Friday 31 May 2013

Turkish police clamp down on anti-government protests

Turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse a massive demonstration against the demolition of a park in central Istanbul. 

 
The rally grew into a wider anti-government protest and is spreading across the country.

02:34 GMT: The photos show angry crowds in the streets of the Turkish capital, Ankara, overnight.

Thousands rallied in the center of the city earlier on Friday chanting for the government to resign. Police fired tear gas to disperse several dozen opposition supporters trying to reach the AKP headquarters.

IT WAS NEVER ONLY ABOUT THE PARK. THE PARK BECAME A SYMBOL FOR EVERYTHING THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS TEARING DOWN, THE TREES THEY CUT DOWN, THE HISTORY THEY DESTROYED, THE RIVERS THEY POLLUTED, THE SEAS THEY FILLED WITH CEMENT, ALL IN THE NAME OF ECONOMICAL GROWTH, AND OF COURSE THE LAWS THEY HAVE ENACTED TO ATTACK OUR PRIVATE LIVES.

Source

 

Offshore wealth reaches $8.5tn despite pressure on tax havens

The wealth held abroad in offshore financial jurisdictions has grown by 6.1 percent in the last year despite efforts by governments to curb tax evasion. 

 
The figures have soared to a total of $8.5 trillion, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Meanwhile UK based charity Oxfam, has recently released a report saying that individuals are holding some $18.47 trillion in tax havens around the world.

According to the organization’s estimates, tax lost in tax havens is enough to end global poverty twice over.

LIVE UPDATES: Turkish police clamp down on anti-government protests

Turkish police have fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse a massive demonstration against the demolition of a park in central Istanbul. 

 
The rally grew into a wider anti-government protest and is spreading across the country. 

 
02:34 GMT: The photos show angry crowds in the streets of the Turkish capital, Ankara, overnight. Thousands rallied in the center of the city earlier on Friday chanting for the government to resign. 

Police fired tear gas to disperse several dozen opposition supporters trying to reach the AKP headquarters.

 When people have been pushed just a little too far!

Monsanto set to halt GM push in Europe

Monsanto plans to halt lobbying for its genetically modified plant varieties in Europe due to low demand from local farmers, a representative from the US agricultural giant told a German daily. 


 "We are no longer working on lobbying for more cultivation in Europe," Brandon Mitchner a representative for Monsanto’s European branch, Tageszeitung, said in an interview set to be published on Saturday.

"Currently we do not plan to apply for the approval of new genetically modified crops. The reason is, among other things, low demand of the farmers,” he continued.

Eight national governments in the European Union have already banned Monsanto's MON810 maize and other forms of GMO cultivation in their countries under an environmental protection provision known as the 'Safeguard Clause'. 

Particularly fierce protests in Germany prompted the government to introduce the measures in 2009 due to concerns that such cultivation could lead to ecological degradation. Monsanto’s rivals, such as Bayer CropScience, BASF and Syngenta, had by and large pulled out of the German market because of large-scale public opposition, the German daily reported.

Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and most recently Poland are among other EU member states enforcing the ban.

In April, Italy joined the ranks of EU states looking to ban the cultivation of GM crops on its soil.

The announcement comes amidst a series of recent public relations battles that have brought the US firm considerable worldwide attention.

The USDA announcement followed a massive, global "March Against Monsanto" held on Saturday that saw demonstrations against the Missouri-based firm in 52 countries. 

Organizers for the global protest said around 2 million protesters showed up at rallies being held in 436 cities to protest against the seed giant and the genetically modified food.

PEOPLE POWER!

 

Turkey the hell!

Do you know what this is?



Some of the hundreds of gas bombs that the Turkish police have been throwing at the Turkish citizens for the last 4 days!! just because they wanted to save a green area right in the middle of the city of Istanbul!

They wanted to save it, because we don't have many left around us! We don't, because they are replacing them with ugly buildings and shopping malls. Do you now know what this is:

This is "Turkey the hell"!

Frankfurt banks surrounded in anti-austerity 'Blockupy': LIVE UPDATES

Thousands of anti-austerity protesters have flooded the streets leading to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt in a so-called ‘Blockupy’ protest. They are demonstrating the bank’s role in enforcing crippling spending cuts across the Eurozone.

Will Mankind Destroy Itself?

Michio Kaku sees two major trends in the world today: the first is toward a multicultural, scientific, tolerant society; the other, as evidenced by terrorism, is fundamentalist and monocultural. Whichever one wins out will determine the fate of man.

Thousands of anti-capitalists block access to European Central Bank in Frankfurt

‘Blockupy’ protestors have blocked employee access to the European Commission bank (ECB), and plan to move on to Deutsche Bank and then Frankfurt National Airport.



Anti-capitalist protestors have gathered in the financial heart of Frankfurt a day ahead of Europe-wide gatherings planned for June 1 to protest leaders handling of the three-year euro debt crisis.


Spokesman Martin Sommer said Frankfurt’s financial district could be occupied by as many as 20,000 who believe the Troika – the ECB, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund – is imposing an “austerity dictate" on financially troubled countries they have bailed out.

 Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, have also received bailout loans and Spain has received loans for its banks.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Head of the IMF Christine Lagarde in court charged with embezzlement and fraud

The head of the International Monetary Fund arrived in the dock of a Paris courtroom today as she braced herself to be formally charged with embezzlement and fraud. 


Christine Lagarde’s humiliation is not only a massive personal blow which could lead to her resignation, but one which will plunge the world’s banking system into further ignominy.

Lagarde faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail if found guilty of the very serious charges. It was when she was President Nicolas Sarkozy’s finance minister that she is said to have authorised a 270 million pounds payout to one of his prominent supporters, so abusing her government position. 

The money went to Bernard Tapie, a convicted football match fixer and tax dodger who supported Lagarde and Sarkozy’s UMP party.

Ms Lagarde denies any wrongdoing, saying before today’s court appearance: ‘If it’s decided to continue with this inquiry it won’t be particularly surprising. Personally, it doesn’t worry me at all – I didn’t benefit personally’.

But it has been widely reported in the French media that investigators intend to charge her with fraud and embezzlement.

Sweatshop Heat: Cambodia workers battle brands amid string of tragedies

Police in Cambodia have used stun batons on garment workers protesting for better wages at least 23 were wounded. 




Around 3-thousand staff, mostly women, blocked a road outside the factory, which makes clothes for sportswear giant Nike

The AP Spying Story: What You Aren't Being Told

In recent weeks we have been told to focus on a series of scandals which, we are told, are rocking the Obama Administration.



Has the media finally found outrage over the Obama regime's use of drone strikes to kill scores of innocent women and children in countries that are not even at war with the United States?

Or the DOJ's recent admission that the strikes had indeed killed American citizens? Or John Kerry's recent attempts to once again lead the American public into supporting military intervention in the Middle East based on provably false claims of WMD? 

Nestlé is sucking water from an Ontario watershed during drought conditions

Please SIGN PETITION HERE

Nestlé is sucking water from a Canadian watershed unrestrained during drought conditions -- just to sell bottled water. 


 Nestlé has won a permit to drain an Ontario aquifer at any time while the surrounding communities which relies on the aquifer have by-laws on water use during dry conditions in the summer.

Currently, Nestlé has a permit through 2017 to take about 1.1 million litres of water per day from Hillsburgh, Ontario for its bottling operations in nearby Aberfoyle -- even during drought conditions while there are by-laws on water use for households. 

A number of groups are fighting back. “Ontario must prioritize communities’ right to water above a private company’s thirst for profit,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson for the Council of Canadians.

Nestlé has been in the news a lot lately for attempting to profit from our natural resources. Last month, over 220,000 SumOfUs supporters have signed our petition against Nestlé's greedy effort to patent fennel flower, a cure-all medicinal remedy for billions of people in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia. 

Several days after we send out our petition, a video emerged showed Nestlé’s chairperson claiming that the idea water is a human right comes from “extremist” NGOs and that water is a foodstuff that should have a market value. 

Nestlé has dealt with NGO's and lost before -- the years-long boycott over Nestlé dirty tactics to get mothers to stop breast feeding and use baby formula was a historic successful in corporate campaigning.

Nestlé’s appetite to commodify water and flowers is a recurring strategy by a corporation with a pattern of seeking to privatize and profit from traditional knowledge and our natural resources. By speaking out against the draining of our watersheds, you will be taking a stand against Nestlé’s evil strategy to profit off everything in nature.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ

“Banks are doing extreme things to get people out of their homes, so it requires extreme action,” Mata told me

 
“I wouldn’t be here except the banks are not being monitored so we have to stand up as citizens. They are getting away with acts of inhuman behavior and the Justice Department is not reacting.” 

Mata was among 500 activists from across the country who came to the nation’s capital to “Bring Justice to Justice”—participating in three days of action organized by Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes. They were calling for the criminal prosecution of banks for ongoing illegal activity, including illegal foreclosures; and for resetting mortgages to a property’s fair market value for the more than 13 million homeowners still at risk of foreclosure. 

But even as the Matas continue to make their payments, Bank of America continues to push for foreclosure. Her dealings with the bank in an effort to get a modification tell a story that is now all too familiar in this country. “Negotiating means paperwork multiple times over and over again,” she said. “As soon as you get it in they switch your point-of-contact and then you have to start over again. And as many times as they ask is how many times you do it, or else they won’t consider you for the modification. No one is holding them accountable.” 

“But what really inspired me to fight was the attorney for US Bank sitting across from me in court and saying, ‘The only negotiation US Bank is willing to do right now is to get her out,’ ” said Haines. “He didn’t have enough courage to look at me, but he said it.” 

Since 2006, Dupuy’s mortgage has had so many different banks and loan servicers attached to it that the trail is dizzying. As a result, she has had her paperwork lost as servicers change, not been provided new mailing addresses for payments, fought off two sheriff’s sales and even received modification “offers” that would have had her paying double-digit interest rates and waiving her right to sue for the mishandling of her note. 

Throughout her struggle, Dupuy has found herself alone. “The thing about Louisiana, nobody talks about foreclosures, and they don’t put signs out in people’s yards like in other states, so they really keep it from the public,” she said. “But I’ve been pulling up the sales on my local sheriff’s website and every month there are quite a bit just in my parish alone.” Dupuy said a lot of people are “just walking away because they don’t know what to do.”

