Music by The Refusers

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Calling All GE Activists To Canada





Calling all GE activists! Are you looking for a meaningful way to resist the presence of genetically engineered (GE) foods in Canada? If so, look no further. Join our team and help the Society for a GE Free BC and the Vancouver Greenpeace L...ocal Group to organize the eastern leg of the GE Foods and Human Health: a cross-Canada Speaker's Tour in 2014. We're looking for keen volunteers in Eastern Canada to help our tour committee to liaise with host communities, to organize on the ground logistics, and/or to conduct outreach in both English and French. Prospective volunteers are asked to email: gefoods.tour@gmail.com

More info here:
http://gefreebc.wordpress.com/gefoodstour/

Source:
 

Who Is Behind Syria's "Opposition Rebels"? Mother Agnes Mariam vs The US Media by Rob Prince















by Rob Prince

Global Research Canada,   29 November 2013


Mother Agnes Mariam, mother-superior of the monastery of St. James, the Mutilated in Qara, in the Qalamoun District of Syria, which is north of Damascus, visited Denver as part of a U.S. tour which is taking her coast to coast.
S
he spoke at three public venues in two days and then rushed off to catch a plane to Lincoln, Nebraska, where she also has had several speaking engagements, covered by the Nebraska press.
 
The Christian Palestinian family of the good mother-superior hails from Nazareth, now in Israel, from whence it was expelled and made refugee in 1948 when Israel was founded. Growing up in Lebanon, she was educated by that country’s Maronite Community. Before entering the Melkite Greek Catholic order, Mother Agnes-Mariam claims to have partnered with a group of American hippies in her youth, she with bible in hand. While little attracted to their hashish smoking, she absorbed their commitment to world peace.
 
Those of us who heard her speak were impressed with her dignity, her commitment to all of the Syrian people and to peace. Her concerns are for all Syrians and her approach distinctly non-sectarian. At the same time, Mother Agnes-Mariam is rightly concerned about the future of Christians both in Syria and the broader Middle East. That community which goes back to the time of Christ is under siege in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere where Salafist elements hope to homogenize the region culturally of its rich, diversified heritage. The Christian community in Syria is, itself, as old as Christianity itself. St. Paul was the Bishop of Antioch. The St. James, the Mutilated Monastery, which Mother Agnes-Mariam has helped refurbish was first built in the fifth century, that is, prior to the rise of Islam and 700 years before the Crusades began.
 
The Syrian Resistance – Hijacked by Islamic Militant Elements, as in Libya and Mali
 
The accusation – there was a national campaign to slander her U.S. tour – that she is “an agent of Assad” is, in my view, little more than mischievous nonsense being spread to undermine popular support of a negotiated solution to the Syrian crisis. Her analysis of the Syrian situation suggests a reality that hardly appears in the U.S. mainstream media, far more nuanced and accurate concerning what is transpiring on the ground there. While no fan of the Assad government – she has openly criticized its repressive character – Mother Agnes Marian insisted that the government has substantial support among the country’s population and that the last thing the country’s Christian population wants to see is a radical Islamic takeover of the country.
 
Despite this, some American academics and even peace groups, with their heads in the sand, have lined up in support of the rebels and still support the demented pipe dream of a military victory for the rebels. Not surprisingly, these so-called defenders of human rights also line up against a negotiated solution to the Syrian crisis.
 
Many of the American supporters of the Syrian rebel factions frame their support for the rebels within the framework of humanitarian intervention, failing to see that such an approach, as in Libya, is little more than a pretext for big-power military intervention. While claiming humanitarian concerns, they fail to acknowledge – or hardly – the crimes against humanity committed by the so-called rebels, their targeting of the Syrian civilian population, their false-flag operations (the chemical weapons incidents), all by now extensively and well documented.
 
Those supporting military interventionism on humanitarian grounds in support of the Syrian rebels tend to downplay the degree to which the Syrian opposition is infested with Salafist-Wahhabist fighters arguing that there are only “a few thousand” foreign fighters in Syria. But such claims are quite inaccurate, deceptive. There are currently more than 2,000 foreign Islamic armed militias – no one knows the exact number – in Syria. As they see no place in Syria’s future for non-Sunni Moslems, Christians, and Jews, these Salafist elements have put together quite a record of death and destruction that includes destroying 50 churches – some of them dating back to the time of Christ, such as the 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in Damascas, one of the world’s oldest, if not the oldest) – and 100 mosques of Druze, Alawite and other Islamic Shi’ite and related sects.
 
