63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read - Jesse Ventura [24]
This ties in to something that happened when I took my TV show (Conspiracy Theory) to New Orleans to look into the Gulf oil spill. At the time, BP was applying a chemical called Corexit as a means of dispersing the millions of gallons of oil. A guy from BP looked at me and said, “Everything we’ve put into the water was approved by the EPA.” I said, “So what?! Doesn’t your common sense tell you that putting something in the water that has four lethal poisons in it, when you’ve already got all this oil, is not a good thing?” But his answer again was, “Everything we did was approved.” That told me right there that the EPA can be bought and sold.
Here are some excerpts from the EPA’s study on bees and pesticides, and you can read the whole thing at: www.panna.org/sites/default/files/Memo_Nov2010_Clothianidin.pdf.
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EMBASSY CABLES
America’s Fight against Europe over Biotech Crops
In case you still imagine our government isn’t completely in bed with the mega-corporations, this WikiLeaked cable ought to make you think twice. Our former ambassador to France was a guy named Craig Stapleton, who before that used to co-own the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush. In 2007, he called for “moving to retaliation” against France for having the gall to ban Monsanto’s genetically modified corn, and against the whole European Union because they at the time had an anti-biotech policy. “In our view, Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue,” Ambassador Stapleton determined, as if somehow we had the right to tell them how to think!
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MILITARY STUDIES CLIMATE
Climate Change as a Threat to National Security
Back in 2006, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a federally funded R&D center for the Navy and Marine Corps, brought together a Military Advisory Board of eleven retired three-star and four-star admirals and generals. Their task was to examine the impact of global climate change for future national security. The report came out in April 2007, and I’m reprinting the Executive Summary here. Its conclusion is that climate change represents a “a serious threat” that is likely to create “instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.” (The entire report is viewable online at http://www.cna.org/reports/climate.)
I find it very chilling that the U.S. military would recognize this situation and begin preparations for how to deal with it, when many of our elected officials are still prepared to think climate change is some kind of hoax! I don’t think it’s such a good idea to have the military being out front on things like this, it isn’t their proper role. We’re the ones who should be leading them, not the other way around—unless we’re like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand.
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CORPORATE INFLUENCE
Koch Industries Seminars for the Rich and Powerful
Ever since the Supreme Court decided last year (Citizens United v. FEC) to override Congress and allow unlimited secret cash from corporations—and even foreign governments—to influence American elections, following the money has gotten difficult. One mega-player, though, that we’ve found out a lot about is Koch Industries.
The Koch brothers, Charles and David from Wichita, Kansas, are each worth more than $21.5 billion. Charles has come right out and admitted that their major goal is to eliminate 90 percent of all laws and government regulations, so as to further the “culture of prosperity.” The Kochs are the biggest funder of right-wing front groups in the country.
Twice a year they bring together all the wealthy donors to talk about their game plan. A website called ThinkProgress somehow got hold of a memo that outlines what happened the last time Koch and company got together for a secret election-planning meeting, in June 2010 in