In addition to representing the large banks, organizers said the law firm epitomizes the “revolving door” between serving government and serving Wall Street’s interests, noting that Attorney General Eric Holder was a partner at Covington & Burling before coming to the DOJ, and former Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer left his post in March to become vice chair of the firm.

For three straight days, these homeowners and their supporters—mostly low-income people of color—demonstrated what it means to personally sacrifice for the good of others, to move beyond hopeful words to deeds and actions.

 I hope that those of us who seek change feel their urgency, and will follow their lead to take more and greater action—together. 

Saturday 25 May 2013

Global march challenges Monsanto's dominance: LIVE UPDATES

Marches against the biotechnology giant Monsanto have taken place in 436 cities across 52 countries with an estimated total number of participants standing at over two million, the organizers of the global event said.

“If I had gotten 3,000 people to join me, I would have considered that a success,” founder and organizer Tami Canal said. Instead, she said two million responded to her message.


Over 500 people marched through downtown Anchorage, Alaska

Vancouver



Several thousand protesters marched through the streets of Vienna, Austria 



Monsanto’s headquarters in Tokyo



See here for full story.  The March against Monsanto was a huge success .. keep it going!  Well done to everyone taking part, lets bring them down!

Friday 24 May 2013

We Will March Against Monsanto!

See full details here .. the march is TODAY


Where? 428 cities in 58 countries 

When? Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Seeds of Death: Unveiling The Lies of GMO's - Full Movie

The world's leading Scientists, Physicians, Attorneys, Politicians and Environmental Activists expose the corruption and dangers surrounding the widespread use of Genetically Modified Organisms in the new feature length documentary, "Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies of GMOs".

The People's Movement Against Monsanto

Monsanto is a company feared and reviled by the public in equal measure. 

But whatever cases Monsanto has lost in the court of public opinion it has made up for in the courts of justice thanks to its revolving door with the upper reaches of Washington. Now, a new movement is seeking to galvanize grassroots resistance to the corporation, and derail its agenda.

Drug companies bribed US doctors with $1 billion in 2012 – led by Merck

Vaccine manufacturers Merck and Pfizer came in 1st and 3rd place, with payments of $226 million (Merck) and $162 million (Pfizer).


Merck’s painkiller Vioxx was withdrawn from the market after killing about 40,000 people by causing heart attacks, according to FDA estimates cited by the head of OSHA David Michaels in his excellent book Doubt is Their Product. According to Michaels, Merck knew beforehand of that elevated heart attack risk from Vioxx. 40,000 deaths is about 2/3 of the total US combat fatalities in the Vietnam war, which makes Merck a premeditated mass murderer.


Surrendering your family’s medical care to a doctor who is a paid agent of a genocidal pharmaceutical company is not the pathway to optimum health.

Merck’s and Pfizer’s bribes are a deliberate marketing strategy conducted by the industry’s 100,000 sales reps, to capture your doctor to prescribe you their dangerous drugs and vaccines.

Ask your doctor how much money and incentives they receive from drug companies to sell out your health.
Then find another doctor (pediatrician) who is working for you, not Merck or some other pharmaceutical pimp.

"It Can't Happen Here!"

U.S. dairy industry petitions FDA to approve aspartame as hidden, unlabeled additive in milk, yogurt, eggnog and cream

You probably already know that the FDA has declared war on raw milk and even helped fund and coordinate armed government raids against raw milk farmers and distributors. 


 Yes, it's insane. This brand of tyranny is unique to the USA and isn't even conducted in China, North Korea or Cuba. Only in the USA are raw milk farmers treated like terrorists. But now the situation is getting even more insane than you could have imagined: the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA asking the FDA to alter the definition of "milk" to secretly include chemical sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose.

Importantly, none of these additives need to be listed on the label. They will simply be swept under the definition of "milk," so that when a company lists "milk" on the label, it automatically includes aspartame or sucralose. And if you're trying to avoid aspartame, you'll have no way of doing so because it won't be listed on the label. 

Astonishingly, the dairy industry is engaged in extreme doublespeak logic and actually arguing that aspartame should be hidden from consumers by not listing it on the label.

In other words, hiding aspartame from consumers by not including it on the label actually helps consumers, according to the IDFA and NMPF!

Yep, consumers are best served by keeping them ignorant. If this logic smacks of the same kind of twisted deception practiced by Monsanto, that's because it's identical: the less consumers know, the more they are helped, according to industry. And it's for the children, too, because children are also best served by keeping them poisoned with aspartame

The bigger question is this: If an industry is pushing to hide aspartame in its products, what else is it already hiding? 

The only rational answer to all this is to stop buying and consuming processed dairy products, period!

Russia Warns Obama: Global War Over “Bee Apocalypse” Coming Soon

Source: EU Times online newspaper



According to these minutes, released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss this grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry, who had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented so as to not cause an even greater rift between these two nations.

So grave has this situation become, the MNRE reports, the full European Commission (EC) this past week instituted a two-year precautionary ban (set to begin on 1 December 2013) on these “bee killing” pesticides following the lead of Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, all of whom had previously banned these most dangerous of genetically altered organisms from being used on the continent.
Two of the most feared neonicotinoids being banned are Actara and Cruiser made by the Swiss global bio-tech seed and pesticide giant Syngenta AG which employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries and ranks third in total global sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market.