Actually, the militant Islamic rebel factions are Syria’s version of cruise missiles on the ground. If, in Iraq, the United States destroyed infrastructure and civil society from the air by intensive bombing campaigns that actually started in 1991 and accelerated after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, in Syria it is Islamic guerrillas who attack civilian communities, factories, schools, religious institutions, and power stations to the same end. Their goals: to make life unlivable for Syrians, drive them either into the opposition or into exile and to destroy as much of Syria as a country so that it will literally collapse and Syria cease to exist as a state, as happened in Iraq, all the while blaming the lion’s share of the damage on the Syrian military.
 
Mother Agnes-Mariam Explains What Obama Doesn’t Have the Courage To Her U.S. visit comes two months after the Obama Administration has tried to shift gears on both the Syrian civil war and U.S.-Iranian relations, moving from policies of confrontation to calls for international negotiations to resolve the tensions between the United States and two of its main Middle Eastern adversaries. This shift in U.S. policy, motivated by regional and global concerns, surprised many and came after it appeared that U.S. military operations against Syria were in the offing.
 
It is no secret that many among the American public are somewhat at a loss to understand the Obama administration’s sudden shift in policy towards the Syrian crisis. One day Obama is speaking of sending in the cruise missiles, the next day negotiating. Having poisoned the media atmosphere here in the U.S. concerning Syria so blatantly and for so long, with so many distortions appearing in the mainstream media and supported by a stream of bellicose pronouncements from Obama administration spokespeople (and the president himself), it is understandable that many in the American public are confused by the sudden shift in policy. As Mother Agnes-Mariam puts it: “It is scandalous the way the mainstream media has approached the Syrian crisis.”

Washington’s Shifting Global Priorities
 
To understand Washington’s Syria shift from war-to-peace mongering, it helps to put U.S. foreign policy in its more global perspective. Globally, the United States, concerned with the growth of Chinese economic and political influence, is trying to re-direct its political and military attention to East Asia and to a certain extent away from the Middle East. The Obama Administration has come to the conclusion (and this probably happened months ago) that a U.S. military intervention in Syria, necessary to reverse the current military balance of forces in Damascus’ interest on the ground, would be a major strategic error. Another Middle East military quagmire is the last thing the United States needs. The fact of the matter is that neither the sanctions against Iran nor support for the rebels in Syria produced the desired, sometimes articulate, often denied, result in either country: regime change.
 
If the Obama Administration is turning its eyes towards Asia, it simply cannot afford to blast Assad out of power in Syria. Too many undefined factors come into play. So the decision was made to put a limit on its military engagements in the Middle East and Central Asia, which have gone poorly, with devastating results for the region, in Afghanistan and Iraq. The buck stopped at Syria. Unable to resolve the Syrian crisis militarily because of all the variables, Obama, wisely – for a change – understood the need to find a way out of the Syrian morass. There are now reports emerging suggesting that the United States and the Russians have been “talking” about Syria for more than six months. I would not be surprised at all if such talks took place. The real problem for the Obama Administration has been how to get out of Syria while still saving face. The Russians, key players in the Syrian crisis, seemed to help Obama come up with some kind of a plan.

Deconstructing the Syrian Opposition

Enter Mother Agnes-Mariam, who is telling the American people, gently actually, essentially what their government has been doing all along in Syria but what Washington itself doesn’t have the courage to relate. Mother Agnes-Mariam comes to the United States just at the time when the Obama Administration is trying to re-shape its Syria policy. But Obama has painted himself into a corner in so idealizing the role of the Syrian opposition. Mother Agnes-Mariam came to Denver with a message of peace – a call for a negotiated settlement of the Syrian crisis – as well as a warning. It is the peace message which the Obama Administration should be announcing to the American people but doesn’t seem to have mustered up the courage to do so as of yet, so they hide behind the robes of a Carmelite nun instead and let her take the heat.

Granted, as mentioned above, there are legitimate Syrian elements in the opposition who will have to have a voice in any settlement. But the United States – through its regional allies – has unleashed some very destructive forces in Syria and now has the formidable task of getting these “jinns” back into the bottle. The shift in policy has angered – if not infuriated – Washington’s regional allies – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey – whom it appears were taken by surprise by the policy shift and are howling in pain and very openly angered at with the shift, about which they can do little.

“The peace message” was essentially that no side will “win” the military conflict in Syria, and that the crisis there – which is essentially now a civil war – can only be resolved through negotiations between the Assad government and its “Syrian-based” (and she stressed this particular formulation) opponents.

“The warning” was that while there is a legitimate Syrian opposition engaged in the fighting against the Assad government, that much of the so-called rebellion had been hijacked by Islamist fundamentalist radicals armed, trained and funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey (and others). Responsible for much of the bloodshed and terror – they seem to have a particular penchant to beheading people – the Islamists are mostly foreign elements recruited from throughout the region to fight. Their goal is the establishment of an Islamic state based upon Shari’a law. Mother Agnes-Mariam opposed their participation in the peace process, and calls for their expulsion from Syria. Although by no means an easy goal, unless the United States – through whatever mechanism it can find – can rein in these radical Islamist elements, there will be no peace in Syria.

