Category Archives: public protests

Monsanto bulldozer keeps on rollin’

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While we’re looking the other way at issues that should be non-issues….another sneaky thing in the House version of the Ag part of the funding of the government is to continue the Monsanto Protection Act.  Yep.

From Organic Consumers:

URGENT: House Passes Monsanto Protection Act. Ask Your Senators to Stop It!

Dear Supporter,

On Friday, September 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Continuing Resolution (H.J.RES.59), a bill to keep the government running through December 15. The bill will force a showdown with the Senate because it includes a provision to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

But the Continuing Resolution is controversial for another reason. It extends the Monsanto Protection Act, officially referred to as the Farmers Assurance Provision, a law that gives biotech firms immunity from federal prosecution for illegally growing GMO crops.

Please call your Senators today and ask them to pass a clean version of the Continuing Resolution, one that doesn’t extend the Monsanto Protection Act.

You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your Senator. Or find individual senators’ phone numbers here.

You can say:

“I’m calling to ask the Senator to oppose the Farmers Assurance Provision, sometimes referred to as the Monsanto Protection Act, and to vote no on any bill, including the Continuing Resolution, which includes the provision.”

If you want to go into more detail, you can add:

“New GMOs aren’t regulated enough as it is. Even the American Medical Association complains that the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t safety test new GMOs for human health risks before allowing them on the market for human consumption. The AMA last year recommended that GMOs undergo mandatory premarket safety testing.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture does conduct a mandatory review of new GMOs, but not for human health risks.

“The USDA is notorious for ignoring the impact new GMOs will have on organic and non-GMO farmers who experience serious economic losses when their crops are contaminated.

“In recent years, the courts have had to step in and stop the planting of new GMOs. The courts did this by requiring that the USDA complete a thorough Environmental Impact Statement before approving a controversial crop. The Monsanto Protection Act strips the court of its constitutional power to review executive branch decisions, which means the courts can no longer intervene in order to protect the public. Now, the USDA can rubber-stamp new GMOs and, even if serious harm could result, the court can’t stop them from being planted.

“I hope the Senator will work to stop the Monsanto Protection Act from being extended past September 30 and vote against any bill that includes it.”

Background
The Monsanto Protection Act was first passed in March, when it was quietly and without debate slipped into the earlier version of the Continuing Resolution, a bill to fund the government through September 30. As Politico reporter David Rogers explained in his Monsanto Protection Act exposé, “Big Agriculture Flexes its Muscle,” the Monsanto-friendly rider was never voted on. Rogers, a seasoned political reporter, described how the Monsanto Protection Act became law “with little or no floor debate and in a period of turmoil.”

The backroom deal that made the Monsanto Protection Act law generated a public backlash. It was the subject of a Daily Show episode. And it helped spawn a worldwide March against Monsanto, reported on by the New York Times.

Because the Senate never voted on the Monsanto Protection Act, we don’t know where all of the senators stand on the issue. But here’s what we do know:

•    Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) conspired with Monsanto lobbyists to write the law.

•    Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the full Senate Appropriations Committee, publicly apologized for letting the Monsanto Protection Act slip through. But, she said, she had a responsibility to avoid a government shutdown.

•    Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), tried for a vote to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act during the Senate Farm Bill debate.

•    Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) blocked Merkley’s amendment.

•    Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D- Mich.) promised Merkley that the amendment wouldn’t be renewed without a vote.

Can Sen. Stabenow keep her promise? We’ll find out this week when the Senate debates the new Continuing Resolution. While the focus will be on the House’s provision to defund Obamacare, we need every senator to know that it is not acceptable to include the Monsanto Protection Act in the new bill.

Please call your senators today. Ask them to reject extending the Monsanto Protection Act and vote no on the Continuing Resolution unless this blatant giveaway to the biotech industry is removed.

Thank you!

— Alexis and the team at OCA

Organic Consumers Association

6771 South Silver Hill Drive – Finland, MN 55603 – Phone: 218-226-4164 – Fax: 218-353-7652

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Environmental stuff

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Minke whale washes ashore in Portuguese Cove, Nova Scotia.  Why on Earth are they not taking the whale to someone who can analyze why it died?  They’re more worried about the smell of the carcass than finding out what caused its death. Mercury?  Runoff from chemical farms? Genetically modified organisms? Oil? Pharmaceuticals washed out to the ocean?

Greenpeace protests with mechanical polar bear. Pretty cool exhibit, eh?

 

Mexico City Teachers Protest

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Apparently, they’re trying to break the teacher’s unions in Mexico, as well.  The teachers aren’t taking it lying down, either.    So now it appears this isn’t just the United States that this is happening to…

…the question is WHO is doing this…and why?