Important to note, this report says, is that Syngenta, along with bio-tech giants Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, now control nearly 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants and seeds.
Also to note about Syngenta, this report continues, is that in 2012 it was criminally charged in Germany for concealing the fact that its genetically modified corn killed cattle, and settled a class-action lawsuit in the US for $105 million after it was discovered they had contaminated the drinking supply of some 52 million Americans in more than 2,000 water districts with its “gender-bending” herbicide Atrazine.

“The European Union voted this week for a two-year ban on a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, that has been associated with the bees’ collapse. The US government report, in contrast, found multiple causes for the collapse of the honeybees.”

To the “truer” reason for the Obama regimes protection of these bio-tech giants destroying our world, the MRNE says, can be viewed in the report titled “How did Barack Obama become Monsanto’s man in Washington?” and which, in part, says:

“After his victory in the 2008 election, Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA: At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.”

On 26 March, Obama quietly signed this “Monsanto Protection Act” into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what this MRNE report calls the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history as over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too.



Thursday 23 May 2013

Code Pink activist kicked out for repeatedly heckling Obama during Gitmo speech

More than 30 minutes into the president’s speech in Washington, a woman who was thought to be Medea Benjamin of Code Pink began shouting about the detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo.



“It’s very important!” she yelled. “It’s not Congress, it’s you, sir. There are 102 people on a hunger strike!

These desperate people!” “I’m about to address it, ma’am, but you’ve got to let me speak,” the president replied.

“You’re our commander in chief. You can close Guantanamo today!” Benjamin insisted.

As the activist continued to interrupt, the president became visibly frustrated. “Ma’am, let me finish,” he said. “This is part of free speech, is you being able to speak, but also you listening. And me being able to speak. Alright?”

Benjamin was later reportedly removed from the hall after refusing to be silent.



Obama, you're a disappointment, get some evidence or close that place down. 

Occupy Arrests Near 8,000 As Wall Street Eludes Prosecution

Source: HuffPost

Here's a fact that may make your blood boil: Nearly 8,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters have been arrested in association with the activist movement, while not one banker has been prosecuted for the actions that lead up to the country's financial meltdown.



The website OccupyArrests.com has tracked 7,736 in 122 cities nationwide since the Occupy movement began in September 2011.
 
On Monday, hundreds of members of Occupy Our Homes, an organization that supports homeowners facing foreclosure, protested outside of the Justice Department to speak out against homeowner abuses in the wake of the housing crisis. Seventeen former homeowners were arrested that day, according to Washington police.



The Department of Justice has long been a target of Occupy protesters for its unwillingness to take judicial action against those responsible for the financial crisis. 

Even Attorney General Eric Holder has acknowledged that some of the nation's largest banks have become too big to prosecute -- a claim he later walked back on after it incited backlash.

Sales-driven panic? New SARS-like virus spreading worldwide, boosting media coffers

The news of the four new Saudi nCoV cases, comes a day after the second case of coronavirus was detected in France, where the disease transmitted between hospital roommates. 



The WHO is ringing alarm bells, labeling the new coronavirus as “major challenge for all of the countries which have been affected as well as the rest of the world.”

The nCoV coronavirus is the new disease to become center of international attention. There are fears it will reach the scale of other similar diseases, like bird flu, which took 371 lives since 2003 or swine flu which saw more than 18,000 dead in its 2009 outbreak.

All of these figures, however, pale in comparison with the annual death toll from common flu. “Seasonal influenza epidemics can affect up to 15 per cent of the population and result in up to 500 000 deaths worldwide each year”, according to WHO’s 2011 report. 

The real killer, however, does not make headlines and is not something the pharmaceutical industry announces a crusade against. All attention is usually on the new viruses, with often excessive advertising campaigns for preventing and curing them.

The most notable and controversial was the case with Swiss-produced Tamiflu. Back at the time of the swine flu pandemic, four years ago, it was pronounced cure number one for the disease. People were sweeping the drug from pharmacies’ shelves, governments stockpiled it.

Then came the eye-opener - a study published in the British Medical Journal in December 2009 found no evidence that Tamiflu lowered the risk of flu complications. 

The Council of Europe eventually wanted WHO to be called to account, and possibly admit that the swine flu threat was blown out of proportion.

Overblown or not, the swine flu panic landed an estimated US$18 billion in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies’ owners.

Guantanamo Prison Hunger Strike Puts The Eyes Of The World On Us (VIDEO)

Worldwide protests are taking place this weekend as May 18 marks the 100th day of the Guantanamo hunger strike. 


 The U.S. Guantanamo prison was established by the Bush administration in 2002.

Of the 166 detainees, over 100 are refusing to eat as a form of protest. Some simply want die. 

RT reports, the weakened state of the inmates has led to the authorities force-feeding them through nasal tubes – a practice which was condemned by the U.N.’s human rights office and has been declared a form of torture.

One Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, who has been detained since 2002, submitted a story to the New York Times, via his attorney and an Arabic translator. Moqbel who is on hunger strike, spoke about the forced feeding: “I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. 