Concerning the Syrian opposition Mother Agnes-Mariam’s main point is that the Syrian opposition has long been hijacked by radical fundamentalist elements, its main secular, domestic opposition having been shunted to the sidelines in the fighting. Similar scenarios have unfolded recently in both Libya and Mali, where opposition movements were hijacked by Salafist-Wahhabist elements.

At the same time Mother Agnes-Mariam actually sympathizes with the grievances of the Syrian opposition, that part of it that is domestically based. She expressed deep concern for the fact that the opposition has been hijacked by Islamist fundamentalist elements that get logistical, financial support and military training from American regional allies – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey. Although she didn’t mention it, these Islamist factions, trained in Jordan, Turkey and northern Lebanon, also have received both financial and military support from the United States Special Forces.
 
There are also several reports in the Israeli press of French special forces and Israeli commandos training and supporting Syrian rebels. Despite all this outside support meant to bring down the Assad government, government forces are winning the military confrontation and enjoy strong political support from major elements of the Syrian population. The latter might not have warm and fuzzy feelings for the Assad government and are well aware of its shortcomings, but much prefer Assad to a Salafist/Wahhabist-run political system based upon Shari’a law.
 
Those (in Washington, Paris, Riyadh, Ankara, Doha) who argued that the Assad government would fall like a house of cards, as did Gadaffy’s rule in Libya, have made a strategic blunder. Assad remains in power and, if anything, his social base is strengthening while the opposition, despite some legitimate grievances that any peace process will have to address, is something approaching shambles both politically and militarily. As numerous commentators have warned for several years now there will be no military solution to the Syrian conflict. Neither side will win on the battlefield. Only a negotiated settlement under internationally supervised auspices can create a path out of the destruction, death and suffering from which the country is now experiencing.
 
Right on, Mother Agnes-Mariam!

Rob Prince, is Teaching Professor at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies. In recent years, he has written extensively on North Africa. He is also the publisher of the Colorado Progressive Jewish News.

Source:

Global Research Canada





Friday, November 29, 2013

French Scientist Seralini Refuses to Retract GM Maize Tumor Study

 

Seralini Refuses to Retract GM Maize Tumor Study

Sustainable Pulse,    28 November 2013   


 The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) wants to withdraw the article by Professor Seralini on rats fed GM maize NK603, which was published in September 2012. The researcher counters: why not retract the article by Monsanto in 2004 on the same subject?

The Associate Editor of the FCT is now Richard E. Goodman, a former Monsanto scientist and an affiliate of the GMO industry-funded group, the International Life Sciences Institute.
ARM WRESTLING. He has mustered his scientific and political supporters … A symbol. Surrounded notably by Paul Deheuvels, statistician of the Academy of Sciences and Corinne Lepage, Member of the European Parliament on November 28, at a press conference in Brussels, Professor Gilles Eric Séralini of the University Caen will defend his sensational article on GMOs, released last year, which is now threatened with retraction.
Seralini asked to retract his article on a GMO maize. He refuses
Rachel Mulot
Le Nouvel Observateur (Science and the Future), 28 Nov 2013
GMWatch translation from French original at bit.ly/1jNbePu
He suggested that rats fed over a lifetime with GM maize NK603, tolerant to the herbicide Roundup and manufactured by the US company Monsanto, developed more tumors and diseases… The media coverage of the paper in September 2012 had caused turmoil amongst the public and politicians, a debate in the scientific community and a critical questioning of the safety evaluation procedures for genetically modified plants currently in force.
Bombard the Journal Editor – Support Seralini !!:
www.journals.elsevier.com/food-and-chemical-toxicology/editorial-board/a-wallace-hayes/#contact
No fraud or manipulation of data

Some days ago, the editor of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (Elsevier Group) which originally published the article, requested Professor Seralini to kindly retract it, that is to say to withdraw it himself.

The reason? “The results are inconclusive and therefore do not reach the threshold needed for publication” and “there is a legitimate reason for concern about both the number of animals tested in each group and the particular strain of rat selected,” he explains in a letter to the researcher at the University of Caen which Science and the Future has seen.

“MERIT”. The editor of FCT admits that “the problem of the low number of animals had been identified during the initial peer-review process” but it was finally decided to publish it because the work “still had merit despite its limitations”. It seems that the editorial policy of the magazine has changed (see here).

Praising the “goodwill and openness” of Gilles Eric Séralini, who provided the raw data to meet the criticisms raised by the article, the editor emphasises that finally, after having carefully and extensively studied it, the reviewers have detected “no fraud or manipulation of data”.

