UK Lobbying - search results
UK lobbying EU to allow new GM crops despite public skepticism
Former Obama lawyer tied to Manafort indicted for Ukraine lobbying violations — RT USA...
Mueller wants Manafort locked up for interfering with Ukraine-lobbying witnesses — RT US News
Blair lobbying for another Middle East war as he says PM doesn’t need MPs’...
Mueller met with ex-Ukraine president while Manafort was lobbying for him — RT US...
Mueller charges Manafort & Gates with laundering over $30mn in Ukraine lobbying income —...
Video: Russiagate dead? Ex-Trump aide faces charges of Ukraine lobbying, tax fraud, no mention...
Ukraine Factions Vie for Lobbying Edge
UK Tory MP pulled into lobbying scandal
UK parliament hit by lobbying scandal
UK Lord embroiled in lobbying scandal
UK outlines plans to protect citizens from all ‘online harms’ — RT UK News
85 arrested as ‘Extinction Rebellion’ protest blocks major London bridges (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT...
Tory MP says Russia is ‘trying to damage UK democracy,’ calls for ‘foreign powers...
Judge’s family links to energy companies exposed after ‘absurdly harsh’ sentences — RT UK...
Assault accusations fly after Chinese state reporter kicked out of Tory Conference — RT...
Crisp packet deluge prompts Royal Mail postbox plea — RT UK News
Europe owes peace and prosperity to ‘friendship with US’ – UK foreign secretary —...
Netanyahu and May ‘partners in crime’ over Gaza’s ‘rivers of blood’, Palestinian activist tells...
Lily Allen and Piers Morgan row over machine gun necklace — RT UK News
Who are the UK’s most hawkish MPs? — RT UK News
Use local elections to get your own back on PM for ‘Brexit chaos’ —...
Watch how fake news is born and spread after release of PR firm’s Russia-Brexit...
Soros ‘proud supporter’ of plans to scupper Brexit — RT UK News
Fabricated Reality: Lobbying for GMO Agriculture in India
Soros-backed anti-Brexit group is ‘undemocratic’ – cofounder Gina Miller — RT UK News
George Soros backing secret plot to thwart Brexit — RT UK News
US tech giants offer to come to London for fake news inquiry… but MPs...
Tory bigwigs slam Channel 4 ‘entrapment’ during Chinese business Brexit sting — RT UK...
EU plans to keep Britain locked into fish quotas for years after Brexit —...
‘Pop-up sex brothels’ are exploiting trafficked women in Peak District holiday homes, bishop says...
MPs get yet another pay rise… while public sector pay cap stubbornly remains —...
EU could add post-Brexit Britain to its tax-haven blacklist unless it cleans up its...
Saudis woo Tory MPs with lavish dinners & hotels as 20 million Yemenis starve...
Apparently the mafia now control Downing Street… thanks to these pranksters — RT UK...
What the Priti Patel Scandal tells us about the Dark Operations of UK’s Powerful...
Will May fire Patel? Tory who held ‘undisclosed’ meetings with Israelis summoned back to...
Palestinian envoy to UK slams ‘severe deterioration’ in relations following Priti Patel scandal —...
Tory minister ‘sorry’ for holding undisclosed meetings with Israeli govt while ‘on holiday’ —...
‘Freelance foreign policy’? Tory Minister Priti Patel held undisclosed meetings in Israel — RT...
Brexit research must remain secret to create ‘safe space’ for EU talks, say ministers...
Tony Podesta bails on lobbying firm amid Mueller probe — RT US News
Brexit ‘uncertainty’ to hurt UK financial industry: Top lobby
Europe could tempt N. Ireland to leave UK in exchange for EU membership
LGBT rights group wants UK passports to include gender neutral ‘X’
Blood money: UK MPs took 53 ‘despot-funded’ trips in 2016
UK govt to utilize Trump’s ‘instincts,’ openness to ‘outside influence’ – leaked memo
Exposed: Coca-Cola’s Evil Lobbying Campaign
Britain bankrolling Syrian opposition’s lobbying efforts in US – report
Tangled web: Trump's campaign chief worked in Ukraine for Clinton associates
Ukraine’s ‘October Surprise’
‘These Agreements Depend on Secrecy in Order to Pass’ – CounterSpin interviews with Lori...
Regime change? UK denies join-US plot to unseat South African President Jacob Zuma
UN-brokered Libyan PM wants UN arms embargo dropped amid UK troop row
Convenient truths? UK govt lambasts Egypt, Iran over death penalty but virtually silent on...
What Is Shadow Lobbying? How Influence Peddlers Shape Policy in the Dark
Royal privilege: UK govt wins legal battle to keep talks between Prince Charles &...
Big Energy rips off UK households £1.7bn per year – competition watchdog
UK energy firms rake in profits as “fuel poverty” escalates
Meet the corporations lobbying the hardest for TTIP and ending democracy
Dwindling UK sovereignty may push attorney general to back Brexit
The Unreality of the Iran-Nuke Fight
UK Election Aftermath: Cameron to Continue Waging War on Working People
Clinton Foundation’s Deep Financial Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Who Pushed for Closer Ties to...
Ukraine’s Creditors Grab for the Biggest Pieces of Its Carcass
Contaminating the Nation’s Food: GM Food on the Shelves of UK supermarkets
UK GMO lobby wants “genome edited” products to escape GMO regulation and labelling
Hypocrite Cameron blasted for courting tycoons, despite anti-lobbying bill
Lord Blencathra is ordered to apologise for signing lobbying contract with tax haven
The Folly of Playing High-Stakes Poker with Vladimir Putin: More to Lose than Gain...
Why Europe Shies from Ukraine Showdown
Oligarchs to the fore once again in Ukraine
Fast and Furious UK-Style: Britain’s Gun-running to East Africa, Somali Pirates
A Tale of Two Protests: The Ukraine and Thailand
Iran Nukes Talks Make Progress Despite Israeli Objections
UK Prime Minister Covers Up Crimes Against Humanity — Lectures Sri Lanka on Crimes...
Biggest GOP donor: US should nuke Iran
Biggest GOP donor: US should nuke Iran
Lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident
UK Labour chief sacks frontbencher
UK Labour backs further from Syria war
UK bill scares charities into silence
After subpoenas, Bitcoin companies start lobbying Washington
UK MPs rap false migration reports
UK Prince fails to exercise neutrality
UK drug offenders freed from UAE jail
EU exit historical error: UK officials
UK PM urged to sack senior strategist
'70 cyber attacks hit UK each month'
UK lobby group raps Commons toilet bid
Is The Bilderberg Group Breaking UK Charity Law?
UK Protesters to Canadian PM: 'Keep Oil Peddlers' Out of Europe
UK Protesters to Canadian PM: 'Keep Oil Peddlars' Out of Europe
UK Protesters to Canadian PM: 'Keep Oil Peddlars' Out of Europe
Osborne’s ‘help to buy’ scheme death knell for UK property market
Osborne’s ‘help to buy’ scheme death knell for UK property market
UK PM U-turns on transparency pledge
UK MP accused of rule-breaking
What UKIP stands for: A look
Report: UK slavery on the rise
UK: Mass genetic surveillance
UK Budget 2008: What it Means to You
From the Green Revolution to GMOs: Toxic Agriculture Is the Problem Not the Solution
Traitors and Terror- Why private Intel providers betray their own people
LNR May 2019 AntiNationalist Roundtable
The top 5 Democrat conspiracies ranked — RT USA News
A Match Made in Hell
US judge sentences Manafort to 73 months in prison — RT USA News
Manafort gets 4 years in prison for financial crimes unrelated to Russia — RT...
Dems pass watered-down anti-hate bill, upsetting those thirsty for ‘anti-semitic’ Omar’s blood — RT...
The Slandering of Ilhan Omar
When India Tries to Regulate Amazon, US Media Qualms About Monopoly Disappear
Even Bernie Sanders is a Russian agent, argues MSM journalist — RT USA News
Trump’s Biggest Lie?
Russiagater to lecture on ‘hybrid warfare’ at Georgetown — RT USA News
Conservative rebels renew push to oust Theresa May
Mueller accuses Manafort of ‘multiple discernible lies’ & plea violation — RT USA News
Facebook’s Sandberg admits to snooping on Soros — RT US News
Mueller claims Manafort violated plea agreement by lying to FBI — RT US News
Will this one get to Trump? Author Jerome Corsi negotiating plea deal with Mueller...
