Goldman Sachs is in the news again. According to the New York Times the great financial octopus has been implicated in fixing aluminum prices among other enterprises. Apparently this has gouged consumers out of billions of dollars. Just another shell game that comes out of loosened government regulations. Banks can now enter the commodities markets and set prices as long as they are not too obvious about it. Goldman is now under investigation but surely this is merely the tip of the massive swindling operations that occur everyday. Imagine if they’re found guilty of any part of this the fine will be a mere drop in the bucket of Goldman’s annual profits from such shell games that are now common in the international banking community.

GlaxoSmithKline has now come under scrutiny for their dastardly drug testing methods in China. China is so deregulated that this giant drug company had been able to test drugs directly on humans and bypass any more humane methods entirely. According to the Guardian news: “Sir Andrew Witty will speak publicly for the first time about the cash and bribery scandal that has led to the arrest of four of the company’s senior executives.” This story deepens as GSK is not only testing drugs using no moral standards but also using bribery to prescribe them to people who apparently don’t need them. Remember now this practice of kickbacks has happened here also but who can pay attention to all these stories? The drug companies are huge, rich and powerful and if they want news blocked and little, if any press coverage, they generally get it.

Now who can ignore the royal baby. Today, Tuesday the 23rd of July, MSNBC stood for Massive New Baby Coverage. Honestly this was virtually the only news all day. Our system of tabloid journalism ignored news that might actually affect all of us and chose to concentrate on that story which has no bearing on our lives whatsoever. Maybe it isn’t even journalism any longer just sensationalism and diversion.

Perhaps now the baby has finally been born we can return to important matters like speaker Boenher bragging that the house he presides over ‘should be judged not on the laws they pass but on the laws they repeal!’ Maybe now people will realize that many representatives are evil servants of huge corporate conglomerates that only care about profit. Do we really want people to go hungry in this country and not have affordable health care? What about our students? Should we ignore the interest rates on the student loans? What about the ’Stand your ground’ laws? Shall we allow wanna be cops who ignore the 911 dispatchers telling them to stay in their cars to randomly shoot unarmed teenagers? This country needs an examination of its’ morals and to exercise more common sense. We need to get our heads out of the diversions and into the reality of politics and decent leadership!

Get off the cell phone and Drive! — Jake Shween