Refusal to comply and counter-attack

Professor Seralini now refuses to retract his article. He has argued for months that the offending strain of rat (the Sprague-Dawley) is used routinely in the United States – including sometimes by
Monsanto to study the carcinogenicity and chronic toxicity of chemicals. He recalls that he has conducted a groundbreaking study on rats fed over a lifetime with this GM maize and even if he only used ten rats per group, he has nevertheless performed many more measurements on these animals.

“The disruption of sex hormones and other parameters are sufficient in this case to indicate a serious effect after a year,” he protested, demanding that we take into account “the timing and number of tumors per animal”.

DOUBLE STANDARD? There are many signs that should be considered in a real study of risk, he said. In addition, the researcher points to a paper by Monsanto, published in 2004 in the same journal FCT and never retracted, finding NK603 maize safe after measuring its effects on ten Sprague-Dawley rats for three months only, and asks: is there a double standard in force for assessment?

“Only studies pointing to adverse effects of GMOs are rigorously scrutinized on their experimental and statistical methods,” he said, “while those who say GMOs are safe are taken at face value.”

Latest bombshell: the biologist is preparing to challenge the way statistical analyses are performed on tested rats because they are distorted by historical data. According to a study that he aims to carry out with his team, all experimental animals have always been exposed in their cages and via their food to pollutants (pesticides, mercury, cadmium, endocrine disrupting chemicals) and possibly GMOs … so that it was impossible to distinguish spontaneous, natural, tumors from tumours induced by these substances, regardless of the number of rats tested …

Fan the flames: To conduct tests on large cohorts of 50 rats per group, for example, would therefore be pointless. In short, the ultimate defence [of Seralini’s 2012 GM maize study] is to cast doubt on the relevance of the studies done so far. This statement – which would need to be seriously supported – will undoubtedly cause a wave of protest. The editors of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology were perhaps hoping to extinguish the controversy, but instead they may have fanned the flames.

Source:

Sustainable Pulse


 

Some Health Benefits Of Epsom Salt Baths

 

Epsom Salt Baths Improve Health

 

by Kristin

Food Renegade,    21 January 2013


How do Epsom salt baths improve health?

According to the Epsom Salt Industry Council, correcting magnesium deficiency leads to:
  • Improved heart and circulatory health, reducing irregular heartbeats, preventing hardening of the arteries, reducing blood clots and lowering blood pressure.
  • Improved ability for the body to use insulin, reducing the incidence or severity of diabetes.
  • Flushed toxins and heavy metals from the cells, easing muscle pain and helping the body to eliminate harmful substances.
  • Improved nerve function by electrolyte regulation. Also, calcium is the main conductor for electrical current in the body, and magnesium is necessary to maintain proper calcium levels in the blood.
  • Relieved stress. Excess adrenaline and stress are believed to drain magnesium, a natural stress reliever, from the body. Magnesium is necessary for the body to bind adequate amounts of serotonin, a mood-elevating chemical within the brain that creates a feeling of well being and relaxation.
  • Reduced inflammation to relieve pain and muscle cramps.
  • Improved oxygen use.
  • Improved absorption of nutrients.
  • Prevention or easing of migraine headaches.
(source)

Furthermore, the sulfate in Epsom salts:
  • Improves absorption of nutrients by starting the cascade of digestive enzymes released from the pancreas.
  • Helps form the mucin proteins which line the gut walls. Mucin stops the intestine’s content from ‘sticking’ and blocks the transport of toxins from the gut to the bloodstream. Patients who have a leaky gut (like those with IBS) have low blood plasma sulfate levels.
  • Helps with the formation of brain tissue. Pregnant ladies, pay attention! When en utero, neurons are created on chains of sulfated carbohydrate. Reduces sulfation may lead to fault neural connections and dysfunction later in life!
  • Plays a key role in detoxifying drugs and environmental contaminants from your body.

How to take an Epsom Salt bath.

If you want truly therapeutic levels of magnesium, this study found consistent, significant improvement in magnesium levels after participants soaked for at least 15 minutes in a 1% solution of Epsom salts. For a typical bath tub, that’d be about a pound of Epsom salt per bath! Participants complained that the 1% solution was too “soapy” feeling.

Since my goal is comfort as well as therapy, I opt for less Epsom salts and a longer soak.

 

To make an Epsom salt bath:


Dissolve 2 cups of Epsom salts in a bathtub full of warm or hot water. Soak for at least 20 minutes before you attend to any personal hygiene like washing your hair or shaving.
Take this soothing Epsom salt bath about 3 times per week.