As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.” Another detainee said as soon as the tube hits his throat, tears come streaming down from the pain.

Monsanto Hides Behind Cries of “Elitist” in Response to Tremendous Global Social Media Movement

 Coming up THIS SATURDAY!

The power of social media has never been more evident, as it has brought to light the unsavory science behind Monsanto, as well as their incestuous ties with the FDA, the Supreme Court, and the US government. 


 There is a new public awareness about genetically modified organisms that the company would prefer to have silenced. 

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said in a rather condescending interview:
“And the sad piece of this is, it ends up either or,” Grant said. “So you get conventional agriculture or broad scale or however you define it, and organic. I think we’re going to look back on this period and say, ‘How on earth did that ever become the fight that it became.’” 
“In the U.S., we have a system that works,” Grant said. (Bloomberg)
And why, exactly does that system work?

Perhaps it is the “elitism” displayed by Monsanto as it pads the pockets of US Congressmen and other elected officials. Perhaps it is the “elitism” of being beyond the law and actually writing the text of their own protection acts. Perhaps it is even the simple “elitism” of the employees of Monsanto, who are served organic food in the company cafeterias.


If Monsanto is so proud of their genetically modified produce, then why do they fight so hard against attempts to label it as such?

This is a blatant attempt to disparage a movement that has taken on a life of its own. On May 25, across the globe, people who believe that we should have the right to healthy, non-toxic food, or at the very least, LABELS, will unite to March Against Monsanto

As for Monsanto’s claims that we, who stand against them, are elitist because we can “afford organics” – we can’t.

Many of us have to do without other things in order to pay for the few items on the market that are still safe to eat. We are willing to do that because we understand that not only are the food products unsafe, but the farming methods are detrimental to the environment.

We know that these short-term “solutions” are causing long-term problems. If the billions of dollars that Monsanto spends on researching ways to make Frankenfood and buying off politicians were instead invested in education, sustainable farming methods, and access to water, the world would be a lot better fed.


Tuesday 21 May 2013

Pathetic Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn Says Cuts Must Be Made Before He’ll Support Tornado Relief

And then we have this!



Before the final body count has even come in (which currently stands at 51, with officials telling the medical examiner’s office to expect at least 40 more) a pathetic excuse for a human being, GOP Senator Tom Coburn, will apparently require offsets to spending before he votes in favor of disaster relief for the areas of Oklahoma devastated by tornadoes on Monday. 

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. Even with 20 children confirmed dead, along with 31 others (as of 12:30 am CDT), and countless others with their lives destroyed, this sorry excuse for a human is already playing politics with the lives of Americans who are in desperate need of help.

When did this country become one that only helps its citizens when the “proper budget cuts” have been made?


Mile-Wide Tornado Hits Oklahoma City Suburb, Killing at Least 51

A massive, mile-wide tornado touched down in Moore, Oklahoma Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, including 20 children.



A reporter from local news station KFOR supposedly called it "the biggest, most destructive tornado in the history of the world," and estimated it was two to three times the magnitude of the massive tornados that hit Oklahoma in 1999.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected, may you and your loved ones come through this awful time and prayers with those who didn't, and their families. May you get the help and support you need and deserve.

Multinational Corporations Have No Allegiance to Any Nation or Citizens, Only to Profit

Health Care: Almost half of the working-age adults in America passed up doctor visits or other medical services because they couldn't afford to pay. 


The system hasn't supported kids, either. A UNICEF study places the U.S. 26th out of 29 OECD countries in the overall well-being of its children.

Water and Food: Life-giving seeds and drinking water have been increasingly treated as products to be bought and sold.

Yet in a brazen show of hypocrisy, major corporations have ignored all the problems they've caused, choosing instead to cut their taxes in half despite doubling their profits, to hold 60% of its cash offshore, to eliminate workers rather than create jobs, and to reduce the pay of their remaining employees.

An Apple executive explained: "We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." 

Calling Themselves "Multinationals": No Allegiance to Anyone Big business has found its Utopia, a world in which millions of people are willing to work for a fraction of U.S. salaries.

Poverty levels haven't changed much in 30 years, with almost half of humanity, up to three billion people, living on less than $2.50 a day. A quarter of the world's children - over 170 million kids under age five - are growing up stunted because of malnutrition. 

The World Bank estimates the total cost for a successful attack on malnutrition would be approximately $10.3 to $11.8 billion annually. Apple alone underpaid its 2012 taxes by $11 billion, based on a 35% rate.

Some of our largest multinational companies hold top positions on the federal contractor misconduct list, which recognizes corporate environmental, ethics, and labor violations. Oil spills are common. Underdeveloped countries like Nigeria have been ravaged by oil production. Big firms are buying up farmland in more than 60 developing countries.

Most perversely, multinationals are working hard to pass trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would actually dismantle environmental protections.

Absurd as it once seemed, a 1991 quote from the World Bank's Larry Summers now comes back to haunt us: "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?...I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted." 

And as big business makes its way around the world like a modern-day Attila the Hun, pillaging and despoiling, it has the U.S. military covering its back with 900 overseas bases in 130 nations.

If one of the countries kicks up a fuss, the corporations can just move on to the next one.