Soros foundation takes aim at Facebook, calls for congressional oversight — RT US News
Mueller again? Trump bashes ‘disgraceful’ Russia probe — RT US News
Trump ‘confirms’ he’s pulling US out of nuclear deal with Russia — RT US...
Boycott Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Here’s Why:
Russian “Collusion” is a Red Herring While a Fourth Reich Rises
Say Goodbye to the Guardrails of Governance
How the U.N. Joined America’s War Against Syria
Lisa Page reveals FBI had no evidence of collusion for ‘Russiagate’ probe — RT...
Paul Manafort to plead guilty to two criminal charges
Beyond The DNC – Funding Hacks and Sedition
Rudy Giuliani’s strange journey into Romanian politics (with some personal interest) — RT US...
‘We Would Be Opening the Heavens to War’
Leaked footage reveals US Israel lobby astroturfing student event (VIDEO) — RT US News
Arms giant Lockheed Martin’s tribute to John McCain goes down… badly — RT US...
Judge denies media request to publish names of Manafort jurors — RT US News
Wisconsin GOP Just Nominated ALEC’s “Iron Lady” to Take on Tammy Baldwin
Donald Trump, Gunrunner for Hire
This Wall Street PAC Bankrolling Democrats Thinks Being Progressive Means Mirroring Betsy DeVos
Why Trump Cancelled the Iran Deal
Paul Manafort ‘guilty of crimes against fashion’ – but still no Russian collusion —...
Tillerson ‘stopped Qatar invasion’ by Saudis & UAE, may have been fired for it...
Sessions must stop Mueller ‘right now’ before witch hunt ‘stains America’ — RT US...
America’s Allies Against Russia & Iran
Corporate Spin: Genetically Modifying the Way to Food Security?
5 top Russia scares launched by MSM this week — RT US News
Lobbyists rejoice as US sells more arms in 6 months than in whole of...
Trump’s Space Force: Military Profiteering’s Final Frontier
GMO Agriculture and the Narrative of Choice
Leading Russiagater touts new revelations by Mueller — RT US News
How the U.S., Under Obama, Created Europe’s Refugee Crisis
Google’s 11th-hour intervention puts ‘revenge porn’ bill in New York back on ice —...
Elon Musk’s Latest Brainstorm Takes Aim at Meddlesome Media
Elon Musk’s Latest Brainstorm Takes Aim at Meddlesome Media
Elon Musk’s Latest Brainstorm Takes Aim at Meddlesome Media
Elon Musk’s Latest Brainstorm Takes Aim at Meddlesome Media
Trump decries ‘fake news’ after ABC says ex-campaign manager ‘pleading guilty of manslaughter’ —...
Pro-GMO Activism and Smears Masquerade as Journalism: From Seralini to Jairam Ramesh, Aruna Rodrigues...
Trump’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort sent to jail ahead of trial — RT US...
Mueller investigation cost to US taxpayers revealed — RT US News
From Bernays to Trump, Hooked on Misery
Pharma Paid and Trump Delivered
Giuliani says Mueller ‘understands’ he can’t charge sitting president — RT US News
Dangerous Liaison: Industrial Agriculture and the Reductionist Mindset
America Spends About Half of World’s Military Expenditures
‘Israel lobby calling the shots in Trump’s rollback policy on Iran’ – Max Blumenthal...
Giuliani Takes Cash to Speak to Terrorist Cult; Media Find This Unnoteworthy
‘C’mon man!’ Judge accuses Mueller investigation of overreach with Manafort — RT US News
10 of the Most Sociopathic Washington Post Columns
Can Bean Counters Save the World From Trump?
Why Teacher Uprisings May Hit Blue States Too
Cambridge Analytica’s Ties to the Fossil Fuel Industry
Who Will Take on the 21st Century Tech and Media Monopolies?
Salisbury Continues to Suffer While Theresa May Plays Novichok Game
Americans Trust ‘Our’ Intelligence Agencies. Should We?
Mueller memo says Trump aide contacted ‘assessed’ Russian spy — RT US News
‘They Don’t Want Certain Voters to Participate in the Political Process’
US will pander to Saudi ambitions during crown prince’s grand tour — RT US...
‘Flight risk’ Manafort facing ‘very real possibility’ of life in prison – court order...
The Lesson the Trump Administration has Failed to Learn about Yemen
For NYT, a Trillion Dollars’ Worth of A-Bombs Is ‘Little’ Response to Russia
Cruz, Instagram, and the Civilian Marksmanship Program
How the Anti-Democracy Movement Used Media to Command the Narrative
Ex-Trump aide Gates pleads guilty after new Mueller indictment — RT US News
Sickening Relations: The Royal Society and the GMO-Agrochemical Sector
Conservation Groups and Congressman Blumenauer Call for Action on Pollinator-killing Pesticides | Friends of...
Transhumanism: A Final Corporate Takeover of Humanity | By Nozomi Hayase
Plunge: To Descend Abruptly or Precipitously, As A Cliff, Road, Etc | Further Column
Tearing Down the Facade of Legitimacy: Industrial Agriculture and the Agrochemical Industry
Corporate Monopolies Will Accelerate the Globalisation of Bad Food, Poor Health and Environmental Catastrophe
Polls Increasingly Confirming that America Is a Dictatorship
Soros-backed group plans nationwide protest in event of Mueller’s firing — RT US News
Why Did the News-Media Hide This Important Fact?
POLL: By 2-to-1, Americans Oppose Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem
‘The Nuclear Enterprise Is on Autopilot’
‘There’s All Kinds of People Who Have Their Snouts in the Trough Here’
Israel Lobby is Slowly Being Dragged Into the Light
Video: Manafort surrenders: Trump campaign’s ex-chief hands himself in to FBI
Podesta Group, Mercury Are Companies ‘A’ and ‘B’ in Indictment
Trump says Manafort’s alleged crimes are from ‘years ago’ and predate his presidential campaign...
Former Trump campaign aide lied to FBI agents
Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta targeted in ‘Trump-Russia’ probe — RT US News
US Navy unveils newest Tomahawk-capable Virginia-class nuclear sub — RT America
Royal interference? Prince Charles lobbied Tony Blair over hunting ban, letter reveals
Scrapping Uber’s license will put ‘law-abiding’ people out of work, driver tells RT
Is it really true that America’s richest 1% are ‘overwhelmingly Jewish’?
The Stomach-churning Violence of Monsanto, Bayer and the Agrochemical Oligopoly
The Saudi-Israeli Alliance
Net Neutrality Reduced to Mogul vs. Mogul in Corporate Media’s Shallow Coverage
FBI raided Manafort’s home for documents he gave Congress
New York eyes adopting 'textalyzer' in crash investigations
Reuters vs. UN Cancer Agency: Are Corporate Ties Influencing Science Coverage?
Britain threatens to return tons of nuclear waste to EU after Brexit
Missile Defense Will Protect You From North Korea, Say USA Today’s Missile Defense-Funded Sources
9/11 families may add UAE to lawsuit against Saudis over role in terrorist attacks
The Destructiveness of America’s Alliances
When Will Co-opted Figures and Board Members of Companies like Monsanto and Bayer Be...
DUP letters: Party lobbied to stop NI couples marrying in Scotland
An Interesting View of Foreign Politics
Trump Has Made the 2020 Election a Referendum on Climate Change
Tories ‘gagged’ us to prevent criticism of Theresa May, charities claim
The Public or the Agrochemical Industry: Who Does the European Chemicals Agency Serve?
IRmep Asks Appeals Court To Block Trump Transfer of $3.7 Billion in US Aid...
Will banking giants abandon Brexit-Britain for Macron’s EU-friendly Paris?
Britain Must Break Free from the Agrochemical Cartel: Rosemary Mason Calls on ECP to...
Wells Fargo Directors Face Wrath for Complicity In Bank Corruption
Giving NY’s Governor a $783,000 Bribe Is Business as Usual for Rupert Murdoch
US attack on North Korea ‘may be an option,’ says retired US general
Rip-off culture ‘embedded’ in foreign aid contracts costing taxpayer £300mn a year– whistleblowers
A pint a day keeps the doctor away: Research proves moderate drinking is good...
