The Man who Conned Organic Agriculture/Food Safety movement....
from 12-3-2012
Who is talking to Jon Tester? Some of my FB friends do, I know. And I have personal, non-FB friends who are close to him, too. I've made this plea many times, but let me make it once more. TALK to him! He can't possibly believe and want to promote the things he is promoting as a United States Senator. Isn't it just a massive cry for help?
Here's what I'm hearing:
"These guys are eating me alive. Everyone has gone crazy! The Monsanto guys, the Nuke guys, the Bankster guys - they control everything! That's why I had to support that ridiculous bankster bill to repeal the limitation on swipe fees! And, of course, my local credit union in Montana, which contracts with Visa to provide its swipe cards, went along with Visa's demands for more money.
"Nukes? Hey, I went to college in a Nuclear Garrison Town (Great Falls). I know how important these missiles and the Air Force are to our local economy, so I'll always support more National Security spending. My brother was in the National Guard. And I have constituents in every branch of the Service, so I'm not cutting them out, either."
Sounds plausible, doesn't it? And it is, because that's the way Montanans think. They don't know how (or care) to "balance a checkbook." That's somebody else's problem. Let the accountants figure it out, as long as the money and pork keeps rolling in.
Who will pay for it?
"Dead people, workers, the poor whose too generous "entitlements" will have to be squeezed. What we know for sure is that cutting government spending costs jobs. Are the jobs important? Are they doing anything useful? It doesn't matter. They're jobs, and that's what gets us elected - creating jobs. So, anyone who says anything against economic growth and job creation is wrong. Cast them into the outer darkness.
What about the environment?
"I'm a fourth generation farmer, on the same land. I'm an organic farmer. I know this is where the money is. It's the future. And it would be nice if Monsanto understood this. But they don't, and they control everything relating to agriculture and, and along with the Merchants of Grain (Cargill, Columbia, Continental, Louis-Dreyfus - yes, that's Julia's family), control of trade and trade agreements to ban organics and healthy food in general. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?"
How about the environment? "I'm an organic farmer. Shouldn't I know best?" (We thought so, for awhile)
"Social Security? Hell, I'm not going to get any. The system is already busted. We've got to let the free market work. It's survival of the fittest, right? And we've got the nukes, so we must have the upper hand, right?"
Isn't there anyone there to say, "No, Jon. You've got it all wrong. You're listening to ALEC and the banksters, the Nuclear Mafia and the Zionazis. You're a corporation pretending to be a person."
Maximillion Baucus started out a lot smarter than Tester, and with that sense of Noblesse Oblige entitlement - a Stanford grad from one of Montana's oligarchic Republican families. It was his destiny to lead. It was only over decades of experience, and listening to the Democrat Machine hacks and assassins that he finally managed to be the worst Senator in the history of the country - the henchman and muscle behind Clinton's colossal sellout to Wall Street, the Drug Cartels, and the MIC. (That's Military-Industrial Complex, as in Kosovo and Iraq sanctions, and his various other dances with the CIA and Cold-War-Democrats). Remember, Clinton was a protege of Sen. Fullbright - a fact that is better remembered, now, in Hillary, while Baucus claims to carry the mantle of the sainted Goldman-Sachs and Boeing company man, Mike Mansfield.
So, who is Jon Tester and who might he be Testing? For awhile, I thought it was me, or at least the Stephens family. My late Aunt Ruth's first husband was from Big Sandy, and other relatives of mine do business in the organic agriculture field. There are connections here, which were sufficient for me to support Tester's candidacy the first time - although I would have rather seen Paul Richards finish the primary, so we'd actually know where we stood in terms of Democratic voters. And Morrison, as despicable as his embrace of the private insurance industry might have been, would certainly, in retrospect, have been a much better Senator. Tester simply doesn't understand the issues, and sells out without even getting anything substantive in return. The typical farmer attitude of being helpless in the face of monopoly agribusiness buyers and suppliers, I suppose.
Yet, Tester was at the forefront of those trying to buck that system. That was why he got so much support, although he lost rural Montana by nearly 2-1, including his home county and State Senate district, where he got his start. That's about the same ratio of those who support-oppose Monsanto and other corporate business ripoffs, and why we are a "red state."
