No more war
No war with Russia or China. The U.S. doesn’t own the world. The increasing U.S. military tensions with Russia over Ukraine, and with China over Taiwan, is just nuts.
Most U.S. corporate media are fanning the flames of war hysteria. At the core of the problem is the U.S.’s distorted view of itself as the Global Big Dog — the “exceptional” nation that owns the world. The U.S. believes it has the right to be the global empire that dictates to all other nations, and the mass media, with few exceptions, polishes that false image.
We need a world of global cooperation, not military confrontation and domination. We have enough major human problems to deal with — a global pandemic, rapidly increasing climate crises, intense storms, wildfires, drought, rising sea levels, rising temperatures, etc. Not to mention global hunger and a growing addiction problem.
Just in the past year, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses. That is horrifying but the worst U.S. addiction is the nation’s addiction to war. Over the past few decades, millions have been killed, injured or made refugees from U.S. wars and regime change operations.
The major U.S. drug dealer is the military industrial media complex — made up of the arms-makers, bipartisan lawmakers, and the mass media (with CIA and retired military talking-head pundits) that weave the yarn of the need for war and more war.
The spin is about “freedom and democracy,” but the reality is profits for the weapons-makers and U.S. global domination.
America is in desperate need of a 12-step program to end its addiction to war.
Jim Albertini
Kurtistown
Glyphosate everywhere
What’s for dinner? Glyphosate, of course.
Big Ag sprays Roundup on our major food crops: corn, wheat and soybeans, which not only feeds us but also the beef, pork and poultry animals we eat. Roundup rids the weeds, thereby boosting crop yields, resulting in cheaper food for us. Wonderful?
Roundup (with glyphosate as main ingredient) is a nonselective herbicide and is systemic. Means it’s absorbed throughout the plant, even down to the roots.
Very effective weed killer, it is, unless the plant itself is Roundup-resistant.
Monsato sells corn, wheat and soybean seeds specifically bred to survive, despite being sprayed on with Roundup.
Farmers can only purchase such seeds from Monsato, which bio-engineers these seeds exclusively for just one planting. Hence farmers are forced to become captive customers of this seed supplier if they want to continue planting.
Roundup usage is expected to increase due to population growth. Our fault?
Monsato has since been acquired by Bayer, which decided Roundup will not be sold to general retail customers after 2023 to prevent future class-action lawsuits of cancer claims.
However, industrial sales will continue. After all, we must eat the basics at a price we can afford. Fast food, processed food, candies, pastries, sodas — all with traces of glyphosate. Yummy!
Lloyd Fukuki
Waimea