Ceiling suspended: US takes on $300bn in new debt after hitting $16.7 trillion

America’s ticking debt bomb has been reset. Washington has suspended the debt ceiling, setting a date, and not a concrete dollar sum as a deadline, an unprecedented first in US history.


Citing ‘extraordinary measures’, the US Treasury has further delayed tackling America’s debt, and will wait until Labor Day, September 2nd, to revisit the burgeoning crisis. The ceiling has been lifted, and the Treasury has promised it will keep cash pumping into government spending programs beyond the debt limit through a series of emergency cash tools. 

Until then, the Treasury will borrow money to mend any gaps between government spending and revenues, adding to the already $16.7 trillion debt.

In the last four months, the US has accumulated $300 billion in debt. The Congressional Budget Office forecasts that the federal deficit will be $642 billion in FY13.

Monday 20 May 2013

Pharmaceutical giants used Communist East Germany for 'illegal' trials

Source: Belfast Telegraph.co.uk


Pharmaceutical companies paid millions of pounds to former Communist East Germany to use more that 50,000 patients in state-run hospitals as unwitting guinea pigs for drug tests in which several people died, it was revealed today.

An investigation by the German magazine Der Spiegel said international conglomerates such as Bayer, Hoechst, Roche, Schering and Sandoz carried out more than 600 tests on patients, mostly without their knowledge, at hospitals and clinics in the former Communist state.

The companies were said to have paid the regime the equivalent of €400,000 (£338,000) per test. Schering, a concern which now belongs to Bayer, was said to have offered East Germany the equivalent of €3m to carry out a series of tests at an East Berlin hospital.

Der Spiegel said it gained the information from Stasi secret police files and hitherto unpublished East German health ministry and pharmaceutical institute records. Western pharmaceutical companies are known to have turned to cash-strapped Eastern Bloc countries in their search for human guinea pigs after the 1960s thalidomide scandal which obliged them to carry out rigorous tests on their products before they could be sold.

In the West, the law stipulated that any patients taking part in such tests had to be fully informed of the risks involved. However, in East Germany such restrictions were waived or “modified” in an increasingly desperate effort to procure enough hard currency to rescue an ailing economy.

The records show a concern which now belongs to Roche tested the “blood-booster” Epo  on 30 premature babies. Bayer was also revealed to have tested Nimodipin – a drug designed to improve blood circulation in the brain– on a group of alcoholics who were suffering from such acute delirium that they could not give their consent.

Sunday 19 May 2013

GMO Crop Sabotage on the Rise: French citizens destroy trial vineyard

Early Sunday morning, French police stood helpless as sixty people, locked inside an open-air field of genetically modified grapevines, uprooted all the plants. 


In Spain last month, dozens of people destroyed two GMO fields. 

On the millennial cusp, Indian farmers burned Bt cotton in their Cremate Monsanto campaign. 

Ignored by multinational corporations and corrupt public policy makers, citizens act to protect the food supply and the planet.

The French vineyard is the same field attacked last year when the plants were only cut. But the security features installed after that incident kept authorities at bay while the group accomplished its mission yesterday.

This is the second attack on GMO crops to make international news this year. In July dozens of people destroyed two experimental corn crops in Spain. In an anonymous press release, they wrote, “This kind of direct action is the best way to respond to the fait accompli policy through which the Generalitat, the State and the biotech multinationals have been unilaterally imposing genetically modified organisms.”

After the Haiti earthquake this year, Monsanto offered 475 tons of hybrid corn and terminator vegetable seeds in partnership with USAID.

In June, 10,000 Haitian farmers marched in protest of the “poison gift” which produces no viable seeds for future plantings and requires heavy chemical inputs. Haitian farm leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste observed that the biotech plan makes farmers dependent on multinational corporations.

In the US, GMOs were secretly foisted on the public in the mid-1990s, and only now is the US Supreme Court addressing the scourge.

Natural and organic alfalfa supply is threatened by the very real potential of GM contamination. This would destroy the organic meat and dairy industry. But as governments and trade agreements circumvent the will of the people, some take matters into their own hands.

The rise in GMO crop destruction is a clear indication that the world’s people reject chemical and genetic pollution of the food supply and the environment. 

Friday 17 May 2013

US Suspends Constitution in Permanent World War on Terror

Two disturbing developments have occurred in the last couple of days that have gone relatively unnoticed compared to the recent IRS, AP, and Benghazi scandals.



First, the senate is debating an expansion of the already broad powers of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) so the U.S. can essentially engage any area in the world in the war on terror, including America. Which brings us to the second development: the Pentagon has recently granted itself police powers on American soil.

Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Sheehan told Congress yesterday that the AUMF authorized the US military to operate on a worldwide battlefield from Boston to Pakistan.  Sheehan emphasized that the Administration is authorized to put boots on the ground wherever the enemy chooses to base themselves, essentially ignoring the declaration of war clause in the US Constitution.

Senator Angus King said this interpretation of the AUMF is a "nullity" to the Constitution because it ignores Congress' role to declare war.  King called it the "most astoundingly disturbing hearing" he's been to in the Senate.

But perhaps most disturbing of all of this is the military's authority to police American streets as if it was in civil war. For all those still in denial that America is a militarized police state, this should be the ultimate cure to your delusion.

