Category Archives: antitrust

Grandmothers to Grandmothers

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This story covers the non-coverage of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  The question of diet and gluten intolerance and poor immune response popped into my head, naturally…and I have to wonder about it with what is going on with these folks.

Why are the grandmothers okay?  That is, why are they healthy while the younger generations becoming ill? It struck me while watching the move “Philadelphia” with Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks that Tom Hanks’ partner in the movie, Antonio Banderas, was not infected with AIDS.  Why?  Why were some becoming ill and others not?  What weakened one’s immune system?  What strengthened the others?

I see this over and over with each passing generation.  Our DNA is altered by chemicals/toxins in the environment, becoming weaker with each generation.

Here’s a really good piece on AIDS in Africa and all the devastation.  It’s an older piece, but lots of good background here.   The first video on here is only six minutes, but wow does it pack a lot in.  The second video is equally informative about the TB connection.

It is disheartening that vitamins are dismissed in this article.  Granted, the person pushing them might have been looking for profits, but without extra vitamins, I would not be recovering.  When the body is toxic and the immune system is under attack, the ability to absorb vitamins is seriously impaired, making it imperative for the person to take extra amounts to counteract it.  Diet probably has more do to with recovery than any drug.  The body performs miracles every day with chemical-free food, chemical-free water, and chemical-free air.  To dismiss these factors does a grave disservice to the ill.  Drugs alone cannot cure someone.  This approach by Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) bothers me in that they are pushing Western medicine which places little importance on diet and promotes vaccination.  I also wonder about the genetically modified food in Africa and its impact on the gut and therefore, their health and ability to fight off AIDS.

So…I couldn’t shake the feeling of the stealth push for more drugs from Big Pharma…and I started getting that “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” feeling…

….so I went searching to see if there was a link….yup.

My first thought was to delete everything I had written…but no, there is good info here, but I just ask my dear readers to keep the drug pushing stuff in perspective.

Here’s a piece by greenpeace on warning the Africans of GMO’s.

There was plenty of non-GM food available including surpluses in other parts of Africa, but the White House ignored appeals by the World Food Programme and the EU to donate cash to African countries to buy surplus food from the region which would have supported local farmers rather than US-based GM multinationals.

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At the time Dr Chuck Benbrook, a leading US agronomist and former Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture for the US National Academy of Sciences said: “There is no shortage of non-GMO foods which could be offered to Zambia by public and private donors. To a large extent, this ‘crisis’ has been manufactured – might I say, ‘engineered’ – by those looking for a new source of traction in the evolving global debate over agricultural biotechnology. To use the needs of Zambians to score ‘political points’ on behalf of biotechnology strikes many as unethical and indeed shameless.”

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As  a side note~~I was watching TV recently where they talked about a huge white diamond taken out of Africa, worth I think he said $35 million.   I cynically told my sister, “and that money went right back to Africa, didn’t it….?”

David Vs. Goliath

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….or in other words, everyday farmers versus Monsanto.

It makes no sense whatsoever that farmers who want nothing to do with Monsanto are being charged with patent infringement when their fields become contaminated.  If anything, they should be able to sue Monsanto for trespass.

 

The lie of privatization and schools

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Two topics that might not seem interrelated popped up this morning–the mindless demands that children perform like cogs….and the privatization of Walter Reed.  Note that the only ones who truly benefit from this are the profiteers.  The children don’t reach their true potential and the most vulnerable–the sick and elderly–don’t get the care we are capable of giving them….

(hat tip Diane Ravitch for Robert Rendo’s comment)

 

 

Pence Determined to gut Dept of Education

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In non-war news,  Diane Ravtich has a sobering post up this morning.

…and this is how the neocons have been able to get away with so much…unethical crooks moving in the shadows…

Labor Day…what unions…?

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Another reader of Diane Ravitch posted this on how times have changed.

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We Do Not Support A War on Syria.

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“You Take Care of Us.  We Keep Everything.  Screw You.”

 

 

A letter to Boston

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The Indignant Teacher has  a post up highlighting Diane Ravitch and her letter to Bostonians.

Bostonians being recently threatened with the bombing perhaps can understand a bomb has gone off in the public school system–put there by billionaires who wish to destroy it for their own greed.  Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to see as a bombing in a public space…it’s much more stealth than that…and the damage done is not felt in real time, but in years past it.  It will be hard for some to realize the connection to the destruction to society and democracy…making it easier for those doing it to not be held accountable.

