. Start by asking for your senators' offices. Also send messages of support to the House thanking those who voted against pushing this bloated monstrosity of a bill through, and encourage them to stand firm against all the last minute changes; it is a very different bill than what the house started with and thought they were voting on, and too many other bills are piggybacking along for the ride. Once the funds are appropriated, they will be spent, and likely borrowed from China or other burgeoning economic superpowers. No one in the government talks about what this bill will do to our foreign debt.
The toll free number for the Capitol is 1-888-291-9824. Let's show the corporate-owned government and lobbyists that we are not yet gmo-drugged zombies and will not go down quietly.
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Speaking of tax breaks for billionaires:
Of the $858 BILLION of borrowed dollars the government would need for the "middle class tax relief act," $675 billion + goes for extended tax relief for the top richest 1% of the American people. That is an outrage. Those figures include the reduction of the Estate tax. That was the compromise made by Obama in order to save unemployment for 13 lousy more months, and that excludes the "99ers"; longer-time unemployed people. The payroll tax cuts deeply carve into the surplus of social security, thus weakening it and setting precedent for the next congress to work on privatizing or abolishing social security altogether. Bernie Sanders talked on this and a lot more in his speech.
Where will the government be getting the money for this so-called tax stimulus bill? Will it be China, some other country? Or perhaps the telecoms and agribusinesses like Comcast, Monsanto, and Goldman Sachs will loan it to the government at inflated interest rates? Call congress and the senate and the President and say, "No deal!"
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Many people who have done their homework in their fields have provided excellent and better-written things than I can, so the least I can do is recommend their articles, videos, analyses, and whistle-blowing acts of courage.
Thanks for reading. Please use your social networking sites to get the information out about this bill and encourage everyone you know to phone, fax, and email their senators and representatives.
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