Turns out, the weed-killer, Round-Up, used on GMO crops bred to resist Round-Up used to reduce pest on crops, is probably causing birth defects down the food chain, when people--and other critters, too--eat crops genetically engineered with the Round-Up resistant gene. Gee. Nobody could EVER have anticipated such a thing, could they?
The Monsanto folks, makers of Round-Up and the resistant seed, claim they never heard anything about it, don't KNOW anything about it, and disclaim tghe possibility that such things could possibly occur.
Which put me in mind of another classic case of CorpoRat "denial": Asbestos.
Asbestos producer Johns Manville had research already in 1934 which conclusively demonstrated the dangerous, usually mortal 1st AND 2nd-hand effects on life expectancy, health, etc of their product, but NEVER disclosed this information until it was FORCED out in 1984.
You may say whatever you like, call them whatsoever disingenuous label you want to devise, but it must be clear that the deaths, injuries, illness and disabilities that occurred among asbestos workers and their families during those 50 years were NOT the "unintended consequences" of the use of a vital material.
A jury, and several subsequent judges agreed, and finally administered Johns-Manville it's well-deserved CorpoRat death sentence. But it was rescued by Berkshire-Hathaway, you know, that chap Warren Buffett, who knows a bargain when he sees one...
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Robert Reich almost ALWAYS manages to stick in my craw, as little. Watch, and see if you can figure out why (and where) the blockage occurs:
If you said, "The part where Reich says 'the inability of the middle-class to BORROW,' you'd be right.
The whole false economy of the last three decades--ALL the bubbles, the 'exuberance,' the clusterfux, ALL of it, GOPhux and Dim, of the last 30 years--arises from the Raygunauts' (in collaboration with the Fed, and the (e.g.) US CoC, the NAM, and other business 'special interests') three-part attack on the prosperity of the Murkin citizen. This involved 1) policies of depriving US workers of wage gains commensurate with the increases in their productivity, 2) channeling those withheld wages into corpoRat profits, and 3) pretending to the workers (who, even with Union representation, are no better than poorly educated tools) that easing credit restrictions was just as good as getting raises. The workers bought it, hook, line and sinker; along with RVs, motor-homes, personal watercraft, houses, vacations, new cars, and a torrent of delivery pizza which has increased average Murkin, middle-class corpulence to the level of grotesque obesity unparalleled in the annals of human recorded history.
But, but, you protest: Bill Clinton left us with a "balanced budget and a surplus," dinne? All was well before 2000, right. And, to be honest, within the limits of the "meaning of 'Is,' it was, sorta. That is, unless you take into account that that prosperity was all on paper, the housing bubble was growing already, that he had signed the bills that repealed Glass-Steagagall, and that Clinton had "presided" over the biggest rush of job off-shoring, and of business closing/relocation in history, too. Remember the giant sucking sound? It wasn't an exaggeration. But there's not a single fucking WORD about it.
And this is what sticks in my craw, because these are facts which--though they would have driven the length of Reich's narrative over three or maybe even up to four minutes (and we KNOW the limitations of the Great murkin Attention Span)--are absolutely crucial for understanding the processes (and the peresopnalities) that led us to our current straightened circumstances.
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