To learn more,  please read the entire article by clicking on the link provided below:

Food Renegade

Finance Capital vs. Public Banking - An Ellen Brown Interview With James Corbett



1 October  2011

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST: http://ur1.ca/50ptm

This week GRTV talks to Ellen Brown, an attorney, author, and president of the Public Banking Institute. We begin our discussion with an examination of Brown's recent article on naked shorting and the supppression of the gold price, and we turn our attention to solutions that the people can use to take back power from the finance capitalists. We finish on a discussion of the state banking solution proposed by the Public Banking Institute.


 

Thursday, November 28, 2013

A Lesson In Caution & Discernment To All Junior High School Students On The Net




Lets see if you find this one.

Be good and listen to your teacher.

Happy Christmas Break.

Brian Dillard Is Asking For Your Help - This Is A David vs. Goliath Story



I would appreciate any media coverage in regards to my complaint below. If you know of anyone that can provide media coverage for my issue, please let me know. Despite it being the “holidays” or “holy days” for some, for others, it is a time of grief; especially when your home is being threatened by your bank for NO LEGITIMATE REASON! If you reshare, please ask people to comment on this main post. My head is spinning with all of the responses.

I am currently having a problem with my bank +Bank of America in regards to my mortgage. Despite NEVER missing a payment, and NEVER being late, I have been placed in their foreclosure department. So how did this all start?

Two months ago I applied for a home loan modification, based on the HAMP program (Home Affordable Modification Program). This is a program that is supposed to help homeowners who are still paying their mortgage, but need to modify due to changes in income. Bank of America assigned an “account manager” to handle my account; with whom payment arrangements, modifications, and discussions about my mortgage would take place.

From the first time I spoke with her, she referred to my property as being “in foreclosure;” despite never missing a payment. When she has spoken with me, she has had to be repeatedly reminded that I requested a modification of my mortgage, and was NOT in foreclosure. She started each conversation off explaining that the foreclosure proceedings have taken place, and has discussed my “occupation of the property.”
She also stated that she is the “account manager” in the foreclosure department. After my explanation that I had applied for a modification, and should not be in foreclosure, she placed me on hold (each time), and eventually comes back to the line and say’s that she has seen the notes about my modification and she is part of the “modification department.”

I provided all of the necessary paperwork for a modification almost 2 months ago, and have yet to see any attempt at modifying my mortgage. I spoke with her last week, and was told that the application was not yet submitted to the underwriter, because of the “foreclosure status.” Once again, I had to start over, explaining that I am not in foreclosure, but instead requested a modification of my mortgage.

The very first time that I spoke with her, she was unfamiliar with HAMP, and stated that the best way to modify my mortgage was to stop making payments. This does not seem like legitimate or sound advice, especially coming from the bank that I am making payments to. I believe an attempt at fraud is being made by Bank of America in order to foreclose on my home.

I believe that since I have equity in the property, and because my finances have been laid out according to the HAMP program, delays are taking place to force a foreclosure on my property, rather than a legitimate attempt at modifying my current mortgage.

I have complained and requested that my complaint be escalated, but nothing has been done, after dealing with the same account manager for over 7 weeks. I spoke with Bank of America today, this time, with a different representative, who asked if I had yet to “vacate the property.”
We have made every attempt that we could to modify our mortgage because we are going to keep our home. There is no reason the threat of foreclosure should be used on people that have kept their mortgage in good standing.

This makes NO SENSE, and is really putting a hamper on our attempts at enjoying the holidays. To make it clear, we have NEVER been late, NEVER missed a payment, and NEVER had a problem with the bank PRIOR TO APPLYING FOR A MODIFICATION.

If you are an anti-regulation person that wants to argue, please refrain from turning this into a heated discussion and consider posting elsewhere or keeping your opinions to yourself.

I apologize for misspelling foreclosure on the image. I was a little frustrated when I created it.

UPDATE: To answer some of the questions that I have been asked, I am updating the post. I have not received any official notice in writing from the bank; only verbal communication from their reps over the telephone. I currently bank with the above mentioned bank, and all online access to my mortgage account stopped once I applied for the modification. According to them, it is standard procedure. So, I can only make payments through a specific number, or by mail, but am unable to review my mortgage payment history, etc.
I did not want to wait to get notice in writing before posting about this; I should not apply for a modification and be treated as a non-paying customer. Nor should this have ever come up in the first place since I am current on my mortgage payments. That is what concerns me the most, and why it was so unexpected. I thought it would have been worked out by now, but it is continuing and is making no progress.

I have had a similar experience with a fraudulent bank a few years ago when a home that we were renting was foreclosed on. We attempted to buy the home in a short sale from the owner, but the bank would not sell to us and we lost several of our personal belongings when we were locked out of the property. I won't share the name of that bank, let's just say, we were "Chased" out of the home. That was scary then, and we didn't own that home... This is scarier to us because we have spent a great deal of money for this home, and for the first time in years, we are no longer upside down on the mortgage because we make extra payments every year and the property value has increased.