How the Government Ruined US Medical Care
Enemy of Reason: Behind the Mask of Pro-GMO Neoliberal Ideology
Pro-GMO Scientists Blinded by Technology and Wedded to Ideology
Pentagon's supplier & Tomahawk missiles manufacturer to protect US power utilities from cyberattacks
A Hard Look at Islamists Hiding Behind the Pink Pussy Hat Protesters
Footage of final moments before British Marine executed wounded Afghan released by court
More US judges rule to restrict Trump ‘Muslim ban’ travel order
Corporate Contributors to Trump Inauguration Seek to Curry Favor
Video of Royal Marine executing wounded Afghan must not be published, MoD tells court
Israeli embassy official behind ‘take down’ plot resigns
Tony Blair pours £10 million into his crusade against ‘populism’
From Agriculture to Demonetisation: Not ‘Make in India’ but Made in Washington
If politicians want Aleppo airdrops, they should be on the planes themselves – MP
Nigel Farage goes to fancy dress party with Donald Trump, lobbies for new US...
93% of ‘patient advocacy’ groups funded by drug & medical giants – report
Legalize cannabis to end Britain’s ‘embarrassing’ drugs policy, say MPs
Why Are Public Officials Protecting the Pesticides Industry? Digging Down into the Cesspool of...
Rudy Giuliani’s foreign dealings may complicate rise to Trump cabinet
Is this person our new President?
EU citizens tell RT about their Brexit fears as campaign is launched to keep...
Ex-Cameron aide launches lobby group… without govt watchdog’s approval
Wikileaks releases over 2,000 emails from Clinton campaign chair
Chief NATO Lobbyist Urges Trump Be Replaced by Pence
I’m a Bernie Sanders Voter: Here’s Why I’ll Vote Trump
Big Pharma spent $880mn on keeping opioids available – report
Jailed British-Iranian woman discussed at UN meeting between nations’ leaders
Contesting the U.S.-Saudi Bromance With 1,000 Cuts
Whether Sauds, in Effect, Own the U.S. Government
Team Empire? Britain’s former imperial possessions won the Olympics, claims Tory MP
Longtime Clinton aide listed as former assistant editor of radical Muslim magazine – media
The Bloody Evil of George Soros
More About a U.S.-and-Allied Hoax Against Assad
AP Smears Trump
British MPs given Mossad self-defense training following Jo Cox murder
NYT Reveals Think Tank It’s Cited for Years to Be Corrupt Arms Booster
The Scandal of the EU Commission and their Revolving Doors
Uber’s London drivers must pass written English exams… but cab firm is having none...
Emigre Super Bloc Part 5 The Failed Turkish Coup – An Exploded View
Slum conditions return to Britain as housing crisis brings squalor, exploitation
Koch Brothers Now Supporting Hillary Clinton
Emigre Super Bloc Part 4- Clinton’s Jihadis | Will the Super Delegates Vote YES...
Arms firms profiting from refugee crisis bought ‘access’ to Scottish politicians
Still Second-Class Citizens
Chilcot and the End of the Anglosphere
Clinton Backs Monsanto’s Case
Jack Reed: Cluster Bomb Cheerleader
Here’s Why Hillary Won’t Allow Her Corporate Speeches to be Published
Confronting the NRA: Knowing Where to Start
WSJ Fakes a Green Shift Toward Nuclear Power
Mass Exodus?
Orlando Killer’s Father Knew Obama?
The 2016 Super Bloc Vote Part II Unleashing David vs the Russian Goliath
Propaganda Countdown to WWIII
Hillary Clinton’s Neocon Resumé
Monsanto and the Poisoning of Europe
Monsanto and the Poisoning of Europe: An Open letter to the EFSA Chief Attorney...
Glyphosate in the EU: Product Promoters Masquerading as Regulators in a “cesspool of corruption”?
Global banks bankroll battle to keep Britain in the EU
Pesticides, GMOs and Corporate Control: The Poster Child is Monsanto but Neil Young is...
All Angles Covered: Is the EU Completely in the Pocket of the Biotech Industry?
Govt-backed counter-extremist ‘propaganda’ program operating without oversight – report
‘It’s Remarkable How Little Real News Comes From Saudi Arabia’
TTIP – current EU GMO rules to be ‘disregarded’ as EU Commission caves in...
‘Great rhetoric, now act!’ Fight money laundering, anti-corruption group tells govt
Hillary Clinton's wealthy donors revealed in Panama Papers
A Short History of the Pentagon Wasting Your Money
Capitalism And Global Agribusiness: From Ford To Monsanto, It’s For Your Own Good
US Aid to Israel Is ‘Too Much’ Say 61.9% of Americans
Trump sparks NATO debate: ‘Obsolete’ or ‘tripwire that could lead to World War III’?
A New Right To Secrecy For Companies, And A Dangerous EU Legislative Proposal
British government refuses to answer information requests on secret EU meetings with lobbyists
Post-Brexit Britain will need open borders to stave off economic turmoil – report
EU-funded BBC documentary on Obama sparks allegations of anti-Brexit bias
The Crusade in Favour of GMO: Falsehoods and Vilification will not Fool the Public
$5trn-a-day Forex rigging probe dropped despite evidence of criminality
GMO and the Right to Know: But What’s Hidden Beneath the Label?
Leak shows EU Commission giving inside information to car lobby on new emissions tests
This Is How Corruption Works: A Hillary Clinton Example
A Bad Day for Monsanto and a Good Day for Public Health in Europe
Twisted Science, Altered Truth: Inside the Church of Pro-GMO Activism
Hillary Clinton’s Six Foreign-Policy Catastrophes
How a Candidate’s Mega-Donors Get Served After the Election
Organic Agriculture, Capitalism and the Parallel World of the Pro-GMO Evangelist
“Lies, Lies and More Lies” – GMOs, Poisoned Agriculture and Toxic Rants
The Seeds Of Spin: Decoding Pro-GMO Lies And Falsehoods
TTIP Enters New And Dangerous Stage As Democracy Is Dismantled In Secret
Venezuela’s Food Revolution Has Fought Off Big Agribusiness and Promoted Agroecology
America’s Subservience to the Saud Family
How America’s Corrupt Press Are Destroying the Country
Vladimir Putin: Sweetheart
The GMO Issue: False Claims, Pseudo-Analysis And A Politically Motivated Agenda
Batting for GM in India: Smears, Misinformation and Depoliticising the Political
Obama: The Fairy-Tale President?
Inequality in America, the Fish that Rots from the Head
Corporate Parasites And Economic Plunder: We Need A Genuine Green Revolution
America’s Awesome Corruption – Especially in the Military
Who Needs Gates And Monsanto? Confronting Hunger, Poverty and Climate Change: “Tremendous Success” of...
TPP Ignores Global Warming & Allows Murder of Labor Union Organizers
They Profit, We Die: Toxic Agriculture and the Poisoning of Soils, Human Health and...
Europe Secretly Starts Imposing TTIP Despite the Public’s Overwhelming Opposition
TTIP: The Aristocracy Aren’t Satisfied; They Demand More
New Report on Secretive EU Trade Deals Highlights Corrupt Agenda for Mass Privatisation
American Jihadi Starts Private NSA and Attacks America
EU Fracking Guidelines Fail to Protect Citizens
Can Jeremy Corbyn Stem the Tide of Neoliberalism and Militarism?
Big business-funded committee must not influence TTIP talks, says campaigner
Zionists Latest Anti-Semitic Inducing Provocation: Trying to Destroy a Highly Worthy and Sane Nuclear...
Privatization Is at the Core of Fascism
Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: Monsanto’s Silence is Deafening
Who Will Bail Out Humanity If The GMO Evangelists Win?
​End regressive, ‘stupid’ war on drugs, campaigners tell Cameron
I Love GMO: The Warped World Of The Pro-GMO Lobbyist
​Army Reserve recruiting targets ‘unachievable’ — watchdog
Capture, Smear, Contaminate: The Politics Of GMOs
Neil Young is Starving the Poor! The Pro-GMO Lobby’s Latest Scapegoat
Leaked Text Shows Big Pharma Bullies Using TPP To Undermine Global Health
2015 Memorial Day: Praying for Peace While Waging Permanent War?
Under Shadow of Trade Deal, US Pesticide Lobby Pressured EU to Dump Toxic Pesticide...
