Category Archives: WTF?!

Your Tax Money Went to GE Shareholders

ThinkProgress » Despite Paying No Income Taxes, GE CEO Lauded His Company’s Patriotism In 2009 West Point Speech

On its front page this morning, the New York Times reported that General Electric — the world’s largest companymade $14.2 billion in profits ($5.1 billion in America) and managed to not pay a dime in federal taxes. In fact, the company actually received “a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.”

The mega corporation’s tax dodging flies in the face of the rhetoric of its CEO Jeffery Immelt — also the head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness — who sought to portray his company as one that values fairness in a speech at West Point in 2009.

ThinkProgress » Despite Paying No Income Taxes, GE CEO Lauded His Company’s Patriotism In 2009 West Point Speech

The Chamberpot of Commerce is a bunch of dicks

ThinkProgress » Wall Street Front Group President Sneers At Protesters, Says Public Servants Are Paid Too Much

Asked about the massive protests against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), [U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue] said that public servants have “over bloated” compensation:

Donohue turned truculent when asked whether events in Wisconsin are weakening unions and the right of workers to collective bargaining. [….] He went on to express his concerns that public sector pensions are “out of control” and that public workers compensation is “over bloated.”

Speaking of “over bloated” compensation, Donohue “travels in a chauffeured Lincoln and a leased jet, and his salary, $3.7 million last year, makes him the sixth highest paid lobbyist in the country.”

Donohue apparently has no problem taking cheap shots at people who have dedicated themselves to public service, but what does he do to deserve so much money? As we’ve reported, Donohue runs nothing more than a shell organization to help big corporations pursue nasty lobbying campaigns under the brand of the “U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” a group misleadingly associated with local chambers of commerce. For instance, the health insurance industry secretly funneled $86 million to the Chamber in 2009 to try to kill health reform. Similarly, oil companies, chemical firms, and defense industry corporations have used to the Chamber to run ads or lobby against regulations.

ThinkProgress » Wall Street Front Group President Sneers At Protesters, Says Public Servants Are Paid Too Much

The Hubris of Science — this week’s WTF?!

This morning, I heard part of an interview with a scientist on Living on Earth. He is transferring a human gene plus scorpion DNA to a fungus to mosquitos to kill malaria microbes. He was coolly matter-of-fact about how safe this is because it is so well-targeted.

I think it is insane to release such genetic modifications into the wild. This man may be the greatest scientist who ever lived. He may know everything there is to know about genetic modification (I do NOT believe that). But evolution is relentless and he can’t possibly foresee what happens generations down the road – a very short time for microbes and mosquitos. We surely still have much to learn about genetics and evolution. Those lessons should not come from an unrecoverable disaster.

Kudos to Living on Earth for the interview and for posting the recording and the transcript for free. Another service of public media.

Living on Earth: Curing Mosquitoes of Malaria

GELLERMAN: As I understand it, you’re using a genetically modified fungus to kill the malaria parasite. Which fungus, and how does it work?

Dr. Raymond J St. Leger used scorpin, a toxin found in the Imperial Scorpion's venom, to cure mosquitoes of malaria. (Raymond St. Leger)ST. LEGER: Yes, we are. It’s a fungus called Metarhizium anisopliae, and it infects insects through their skin. And, what we’ve done is we’ve taken a gene encoding a human antibody, and we also tried a gene encoding an anti-malarial toxin, and we put those genes inside the fungus. And so now we’ve got a fungus that acts like a contact insecticide.

It lands on the insect’s skin, penetrates into the blood of the insect, and then will produce human antibody against the malaria, and basically cure the mosquito of malaria within a couple of days of infection.

GELLRMAN: But you didn’t want to kill the mosquito, you want to kill the parasite that carries the malaria. Why wouldn’t you want to kill the mosquito?

ST. LEGER: Well, we can kill the mosquito. We can engineer the fungus to express insecticidal toxins from a spider, and they’ll kill a mosquito in a couple of days. But the problem we might have then is, the likelihood is that the insects will evolve resistance to the fungus as well. So we wanted to change the strategy: target the malaria inside the mosquito.

GELLERMAN: Now you’re genetically modifying the fungus with a scorpion toxin. How’d you come up with that?

ST. LEGER: Ah, well, that’s scorpine as it’s called – it’s a toxin which has been studied for a few years now by different groups. And, it’s quite interesting – it’s an antimicrobial toxin, and it was shown to be effective against plasmodium a couple of years back. Now the scorpine toxin is from the Imperial Scorpion, a great big scorpion, a huge scorpion in fact, which has got a rather placid personality, plays well with children. …

GELLERMAN: And safe? I mean, you’ve got this genetically modified fungus… is it safe in the environment?

ST. LEGER: Well the wild-type fungus, the original fungus, is very safe. It’s been used for a long time, and it’s hard to see any tangible risk from what we’re doing.

Living on Earth: Curing Mosquitoes of Malaria

I’m puzzled by this text in particular. Mosquitos might evolve resistance to the fungus, so why wouldn’t malaria evolve in less time?

Even the destruction of life by mad scientists has a funny side: Conservatives fear the doom of debt. They’ll never see the flying scorpions until it’s too late.

Environmentalists are Communists. WTF?!

2023-08-18: this post is 12 years old. I’ve written hundreds of posts since then. Please look around. Thanks.

Martinez’s pick for enviro chief: Environmentalists are communists | New Mexico Independent

“I think that there are individuals, [Obama science czar John] Holdren apparently among them, a very large number who have taken the — shall we say captured the environmental movement and turned it into what was previously considered the communist movement,” Schmitt said in a 40-minute interview with Jones. “And that’s just something that people of common sense are going to continue to have to counter and wake up enough so that they can take control of their government again.”

Later in the interview, Schmitt expanded on the theme saying that this came to be after the fall of the Soviet Union.

“I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union,” Schmitt said. “Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement. That’s not to say there aren’t some major and significant environmental issues, particularly at the local level, but they converted environmental activism to a political movement and some would say a religious movement.”

If confirmed by the state Senate, Schmitt would be in charge of the Mining and Minerals Division, State Parks Division, Oil Conservation Division and Energy Conservation Management Division.

Martinez’s pick for enviro chief: Environmentalists are communists | New Mexico Independent

This Week’s WTF?!

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

So-called progressives, or leftists, prey on the group that feels entitled to benefits, offering them more and more to ensnare them in their addiction, while conservatives try to cater to and encourage those who appreciate opportunities by lowering the obstructions.
        Eventually the progressive left’s policy is self-defeating or, as Margaret Thatcher said, "pretty soon you run out of other people’s money."
        LAWRENCE FORD
        Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

Right. Progressives, like drug dealers, ensnare lazy, greedy people.  Whereas Conservatives are hard-working and long-suffering. This self-serving, self-satisfied, self-congratulatory attitude seems full of a sense of entitlement: ie, you deserve what you have and, surely, other people want more than they deserve. Good for you.

So-called conservatives ensnare people with vague promises of opportunity even as an ever smaller percentage of the population gets absurdly rich, while the rest of us fight over the scraps. Then, the super-rich keep followers in line by assuring them it is the government and the foreigners who have prevented them from getting rich, as well. The Right Wing maintains a constant state of fear: The government, the foreigners, the different are all going to take your guns and make you accept things you just can’t accept. Stay angry and afraid and mistrustful. It keeps you from asking who profits from your misery. It’s not the progressives.