This morning, before posting this, I filed complaints with ever possible channel I could find; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FDIC, Federal Reserve, State Attorney General, FTC, and a few others. The purpose of me posting this was to share my story, get suggestions from the wonderful people in my circles, and use this to gain whatever media exposure I could now before it gets worse later. I am afraid that if I waited any longer, it would only get worse.

On a side note, I also requested that my PMI was removed from my payment since I meet the criteria, and was told that they will not take my current value, payments, or length of time under consideration. This would have saved me over $150 per month. PMI is a rip off, and unnecessary because I meet the qualifications to have it removed.
Thank you all for the suggestions and support. I have tried to thank everyone that reshared this, but it is difficult to get to everyone. I appreciate your support.
 
 

Bitcoin Black Friday













Mark your calendars -- this holiday season is the first ever Bitcoin Black Friday, an online shopping and charitable giving extravaganza just for Bitcoin users. On November 29th, hundreds of merchants selling everything from airline tickets to unlocked smartphones to coffee to VPNs to underwear will offer special deals to anyone paying in Bitcoin. Visitors will also have the opportunity to donate bitcoins to a variety of worthy charities and nonprofits.
Bitcoin is an amazing new technology, but because it challenges established industries, it will face serious political opposition--especially in the U.S. where those industries are strongest. Bitcoin will only be safe once millions of people rely on it every day.
This holiday season, we need your help to protect Bitcoin and make November 29th go down in history as the first ever Bitcoin Black Friday
Here’s how to participate:
1) Join the thunderclap to help spread the word!
2) If you sell stuff online, start accepting bitcoin and sign up to list your deal.
3) If you don’t have bitcoins yet, get some! It’s easy. We tell you how here.
Bitcoin Black Friday is being organized by Jon Holmquist and Fight for the Future, and is backed by a solid circle of Bitcoin believers. 


Source:

Bitcoin Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving 2013




‘¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!’

‘Jour de l’Action de grâce’

‘Feliz (dia de) acção de graças’

‘Wszystkiego najlepszego z ozkazji Święta Dziękczynienia’

‘God Helgdag’

Fröhliche Danksagung’

‘Vrolijke gedenkdagen’

‘Glædelig Helligdag’

感恩節快樂 [感恩节快乐]

感謝祭おめでとう



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Look To Russia To Understand Food Freedom: In 2011 The Dacha Gardens of Russia Produced 40% of the Nation's Food.

Through Russia, Cayce said “comes the hope of the world. Not in respect to what is sometimes termed Communism or Bolshevism — no! But freedom — freedom! That each man will live for his fellow man. The principle has been born there. It will take years for it to be crystallized; yet out of Russia comes again the hope of the world.”

In 2011 the dacha gardens of Russia produced 40% of the nation's food.

 

40% of Russia's Food is from Dacha Gardens


While many in the world are completely dependent on large scale agriculture,
the Russian people feed themselves. Their agricultural economy is small scale,
predominantly organic and in the capable hands of the nation's people.
 
Russians have something built into their DNA that creates the desire to grow their own food.
It's a habit that has fed the Russian nation for centuries. It's not just a hobby but a massive
contribution to Russia's agriculture.
 
In 2011, 51% of Russia's food was grown either by dacha communities (40%),
like those pictured left in Sisto-Palkino, or peasant farmers (11%) leaving the rest (49%)
of production to the large agricultural enterprises. But when you dig down into the earthy data
from the Russian Statistics Service you discover some impressive details. Again in 2011,
dacha gardens produced over 80% of the countries fruit and berries, over 66% of the
vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes and nearly 50% of the nations milk, much of it
consumed raw.
 
While many European governments make living on a small-holding very difficult,
in Russia the opposite is the case. In the UK one councillor's opinion regarding living
on the land was, "Nobody would subject themselves to that way of life.
You might as well be in prison"; tell that to a nation of gardeners living off the land.
 
    
During the communist period school children were obliged to visit their local farms to get
hands-on experience harvesting food (below left) at a time when about 90% of the nation's
food came from dacha gardens. During the same period every child would be expected to
play their part in growing the family's food from their small patch of Russia.
 
While the percentage of food grown by Russia's dacha has fallen since then it is still a
massive contribution to the nation's food and forms an important part of their rural heritage.
Take a walk through the street's of Russia's cities, like St. Petersburg, and you will find people
selling herbs, fruit, berries and vegetables from their dacha gardens. Unlike many cities in
Europe and the USA, Russian cities are peppered with small corner shops (below right) selling
locally grown food in all shapes, colours and sizes still carrying their native Russian soil.    

