"Why are we not calling this Fascism"?

(Well, some of us are!)



H/T to Information Clearinghouse.

5 Most Horrifying Things About Monsanto -- Why You Should Join the Global Movement and Protest on Saturday

 By April Short, Alternet
Excerpts:
"...Monsanto is the conglomerate mastermind behind many of the pesticides and genetically engineered seeds that pervade farm fields around the world. Monsanto  produces the world’s top-selling herbicide; 40 percent of US crops contain its genes; it spends millions lobbying the government each year; and several of its factories are now toxic Superfund sites. ...

 1. Profiteering poisonous chemical company posing as agribusiness.

Remember the horrors of Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, when the US military designed a chemical warfare program and used the herbicide and defoliant Agent Orange to kill and maim 400,000 people (estimated by the Vietnam government), and ultimately cause birth defects for 500,000 children? Monsanto made that possible.  

Monsanto began as a chemical company [7] in 1901 and was responsible for some of the most damaging toxins in US history, like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s), and dioxin. Consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch (FWW) released a report [8] on APril 3 detailing Monsanto’s role in chemical disasters, Agent Orange, and the first genetically modified plant cell. The report shows that the “feed-the-world” agricultural and life sciences company Monsanto markets itself as today is only a recent development. The majority of Monsanto’s history is involved with heavy industrial chemical production, including the supply of Agent Orange to the US for Vietnam operations from 1962-'71

Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association told Common Dreams [9], in response to the FWW report:

Despite its various marketing incarnations over the years, Monsanto is a chemical company that got its start selling saccharin to Coca-Cola, then Agent Orange to the U.S. military, and in recent years, seeds genetically engineered to contain and withstand massive amounts of Monsanto herbicides and pesticides. Monsanto has become synonymous with the corporatization and industrialization of our food supply....

 2. Building a monopoly, putting farmers out of work.

There is nothing more quintessentially American than the independent family farmer; and there is nothing more un-American than stomping out that farmer’s livelihood to bolster your corporate monopoly. Monsanto is attempting this as it sues small farmers out of their livelihoods time and again.....

In the article, “Monsanto's Earnings Nearly Double as They Create a Farming Monopoly”—originally published in Al Jazeera and reprinted [16] on AlterNet on January 16—Charlotte Silver outlines how Monsanto has increased the price of the Roundup herbicide and exploiting its patent on transgenic corn, soybean and cotton, to gain control over those agricultural industries in the US, “…effectively squeezing out conventional farmers (those using non-transgenic seeds) and eliminating their capacity to viably participate and compete on the market.” The company also uses its power to coerce seed dealers out of stocking many of its competitor products....

  

3. Controlling the food, privatizing the water.

Half of the Earth’s population will live in an area with significant water stress by 2030, according to estimates [18] from the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. Corporations like Monsanto (along with Royal Dutch Shell and Nestle) are vying for a future in which free water supply is a thing of the past, and private companies control public water sources.

According to a government report titled "Intelligence Community Assessment; Global Water Security [19]," by 2025, the world's population will likely exceed 8 billion people, and the demand for water will be 40 percent higher than sustainable water supplies available, with water needs of around 6,900 billion cubic meters due to population growth.

Private corporations already own 5 percent of the world's fresh water [20]. Billionaires and companies, including Monsanto, are purchasing the rights to groundwater and aquifers. In an even more ominous twist, Monsanto is accused of dumping its plethora of toxic chemicals, including PCBs, dioxin and glyophosate (Roundup) into the water supply of various nations worldwide. Then, seeing a profitable market niche, it has begun privatizing those water sources it polluted, filtering the water, and selling it back to the public.

4. Running the FDA, writing its own protection laws.

Ex-Monsanto executives run the United States Food and Drug Administration, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the American public.

This obvious conflict of interest could explain the lack of government-led research on the long-term effects of GM products. Recently, the U.S. Congress and president together passed the law that has been dubbed “Monsanto Protection Act.” Among other things, the new law bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds.

 The pro-Monsanto “Farmer Assurance Provision, Section 735,” rider was quietly slipped into Agricultural Appropriations provisions of the HR 933 Continuing Resolution spending bill, designed to avert a federal government shutdown. It states that the department of agriculture “shall, notwithstanding any other provisions of law, immediately grant temporary permits to continue using the [GE] seed at the request of a farmer or producer [Monsanto].”

Obama signed the law on March 29. It allows the agribusiness giant to promote and plant GMO and GE seeds free from any judicial litigation that might deem such crops unsafe. Even if a court review determines that a GMO crop harms humans, Section 735 allows the seeds to be planted once the USDA approves them.

Public health lawyer Michele Simon told the New York Daily News [21] the Senate bill requires the USDA to “ignore any court ruling that would otherwise halt the planting of new genetically mengineered crops.”

 .... Read the rest here.

Don't Forget! It's Saturday!

Reader Supported News:  

Tens of Thousands to "March Against Monsanto" Worldwide
Frustrated with Monsanto's bullying of governments and farmers in the United States and abroad, tens of thousands of activists around the world will "March Against Monsanto" on Saturday, May 25, according to organizers.