Despotic Saudi Regime Lobbies to Chair Human Rights Council
Groups Add to Evidence in “Whistleblower” Tax Fraud Claim Against ALEC
War Threat Rises As Economy Declines – Paul Craig Roberts
War Threat Rises As Economy Declines Paul Craig Roberts, Keynote Address to the Annual Conference of the Financial West Group, New Orleans, May 7, 2015 The defining events of our time are the collapse of the Soviet Union, 9/11, jobs…
The post War Threat Rises As Economy Declines — Paul Craig Roberts, appeared first on PaulCraigRoberts.org.
How the British Government are gagging critics
Who Needs Neil Young When We’ve Got Monsanto?
How Zionists Are Destroying Free Speech In Universities
The 2015 British General Election: Capitalism’s One-Horse Race
The 2015 British General Election: Capitalism’s One-Horse Race
Smoking gun? Britain’s top diplomat to Pakistan rapped for attending tobacco lobby meeting
US Agribusiness, GMOs And The Plundering Of The Planet
It amounts to little more than the start of the US colonisation of Ukraine’s seed and agriculture sector. This corporate power grab will be assisted by local banks. Oriental Review says they will only offer favourable credit terms to those farmers who agree to use certified herbicides: those that are manufactured by Monsanto.
"We are here at the [US-Canadian] border to demonstrate the global solidarity of farmers in the face of globalization. The corporate takeover of agriculture has impoverished farmers, starved communities and force-fed us genetically-engineered crops, only to line the pockets of a handful of multinational corporations like Monsanto at the expense of farmers who are struggling for land and livelihood around the world."
US Agribusiness, GMOs and the Plundering of the Planet
The Great GMO Legitimation Crisis
The Great GMO Legitimation Crisis
“Greenpeace notably decides its opinions must prevail regardless of others, so it arrogates to itself the right to tear up and destroy things it doesn’t like. That is absolutely typical of people who are unable to convince others by debate and discussion and in the last century such attitudes, amplified obviously, ended up killing people that others did not like. But the same personality type the authoritarian, ‘do as I tell you’, was at the root of it all. Such groups therefore sit uneasily with countries that are democracies.”
“It would be nice if you could say you are a democrat and believe that argument is better than destruction but argument that deals with all the facts and does not select out of those to construct a misleading programme. Misleading selection of limited information is causing considerable problems in various parts of the world that leads some into very violent behaviour, particularly in religious belief. I am sure you agree that this is not a good way forward… Whatever their [farmers’] choice is… they must be allowed to make that decision… That is the nature of every democracy that I hope all will finally live under?”
“Anyone who’s seen the recent virally circulated Venn diagrams of the personnel overlap between Monsanto and USDA personnel, or Pfizer and FDA, will immediately know what I’m talking about… A model of capitalism in which the commanding heights of the economy are an interlocking directorate of large corporations and government agencies, a major share of the total operating costs of the dominant firms are socialized (and profits privatized, of course), and “intellectual property” protectionism and other regulatory cartels allow bureaucratic corporate dinosaurs… to operate profitably without fear of competition." Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society.
Science, Democracy and Choice: Responding To A Pro-GMO Scientist
Science, Democracy And Choice: A Response To Professor Tony Trewavas’s Open Letter
Tony Trewavais wrote his letter after reading my article ‘So You Want to Help Africa Mr Paterson? Then Stop Promoting Ideology and Falsehoods to Push GMOs’. The article originally appeared on a number of prominent websites. On Global Research, the piece appeared under a different title ‘The Propaganda Campaign in support of GMOs’ (read here).
“Most objectors in this area have a political programme not a scientific one but they like to bend science to their own political point of view. Science is by its nature not politics or political propaganda or anything like it. It deals with evidence not superstition, or political or social philosophies. If you have a political programme then please stop trying to justify it by claiming it has scientific support; it does not.”
Despite its claims to the contrary, the sector cannot win the scientific debate, so it resorts to co-opting key public bodies or individuals to propagate various falsehoods and deceptions. Part of the deception is based on emotional blackmail: the world needs GMOs to feed the hungry, both now and in the future. This myth has been blown apart. In fact, the organisation GRAIN highlights that GMOs have thus far have actually contributed to food insecurity!
You say:
“If agroecological approaches can currently match yield that can be attained by using modern farming methods then by all means use it.”
“But if not and my understanding is that currently it cannot, then they should not be the farming method of recommended choice at present.”
“No-one with any concern for humanity or the welfare of its population should currently consider any other alternative. The groups that campaign for this kind or that kind of farming method and destroy crops to try and bounce others into their point of view have lost that fundamental concern for their own species.”
Handing The Thieves The Key To Your Home: Stop The TTIP
Some 375 civil society organisations from across Europe have today called on EU decision-makers to protect citizens, workers, and the environment from threats the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) it poses. The call comes as European Parliament committees are discussing a draft resolution on the TTIP negotiations to be voted upon in May. It will not be legally binding on negotiators but will be a significant political signal, as any final TTIP deal would have to pass a vote in the European Parliament.
In an open letter sent to MEPs today, groups from 25 countries - including trade unions, consumer, environmental, and civil rights organisations - warn that TTIP could strengthen the influence of big business and undermine public services, the protection of public health, the environment, food and workers’ rights.
For a TTIP resolution that puts people and the environment before short-term profit and disproportionate corporate rights, the letter calls on all MEPs to agree on a strong resolution that makes clear that the European Parliament will reject any future trade or investment agreements that will not serve the public interest and threaten important rights acquired by ordinary people in long struggles in the EU, US and the rest of the world.
The letter forwards the following key demands:
1) Transparency now: all documents relating to the TTIP negotiations, including draft consolidated texts, must be made public to allow for an open and critical public debate on the TTIP.
2) A democratic process to allow for the scrutiny and assessment of the negotiation texts and which would ensure that policies are in the public interest.
3) No ISDS: any provision containing Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms must be taken permanently out of the negotiations.
4) No regulatory cooperation council: all regulation must be fully in the hands of democratically controlled bodies and processes.
5) No deregulation of standards which safeguard and serve the public interest: EU standards need to be respected and not “harmonised” down to the lowest common denominator.
6) No further deregulation and privatisation of public services.
7) The promotion of humane and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices and protection of small family farming.
8) Public authorities must keep the political power and structures necessary to protect certain sensitive sectors and safeguard standards important to our quality of life. Internationally-agreed labour and environmental standards must be respected and enforced. The continuous violation of labour standards should be addressed by imposing monetary fines.
Go here to access the open letter (in 11 languages) sent to MEPs today and to see the full list of signatories.
A blatant corporate power grab in secret
Negotiations over the TTIP are happening behind closed doors, without comprehensive and effective public consultation. The lack of transparency makes it impossible for citizens and civil society to monitor the negotiations in order to ensure that public interests are being protected. Business lobby groups are given privileged access to information and opportunities to influence the negotiations.
The proposed investment protection chapter, particularly the inclusion of an Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, would give investors exclusive rights to sue states when decisions made by public institutions are considered to have negative impacts on their anticipated profits. These mechanisms rely on rulings by tribunals that operate outside the national court systems and thereby undermine national and EU legal systems and existing structures for formulating laws and policies.
The creation of new governance structures and procedures that aim to ‘harmonise regulations’ like the proposed regulatory cooperation council would make the TTIP and other agreements a moving target, constantly developed in secret by unelected bureaucrats and big businesses. These structures threaten to lower important standards and rules designed for the protection of public interests or prohibit future improvements, regardless of necessity and public mandate.
Evidence from business and industry lobbying documents reveals that the focus on non-tariff barriers and regulatory convergence is being used to push for deregulation, further investment guarantees, intellectual property rights' monopolies and ultimately a race to the bottom.
Pia Eberhardt of lobby-watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory says:
“TTIP is an attempted corporate coup d’etat where big business on both sides of the Atlantic is trying to achieve in secret negotiations what it could not get in open and democratic processes – from watering down food safety standards to rolling back regulations in the financial sector.”
Paul de Clerk of Europe’s largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth Europe says:
“TTIP is like a Trojan horse. In the end we find out that it results in lower food, environmental, labour standards and the sacrificing of democratic rights for corporate interests. MEPs have to clearly reject the dangerous provisions in TTIP, such as giving corporations vast new powers to sue governments in corporate biased tribunals and regulatory cooperation as the ultimate tool for business lobby groups to stop new regulation.”