If you were to visit a typical Russian dacha you're likely to be greeted with a welcoming dish
called okroshka (below centre), a refreshing cold soup made from home grown cucumber,
radish, spring onion, fresh dill and parsley all swimming in kvas (a home made rye bread
drink) with sour cream or kefir.

Source:

Natural Homes

To find out what has motivated Russians to return tio the land, please click on the link below:

Ringing Cedars Of Russia Website



 

Monsanto, the TPP, and Global Food Dominance by Ellen Brown


Source:     http://fengshuiserenity.blogspot.se/2013/03/new-england-town-declares-food.html

Monsanto, the TPP, and Global Food Dominance

by Ellen Brown
Global Research Canada,   26 November 2013

“Control oil and you control nations,” said US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s.  “Control food and you control the people.”
Global food control has nearly been achieved, by reducing seed diversity with GMO (genetically modified) seeds that are distributed by only a few transnational corporations. But this agenda has been implemented at grave cost to our health; and if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) passes, control over not just our food but our health, our environment and our financial system will be in the hands of transnational corporations.
Profits Before Populations
Genetic engineering has made proprietary control possible over the seeds on which the world’s food supply depends. “Terminator” genes enable the production of sterile seeds, using a synthetic chemical catalyst appropriately called “Traitor” to induce seed sterility. Farmers must therefore buy seeds from their patent owners year after year. To cover these costs, food prices are raised; but the harm is far greater than to our pocketbooks.
According to an Acres USA interview of plant pathologist Don Huber, Professor Emeritus at Purdue University, two modified traits account for practically all of the genetically modified crops grown in the world today. One involves insect resistance. The other, more disturbing modification involves insensitivity to glyphosate-based herbicides (plant-killing chemicals). Often known as Roundup after the best-selling Monsanto product of that name, glyphosate poisons everything in its path except plants genetically modified to resist it.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are now the most commonly used herbicides in the world. Glyphosate is an essential partner to the GMOs that are the principal business of the burgeoning biotech industry. Glyphosate is a “broad-spectrum” herbicide that destroys indiscriminately, not by killing unwanted plants directly but by tying up access to critical nutrients.
Because of the insidious way in which it works, it has been sold as a relatively benign replacement for the devastating earlier dioxin-based herbicides. But a barrage of experimental data has now shown glyphosate and the GMO foods incorporating it to pose serious dangers to health. Compounding the risk is the toxicity of “inert” ingredients used to make glyphosate more potent. Researchers have found, for example, that the surfactant POEA can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. But these risks have been conveniently ignored.
The widespread use of GMO foods and glyphosate herbicides helps explain the anomaly that the US spends over twice as much per capita on healthcare as the average developed country, yet it is rated far down the scale of the world’s healthiest populations. The World Health Organization has ranked the US LAST out of 17 developed nations for overall health.
Sixty to seventy percent of the foods in US supermarkets are now genetically modified. By contrast, in at least 26 other countries—including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico and Russia—GMOs are totally or partially banned; and significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about sixty other countries.
A ban on GMO and glyphosate use might go far toward improving the health of Americans. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a global trade agreement for which the Obama Administration has sought Fast Track status, would block that sort of cause-focused approach to the healthcare crisis.
Roundup’s Insidious Effects
Roundup-resistant crops escape being killed by glyphosate, but they do not avoid absorbing it into their tissues. Herbicide-tolerant crops have substantially higher levels of herbicide residues than other crops. In fact, many countries have had to increase their legally allowable levels—by up to 50 times—in order to accommodate the introduction of GM crops. In the European Union, residues in food are set to rise 100-150 times if a new proposal by Monsanto is approved. Meanwhile, herbicide-tolerant “super-weeds” have adapted to the chemical, requiring even more toxic doses and new toxic chemicals to kill the plant.
Human enzymes are affected by glyphosate just as plant enzymes are: the chemical blocks the uptake of manganese and other essential minerals. Without those minerals, we cannot properly metabolize our food. That helps explain the rampant epidemic of obesity in the United States. People eat and eat in an attempt to acquire the nutrients that are simply not available in their food.
Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology . . . . Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
More than 40 diseases have been linked to glyphosate use, and more keep appearing. In September 2013, the National University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina, published research finding that glyphosate enhances the growth of fungi that produce aflatoxin B1, one of the most carcinogenic of substances. A doctor from Chaco, Argentina, told Associated Press, “We’ve gone from a pretty healthy population to one with a high rate of cancer, birth defects and illnesses seldom seen before.” Fungi growths have increased significantly in US corn crops.
Glyphosate has also done serious damage to the environment. According to an October 2012 report by the Institute of Science in Society:
