By Bob Gaydos

A b. We worh Trump’s imhw hamga from the from of the Justice Department headquarters.

  Trump is scheduled to give the State of the Union address tonight and I won’t be watching because I have no interest in listening to a demented old man talk about oatmeal or windmills or the special deal he’s offering on bitcoin.

   Besides, I have a long list of things I haven’t had the time to write about but I’m sure he won’t be talking about tonight.

   Things like the Supreme Court finally slapping him down on his tariffs, saying he had no power to impose them and his childish response to the ruling. Wonder how many justices will be in the chambers tonight.

   Or that phony baloney “Peace Board,”which costs a billion dollars to join and is largely composed of nations whose citizens have been barred from immigrating to the United States by Trump. A big grift.

  Or his image on a banner hanging from the front of the Department of Justice headquarters, as well as at Labor and Agriculture, like the ruler of some Third World country.

    Or his constant threat to attack Iran for developing nuclear weapons capacity when, in his first term, he quit the treaty with them which barred them from doing so and, in his second term said attacks on them had eliminated their nuclear capability. A diversion.

    Or his sudden decision declaring the pesticide Roundup, long declared a cancer threat, is necessary for national security, a favor to a friend.

   Or his equally dangerous and inexcusable decisions to rev up the coal industry and declare that the U.S. has no obligation to fight climate change and not pollute the air. New York MAGA Lee Zeldin, EPA head, gladly made the announcement.

    That’s a quick, short list of the true state of the union. Oh, and inflation is up and job growth is down, whatever he may say.

    Maybe Kash Patel, back from his beer blast with the gold medal-winning men’s hockey team will be in the audience with them and will provide an update on where the FBI’s investigation of all the famous people mentioned in the Epstein files stands. I’m sure some of the survivors of the sex-trafficking ring who are expected to be in the audience as guests of Democrats would appreciate it. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

   The gold-medal winning women’s hockey team rejected Trump’s invitation to the White House because of his insulting comments about them.

   That’s the state of the union.

By Bob Gaydos

Despite many years of observing and commenting on the human condition, I continue to be amazed (though no longer surprised) at the ignorance and arrogance (fellow travelers) we humans often display with regard to our own well-being. And no, I’m not talking about the Tea Party and its hostages in the Republican Party. At least not exclusively them.

Rather, I’m talking about the people who, in the name of commerce, science, progress, even good health, look upon nature as something to be improved upon, to be conquered, to be shown, in effect, who’s boss. The folks at Monsanto, who feel compelled to alter the genetic makeup of so much of the food we eat, are a prime example of this attitude. Growing more and hardier crops in smaller spaces means more profits, even though no one can say for certain that the science behind the profits will eventually prove to be safe for humans. Their arrogance bought the ignorance of a feckless Congress, which protected the company from revealing its GMOs on food labels.

But, I have another example of humans recklessly meddling with nature in mind here. We’re talking about honey bees, which are dying at a rate that cannot be good for the planet or those who live on it.

In fact, honey bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate for more than a decade. Some say a million colonies a year. Gone. No trace. It’s the kind of things most people don’t notice. After all, we‘re just talking about bees here, right? But those who grow fruits and vegetables depend on the bees for cross-pollination, the process that allows fertilization and productions of seeds. These food producers have been well aware of the growing bees crisis.

Last year, scientists said they believe they finally figured out the culprit — a group of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Produced mainly by the chemical giant, Bayer, these pesticides are present in commonly used home gardening products and are regularly sprayed on millions of acres of corn, soy, wheat and cotton seeds in the United States alone.

Scientific reports say the insecticides act as a nerve poison, infecting the pollen and nectar of plants, disorienting the bees and making it impossible for them to find their way back to their hives. In addition, scientists believe aggressive land development and the destruction of natural bee habitats has added to the disappearance. Plus, some of those genetically modified organism crops have had toxic insecticides introduced into their genetic structure, in the name of making them hardier. But scientists think the toxins may also be poisoning the bees.

Here’s where the ignorance and arrogance come in. Do we want to depend on chemical giants like Monsanto and Bayer to guarantee a healthful supply of fruits and vegetables, or would we rather depend on the stewards nature provided — the honey bees? My money’s on the bees, but commercial beekeepers can’t compete with the money the chemical companies spend on gaining protection from state and federal government agencies. Still, the beekeepers last month sued the Environmental Protection Agency, asking it to remove its approval of two widely used neonicotinoids. (Germany and France have done so.) Bayer continues to insist they are safe. The EPA’s lukewarm response was to send a team to California, where millions of commercial hives are needed yearly, to talk about the problem.

Talk is cheap. The EPA, which relies on the chemical companies’ testing to determine the safety of their own products, needs to launch a full scale review of these pesticides, as well as the toxins spliced into crops, to determine if they are, in fact, killing off millions of bees and jeopardizing the bountiful food supply nature has provided without any help from humans. We would do well to listen to the warnings of the honey bees and the people who know how to work with and nurture them, rather than the profit-driven assurances of giant purveyors of better farming through chemicals.

If you care about the food you eat, write the EPA to take meaningful action, via their web site: epa.gov. Or, sign a petition at change.org: http://www.change.org/petitions/epa-save-our-bees-and-the-food-we-eat-ban-bayer-s-chemicals-now. Help the bees find their way home.

.bob@zestoforange.com