Chump Change Spent On (Hundreds Of) Whores

My personal irony meter has pegged out again as the tobacco industry continues to provide funding for (at the risk of once again offending street walkers everywhere) tons of media whores who spend their days hammering away at California proposition 29, spending millions of dollars each day on multiple t.v. ads per hour that will be shown on any station with more than ten viewers, working to defeat an initiative that will raise the tax on tobacco products, an action that would lower their corporate profits both now and in the future by reducing today’s consumption and preventing many young people from “buying” into a future of spending on what’s clearly an addiction.

The approximately 40 millions dollars that has been spent (so far) by the tobacco industry for the purchase of air time and other media advertising can easily be considered to be “Their average profit on the sales they make on just one average weekday afternoon”, or as they call it in their for some reason not smoke filled boardroom meetings, “Chump Change” for short.

The objections from the main Anti-29 group that receives major funding from Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, who hereafter out of respect for WordPress standards, I’ll refer to in the manner of “Johnny Dangerously” as Those Cork Soakers, feature statements that this proposition would not help our schools or cure the deficits that the state and local government face, all of which are true. Some of what they omit is that the proposition would also not do anything for male pattern baldness, erectile dysfunction, or to reduce unwanted teen pregnancies.

This campaign also objects that the funds from proposition 29 could flow out of the state of California, but at the same time they fail to show the ratio of how much of their profits from tobacco product sales stay in California versus the mass flow of money to the South Eastern part of the country, i.e., the “Tobacco Belt” centering in Virginia, North Carolina, etc…

Further, they say Prop 29 would collect a little over 700 million, or as they say “nearly a billion” of “Our tax dollars”. However, this is only true if you’re a user or seller of tobacco products, otherwise it doesn’t take a penny out of your pocket.

A important lesson that I learned while in the Air Force was to consider the source before deciding on your action / reaction to any statement, it’s still true today…..

The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of mine) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but because success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan, blame can not be so attributed.