Agribusiness claims that glyphosate and glyphosate-tolerant crops will improve crop yields, increase farmers’ profits and benefit the environment by reducing pesticide use. Exactly the opposite is the case. . . . [T]he evidence indicates that glyphosate herbicides and glyphosate-tolerant crops have had wide-ranging detrimental effects, including glyphosate resistant super weeds, virulent plant (and new livestock) pathogens, reduced crop health and yield, harm to off-target species from insects to amphibians and livestock, as well as reduced soil fertility.
Politics Trumps Science
In light of these adverse findings, why have Washington and the European Commission continued to endorse glyphosate as safe? Critics point to lax regulations, heavy influence from corporate lobbyists, and a political agenda that has more to do with power and control than protecting the health of the people.
In the ground-breaking 2007 book Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, William Engdahl states that global food control and depopulation became US strategic policy under Rockefeller protégé Henry Kissinger. Along with oil geopolitics, they were to be the new “solution” to the threats to US global power and continued US access to cheap raw materials from the developing world. In line with that agenda, the government has shown extreme partisanship in favor of the biotech agribusiness industry, opting for a system in which the industry “voluntarily” polices itself. Bio-engineered foods are treated as “natural food additives,” not needing any special testing.
Jeffrey M. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, confirms that US Food and Drug Administration policy allows biotech companies to determine if their own foods are safe. Submission of data is completely voluntary. He concludes:
In the critical arena of food safety research, the biotech industry is without accountability, standards, or peer-review. They’ve got bad science down to a science.
Whether or not depopulation is an intentional part of the agenda, widespread use of GMO and glyphosate is having that result. The endocrine-disrupting properties of glyphosate have been linked to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects and arrested sexual development. In Russian experiments, animals fed GM soy were sterile by the third generation. Vast amounts of farmland soil are also being systematically ruined by the killing of beneficial microorganisms that allow plant roots to uptake soil nutrients.
In Gary Null’s eye-opening documentary Seeds of Death: Unveiling the Lies of GMOs,Dr. Bruce Lipton warns, “We are leading the world into the sixth mass extinction of life on this planet. . . . Human behavior is undermining the web of life.”
The TPP and International Corporate Control
As the devastating conclusions of these and other researchers awaken people globally to the dangers of Roundup and GMO foods, transnational corporations are working feverishly with the Obama administration to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that would strip governments of the power to regulate transnational corporate activities. Negotiations have been kept secret from Congress but not from corporate advisors, 600 of whom have been consulted and know the details. According to Barbara Chicherio in Nation of Change:
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) has the potential to become the biggest regional Free Trade Agreement in history. . . .
The chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique.  If ratified the TPP would impose punishing regulations that give multinational corporations unprecedented right to demand taxpayer compensation for policies that corporations deem a barrier to their profits.
. . . They are carefully crafting the TPP to insure that citizens of the involved countries have no control over food safety, what they will be eating, where it is grown, the conditions under which food is grown and the use of herbicides and pesticides.
Food safety is only one of many rights and protections liable to fall to this super-weapon of international corporate control. In an April 2013 interview on The Real News Network, Kevin Zeese called the TPP “NAFTA on steroids” and “a global corporate coup.” He warned:
No matter what issue you care about—whether its wages, jobs, protecting the environment . . . this issue is going to adversely affect it . . . .
If a country takes a step to try to regulate the financial industry or set up a public bank to represent the public interest, it can be sued . . . .
Return to Nature: Not Too Late
There is a safer, saner, more earth-friendly way to feed nations. While Monsanto and US regulators are forcing GM crops on American families, Russian families are showing what can be done with permaculture methods on simple garden plots. In 2011, 40% of Russia’s food was grown on dachas (cottage gardens or allotments). Dacha gardens produced over 80% of the country’s fruit and berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes and nearly 50% of the nation’s milk, much of it consumed raw. According to Vladimir Megre, author of the best-selling Ringing Cedars Series:
Essentially, what Russian gardeners do is demonstrate that gardeners can feed the world – and you do not need any GMOs, industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to guarantee everybody’s got enough food to eat. Bear in mind that Russia only has 110 days of growing season per year – so in the US, for example, gardeners’ output could be substantially greater. Today, however, the area taken up by lawns in the US is two times greater than that of Russia’s gardens – and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care industry.
In the US, only about 0.6 percent of the total agricultural area is devoted to organic farming. This area needs to be vastly expanded if we are to avoid “the sixth mass extinction.” But first, we need to urge our representatives to stop Fast Track, vote no on the TPP, and pursue a global phase-out of glyphosate-based herbicides and GMO foods. Our health, our finances and our environment are at stake.
Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her blog articles are at EllenBrown.com.
Source:
Global Research Canada