Category Archives: monsanto

Syria update

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Global News has this up on Al Qaida’s overtaking a village in Syria.  So the question begging to be asked is–why are we supporting the rebels, if the rebels are linked to Al Qaida?

Rallies here protesting Syria strike.

Rehab Saad, who came to Canada from Syria 17 years ago, said the Obama administration should back off its calls for military intervention.

“Barack Obama: You got the Nobel Peace Prize not to start war… Don’t start a war that nobody will know when and where it’s going to end,” she said.

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The President had this message.  I don’t think anyone is against helping people but going to war over it is not the answer.  Diplomacy is the answer…or don’t we know how to do that anymore?

 

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.

 

Kerry pushing for war

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The more John Kerry talks….the more I’m getting the “weapons of mass destruction lie” feeling….the urgency to push us into war is unsettling…and undiplomatic.  I suspect Israel is the real reason we’re being told we have no choice but to fire upon them….

This from Jim White at emptywheel.  Let’s just say he’s not to happy with President Obama for once again getting us into war.  I do like his take on “Blurred Lines” however.  Nice to see a guy stand up and be counted.

Forcing chemo

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This is outrageous.  The child does not want it.  The parents do not want it.  But a gov’t bureaucrat has once again decided they know what’s best for someone else better than they do.

I would want to know their genetic background–most Amish came from Dutch/German stock…so it is possible that this family has the dreaded gluten intolerance and her immune system might be unable to fight off the cancer due to an inflamed gut.  Not to mention whatever chemicals she has been exposed to from industry and farming.

But…no…the medical nazi’s will force her to take a highly toxic chemical that may or may not cure her of cancer.  And they will turn their heads if by chance she is cured of this cancer, but later on develops yet another, more aggressive form of cancer due to the toxic chemicals they are putting into her now.

Like I have said many times–if I am stricken, I won’t go the chemo route, but try to fight it naturally and let nature take its course.

No one should be forced to take any medical treatment.  Ever.

 

Syria, Syria, Syria

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Coming from a military officer in Canada–“we should learn from history…”  and try diplomatic avenues.

The title of the piece is misleading, because from what I’m hearing, the UN has not been shown evidence of chemical weapons being used….why not?

Timeline of Syria’s uprising here.

From the timeline:

February 4, 2012

UN resolution vetoed

Russia and China veto a UN resolution backing calls for Assad’s resignation as president of Syria. The veto prompted international outrage, coming hours after the regime’s bloodiest crackdown in the 10-month old conflict, which the UN had already characterized as a civil war. At least 200 people were reported killed in heavy shelling in Homs. Read more

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May 26, 2012

Alleged Houla massacre

Activists say Syrian regime forces have killed more than 90 people in the Houla area, many of them women and children. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Arab nations and the international community were “partners” in the killing “because of their silence about the massacre that the Syrian regime has committed.” Read more

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June 16, 2012

UN suspends observer mission

International efforts to stop the violence is Syria are disintegrating after the U.N. suspends its observer mission. Major Gen. Robert Mood said rising bloodshed over the past 10 days was posing significant risks to the lives of the 300 unarmed observers in the country, and was impeding their ability to carry out their mandate. Read more

(the UN does go back within a short time period)

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June 25, 2012

Military defections

Dozens of military personnel defect to Turkey overnight. A total of 33 soldiers – including a general and two colonels – slip across the border in the largest defection of members of the military since the uprising began. It comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries after Syria shot down a Turkish

warplane.

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July 23, 2012

Chemical weapons threat

The Syrian regime threatens to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. Read more

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May 3, 2013

Israeli air strikes

Israel launches air strikes into Syria over 48 hours. One appears to target a military complex. An Israeli official says they were targeting missile shipments bound for Hezbollah. Read more

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Well…this is disturbing.  Jim White writes that the Kerry tried to interfere with the UN gathering evidence for an independent report on whether chemical weapons are being used. And if you follow the NYTimes link, it states that if Sarin was used, the chemical would linger for a long time, and therefore it could be detected long after it was used.  Kind of like DDT, eh?

IF there were chemical weapons used…I wonder who sold either the chemicals or the technology to them?  Gah, it wouldn’t be Monsanto, now would it?  /snark

 

 

News of Egypt, Syria, Middle East

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In Syria,  appears there have been several chemical attacks on civilians, according to this. 

The video is hard to watch.  Good God.  They’ve got oxygen masks on them, but I would think that water is more suited to flushing the poison out of their systems?  What kind of monster would do this?

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EU’s response to the crisis in Egypt.