More than 1.5 million people in Europe have signed a self-organised European Citizens’ Initiative calling on EU decision-makers to stop the TTIP negotiations and to not ratify the EU-Canada trade deal CETA.
Erich Foglar of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) says:
“Trade unions will not support trade deals that lead to job losses, increase inequalities and undermine democracy. But the negotiation texts and independent studies we see, show that this is exactly what TTIP is about. What we need is a trade policy which respects democracy, helps generate decent jobs and enhances workers’ rights.”
For a thorough outline of the history of the negotiations concerning the TTIP, see 'A Brief History of an Agenda for Corporate Plunder'.
If you want your food poisoned even further with like likes of chlorinated chicken, hormone-treated beef, GMOs and even lower thresholds for pesticides, do nothing.
If you want Monsanto or Syngenta determining policies (more than they do already) in secretive meetings in Brussels, do nothing.
If you want Unilever, Kraft or Nestle determining what is allowed in your food, do nothing.
If you want governments to be made even more spineless and compelled to further bend to the threats, demands and power of corporations and unscrupulous speculators, do nothing.
In the UK, do not let the main parties sideline TTIP during the general election campaign.
Be informed and take action:
https://stop-ttip.org/
http://corporateeurope.org/
http://www.foeeurope.org/
http://www.s2bnetwork.org/
https://www.lobbycontrol.de/schwerpunkt/ttip/
http://www.alter-eu.org/
http://www.tradejustice.ca/take-action/
Handing The Thieves The Key To Your Home: Stop The TTIP
Why Do People Doubt Science? Monsanto Wants To Know
On Twitter this week, someone asked the question “Why do people doubt science?” Accompanying the tweet was a link to an article in National Geographic that implied people who are suspicious of vaccines, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), climate change, fluoridated water and various other phenomena are confused, adhere to conspiracy theories, are motivated by ideology or are misinformed as a result of access to the ‘University of Google.’ The remedy, according what is said in the article, is for us all to rely on scientific evidence pertaining to these issues and adopt a ‘scientific method’ of thought and analysis and put irrational thought processes to one side.
Who tweeted the question and posted the link? None other than Robert T Fraley, Monsanto’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Before addressing that question, it is worth mentioning that science is not the giver of ‘absolute truth’. That in itself should allow us to develop a healthy sceptism towards the discipline. The ‘truth' is a tricky thing to pin down. Scientific knowledge is built on shaky stilts that rest on shifting foundations. Science historian Thomas Kuhn wrote about the revolutionary paradigm shifts in scientific thought, whereby established theoretical perspectives can play the role of secular theology and serve as a barrier to the advancement of knowledge, until the weight of evidence and pressure from proponents of a new theoretical paradigm is overwhelming. Then, at least according to Kuhn, the old faith gives way and a new 'truth' changes.
Philosopher Paul Feyerabend argued that science is not an 'exact science'. The manufacture of scientific knowledge involves a process driven by various sociological, methodological and epistemological conflicts and compromises, both inside the laboratory and beyond. Writers in the field of the sociology of science have written much on this.
But the answer to the question “Why do people doubt science” is not because they have read Kuhn, Feyerabend or some sociology journal. Neither is it because a bunch of ‘irrational’ activists have scared them witless about GM crops or some other issue. It is because they can see how science is used, corrupted and manipulated by powerful corporations to serve their own ends. It is because they regard these large corporations as largely unaccountable and their activities and products not properly regulated by governments.
That’s why so many doubt science - or more precisely the science corporations fund and promote to support their interests.
US sociologist Robert Merton highlighted the underlying norms of science as involving research that is not warped by vested interests, adheres to the common ownership of scientific discoveries (intellectual property) to promote collective collaboration and subjects findings to organised, rigorous critical scrutiny within the scientific community. The concept of originality was added by later writers in order to fully encapsulate the ethos of science: scientific claims must contribute something new to existing discourse. Based on this brief analysis, secrecy, dogma and vested interest have no place.
This is of course a highly idealised version of what science is or should be because in reality careers, reputations, commercial interests and funding issues all serve to undermine these norms.
But if we really want to look at the role of secrecy, dogma and vested interest in full flow, we could take a look at in the sector to which Robert T Fraley belongs.
Last year, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for “sound science” to underpin food trade between the US and the EU. However, he seems very selective in applying “sound science” to certain issues. Consumer rights groups in the US are pushing for the labelling of GMO foods, but Vilsack said that putting a label on a foodstuff containing a GM product “risks sending a wrong impression that this was a safety issue.”
Despite what Vilsack would have us believe, many scientific studies show that GMOs are indeed a big safety issue and what’s more are also having grave environmental, social and economic consequences (for example, see this and this).
By not wanting to respond to widespread consumer demands to know what they are eating and risk “sending a wrong impression,” Vislack is trying to prevent proper debate about issues that his corporate backers would find unpalatable: profits would collapse if consumers had the choice to reject the GMOs being fed to them. And ‘corporate backers’ must not be taken as a throwaway term here. Big agritech concerns have captured or at the very least seriously compromised key policy and regulatory bodies in the US (see this), Europe (see this), India (see this) and in fact on a global level (see here regarding control of the WTO).
If Robert T Fraley wants to understand why people doubt science, he should consider what Andy Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at Sussex University, says:
“The main reason some multinationals prefer GM technologies over the many alternatives is that GM offers more lucrative ways to control intellectual property and global supply chains. To sideline open discussion of these issues, related interests are now trying to deny the many uncertainties and suppress scientific diversity. This undermines democratic debate – and science itself.” (see here)
Coming from the GMO biotech industry, or its political mouthpieces, the term “sound science” rings extremely hollow. The industry carries out inadequate, short-term studies and conceals the data produced by its research under the guise of ‘commercial confidentiality’ (see this), while independent research highlights the very serious dangers of its products [see this and this). It has in the past also engaged in fakery in India (see this), bribery in Indonesia (see this ) and smears and intimidation against those who challenge its interests [see this), as well as the distortion and the censorship of science (see this and this).
With its aim to modify organisms to create patents that will secure ever greater control over seeds, markets and the food supply, the widely held suspicion is that the GMO agritech sector is only concerned with a certain type of science: that which supports these aims. Because if science is held in such high regard by these corporations, why isn't Monsanto proud of its products? Why in the US doesn't it label foods containing GMOs and throw open its science to public scrutiny, instead of veiling it with secrecy, restricting independent research on its products or resorting to unsavoury tactics?
If science is held in such high regard by the GMO agritech sector, why in the US did policy makers release GM food onto the commercial market without proper long-term tests? The argument used to justify this is GM food is ‘substantially equivalent’ to ordinary food. But this is not based on scientific reason. Foreign genes are being inserted into organisms that studies show make them substantially non-equivalent (see this). Substantial equivalence is a trade strategy on behalf of the GM sector that neatly serves to remove its GMOs from the type of scrutiny usually applied to potentially toxic or harmful substances. The attempt to replace processed-based regulation of GMOs in Europe with product-based regulation would result in serving a similar purpose (see this).
The reason why no labelling or testing has taken place in the US is not due to ‘sound science’ having been applied but comes down to the power and political influence of the GMO biotech sector and because a sound scientific approach has not been applied.
The sector cannot win the scientific debate (although its PR likes to tell the world it has) so it resorts to co-opting key public bodies or individuals to propagate various falsehoods and deceptions (see this). Part of the deception is based on emotional blackmail: the world needs GMOs to feed the hungry, both now and in the future. This myth has been blown apart (see this, this and this). In fact, in the second of those three links, the organisation GRAIN highlights that GM crops that have been planted thus far have actually contributed to food insecurity.
This is a harsh truth that the industry does not like to face.
People’s faith in science is being shaken on many levels, not least because big corporations have secured access to policy makers and governments and are increasingly funding research and setting research agendas.
“As Andrew Neighbour, former administrator at Washington University in St. Louis, who managed the university’s multiyear and multimillion dollar relationship with Monsanto, admits, "There’s no question that industry money comes with strings. It limits what you can do, when you can do it, who it has to be approved by”… This raises the question: if Agribusiness giant Monsanto [in India] is funding the research, will Indian agricultural researchers pursue such lines of scientific inquiry as “How will this new rice or wheat variety impact the Indian farmer, or health of Indian public?” The reality is, Monsanto is funding the research not for the benefit of either Indian farmer or public, but for its profit. It is paying researchers to ask questions that it is most interested in having answered.” - 'Monsanto, a Contemporary East India Company, and Corporate Knowledge in India'.