The Racism of Charter Schools

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Ani McHugh, a high school English teacher in New Jersey has a letter to Bill Gates and questions all the evidence pointing to racism.

Also from teacherbiz blog, she has this up–requesting that Arne Duncan and all of the pro-testing, testing, testing reformers take the  tests they require of the kids and publish their results.

…because we need to know if they are qualified to run schools.

NY Times hacked

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I was wondering if this was a joke or the real thing–apparently the site was hacked….but whodunnit?  A Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility.  What is really bad is that rival news organizations were taking advantage of the situation instead of…you know…pulling together as Americans against a perceived foreign threat.  Disgusting.

Rupert Murdoch, is a foreign owner (WSJ) and his motives and ethics are highly suspect.  For him to take advantage of a situation like this should be sounding alarm bells.  This is why it was put into Communication and Media laws to restrict foreign ownership of our media.

So I went looking for the latest....and yes, they are trying to *cough* reform alien ownership rules.  Reform is beginning to be a dirty word to me.  It’s doublespeak where the word means something new and progressive, but in real time is a step backward…

From the first link:

The Commission already had in place a policy of reviewing potential foreign ownership in non-broadcast companies where, through a petition for declaratory ruling, a company could seek FCC approval for ownership, and even control, of these entities by non-US citizens or companies. In the recent proceeding, the FCC made such investment even easier, in very general terms easing certain reporting requirements for alien ownership where the interest of a specific alien investor was less than 5% (10 % in some instances), and also allowing an alien individual or group, once approved, to increase ownership without further approval (if the interest is a minority ownership interest, to 49%, and if it was controlling, to 100%), as long as the interest in possibly doing so is revealed in the original request for approval. Allowing investments by affiliates of the foreign owner, and allowing the company that is approved to seek additional licenses, all without additional approvals, was also allowed in many instances.

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And doing things in the public interest is a joke.  It’s not the public’s interest they are kowtowing to….but corporations whom have given less and less to consumers while demanding more $$.  The public interest is not being served.

Education News

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A Chicago Alderman has proposed drones in Rahm Emanuel’s Safe Passage routes.  I kid you not.  If you continue with the next blog of Fred Klonsky, he questions the “none of your business” attitude of CPS on emergency preparedness plans.  At the end, there is another link “continuing the story” which has this:

In a written statement, CPS officials insisted that every school in the district does, in fact, have a plan but said they were limited to “management level staff within the Office of Safety and Security,” building principals and assistant principals, and officials of the Chicago Police and Fire Departments.

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This is ridiculous.  The schools that I have taught at had plans the teachers knew and the children went through drills so they would know what to do.  It is important because their teacher may be incapacitated, so the children all the way up to the principals need to know the plan.    I found it highly ironic one year when we had a small earthquake while I was teaching.  I asked the kids if they knew what to do in case of an earthquake, which they didn’t, so I told them to stay under their desks until the shaking stopped, and then we would leave the building in the usual emergency route.  One of the regular instructors thought that I had needlessly worried the children….all the while they have been  put in “lockdowns” for some terrorist going to attack the school.  <sigh>
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The Indignant Teacher has a post up on a petition to remove David Koch from the board of WGBH Boston’s PBS station.  I have always admired WGBH and WTTW PBS stations, and now that Kochs are trying to control the media, it is even more imperative to get them out.
More moneyed influence on campaigns of the anti-public school crowd.  Good God, this guy is a liar.  A bold-faced one at that.
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More here on John Pelto’s blog that Diane links to:
The evidence is clear that income inequality is a major factor in educational inequality. Children living in poverty experience prolonged stress that affects their brain development in the regions associated with learning. There is a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and standardized test scores. As proven by Stanford’s Sean Reardon, the widening of the achievement gap results from additional opportunities affluent parents provide their children out of the K-12 environment: high-quality pre-K, tutoring, and after-school and summer enrichment. Reardon demonstrated that the test score disparity between low-income and high-income children is not the result of schools.
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See, the pro-Charter $$ folks would prefer to ignore this important fact that impacts learning….it’s much more fun to blame unionized teachers…and watch them scramble to put out fires the Charter proponents deliberately set.
This is pretty powerful.  He puts it so well–that every child develops in different ways and at different speeds and those differences should be honored, not ridiculed by failure of a “skills” test.  (hat tip to Diane Ravitch)
Finally, a wonderful history lesson here by Diane.  She was there on the March on Washington.