Today's outrage.

I never really was all that hot for John Edwards as a presidential candidate (I've been a Hillary girl since, well, 1992?), but I always considered him as strong a candidate as either Obama or Clinton. And, since he's officially NOT running for veep (which totally makes me think of that truism from Lions for Lambs), I like what he's doing instead. Beefing up Head Start (of which I'm a beneficiary, by the by), Medicaid, SCHIP, and other programs that offer aid to low income families - especially children - is a great idea.

Disappointingly, though, it seems like corporate interests are running the show pretty much everywhere - first by maintaining a stranglehold on the intellectual property and patent system that keeps medicines only in the hands of those who can afford them (or profit by them) - second by destroying local food systems in favor of agribusiness that propagates GMO crops, enjoys significant government funding in the form of subsidies and grants for cleaning up their own unnecessary environmental messes, survives on the backs of underpaid and overworked labor, not to mention prioritizes profit over human life or environmental sustainability. With those powers at the wheel (and can anyone really argue that corporations aren't calling the shots here? how scary is it that drug companies are giving more to Democrats than Republicans?? REAL scary....and please note that Obama - he of the "no special interests" money position - got the largest number reported in that article...), it's a huge challenge to try and level the playing field for those living in poverty, in this country and around the globe.

In the context of my ongoing re-education about the geography and history of the planet, I found this article from The Independent really fascinating. Now, I hate bananas and don't eat them....but I know lots of people who do, and I think it would be a shame if there were no more bananas. Furthermore, I find it really fucking horrible how rich, white people seem to have swapped the cunning use of flags for equally unjust corporate takeovers, which trend this story illustrates nicely.

((Sidenote: I feel really disappointed in myself for not previously knowing the origin of the term "banana republic," which for some reason I thought was just a descriptor for countries in steamy equatorial regions that would be good for growing bananas. I had no idea it was such a blood-drenched term, and I'm furthermore very interested in following up this read with some digging about what countries currently embroiled in conflict of some sort might be suffering from this kind of corporate interference in their governments.))

I assume that most people think I'm a little crazy for thinking capitalism is evil and money is evil and corporations are evil and banks are evil and that most of the world's ills can be laid directly at the feet of one or more of those culprits. But this pattern is so clear to me, and so clearly WRONG. And killing people, and destroying the planet. Right now, I'm having trouble understanding how anyone can think money and banks and corporations and capitalism *aren't* evil.