Marches on six continents, in 36 countries, and in 47 U.S. states -- totaling events in over 250 cities -- are coordinated to occur simultaneously at 11am Pacific time. A Facebook page founded in February has been instrumental in organizing the events.

Goals of the march's organizers include:

• "Voting with your dollar by buying organic and boycotting Monsanto-owned companies that use GMOs in their products.**
• "Labeling of GMOs so that consumers can make those informed decisions easier.
• "Repealing relevant provisions of the US's 'Monsanto Protection Act.'
• "Calling for further scientific research on the health effects of GMOs.
• "Holding Monsanto executives and Monsanto-supporting politicians accountable through direct communication, grassroots journalism, social media, etc.
• "Continuing to inform the public about Monsanto's secrets.
• "Taking to the streets to show the world and Monsanto that we won't take these injustices quietly."....

**Note: I changed the link in the first bulleted point, because the link in the article didn't work. Scroll down the page a bit for the list of companies that use Monsanto GMOs in their products.

Bring. It. On.

The Empire Strikes Back! Gee, what a surprise - evil Monsanto is busy attempting disinfo tricks, like fake announcements that marches have been cancelled, and what not. As NottheSingularity.com reports, "Monsanto is also spreading rumors that events for this Saturday’s March have been cancelled or that times have been changed.

Monsanto has prepared itself well for the upcoming mass protests. As is the preferred method of the 1%, it will use violence against peaceful protesters for which the protesters will then be blamed. Monsanto and Blackwater are working together to target anti-Monsanto activists and organizations. March organizers are warning activists to expect the presence of agent provocateurs, lots of law enforcement, and devious tactics to try to discredit the movement.

However, none of this is going to deter me from participating and I hope you will not be deterred either. It’s time to RISE UP against the genetic assault on one of our basic needs: FOOD."

Mr. Climate Change-Denier Himself....

...has no problem taking federal money for the enormous wreckage left behind after monster tornadoes unleashed their fury in OK. After all, he says, this is way different than Hurricane Sandy! And his cohort Snidley Coburn insists that any aid money "must" be offset by other budget cuts.

What I want to know is, when will a monster twister touch down on the Senate and House buildings??

From Raw Story:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) seemed to contradict his colleague Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) stance on Tuesday on federal assistance for victims of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado, suggesting that there will be help coming. But he also differentiated that need from his opposition to aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“That was totally different,” he told MSNBC host Kris Jansing, saying that requests for help after the hurricane went instead to “things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there. They were putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C. Everyone was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. That won’t happen in Oklahoma.”

As ThinkProgress reported at the time, Inhofe joined Coburn and 35 other Republican senators in January 2013 in voting against a $50.5 billion aid package for communities hit by the storm, saying it contained too much “pork.”..... More here.

March Against Monsanto! Everywhere!

This Saturday May 25 at 2pm, EDT. You can look up your city here, to see where the action is in your area.

***In the Asheville area, the action is starting at Pack Square at 2pm. Be there!

I Hate Monsanto!

This is truly the most evil company in the world! After effortlessly gaining the favor of the corporatist thugs on the supreme court, they are now using that same ilk in congress to take away states' rights to label genetically modified food. This is outrageous, and I hope you'll join me in not only contacting your designated critters, but also boycotting this global monstrosity.

The latter just got a bit easier, thanks to a new free app for android smart phones and iphones. It's called "Buycott", and according to Natural Society, it allows you "to analyze products and determine if you’re supporting Monsanto’s GMOs, Big Food companies who are damaging your health, or simply low quality products."

And if you also want to know if a company is a subsidiary of a big evil like the Koch brothers, then this will also help. NS says that "the App will trace the product all the way back to its ‘parent’ company, so you know exactly who you are supporting with your purchases. For example, did you know McNeil Nutritionals is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, who has continued to put carcinogenic chemicals in their products for years?"

The power of where we spend our limited dollars is rapidly becoming one of the few ways we have left to influence what happens in our corporate-controlled (aka fascist) nation, so arm yourself with information and buy accordingly. Meanwhile, if you want more information on how congress and its Monsanto buddies are working to make sure you don't get to know what you're buying, visit this page, which also links you to a letter to congress which you can sign onto.

Yep!

"Oil from tar sands makes sense only for a small number of people who are making a lot of money from that product. It doesn't make sense for the rest of the people on the planet. We are getting close to the dangerous level of carbon in the atmosphere and if we add on to that unconventional fossil fuels, which have a tremendous amount of carbon, then the climate problem becomes unsolvable."

-Professor James Hansen, Guardian UK

North Carolina is Being Run by Corrupt, Self-Serving Control Freaks

Whatever happened to the "free market"?? Isn't that what repugs claim to worship so much at the altar of free enterprise? Probably the same thing that happened to their espousal of "local authority" ideas!

From Raw Story:

Tesla vice president blasts North Carolina Republican’s attack on the free market 

Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla’s vice president for corporate and business development, on Wednesday slammed legislation in North Carolina that would prevent the sale of his company’s all-electric cars.

