Let us not forget that this is an election year, and all politicians have their fingers in the wind of public opinion. Someone on this post called it 'posturing and grandstanding'. Each public 'servant' must have his 15 minutes in the limelight, beating down on those tobacco companies who want to enslave their children with the demon 'nicotine'. (I keep wondering where are the parents of these children while this 'enslaving' is going on?) If I hear Clinton or anymore of these hypocrites tell me all this is for the 'children', I'll throw up.
It's all about MONEY. The government is impotent against the drug lords, where the problem is truly monumental, but they can get at the tobacco industry and try for a windfall. As noted, they have used every trick in the bag to discredit the industry, including lying, misinformation and bad science. I am particularly incensed about the false information regarding the alleged dangers of second-hand smoke.
The World Health Organization just completed and published a study of spouses in smoking households, and discovered no statistically significant effects on the the non-smokers. The US government, using its clout, managed to essentially suppress the final report because it countered their phony arguments.
What will happen now? This is only my considered opinion, but in spite of how badly it looks for the tobacco companies, and how ungrateful and deceitful the Republican party looks to the world for turning on those who funnelled millions into their campaign funds, I think this is all window-dressing. Big Tobacco will have to ride out this bad patch, knowing they cannot turn the pols around in this election year. They (the tobacco lobbyists) will call in their markers and settle for a postponement, a delay, on any final action in Congress, until next year. Meanwhile, Big Tobacco will mend its fences, do its homework and wait for a more favorable climate. And so will I.
I'm long on MO, having bought it at 45 and at 40, and will continue to add to my holdings with LEAPS. All this will pass--and I just hope I can maintain my patience long enough to profit when a final settlement is reached with a punitive government and a greedy legal profession.
Robert S. Sheldon |
