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Hightower Lowdown
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three left turns do. -- Jim Hightower
In This Issue
While most of the Democrats in Washington cower
The presidency is taking over the courts and Congress
Also in this issue:
- U.S. CORPS BACK CHINESE SUPPRESSION
- VERICHIP IMPLANTS AND TUMORS
- AN EXCLUSIVE PRIMARY
- OUR GAPING ECONOMIC DIVIDE
Do Something!
February's Lowdown
How corporate money took over Washington--and created the mobs who rant against reform
Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television's yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street. Indeed, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, people voted for a fundamental break from Washington's 30-year push to enthrone a corporate kleptocracy.
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VERICHIP IMPLANTS AND TUMORS
A cabal of corporate and government officials is pushing to legalize and market microchip devices for implantation in humans. The chief advocate, an outfit named VeriChip Corporation, claims that inserting one of its radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips into your upper arm could help, say, hospital staff activate a database containing your medical history.
VeriChip envisions a market of at least 45 million Americans sporting their very own RFID codes. Now we learn that several studies have found that these implants can induce malignant tumors in lab mice and rats.
We've also learned that Tommy Thompson, who approved RFID chips for use in humans back when he was serving under Bush as Secretary of Health & Human Services, is getting $40,000 a year from Applied Digital Solutions (the company that owns VeriChip) and has received company stock worth about $1 million. Applied Digital Solutions also makes Digital Angel-the chips for animals that we talked about in last month's Lowdown.
Although Thompson once told an interviewer that he would "absolutely" be willing to have a VeriChip implanted in his own arm, he never did.