 

Monsanto Hides Behind Cries of “Elitist” in Response to Tremendous Global Social Media Movement

The power of social media has never been more evident, as it has brought to light the unsavory science behind Monsanto, as well as their incestuous ties with the FDA, the Supreme Court, and the US government. 


 There is a new public awareness about genetically modified organisms that the company would prefer to have silenced. 

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said in a rather condescending interview:
“And the sad piece of this is, it ends up either or,” Grant said. “So you get conventional agriculture or broad scale or however you define it, and organic. I think we’re going to look back on this period and say, ‘How on earth did that ever become the fight that it became.’” 
“In the U.S., we have a system that works,” Grant said. (Bloomberg)
And why, exactly does that system work?

Perhaps it is the “elitism” displayed by Monsanto as it pads the pockets of US Congressmen and other elected officials. Perhaps it is the “elitism” of being beyond the law and actually writing the text of their own protection acts. Perhaps it is even the simple “elitism” of the employees of Monsanto, who are served organic food in the company cafeterias.


If Monsanto is so proud of their genetically modified produce, then why do they fight so hard against attempts to label it as such?

This is a blatant attempt to disparage a movement that has taken on a life of its own. On May 25, across the globe, people who believe that we should have the right to healthy, non-toxic food, or at the very least, LABELS, will unite to March Against Monsanto

As for Monsanto’s claims that we, who stand against them, are elitist because we can “afford organics” – we can’t.

Many of us have to do without other things in order to pay for the few items on the market that are still safe to eat. We are willing to do that because we understand that not only are the food products unsafe, but the farming methods are detrimental to the environment.

We know that these short-term “solutions” are causing long-term problems. If the billions of dollars that Monsanto spends on researching ways to make Frankenfood and buying off politicians were instead invested in education, sustainable farming methods, and access to water, the world would be a lot better fed.


March Against Monsanto

On May 25, activists around the world will unite to March Against Monsanto.


Why do we march?

  • Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.
  • In the United States, the FDA, the agency tasked with ensuring food safety for the population, is steered by ex-Monsanto executives, and we feel that’s a questionable conflict of interests and explains the lack of government-led research on the long-term effects of GM products.
  • Recently, the U.S. Congress and president collectively passed the nicknamed “Monsanto Protection Act” that, among other things, bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.
  • For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism. Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup.
  • Monsanto's GM seeds are harmful to the environment; for example, scientists have indicated they have contributed to Colony Collapse Disorder among the world's bee population.
What are solutions we advocate?

  • 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.
We will not stand for cronyism. We will not stand for poison. That’s why we March Against Monsanto.

Anonymous (Rise Up 2013)

The Biggest, Most Corrupt Bank Scheme That's Not Being Stopped

"Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology.



You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct:

The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything."

The Libor bank scandal has nothing on the newest interest rate swap manipulation scheme where bankers are going completely unchecked.

This is a $379 trillion market-- why are bankers allowed to manipulate it without restraint? Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

Thursday 16 May 2013

Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds.

 
Unlike many European Union countries, Hungary is a nation where genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.

Will You Be At The International March Against Monsanto?

The protest is on May 25th 11am PST and simultaneously spans 6 continents, 36 countries, 48 United States plus the District of Columbia, and at least 250 cities.


Why do they need to be protected from the law? Why are they putting themselves above the law? And who are these politicians that are willing to just do what they are told to do because of the money they are receiving from these huge companies?



Why do we march?  See here!


Hundreds Take Part in "Poor People's March" Against Unemployment and Austerity

Hundreds mark 45th anniversary of Dr. King's "Poor People's March" to highlight ongoing fight against inequality and high unemployment.

Owned by the United States of America Corporation

This lady is incredibly emotional but boy oh boy does she hit the nail right on the head. 

Important thing to remember....we are only owned when we give "our" consent. I DO NOT CONSENT. ~BK

Johnson & Johnson admits: Our baby products contain cancer-causing formaldehyde

No more tears? I would rather have no more formaldehyde. I just might get my wish.


 Today, the personal care giant announced that it would voluntarily (after consistent pressure from the public and groups like EWG) remove hidden formaldehyde from their baby products like baby shampoo and baby washes.

Don’t see formaldehyde listed on the back of your bottle of “no more tears” shampoo? Formaldehyde is “hidden” in these products in ingredient names like “DMDM hydantoin“, and “1,4 dioxane” (which is “hidden” in listed ingredients like “fragrance”. It’s all a big fun game, you see.) 

Makes you wonder what's in most of the cosmetics you use?  Buy ethical products and you'll be worry free!

 

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Obamacare to penalize nearly half a million Native Americans

Native Americans are entitled to free and subsidized medical care at some federally-funded health clinics, but 'Obamacare' will soon force many of them to buy insurance or else face hefty fines if they are not “Indian enough”.


 Only those who can prove that they are “Indian enough” will be exempt from the mandate. Native Americans will have to show documentation that they belong to one out of 560 tribes that are federally recognized by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.

There are more than 100 US tribes that are recognized by states, but not the federal government. Members of these tribes would no longer receive the free or subsidized healthcare that they are guaranteed by the Indian Health Service (IHS), which is a division within the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Nearly 30 percent of all Native Americans live below the poverty line, and forcing them to pay fines or purchase insurance would likely just increase this number.

