Security?

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Homeland?

I wonder - how far will this go? I don’t fear becoming the old USSR or the Germany of old, but I do feel the pathway is open and the people we put in charge are willing to journey down that path.

I saw, on Face Book, something called “the most honest 3minutes on television.”

Tune out now if you don’t believe it. I DO! There was a time when it was safe to walk the streets at night; when it was safe to drink the water; when it was safe to believe the words coming out of the mouth of Washington.

I made a trip to my favorite place on earth, Yosemite National Park, a place of such natural beauty and wonder it actually causes me to tear up. Now though, it is not because of the beauty but of the lost little things, (how sad, to think these are “little things”) because for years now one can’t just kneel down and drink from the Merced River.

Giardia is rampant throughout the river. This was caused by beef cattle allowed free range in the back country. Their effluent runs into the creeks and streams that feed the Merced. Alas, when the “run off” got into the ground water, it got into the plant life, and from there to the rest of the food chain. The Deer and the Antelope eat while they play. They continued the spread and infection to more tributaries, areas were cattle were not allowed.

Think about it for a minute: you are standing in Yosemite Valley, 10 miles from a pristine snow pack which feeds the river and if you drink the water you will get a parasite!

This is what our elected Washington officials  gave us while placating the cattle industry with “free” grazing land. In their defense, the thinking then was the land was largely unused and the cattle needed to be fed. If the cost of feed was less the cost of beef would also come down. I’m sure that worked out for someone, but as I paid $11.99 a pound for some flank steak a little while ago, meat that was at one time considered a throw away cut, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t you and me.

My point is simple: granting them the best of intentions, our government allowed the Merced River to become unfit to drink. And there are no repercussions to the Cattle Industry. These days, government has even greater motivation (read as “greed”) from other companies to make other grants and give them the same latitude for forgiveness.

Enter: Monsanto.  Here is a company that is VERY GOOD at what it does. It has a business model that cannot be faulted, nor liked, by most common folks.

This is the “elephant in the room” everybody fears but goes untouched by the-powers-that-be. The idea of genetic manipulation is not a new one. Great gains in food production have come from cross pollination and selective breeding.

What Monsanto excels at is not pollination nor breeding, but gene splicing and insertion. They make some helpful products, though most small growers steer away from the chemicals in their product line.

What we see in Monsanto is a circle. They sell you a defoliant weed killer (Roundup, Roundup PRO and Roundup PROMAX) then sell seeds which grow plants not affected by the defoliant. Spray the weed killer their plants are unaffected - for now. Nature evolves, weeds develop immunities, stronger chemicals are made to combat the “new” weed and on it rolls. All the while assuring the public it is all safe and not to worry (they did all the testing to prove it, just as was done with DDT).

Monsanto’s size and political clout renders it pretty much untouchable. Our latest Washington heroes just gave Monsanto a "Get out of Jail free Card" with the " Monsanto Protection Act", Thank you Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. This pretty much says any problems down the road which "might have been or have proven to be" caused from Monsanto's genetic manipulations are of NO FAULT OF MONSANTO. This act was added to a bill, at the bottom, which had nothing to do with agriculture. It was a bill for the general benefit of the commerce network of America and the rest of the world’s trade powers.

Yes, it was necessary to pass the Bill. Tagging on the Monsanto clause just shows the power of the, shall I call them 'bad guys', have in OUR government.

Speaking of OUR government - stay Tooned...