Ultimately, it is not science itself that people have doubts about but science that is pressed into the service of immensely powerful private corporations and regulatory bodies that are effectively co-opted and adopt a ‘don’t look, don’t find approach’ to studies and products (see this, this and this).
Or in the case of releasing GMOs onto the commercial market in the US, bypassing proper scientific procedures and engaging in doublespeak about ‘substantial equivalence’ then hypocritically calling for 'sound science' to inform debates.
The same corporate interests are moreover undermining the peer-review process itself and the ability of certain scientists to get published in journals - the benchmark of scientific credibility. In effect, powerful interests increasingly hold sway over funding, career progression as a scientist, journals and peer review (see this and this, which question the reliability of peer review in the area of GMOs).
Going back to the start of the piece, the question that should have been tweeted is: “Why do people doubt corporate-controlled or influenced science?” After that question, it would have been more revealing to have posted a link to this article here about the unscrupulous history of a certain company from St Louis. That history provides very good reason why so many doubt and challenge powerful corporations and the type of science they fund and promote (or attempt to suppress) and the type of world they seek to create (see this).
“Corporations as the dominant institution shaped by capitalist patriarchy thrive on eco-apartheid. They thrive on the Cartesian legacy of dualism which puts nature against humans. It defines nature as female and passively subjugated. Corporatocentrism is thus also androcentric – a patriarchal construction. The false universalism of man as conqueror and owner of the Earth has led to the technological hubris of geo-engineering, genetic engineering, and nuclear energy. It has led to the ethical outrage of owning life forms through patents, water through privatization, the air through carbon trading. It is leading to appropriation of the biodiversity that serves the poor.” Vandana Shiva
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Prior to the recent national elections in
“Repression and displacement, often violent, of remaining rural populations, illness, falling local food production have all featured in this picture. Indigenous communities have been displaced and reduced to living on the capital's rubbish dumps. This is a crime that we can rightly call genocide - the extinguishment of entire Peoples, their culture, their way of life and their environment.” (19)
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Public Health Experts Identify Militarism As Threat
A remarkable article appears in the June 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. (Also available as free PDF here.)
The authors, experts in public health, are listed with all their academic credentials: William H. Wiist, DHSc, MPH, MS, Kathy Barker, PhD, Neil Arya, MD, Jon Rohde, MD, Martin Donohoe, MD, Shelley White, PhD, MPH, Pauline Lubens, MPH, Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD, and Amy Hagopian, PhD.
Some highlights and commentary:
"In 2009 the American Public Health Association (APHA) approved the policy statement, 'The Role of Public Health Practitioners, Academics, and Advocates in Relation to Armed Conflict and War.' . . . In response to the APHA policy, in 2011, a working group on Teaching the Primary Prevention of War, which included the authors of this article, grew . . . ."
"Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq. During the 20th century, 190 million deaths could be directly and indirectly related to war -- more than in the previous 4 centuries."
These facts, footnoted in the article, are more useful than ever in the face of the current academic trend in the United States of proclaiming the death of war. By re-categorizing many wars as other things, minimizing death counts, and viewing deaths as proportions of the global population rather than of a local population or as absolute numbers, various authors have tried to claim that war is vanishing. Of course, war could and should vanish, but that is only likely to happen if we find the drive and the resources to make it happen.
"The proportion of civilian deaths and the methods for classifying deaths as civilian are debated, but civilian war deaths constitute 85% to 90% of casualties caused by war, with about 10 civilians dying for every combatant killed in battle. The death toll (mostly civilian) resulting from the recent war in Iraq is contested, with estimates of 124,000 to 655,000 to more than a million, and finally most recently settling on roughly a half million. Civilians have been targeted for death and for sexual violence in some contemporary conflicts. Seventy percent to 90% of the victims of the 110 million landmines planted since 1960 in 70 countries were civilians."
This, too, is critical, as a top defense of war is that it must be used to prevent something worse, called genocide. Not only does militarism generate genocide rather than preventing it, but the distinction between war and genocide is a very fine one at best. The article goes on to cite just some of the health effects of war, of which I will cite just some highlights:
"The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health pointed out that war affects children's health, leads to displacement and migration, and diminishes agricultural productivity. Child and maternal mortality, vaccination rates, birth outcomes, and water quality and sanitation are worse in conflict zones. War has contributed to preventing eradication of polio, may facilitate the spread of HIV/ AIDS, and has decreased availability of health professionals. In addition, landmines cause psychosocial and physical consequences, and pose a threat to food security by rendering agricultural land useless. . . .
"Approximately 17,300 nuclear weapons are presently deployed in at least 9 countries (including 4300 US and Russian operational warheads, many of which can be launched and reach their targets within 45 minutes). Even an accidental missile launch could lead to the greatest global public health disaster in recorded history.
"Despite the many health effects of war, there are no grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health devoted to the prevention of war, and most schools of public health do not include the prevention of war in the curriculum."
Now, there is a huge gap in our society that I bet most readers hadn't noticed, despite its perfect logic and obvious importance! Why should public health professionals be working to prevent war? The authors explain:
"Public health professionals are uniquely qualified for involvement in the prevention of war on the basis of their skills in epidemiology; identifying risk and protective factors; planning, developing, monitoring, and evaluating prevention strategies; management of programs and services; policy analysis and development; environmental assessment and remediation; and health advocacy. Some public health workers have knowledge of the effects of war from personal exposure to violent conflict or from working with patients and communities in armed conflict situations. Public health also provides a common ground around which many disciplines are willing to come together to form alliances for the prevention of war. The voice of public health is often heard as a force for public good. Through regular collection and review of health indicators public health can provide early warnings of the risk for violent conflict. Public health can also describe the health effects of war, frame the discussion about wars and their funding . . . and expose the militarism that often leads to armed conflict and incites public fervor for war."
About that militarism. What is it?
"Militarism is the deliberate extension of military objectives and rationale into shaping the culture, politics, and economics of civilian life so that war and the preparation for war is normalized, and the development and maintenance of strong military institutions is prioritized. Militarism is an excessive reliance on a strong military power and the threat of force as a legitimate means of pursuing policy goals in difficult international relations. It glorifies warriors, gives strong allegiance to the military as the ultimate guarantor of freedom and safety, and reveres military morals and ethics as being above criticism. Militarism instigates civilian society's adoption of military concepts, behaviors, myths, and language as its own. Studies show that militarism is positively correlated with conservatism, nationalism, religiosity, patriotism, and with an authoritarian personality, and negatively related to respect for civil liberties, tolerance of dissent, democratic principles, sympathy and welfare toward the troubled and poor, and foreign aid for poorer nations. Militarism subordinates other societal interests, including health, to the interests of the military."
And does the United States suffer from it?
"Militarism is intercalated into many aspects of life in the United States and, since the military draft was eliminated, makes few overt demands of the public except the costs in taxpayer funding. Its expression, magnitude, and implications have become invisible to a large proportion of the civilian population, with little recognition of the human costs or the negative image held by other countries. Militarism has been called a 'psychosocial disease,' making it amenable to population-wide interventions. . . .
"The United States is responsible for 41% of the world's total military spending. The next largest in spending are China, accounting for 8.2%; Russia, 4.1%; and the United Kingdom and France, both 3.6%. . . . If all military . . . costs are included, annual [US] spending amounts to $1 trillion . . . . According to the DOD fiscal year 2012 base structure report, 'The DOD manages global property of more than 555,000 facilities at more than 5,000 sites, covering more than 28 million acres.' The United States maintains 700 to 1000 military bases or sites in more than 100 countries. . . .
"In 2011 the United States ranked first in worldwide conventional weapons sales, accounting for 78% ($66 billion). Russia was second with $4.8 billion. . . .
"In 2011-2012, the top-7 US arms producing and service companies contributed $9.8 million to federal election campaigns. Five of the top-10 [military] aerospace corporations in the world (3 US, 2 UK and Europe) spent $53 million lobbying the US government in 2011. . . .