Much of Tester's base was the teacher's union - Jon was actually a certified music teacher, as well as Montana Organic Farmer of the Year, selected by AERO, a pioneering organic and alternative energy organization started in the 1970's by Kye Cochran, Cindy Elliot, and others who are now largely forgotten. AERO is still important in Montana, but I can hardly imagine that they are happy with Jon Tester's "progress" in dismantling their agenda. Apparently it's a rule: if a good peace and sustainability organization honors you, and you run for office, then the first thing to do when you get elected is to renounce everything you once believed to win that award, like the Nobel Peace Prize. Otherwise, it would be "influence peddling," right? A conflict of interest, surely, if an organic farmer led the opposition to Cargill and Monsanto. Getting elected means you're now part of the problem rather than the solution, so you'd better act accordingly.
The main corporate supporters of Tester (to the tune of millions of dollars), continues to be the so-called "environmental community" - especially the big corporate-controlled and politically connected groups like the Sierra Club, Audubon, MWA, etc. Most of these organizations (including AERO) fell over themselves to support Tester's "Jobs and Recreation" bill, which never made any sense at all except to a couple of timber companies and those who revelled in making environmental advocates look stupid. It was actually a recycled Conrad Burns bill from the late 1990's, then the Senate "alternative" to the Pat Williams wilderness bill which would have saved something like 4.5 of the 6 million roadless and Wilderness Study Areas under threat by logging, mining, and livestock interests. But Tester's bill was only a "pilot project", and would have saved only a small fraction of even what Burns had earlier been recommending (the so-called "rocks and ice" acreage which had little value either as wilderness or in terms of resources to be "developed.")
Just as Obamacare was recycled Romneycare, Tester's Senate career is recycled Conrad Burns [and now, Baucus -especially his support for new missiles from Boeing and all the Wall St money which Baucus commanded as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee]. All the support for the wars, more military spending, Homeland Security, etc. which kept Burns in office has been expropriated by Tester - "Sure wouldn't want to lose those guys, would we?"
The same goes for wolves and gun control. Tester is right in there with the NRA and trappers/hunters and "sportsmen." Tester's latest fiasco was some sort of "Sportsman's Bill of Rights" which was laughed out of the Senate for provisions such as the "right" to bring back polar bear skins and other endangered species trophies from other countries - which is presently illegal under US laws. Another interesting part of this bill was the "right" to carry hunting bows and arrows in National Parks, which are apparently equated with firearms and thus banned, or have to be wrapped up and sealed before being taken into the Parks. Believe it or not, these are actually "hot-button issues" among Tester supporters! Or else he has been fooled into thinking they are by the ALEC types, who hand us a lollypop with one hand, while picking our pockets with the other.
The only part I don't understand is why, after being so totally deceived and manipulated by some of the least savory elements in American society, Tester would even want to run, again. Yes, Rehberg was sufficiently vain and credulous to think that he could beat Tester, and he could have if he hadn't had such a dismal record on the environment, foreign policy, etc. But the whole debate, now, is framed in terms of how stupid and outrageous one can be - and how offensive to the other party, not how much good one can do, or how one's understanding and experience relates to the offices held.
I've said all along that Tester simply doesn't understand who he is, or his power to do good simply by doing the right thing - what he, himself, knows to be true and useful. Like many a weak king or president, he has been totally taken over by his staff and "advisors".
Doesn't anyone else know or care about this? Baucus is already raising money to run, again, in 2016. It's all about "seniority", you know. Look how "powerful" Baucus has become. Surely we wouldn't want to lose him, now would we? I wonder, sometimes, if there will be any meaningful United States of America in another 4 years. With Obama in the White House and Tester-Baucus in the Senate, there is reason for some doubt. The total failure of Montana media, public and private, to expose and defeat these corporate-sponsored criminals - well, that would be our greatest collective sin. For those who actually call themselves Christians or otherwise ethical people - if they're doing anything at all, it is probably on the side of the oppressors and tyrants. You can't fight City Hall, right?
Much as I enjoy blaming people like Baucus, Tester, and their cohorts, it's really not their fault. It's the corporate media (including "public" media which is almost totally corporate-controlled and funded); it's our monopoly, hierarchical "public" school system; it's the Military Industrial Complex; it's our own lack of courage and intellectual honesty, which is never taught in school or other "government programs", but must be learned from family and personal experience.
You say you want a revolution? You'd better change your mind, instead. Time is getting short.
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