Walmart refuses to join worker safety deal

Asda owner says deal signed by rivals is unnecessary and agrees to inspect factories it uses in country within six months

 
Walmart has confirmed it will not sign up to a legally binding agreement on worker safety and building regulations in Bangladesh supported by retailers including H&M, Zara, Primark, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer, Next, C&A and several others.

However, the US retail giant has created its own agreement, which it claims goes beyond the current accord that was drafted by labour groups and campaigners.

The company, which also owns the UK's third biggest supermarket, Asda, said the deal signed by its rivals was "unnecessary to achieve fire and safety goals" and questioned the "governance and dispute-resolution mechanisms".

Instead, Walmart has agreed its own deal to inspect all 279 factories it uses in Bangladesh within six months, and has promised to publish the findings immediately.


However, the Walmart deal is not legally binding, does not require the company to offer financial support for fire and safety regulations or blacklist factories unwilling to comply.

The agreement has been criticised by campaigners as a "business as usual" approach, which fails to address the core problems that led to the Rana Plaza factory collapse.

The Biggest "Takers" and Societal Parasites Are the Rich, Not the Working Class and Poor

Corporations Stopped Paying 


In the past twenty years, corporate profits have quadrupled while the corporate tax percent has dropped by half. 

The payroll tax, paid by workers, has doubled. In effect, corporations have decided to let middle-class workers pay for national investments that have largely benefited businesses over the years.

Corporations use highways and shipping lanes and airports to ship their products, the FAA and TSA and Coast Guard and Department of Transportation to safeguard them, a nationwide energy grid to power their factories, and communications towers and satellites to conduct online business. Yet as corporate profits surge and taxes plummet, our infrastructure is deteriorating.

TheAmerican Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.63 trillion is needed over the next seven years to make the necessary repairs.

The Richest Individuals Stopped Paying

The IRS estimated that 17 percent of taxes owed were not paid in 2006, leaving an underpayment of $450 billion. The revenue loss from tax havens approaches $450 billion. 

Subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes are estimated at over $1 trillion. 

Expenditures overwhelmingly benefit the richesttaxpayers. In keeping with Ayn Rand's assurance that "Money is the barometer of a society's virtue," the super-rich are relentless in their quest to make more money by eliminating taxes.

Instead of calling their income 'income,' they call it "carried interest" or "performance-based earnings" or"deferred pay." And when they cash in their stock options, they might look up last year's lowest price, write that in as a purchase date, cash in the concocted profits, and take advantage of the lower capital gains tax rate.

So Who Has To Pay?

Middle-class families. The $2 trillion in tax losses from underpayments, expenditures, and tax havens costs every middle-class family about $20,000 in community benefits, including health care and education and food and housing. 

Schoolkids, too. A study of 265 large companies by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) determined that about $14 billion per year in state income taxes was unpaid over three years. That's approximately equal to the loss of 2012-13 education funding due to budget cuts.

And the lowest-income taxpayers make up the difference, based on new data that shows that the Earned Income Tax Credit is the single biggest compliance problem cited by the IRS. The average sentence for cheating with secret offshore financial accounts, according to theWall Street Journal, is about half as long as in some other types of tax cases.

Factory Farming Is Destroying Our Environment

According to the US Department of Agriculture nearly 10 BILLION animals are raised and killed for food each year in the United States alone. 


While there are multiple reasons for you to start cutting factory farmed animals out of your diet, one of the most important reasons is one that is not often talked or thought about -the destructive toll that is taken on the environment from the mass production and consumption of factory farmed animals and animal products. 

It’s interesting how this aspect is, for the most part, entirely overlooked. No one ever really stops to think about how much land and resources are actually needed to produce enough animals and products to cater to the excessive over-consumption of animals across the globe.

Just think about how much these animals need to eat and drink, feeding 10 Billion animals in the US alone is considerably more than feeding the entire planet. 

Currently according to the UN, raising animals and producing the feed for them uses 30% of the Earth’s land mass- wow.

While doing research for this article I have come across some staggering statistics to support this environmental issue.

260 Million Acres (and counting) of US forests have been clear-cut to create land for producing feed for livestock.

70% Of the grain that is produced in the US is fed to farm animals Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution have stated that the equivalent of SEVEN football fields of land is bulldozed every single minute to create more land for farming animals.

2,400 Gallons of water is needed to produce 1 pound of meat, only 25 gallons is needed to produce 1 pound of wheat. You would save more water by not showering for 6 months than you would by eating a pound of meat!

In the 2004-2005 crop season all the wild animals and trees in over 2.9 million acres of the Amazon Rain forest in Brazil were destroyed in order to grow crops to produce feed for chickens and other factory farmed animals.

Close to half of all water used in the USA goes to the production of animals for food.

A United Nations report from 2006 states that animal agriculture is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” 

The EPA reports that roughly 80 percent of ammonia emissions in the US come from animal waste. Atmospheric ammonia can disrupt aquatic ecosystems, ruin soil quality, damage crops, and jeopardize human health. Cows and sheep are responsible for 37% of the total methane (23 times as warming as CO2) generated by human activity.