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….and here we have one of the players, Arne Duncan, who has never set foot in a classroom, being called out for his nonsense.

If teachers and parents are protesting the lame testing that does not test  potential…and they’re protesting No Child Left a Mind…and if  money will be withheld if they do not comply–I say that is a case of taxation without representation.    Time for a true Boston Tea Party.

If parents don’t start getting organized against the hedge fund managers, Gates, Broad, Rhee, and others, they will succeed in destroying public education.

When is a public forum not a public forum?

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When it involves ag committees who don’t allow the public to speak, but allow a corporate representative to spew their biased views.

Note how the Monsanto rep said she wanted a discussion but opponents to GMO’s were not allowed to speak.  They were characterized as “emotional”….now, how can they preemptively dismiss them if there has been no discussion?    From what I saw on the video, these folks were being respectful.  There were no reports of them disrupting the meeting, or interfering with the Monsanto toadie, so where do they come off saying these folks were emotional?

…and what, exactly, does “emotional” mean?  A definition, please…

Walker Backs Down

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Gov. Scott Walker has rescinded a $500,000 grant to the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin.

You know, for folks who are so dead set against government in their lives, via taxation and regulation, they sure to go out of their way to get those tax dollars while trying to circumvent the democratic process.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the grant was slipped into the budget bill by outgoing Majority Leader Scott Suder with terms that excluded most sporting groups in the state. The grant was not properly advertised, conveniently leaving United Sportsmen as the sole applicant.

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More Wisconsin news here. 

You’re telling me that citizens throwing pop cans and shouting obscenities requires the use of armed guards?  Talk about overreaction.  Yes, it was wrong for the one demonstrator to destroy the camera, no doubt, but having armed guards with assault rifles is just soo over the top.

What I don’t understand is why  they are allowed in the forest at all.  Why are they destroying what little we have left?  People seem to think that climate change is this thingy down the road….hello, it’s happening now and destroying the forests is one of the reasons.    Why are they not valued as much as the mining operations?  Why aren’t the environmental impacts on the land and water considered as important?

The primary cause of this lasting pollution is acid mine drainage. Mining exposes sulfide-bearing ore that generates sulfuric acid and mixes with water. This outflow of acidic water, otherwise known as acid mine drainage, contaminates drinking water aquifers, lakes, and streams, agricultural lands, and prime fish and wildlife habitat. Because acid mine drainage can’t be stopped, once started it must be treated until the acid generating material runs out. As acknowledged in government mining permits, this can take hundreds or thousands of years.

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Texas’ Freedom of Information Foundation is aiding CMD in obtaining public records that members of ALEC are trying to keep in the dark.

The Fight for Fifteen in Wisconsin.  I think $15 per hour is reasonable and would put us back to where we would have been had our wages not stagnated over the last twenty or so years…

There is just something terribly wrong when a CEO can make millions in income while employees are forced on food stamps or food banks to feed themselves and their families.

Finally, in non-Wisconsin news, CMD has this up on the paper trail of Larry Summers.   I haven’t begun to read all the information here, so I’m off to read the links. …note, however, the link to education “reform”–he’s on the board of the Eli Broad Foundation.  Not only that, but Andy Stern is also on the board–he was head of the Service Employees Union…wow….a union supporter on the board of an organization trying to destroy teacher’s unions and public education.  Just wow.

 

 

Susan Rice, Kerry, and Syria

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Susan Rice was on the tube today trying to sell the war.  She tried playing on people’s emotions by saying that she was thinking of her own children as she watched the tapes of the children being gassed.

What about the children in Iraq? Don’t they remind Susan Rice of her children, too? More here.

How many children will be lost if we bomb Syria?

I asked the question “don’t we know how to use diplomacy anymore?”  And it appears that John Kerry was an accidental diplomat when he reportedly made an offhanded remark that Syria could turn over chemical weapons to the international community.  Now the State Dept. says it was “rhetorical”.   

Are you serious?

Kerry apparently wasn’t, but Russia was and is now going to make moves to get Syria to hand over the chemicals.  Well, now…didn’t expect that.

Who would have thought that Russia would have more diplomatic skills than the United States State Department?!

Damn….guess Wall St and the Congress warmongers aren’t going to be able to profit off another war.  (she says with fingers and toes crossed and saying a prayer…)

More from the edumucation files

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Wow. I am continually amazed at what has been going on behind the scenes with the charter school engineers.  Truly amazing how they have been able to get away with it.

