Juggling Dynamite

How does climate change factor into Decision 2012? Here is a direct link.

Watch Climate of Doubt on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Through all the complexities of human life, I subscribe to a basic principle: transparency is the best policy. The only way that adults can make informed, reasoned choices in life is to have the facts. When a person or group opposes transparency and disclosure I believe their motives are dishonest and should be over-ruled. This goes for the financial industry which has notoriously spent millions lobbying against rules requiring transparency of fees and conflicts of interest. See: Hidden mutual fund fees need clear disclosure for a recent review of such issues.

It also goes for the food industry which has been vigorously opposing our right to be informed about the food we consume. They must not win this one.

“At this very moment, Monsanto and other pesticide companies are spending more than $1 million a day to convince California voters that it’s not in their best interest to know whether the food they eat is genetically engineered. And Henry I. Miller is their guy.

If you live in California today, he’s hard to miss. You see him in TV ads, hear him in radio spots, and his face is all over the expensive fliers that keep showing up uninvited in your mail box. Initially, the ads presented Miller as a Stanford doctor. But he isn’t. He’s a research fellow at a conservative think tank (the Hoover Institute) that has offices on the Stanford campus. When this deceptive tactic came to light, the ads were pulled and then redone. But they still feature Miller telling the public that Prop 37 “makes no sense,” and that it’s a “food-labeling scheme written by trial lawyers who hope for a windfall if it becomes law.”

Actually, Prop 37 makes all the sense in the world if you want to know what’s in the food you eat. It was written by public health advocates, and provides no economic incentives for filing lawsuits.

Who, then, is Henry I. Miller, and why should we believe him when he tells us that genetically engineered foods are perfectly safe?

Does it matter that this same Henry Miller is an ardent proponent of DDT and other toxic pesticides? Does it matter that the “No on Prop 37″ ads are primarily funded by pesticide companies, the very same companies that told us DDT and Agent Orange were safe?”

See: This man is lying about your food.

When industries wish to advance self-serving business models against the best interests of their customers, they typically buy PHD’s to thwart understanding and free choice with the clubs of big money and higher education. This is indefensible and utterly repugnant. The basic tenants of democracy, capitalism and free choice, all require disclosure. Those who seek to block this must be overcome.

From a family tree of entrepreneurial, hard-working immigrants, for me, this is not about frowning on self-determination and success. This is about a pendulum that has once again swung to the far extreme in favor of an elite few at the expense of everyone else. This is not survival of the strongest. This is about making every one of us less than we could be. This about coddling and enabling weakness through over-indulgence of some through a lack of fairness, lack of transparency and lack of true competition. It is in our collective best interests to understand human history and the aspects of our nature which, when left unchecked, have always been antithetical to a civil and prosperous society.

“The One Percent is not only increasing their share of wealth — they’re using it to spread millions among political candidates who serve their interests. Example: Goldman Sachs, which gave more money than any other major American corporation to Barack Obama in 2008, is switching alliances this year; their employees have given $900,000 both to Mitt Romney’s campaign and to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Why? Because, says the Wall Street Journal, the Goldman Sachs gang felt betrayed by President Obama’s modest attempts at financial reform.

To discuss how the super-rich have willfully confused their self-interest with America’s interest, Bill is joined by Rolling Stone magazine’s Matt Taibbi, who regularly shines his spotlight on scandals involving big business and government, and journalist Chrystia Freeland, author of the new book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.”

Here is a direct link.