“What’s happening here is the rules are being changed to protect the dealer model and exclude us from the market,” he said on CNBC. “North Carolina consumers are buying these vehicles, they are interested in these vehicles. It’s a great market, it’s an innovative market, it’s a technology-philic market.”

“We have a lot of uptake there,” O’Connell continued. “We want to service those consumers. Ultimately we want to set up a sales presence and when we do so, we want to do so as a fully licensed entity in that state. We simply do not want to see the rules changed mid-stream.”

Currently, Tesla Motors sells cars directly to consumers over the phone or Internet rather than through third-party dealerships. Legislation introduced by North Carolina state Sen. Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) would make such a business model illegal in the state. Apodaca said the bill would prevent unfair competition.

The bill was unanimously approved by the state’s Senate Commerce Committee last week.

TGIF...

Strong Solar Eruptions

Hope the grid holds up! If it didn't, do you have a means of getting clean drinking water? A few week's worth of non-perishables? What if there were no power for a week or longer? Might be something to think about - a Carrington Event, such as was experienced in the 1800s, would be devastating to the global power grid and portable electronics if it happened now. Being at least somewhat prepared doesn't hurt. It's not being all crazy-paranoid, it's being smart. If nothing happens, you have some extra goods on hand. If something does happen, well, maybe your efforts will save you and your loved ones. Don't forget the critter supplies.

From Spaceweather.com:
Solar activity is high.  During a 24 hour period straddling May 13th and 14th, the sun unleashed three X-class solar flares.  These are the strongest flares of the year so far, and they signal a significant increase in solar activity.  The source of the flares, a large sunspot on the sun's eastern limb, appears poised to erupt again as it turns toward Earth.  Check http://spaceweather.com for more information. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of more X-flares during the next 24 hours.

Sh*t that GMO Companies Say...

Thanks to Farm Wars!

Never Again

Let's stop fueling the corporations that create this! Here are the fruits of "Free Trade": Workers in deathtraps, toiling for pennies with no protections or safety standards. The wet dream of the investor class, and the corporations that control the government. It's time for people who are not sociopaths to step up and say, "no, I will not allow this to keep happening to the world's most vulnerable and desperate people..."



Photographer Shahidul Alam:
“This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams. Quietly it tells us. Never again.” 

 Better Safety in Bangladesh Could Raise Clothing Prices by About 25 Cents
Olga Khazan, The Atlantic

There was some rare happy news out of Bangladesh today as Reshma Akhter, an 18-year-old seamstress, was dug out and rescued after 17 days of being trapped in the wreckage of a collapsed eight-story garment factory building where 1,045 other people have perished. The Rena Plaza incident is officially the worst disaster in the history of the global clothing industry, and it renewed calls for improved safety protections and building code standards in Bangladesh -- a country that owes much of its recent economic growth largely to low-wage clothing work.

The dangerous conditions have been partly blamed on price-conscious businesses, some of whom go with the cheapest and often least-safe local suppliers at the expense of protections for workers. After a November fire that killed 112 workers, brands like Wal-Mart, Gap, and H&M refused to sign a new union-proposed safety plan, which would have introduced more rigorous safety inspections, saying it was "not financially feasible."..... More here.

Was Syria Nuked?

Israel's aggressive attacks on Syria are likely bigger than most people have been led to believe by corporate media. Gordon Duff of Veteran's Today and Press TV assesses the situation there:

Analysis shows Syria came under attack by Israel using, not just nuclear weapons, but an American nuclear bunker buster bomb, one of several supplied to Israel to use against Iran, one of the last acts of the Bush/Cheney administration.

Striking evidence of the use of American EPW (Earth Penetrating Weapons) nuclear weapons in Syria has come to light. Experts say the proof is irrefutable.

Dramatic video footage from Syria has revealed startling evidence that counters Israel’s claims of “surgical strikes” on weapons headed to Lebanon. What were said to be air strikes is now proven to have actually been artillery, something easily discernible to even an untrained observer.   More here.

Bits, pieces and body parts

"...The average wage for a two year community college grad is now higher than that of four year college diploma or higher. Not unexpected since fully half of all 'real college' grads either have no job or are working at Best Buy. Most new jobs that should be done by US college grads like engineering, medical research and even corporate law are now done in China or India. Youth unemployment in the US is now higher than in austerity ridden Europe..."

Are All Telephone Calls Recorded and Accessible to the US Government?

This is something that some of us have long suspected, but now it seems evident that this is actually the case.  Which makes people who cherish authentic freedom and privacy (as opposed to the token facsimiles) very uncomfortable - this is creepy as hell. What does this tell you about the mindset of the people who are running this country? Still think you live in a "democracy"?

By Glenn Greenwald, Guardian UK

The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.

Over the past couple days, cable news tabloid shows such as CNN's Out Front with Erin Burnett have been excitingly focused on the possible involvement in the Boston Marathon attack of Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. As part of their relentless stream of leaks uncritically disseminated by our Adversarial Press Corps, anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way.

On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:

BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?

CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.

BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.

CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."

"All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".

On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on CNN, this time with host Carol Costello, and she asked him about those remarks. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that "all digital communications in the past" are recorded and stored... More here.