Meanwhile, a court orders the release of Hosni Mubarak.  (!!)  Color me confused.

The report states this is likely to add fuel to the fire in Egypt already, so I’m at a loss to understand the thinking behind it.

 

 

All things ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has several links up on ALEC:

(most of these are from the week prior to the 40th birthday bash in Chicago)

They long for the bygone era.

ALEC agenda.

More *cough* scholarship funds for those poor, poor legislators…

I, for one, would like to know the reasons that Larry Summers, a hedge fund manager, would be the optimal choice for Federal Reserve.  WTH?

Pissed off at how much you’re taxed….well, how does this grab ya?  You at least expect your taxes to go towards useful things like roads, police, fire, schools….but, no, it is going to subsidize these folks.

This is the latest–the treatment of the protestors by Chicago P.D.  A note in the comments section said that over 900 people were arrested.

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On to other things–

Pandora’s lunchbox. Basically, like Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride tells GAPS patients….nothing processed is good for you–avoid it like the plague.  Try to eat more raw than cooked food.  Cooking destroys the enzymes in food–enzymes are used in all processes in your body.  This includes digestion of proteins and other nutrients so that your body can utilize them.  It won’t do your body any good if it lacks the enzymes to digest the nutrients.

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Lastly, there’s nanotechnology everywhere.  Is anybody regulating it? Well, yes and no.  The FDA is regulating silver nanoparticals, but you know the FDA on the nanotechnology as a whole….throw it out there and hope nobody notices.  Be sure to click on the links for Grist’s take (I knew there was a reason that I felt like I had sludge in my gut after eating M&M’s); also the link for Purdue’s report on the fish; and  the effect on DNA.  Yep.

 

Liberal media, where are you? **edited

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Diane Ravitch has a link up to a daily kos piece on the non-coverage of issues Americans care about…

**edited to add this link.

Hedge funds create jobs?

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Um – hmmm…

These are just my first thoughts after a quick read~~

The title of the piece is written in a condescending way.  ” Just STFU and do your movies.”   Insulting.

The author brings up the two flops that Loeb complained about–and as George had stated, Loeb picks two flops and ignores the profitable movies. You can’t possibly think that you’re going to have hit after hit? Seriously? If one never takes a chance and puts stuff out there that may or may not do well at the box office, according to the public’s whim, then we’ll have what happened to the music industry. With the exception of Adele and the former Amy Winehouse, I can’t think of any new music that is being played on the radio that is worth a crap.

From the article:

But to be clear, and with job-creating growth in mind, if hedge funds didn’t exist we’d have to invent them

Um.. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think hedge funds invested in the movie industry when it was created. Folks used this thing called “cash” to form the studios and then they had this great idea to make some films and then ask people to pay to see them. Hedge fund investors don’t invest until there is a business going already. And Hedge funds have been known to fail themselves.

I found a history of hedge funds in investopedia.

More from the article:

It’s not broadly understood this way, but hedge fund billionaire John Paulson not only saved jobs, but the billions he earned surely created new ones.

Seriously? Where are those jobs, because there are an awful lot of people out of work for all the jobs created by Hedge Funds. /snark

For taking these risks, hedge funds are not only masterful job creators, they’re also paradoxically masterful job savers for their intrepid style telling others where and where not to go with their capital.

I think I’m going to be sick.

Let me get this straight–they create jobs by telling investors not to invest in a company that might create 100 jobs because….Company A looks better than Company B because Company A is willing to go without a union shop and pay people minimum wage….am I correct…?

Or…how about this–if you follow the “short selling” link, you see this:

Selling short is the opposite of going long. That is, short sellers make money if the stock goes down in price.

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Read that again–short sellers make money if the stock goes down.  Now I’m wondering if Loeb is short selling….or if someone he knows is short selling Sony stock?  An associate?  A relative?  Since Loeb actually owns the stock, it doesn’t appear that he is short selling, since the broker technically owns the stock in a short sale.  Gah.  The whole thing sounds like a scam.

I used to invest in stock back in the day.  I took an investment class in college, and I did quite well investing in emerging telecommunications technology.    But this was at the beginning of the metamorphosis I was going through, and I began to question the whole scheme because of stuff like the above.  I knew that I could not invest in companies that did not use Fair Trade practices or those that ran sweat shops,  or companies like Monsanto, etc.  The decision came to stop investing after losing $4,000 in Lucent Technologies, which had “facts” and “figures” that made it appear to be a good investment.  Turns out that it was not. 

Telling Sony to spin off the entertainment portion of its business is not creating jobs. Sorry, try another line of defense of the doubletalk.