Category Archives: voters

Occupy Monsanto protests

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Occupy Monsanto is organizing  a protest on January 28th in Missouri — at their annual shareholders meeting:

NEWS ADVISORY
January 15, 2014

CONTACT: Mark Bohnert – 314-265-5140, markbstl@gmail.com
Lacy MacAuley – 202-445-4692, lacymacauley@gmail.com
Adam Eidinger – 202-744-2671, GCU@Occupy-Monsanto.com

Protests Over GMO Food Labeling Come to Monsanto Annual Shareholder Meeting January 28

Monsanto Shareholders to Vote on GMO Food Labeling for the First Time
Activist Efforts Force Meeting to Be Broadcast LIVE Via Internet

CREVE COEUR, MISSOURI – Every January the shareholders of Monsanto Company come from all over the world to Creve Coeur, Missouri, in order to attend the company’s annual shareholder meeting. For the first time a shareholder has introduced a “GMO Food Labeling” resolution that will be voted on at the meeting. Unlike previous years the annual shareholder meeting will not be conducted completely behind closed doors, instead members of the media and public will be able to listen online. Activists have repeatedly asked for the video of the shareholder meeting to be streamed online but Monsanto has only met activists half way and will stream only the audio of the meeting. Outside of the shareholder meeting safe food activists will gather along Olive Blvd to urge shareholders to support the shareholder resolution.

WHO: Adam Eidinger, Monsanto Activist Shareholder, GMO Free Midwest Coalition, “Are We Eating Fishy Food?” GMO Art Cars, and Concerned Citizens

WHAT: Protest at Monsanto Annual Shareholder Meeting to Support Vote on “GMO Food Labeling”

WHEN: Noon to 3pm, January 28, 2014

WHERE: Olive Blvd at Monsanto’s East Campus Entrance, Creve Coeur, MO

If the shareholder resolution passes, Monsanto will be required to work with the Food and Drug Administration to label genetically engineered foods nationally. Monsanto’s executives oppose the resolution, but shareholders, many of whom are represented by faceless mutual funds, will have the final say on the chemical giant’s GMO labeling position.

You can read the text of the “GMO Food Labeling” shareholder resolution:
http://occupy-monsanto.com/new-monsanto-shareholder-resolution-supports-gmo-labeling/

Another shareholder resolution to be voted on at the company’s annual meeting is sponsored by activist investor John Harrington and deals with Monsanto’s potential liability to organic farmers. The protests at Monsanto will be the first since last October when more than 500 activists descended on the company’s headquarters for the March Against Monsanto.

For more information: www.occupy-monsanto.com

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Autistic Child found in New York

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NBC News has this posted.  The remains of the autistic child that disappeared from school have been found.

I was re-reading my blog on school colocation that had mentioned an autistic child had gone missing because the school was so overcrowded, he slipped out without being noticed.  I wonder if this is the school…and if so, why aren’t the networks mentioning this?  (I had seen the news on CNN before NBC website)

Wanna bet they won’t mention that school overcrowding via colocation with charters is responsible for this death?

Yeah, just like they’re *all over* the Newark school principal firings…er I mean indefinite layoffs (yeah, they were fired…)…haven’t heard a peep about it, but judging by the visitors to my blog on it, this is a hot issue.

Dr. Martin Luther King

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Several folks have posts up this morning on Dr. King–

I’ll start with Mercedes Schneider — it is disgusting how George W. Bush used MLK to somehow try to link No Child Left a Mind with civil rights.  As we are seeing, most of the public schools being closed are in neighborhoods of the poor and minorities.  An excellent point made by Joanne Barkin about how they have appointed themselves as leaders of the reform movement without the rest of us included.  Our opinions don’t matter…unless, of course, we agree with them.

A quibble I have with “I Have A Dream…” is the sons of former slave owners and advocating brotherhood...what is glaringly missing are women being part of the whole.

As has been pointed out by others–Dr. King was defending workers who wished to unionize…he would have no part of the destruction of teacher’s unions.

Next, Diane Ravitch has a blog up on MLK.  When breaking the law is just…if one follows one’s conscience.

Finally, Democracy Now! has a video up on MLK.  When I first clicked on, I heard “I Have a Dream…” and sighed that it was going to be yet another rehash of the I have a Dream speech without reference to his other great speech, Beyond Vietnam. 

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2014/1/20

I was so glad that they aired this speech.  It was so wonderful hearing Dr. King’s voice again…hard not to get emotional at the love that was flowing from him.  He and John F. Kennedy were advocates of Peace working against dark forces.  Both were killed for it.  But as Dr. King said prophetically, he had been to the mountain top and was not afraid of the consequences of doing what he knew God wanted him to do.

I want to say something about this speech by Amiri Baraka, also on DN!

He speaks about women being raped and wanting to have reparations for it…does he not think that white women have been raped, too?  Where is the white woman’s reparation?

What about the Irish slaves whom also worked for no wages?  Where are their reparations?  What about the Irish women whom were forced to birth babies for lighter-skinned African Americans?

The music we stole?  Didn’t all music come from the great classical composers?  Isn’t music supposed to be a shared experience?  Did we not enjoy each other’s music and share that special connection?  It is deflating to hear such anger for something we both enjoyed.

And then he says “give us our lives or be prepared to forfeit your own…”

Dr. King was against violence of any kind.  I can’t see him agreeing with advocating violence.

And I don’t understand “giving” someone their life….you can’t “give” someone their life.  You can’t give someone self-esteem nor a purpose in life–it has always come from within…from that connection to God (or your Higher Power).

Dr. King knew this…it emanated from him.  He was solidly connected and acted accordingly.   He mentions the overzealous need for material things…and questioned why someone had more than enough while others had to beg for the things they need.