This report from a teacher who spells out exactly what my fear is of the nonsense testing that really cannot test potential and does not allow for the obstacles to learning for kids in poorer districts….and then blames the public school teacher for things that are out of their control: student engagement and parent involvement.  The resident troll, teaching economist, has finally revealed he has no clue about what teachers in k-12 are up against.  He teaches lecture courses of 500 students, some of them online.  There is no engagement with classes that size–that was my complaint about my classes in college–no class discussion to enrich the learning experience.  The guy’s a robot who cannot engage in dialogue.

Parents United Philadelphia has this up.

Advice from a money manager….who actually likes public education.

From a comment:

As a teacher with wealthy connections, I can tell you that most of the rich don’t care much about public education either way. They send their kids to private school on principle. The public schools are for the “unwashed masses”. They use private schools to separate their children from the commoners. The old money saw public schools as giving back to their butler’s kids or their cook’s children, and they weren’t bothered by paying taxes (chump change anyway). The new money see taxes for public schools as irritating, and they want to keep as much money as they can, and don’t care about their cook’s children, city children, etc. The “new money” have no interest in community or helping others.

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Spot on. The wealthy do not care about public education. Period.  It has always been for the “rest of us” who cannot or will not put our kids into private schools.   The most annoying thing to the wealthy is that public education creates citizens who are….educated.  Educated citizens cause all sorts of trouble–like being able to carry on arguments against the destruction of public schools; like asking intelligent questions of politicians; of fighting for civil rights….of fighting against things the wealthy hold dear: greed, selfishness,  lack of social conscience…..

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The student who stood up to be heard at the *cough*  conversation with teachers has a blog up explaining what went on.  What a powerful young woman…this old lady was worried about the future generation, but Hannah gives me hope….

(hat tip to Diane Ravitch)

Lastly, a blog at Reclaim Reform on Arne Duncan.  How can someone who failed so miserably be….promoted...?

How can you tell… **edited

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…when John Kerry is lying?  His lips are moving.   (Old joke, but unfortunately still works.)

From Global news in Canada.

Anytime anyone involves ego in a decision, you can bet it is a bad decision.  Going to war over a warped perception of credibility is wrong.  And America’s credibility was seriously damaged with going to war in Iraq.  We were perceived as bullies and liars.   The whole world rejoiced when Barack Obama was elected because the whole world disagreed with our invasion.

But the world’s perception of us didn’t seem to bother Congress before now, eh?

And what exactly does “protect our values” mean??  Because I don’t value war.

Kerry tries to shut up opposing voices by throwing out ” this is not the time for  armchair isolationists”….that’s you and me, folks, the American public that speaks out against war.  We’re sick of war and we’re sick of millionaire politicians telling us that our opinions don’t matter.

He asks if one would be comfortable if we don’t act and Assad gasses his people.  Hello? Are we alone in the world?  Israel and Saudi Arabia have a stake in this  and they should be expected to bear the brunt of it–skin in the game, as they say…they are both wealthy nations, and we are fast losing our wealth.  Well, it’s still there, technically, but in the hands of a few who don’t want to pay taxes….that… fund… wars.  So Saudi Arabia and Israel need to ante up.

Note how Kerry asserts that there will be no boots on the ground, but from what I was watching yesterday, he once again flip-flopped and stated that he did not want that put in writing because it may become necessary if things escalate.   Mighty suspicious….

Tell me again why Kerry was trying to interfere with U.N. gathering evidence on chemical weapons?  And why aren’t we waiting for the U.N. to get the results bacK?  The Syria situation is not new–this has been happening for over a year now….so why the rush, rush, rush to bomb?

And tell me why those pictures of the dead keep nagging at me–like I have seen them before…?  That they were from a chemical weapons attack, but not the current event with Syria?? I just can’t shake that feeling.

Here’s the view from emptywheel.  During the hearing, Kerry was drumming his fingers on the table with impatience that they were questioning him.   John McCain was caught playing computer games….on taxpayer’s dime.  If those same taxpayers were caught playing computer games during company time, they would be fired.

Another take here on it from the Israelis:

Note the sentiment if the U.S. doesn’t strike, Israel will.   Is that supposed to be a threat of some sort?

Lastly, John Kerry’s testimony as a Vietnam veteran before Congress, below.  He stated yesterday that no chemicals had been used since WWI…I was stunned that he chose to ignore Agent Orange used in Vietnam.  In this video, he acknowledges the horror of them and how we “destroyed villages in order to save them…”  Note also the reference to Nixon, who stated he “did not want to be the first president to lose a war…”  Doesn’t that sound eerily similar to “we have to go in to Syria to save our credibility…”??  The Communism threat was a lie, btw, as only 25% of the people in Vietnam were Communists.  The rest were peaceful Buddhists.  Pretty sad, eh?

**Edited to fix stupid link to Kerry’s Vietnam Testimony: