More Tommy Thompson right-wing extremism (a blast from the past)

Tommy Thompson is one of these fascists from 20 years ago who now seems to be among the Democrats' favorite Republicans – ever since the propellerheads switched parties and traded their Wall Street business suits for Silicon Valley underpants.

Thompson is the right-wing 4-term former Governor of Wisconsin and Secretary of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush thugocracy. He ran for President in 2008 but was forced out of the running after making a series of anti-Semitic remarks. Most recently, Thompson humiliated himself through his actions as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System.

As my Big Cleaning gets under way, I found a folder full of news stories on my computer dating back over 20 years that I never got to cover – because our rulers would always outdo themselves by doing something even stupider. In 2002, Thompson – while he was part of the Bush regime – announced that the government would oppose labeling of genetically engineered frankenfoods. "Mandatory labeling will only frighten consumers," he told a biotech gathering. Boo! He went on to say, "Labeling implies that biotechnology products are unsafe.'' Uh. Aren't they?

That was after 19 countries already required labeling.

This was also when Bush planned to move 300 workers from HHS to the Department of Homeland Security – a department that to this day has accomplished nothing positive.

As HHS head, Thompson succeeded Donna Shalala, who helped to nearly ruin the Democrats' electoral chances in 2020 with her vanity congressional campaign. Shalala brang her own extremism to the fore, which ultimately wasn't much different from Thompson's recent travails. Republican hero worship of big corporations 20 years ago was borne of the same bad intentions as Democratic support for corporations today.

Because frankenfoods were not labeled, American consumers remained in the dark for years thereafter. It wasn't until 2016 that Congress passed a law to try to give people more information on what they put into their bodies. The labels did not appear until this year, and some confusion still reigns. To add insult to injury, an NPR story about the labels repeated a false claim that there's no evidence that genetically engineered crops are harmful to humans.

Why should the media be trusted on any issue if they amplify outright lies like that in plain sight?