Advocating violence against whites is just as bad as a KKK leader advocating violence against blacks.

I see white faces amongst the black faces in the civil rights protests.  I read a story of a white guy being hosed down and beaten along with the blacks during the civil rights riots.  He nearly had an eye gouged out.

Other whites wrote that they had fought alongside blacks and  then were told they were not welcome anymore.

White folk were right there alongside black folk, and now it seems that part of history is being rewritten.

I know I’ll probably catch hell for writing this, but it is written with an open heart, and not meant to offend, but to question biases and prejudices….and somehow get back to that love that emanated from Dr. King.   Violence, anger, and hatred don’t serve anyone.  Anger is only useful if that energy is used in a positive way.

As a side note~ Dr. King spoke about them keeping Vietnam going when they knew it was wrong.  I happened upon this the other day–and how Kissinger was behind the scenes prolonging the war…because he loved the power and he, Nixon, et al, wanted to “save face”.  They prolonged death of our soldiers, death of Vietnamese so they could keep their reputation intact.  Remember, he had stated that power is an aphrodisiac…it’s as if he thought of himself as some sort of “James Bond”….how disgusting.

The Law and Louisiana Teachers

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This is why I love the law….if it is working properly (i.e., judges apply it fairly), then the “little guy” wins out even when being bullied by those bigger with $$ bank accounts.  Woot.

West Virginia toxin spill: it ain’t over…

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Dispatches from the underclass has a post up with an interview of a West  Virginia mom concerned about the water and the effects on her children.

As she brings up, they are already dealing with toxins from the coal industry (mercury, lead, arsenic), and now this….their water is brown.

The scene from JAWS comes to mind where they tell everyone that it’s safe to go back into the water…um-hmmm….

And the sad thing, besides endangering these folks’ health and not knowing what this chemical does to people…is that West Virginia is one of the most beautiful states I’ve ever been in.  The mountains are sooo gorgeous.

The Octopus of inBloom…

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Mercedes Schneider has an excellent blog up on all the twists and turns of school profiteering–who is involved, who’s making the $$ off of our kids.  It’s an in-depth blog well worth the time of the read.

The comments are intelligent, as well.  One of them links to this article.  Bill and Melinda Gates are freaking insane.  How detached from the real world does one have to be to think this is okay??  It’s not a true measurement of engagement in the lesson–it only measures arousal.  The student could be thinking of something else, as one comment in the article illustrates, not what is being taught.  Creepy doesn’t *begin* to describe this electronic gadget.

Note the very last paragraph where National Council on Teacher Quality, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation promotes this insanity.  Remember, folks, Gates is now part of the Billionaires Media Message….gotta keep that in mind when reading anything positive on Gates, et al., because they’ve probably written it themselves or had any number of people they support financially do their dirty work for them.

Also, in the link Mercedes provided for her former post on this, is this gem:

First of all, it was Gates money that funded the inBloom data “cloud.”

Next, the sponsor of the webinar, EWA, has taken $2.7 million in Gates money since 2003.

Third, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has taken $13.5 million in Gates money. (In November 2013, I wrote this post on Aimee Guidera and DQC. Enlightening reading.)

Fourth, USDOE Assistant Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton used to work for Gates as the Gates Foundation director of its education division. Shelton is also a partner with the charter-market-creating New Schools Venture Fund (a connection to Education Undersecretary nominee Ted Mitchell) AND was a senior management consultant for McKinsey and Company (former employer of Common Core “lead architect” David Coleman).

Fifth, Fordham University professor Joel Reidenberg and others conducted a study on privacy issues and “cloud computing”… funded by Microsoft.

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Yep, it’s the revolving door with Jim Shelton…like the FDA.  Anyone wanna bet Shelton will go back to Gates once his work to destroy public education is done?

Finally, another person posted this link of a group of Carbondale, Colorado parents getting together to fight for our public schools.

 

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

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Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

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…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.

Newark Principals fired for protesting school closings

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the latest in taxation without representation and punishing an American citizen for exercising their right to Freedom of Speech.

One of the links was so compelling I want to put it here.  So much for inept educators being disciplined for non-performance…you’re punished even if you’re doing well, apparently.  Good Grief, what a nazi!!

Gov. Christie must have a “Bully’s Playbook” that all in his inner circle go by…

And Michele Brown and the Economic Development Authority should be investigated, also, while they’re at it…

Indiana and the West Virginia spill

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Update:  Indiana actually noticed that there was a chemical spill upriver!  /just a little sarcasm, folks

Reading this, though, Indiana just seems….passive.  Cincinnati is taking a proactive stance in shutting off the water intake.

And, I have to wonder as I’m reading this, how will they separate the West Virginia chemicals from the toxins already in the Ohio River?  Will they be able to tell which are our chemicals and which are Freedom Industries?  /just a little snarky

Meanwhile, Louisville, Kentucky  is business as usual.  I just shake my head at the laissez-faire attitude  “we will treat the water and make it smell and taste good.”  WTH?

I want water that is free of chemicals, not just “taste good”.  Charcoal is fine for removing impurities, but it doesn’t remove everything.

I found a couple of websites advocating bamboo charcoal for water filtration here and here.  I haven’t tried these, but they do look promising…and since bamboo is sustainable, all the better.  Finally, there this site on a primitive charcoal filter.

Reverse osmosis is supposed to remove much more–but it also removes needed minerals.  Some sites suggest putting a high quality salt (that hasn’t had the minerals removed as they do with sodium chloride, or table salt) back in as a way to counteract it.

I had a tough time finding much information that wasn’t a company website, but this was the best one to explain what reverse osmosis removes.