"The main source of young recruits is the US public school system, where recruiting focuses on rural and impoverished youths, and thus forms an effective poverty draft that is invisible to most middle- and upper-class families. . . . In contradiction of the United States' signature on the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict treaty, the military recruits minors in public high schools, and does not inform students or parents of their right to withhold home contact information. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is given in public high schools as a career aptitude test and is compulsory in many high schools, with students' contact information forwarded to the military, except in Maryland where the state legislature mandated that schools no longer automatically forward the information."
Public health advocates also lament the tradeoffs in types of research the United States invests in:
"Resources consumed by military . . . research, production, and services divert human expertise away from other societal needs. The DOD is the largest funder of research and development in the federal government. The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allocate large amounts of funding to programs such as 'BioDefense.' . . . The lack of other funding sources drives some researchers to pursue military or security funding, and some subsequently become desensitized to the influence of the military. One leading university in the United Kingdom recently announced, however, it would end its £1.2 million investment in a . . . company that makes components for lethal US drones because it said the business was not 'socially responsible.'"
Even in President Eisenhower's day, militarism was pervasive: "The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government." The disease has spread:
"The militaristic ethic and methods have extended into the civilian law enforcement and justice systems. . . .
"By promoting military solutions to political problems and portraying military action as inevitable, the military often influences news media coverage, which in turn, creates public acceptance of war or a fervor for war. . . ."
The authors describe programs that are beginning to work on war prevention from a public health perspective, and they conclude with recommendations for what should be done. Take a look.
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The GMO Biotech Sector Can’t Win The Scientific Debate: Co-option, Deception And Collusion As...
British Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Owen Paterson is a staunch supporter of the GM sector (1). Despite criticisms of him being an industry puppet (2) and content to ignore the devastating, deleterious health, environmental, social and agricultural impacts of GMOs (3), both he and other officials like the EU’s chief science advisor Anne Glover (4) have been more than happy to act as mouthpieces for the GM sector by making false statements and claims about the benefits and safety of GMOs that fly in the face of scientific findings.
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Climate disruption and population growth are increasing the pressures on food supply. The challenge is to get more from existing land in a sustainable way, or people will go unfed.”
“We should have confidence in the scientific evidence which concludes that, when properly controlled, GM products are as safe as their conventional counterparts.”
Genetic scientist Jonathan Jones has weighed in by claiming:
“How anyone could think this is a bad thing boggles the mind. We need to better explain that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the GM method.”
"By no stretch of the imagination can these people be described as independent scientists. Their views should be treated with the same scepticism we would apply to any sales pitch."
"A group of scientists with financial interests in the success of GM wrote a letter to the Prime Minister in November, but waited four months to tell the press about it: just in time for EU discussions about regulation. Something certainly smells a bit fishy."
"This extraordinary report, published very conveniently to coincide with Owen Paterson’s attempts within the EU to dismantle GM regulations and to repatriate powers to the, is in turns naive, biased, disingenuous, cynical, and downright dangerous. We find it incredible that five senior scientists can have been so dismissive of the work of scores of independent scientists who have discovered that GM organisms are directly and indirectly harmful to mammals and to the environment. In the world of science there should be respect for those whose findings are 'inconvenient." UK
"They are not employed by government or industry, and each works for different publicly funded universities and research institutes. For better or worse, it’s not unusual any more for universities and institutions to get bits and pieces of funding from government, charities and industry – indeed many can only access public money on condition that they raise a proportion of their funds from commercial or private sources. This does not automatically undermine their independence."
"It’s really just not good enough for a group of scientists who have a strong interest, it seems, through their funding sources, in persuading a reluctant public to accept the growing of GM crops in the UK, to be the ones who attempt to write the rule book on how that should happen."
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Spotlight Shines on Palestinian Collaborators
Spotlight shines on Palestinian collaborators
Al-Jazeera - 17 February 2014
Fadi al-Qatshan is one of the latest casualties of a war taking place in Gaza’s shadows, as Israel seeks ever more desperate ways to recruit collaborators while Hamas, the Islamic movement ruling Gaza, enforces tough counter-measures.
The 26-year-old graduate died in November. He was killed not by a bullet or in a missile strike, but when a simple piece of medical hardware – an implant in his heart – failed. His repeated requests to the Israeli authorities over more than a year to be allowed out of Gaza for medical treatment had gone unheeded.
According to his family, Israeli security services knew his life was in danger but denied him a permit to attend a medical appointment at a hospital in East Jerusalem. Gaza’s own hospitals, in crisis after years of Israel’s blockade, warned him they could no longer help.
Following a request for a travel permit, his family says al-Qatshan received a call from someone identifying himself as from the Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence service. Speaking in Arabic, the man said he knew the device in his heart “might explode any minute”. He was urged to “cooperate” in return for a permit.
Al-Qatshan was told he could call the mobile phone number on his screen and arrange an appointment at Erez, the Israeli-controlled crossing that is the only way for ordinary Palestinians to exit Gaza. The agent reportedly rang off with the words, “See you in Tel Aviv”, Israel’s large coastal city. Al-Qatshan sealed his fate by deleting the number.
‘Terrible choices’
Issam Yunis, director of Al-Mezan human rights organisation in Gaza City, says his group regularly records cases of Palestinians in desperate need of medical treatment being approached to collaborate. “The choice for these patients is really a terrible one. It is to cooperate with Israel or die in Gaza.”
Although Israel is suspected of recruiting tens of thousands of Palestinians as collaborators since its creation in 1948, the practice has rarely attracted more than superficial attention. Palestinians are ashamed that cooperation with the Israeli security services is widespread, while Israel is loath to draw attention to the systematic violations of international law at the root of its system of rule in the occupied territories.
But the issue of collaboration is finally emerging from the shadows, assisted in recent months by a spate of films addressing the subject.
In the running for an Oscar at the Academy Awards ceremony next month is Omar, a Palestinian film that places the awful dilemmas faced by collaborators at the heart of its love story.
Omar nudged out of the competition Israel’s own entry, Bethlehem, which features a similar story about the fraught relationship between a Shin Bet agent and a young Palestinian informant.
And last month the audience award at the Sundance Festival went to the Green Prince, an Israeli documentary based on the memoirs of Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a Hamas leader in Gaza who channeled information to the Shin Bet for 10 years before fleeing to the United States. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was recently released from an Israeli prison.
With Palestinian collaborators a hot topic in Hollywood, they are also in the spotlight in the occupied territories.
A missile strike that killed Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari in November 2012 – the opening salvo in Israel’s eight-day attack on Gaza known as Operation Pillar of Defence – has been widely ascribed to intelligence provided by a collaborator.
In response, Hamas carried out public executions of several suspected informants in the streets of Gaza City, including dragging the body of one behind a motorbike.
‘Tightly classified’
According to Hillel Cohen, who has researched Israel’s recruitment of collaborators since the state’s earliest years, the extent of the problem is difficult to assess. Israel keeps most of the archives on its intelligence operations in the occupied territories “tightly classified”.
The use of collaborators, he says, was probably most extensive in the 1970s and ’80s, before Israel handed over areas of the occupied territories to the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords and before the advent of today’s more sophisticated surveillance technology.
Nonetheless, the practice has far from ended.
“Israel still needs people on the ground,” says Cohen. “If they want to place a bomb in a car or supply a phone with a hidden tracking device, someone has to do it. The technology can only help so much.”
According to Saleh Abdel Jawwad, a politics professor at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, there are many different types of collaborators.
In East Jerusalem, for example, where Israel hopes to prevent any future Palestinian control of the city, a feature of life are the “land dealers”, Palestinians who buy land in strategic areas, secretly on behalf of settler organisations.
Israel also uses economic collaborators, who, for example, act as contractors for Israel in selling its products in the occupied territories. Israel has also tried to recruit political collaborators, in an effort to place them in charge of Palestinian communities or weaken candidates Israel opposed.
But Israel prizes most highly the recruitment of active members of Palestinian national organisations, who can provide reliable information on resistance operations or the movements of Palestinian leaders.
Typically, these collaborators are “turned” after their arrest. They may agree to cooperate under torture or as a way to receive a reduced prison sentence, said Morad Jadalah, a researcher with Addameer, a prisoners’ rights organisation in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Children recruited
But the most common type of collaborator is the informant, who provides general information about the activities of political groups or the movement of individual activists, as well as the names of those taking part in demonstrations.
Jadalah says when Palestinians are arrested, as they try to cross a checkpoint or during a raid on their village, the weakest and most vulnerable – often children – are targeted during interrogation with a mix of threats, violence and inducements.
Long jail terms and the use of administrative detention – imprisonment on secret charges – are the most obvious threats, but there are other ways to pressure Palestinians in detention, says Jadalah.
“The interrogators may beat them, or threaten to beat or rape their mother or sister, or arrest a close relative. They usually already know something about the family, so they can threaten, for example, to revoke the father’s work permit. They may even threaten to spread rumours that the family are already acting as informants.”
In other cases, the Israeli security services may offer inducements. “Israel controls most people’s lives, including their ability to work and move around. Between 30 and 40 per cent of adults are unemployed. That gives Israel the leverage it needs to recruit collaborators.”
According to Jadalah, the Israeli security services usually want general information about the neighbourhood where the collaborator lives, or details about a specific person.
Reports suggest in recent years the Shin Bet has been using arrested children to gain information about the leaders of non-violent resistance movements in the West Bank. They have shown special interest in villages such as Bilin, Nabi Saleh and Budrus where well-publicised protests are trying to stop Israel’s efforts to build the separation barrier on Palestinian land.
Cohen says the benefit to Israel of controlling an extensive network of collaborators is not limited to the information they pass on.
“It encourages the atomisation of Palestinian society. It fosters mistrust within the society and between members of the political movements. When everyone becomes a potential suspect, political passivity is encouraged. That is, in fact, the main goal.”
‘Infiltrated society’
Yunis, of Al-Mezan, agrees: “We are an infiltrated society. When there is so much suspicion, organised and effective resistance to the occupation becomes extremely hard.”
In addition, Jadalah blames the Palestinian Authority for setting a bad example. “When it is clear that our leaders are working with Israel on ‘security cooperation’ and that they look to Israel for protection, a very powerful message is sent to Palestinian society that only Israel can offer such guarantees.”
Hamas, apparently fearful of its inability to organise in the face of extensive collaboration, has officially waged war on Gaza’s informants.
Early last year it offered a brief amnesty to existing collaborators, many of them recruited before Israel’s 2005 disengagement, allowing them to turn themselves in in return for lenient sentences and financial help for their families. However, it has vowed a policy of zero tolerance since.
Faced with a shrinking pool of collaborators in Gaza, says Yunis, Israel has increased its use of electronic surveillance, especially drones. But it has sought new ways to recruit collaborators too.
That includes exploiting increased opportunities to reach Palestinians in Gaza indirectly, through social media. In particular, youngsters, often those without jobs or whose families are in dire need, are approached via Facebook or receive a call to their mobile phone.
“The caller might introduce himself as a businessman and says he can help them to get a permit out of Gaza. Once they attend the meeting, they are ensnared,” says Yunis.
Fishermen are also reported to have been targeted since Israel tightly limited the extent of the waters they are allowed to fish. When they cross out of that zone, they can be picked up by a naval patrol and taken for interrogation in Israel. There they can be pressured to turn informant.
‘Desperate’ situation
But the most wrenching cases, says Hamdi Shaqura, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, occur with patients such as al-Qatshan who need urgent medical treatment.
Because they are among the few cases that Israel still treats as humanitarian, they and the relative that accompanies them present the Shin Bet with a rare opportunity to try to recruit a collaborator directly.
“These permits from Israel become a tool for blackmail. It is a serious violation of international law. Because Israel still occupies Gaza, the welfare of these patients is fully its responsibility. Israel is obligated to facilitate their movement and access to proper healthcare.”
According to the World Health Organisation, about 150 patients from Gaza were called for a security interrogation by the Shin Bet last year, including a 16-year-old girl in November. In most cases they were denied a permit afterwards.
Israel also arrested five patients at Erez and six of their companions over the course of last year. They included Mohammed Saber Abu-Amsha, a 33-year-old patient with damage to his eyes, who has been held in prison in Israel since his arrest on December 4.
Amal Ziada, a researcher for Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, said her organisation was hoping to launch a new campaign to raise awareness among the Israeli public of the pressures being used against medical patients.
That included lobbying members of the Israeli parliament and taking high-profile cases to the Israeli supreme court.
“What these patients go through is a kind of torture,” she said. “The danger is that some of them avoid seeking medical treatment because they are afraid. They are worried about being arrested, or the suspicion among other Palestinians that they may have collaborated if they receive a permit.”
Guy Inbar, spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli military unit that coordinates civilian matters in the occupied territories, said he awarded permits to Palestinians for medical treatment based only on medical need and the applicant’s security record.
A senior Israeli security official said the accusation that Israel used the permit system to recruit collaborators was “baseless”. “There have been many recent instances where terror organisations have manipulated people needing humanitarian help so that they assist in carrying out terror operations.”
No welcome
According to an Israeli human rights lawyer, Yadin Elam, most of the collaborators whose cover is blown and manage to flee the occupied territories do not receive the warm welcome in Israel they may have expected.
Israeli authorities divide collaborators into two groups, he says. Important collaborators, categorised as sayanim, or helpers, fall under the responsibility of the defence ministry and receive a salary and status inside Israel.
But most collaborators who reach Israel – numbering a few hundred, according to Elam – are classified simply as “threatened people”, referring to the fact that they might be killed if they return to Palestinian areas.
Elam says Palestinians in this latter category are usually left in a desperate situation, sometimes given a temporary permit to stay for a few months, but denied permits for their immediate family or the right to work. Typically they live underground in Israel with their families and drift into crime.
Elam says these collaborators’ insecurity, and their frequent arrests, provide an ideal opportunity for Israel to keep up the pressure.
“When things are so desperate, it is easier to persuade the family, including the children, to continue working for the intelligence services.”
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America is broken: Who will fix it?
This is the document that clearly authorizes what the Federal government is allowed to do, what authorities and responsibilities the separate entities of the Government have. It is what Our Troops swear to defend and what our politicians and judges have sworn to uphold:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Those words in the first paragraph above are the beginning of an article written on War On Terror News back on Constitution Day 2011.
As is pointed out within that article, the US Constitution is but four (4!!!) pages of simple language setting out what America is/will be, and what it is NOT. The foundations upon which a great nation was based seem to have been shaken to the core in recent years, as the current crop of politicians seem determined to over-reach the very clear limits placed upon them within that framework. Today, from where I sit, America is under attack by those very 'servants' of the people who - as noted above - swore to uphold the Constitution.
America is broken: Who will fix it?
Since the first election campaign of the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania, I have watched the media aid and abet those candidates who preached things like: Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
On the first campaign Obama repeatedly said things like: America does not need to be divided and angry. "You can't afford to settle for the same old politics," and was constantly referred to as the 'great uniter.' He made many silver-tongued promises of how if we just voted for him, he would join us all as one to transform this country, that was forged in those values held most dear by the Founding Fathers.
Really? Okay, well not so much. At almost every turn, this administration has been based on the willingness of the uneducated masses to blindly follow an ideology, an agenda, that was based on emotion, rather than a clear articulation of what that transformation really meant. Sure, his golden oratory promised that there would be 'peace in the world; the dawning of a new era' or something like that. A whole new America, where every mouth was fed, and everybody would be healthy and wealthy living in this new nirvana. What he did NOT say explicitly was that government would tell parents what their children would be taught in school (Common Core, anybody?), what those kids must eat in school (Let's Move, courtesy of the missus), a health care system where everybody would have equal access to healthcare, no matter their economical or citizenship status - or their individual choices? (ObamaCare of course!) As for everybody sharing the wealth of America? NOwhere in the Constitution is the power given to the Federal Government to give gazillions of taxpayer dollars to create phantom 'shovel ready' projects to give fake jobs to citizens. All well and good, but the America the Constitution was written in, and for, was an America that ANY and all of those were attainable by the individual effort. They are NOT mandated within the Constitution, nor are they God-given rights. "The PURSUIT...", not the giving.
From where I sit, this administration and their policies foisted upon us, has divided America in a way I have not seen before. And I am not alone in seeing this. COL (r) Allen West had this up today.
THIS administration has gone so far outside the Constitution of America, exceeded the mandate set therein, that the evidence of a divided America cannot be ignored, denied.
Every President of the United States swears an oath to defend the United States Constitution:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
This POTUS has taken this oath twice now, but from where I sit, this self-proclaimed 'Constitutional expert' has wilfully ignored the Constitution, and in so doing, has brought America to a very dangerous precipice.
NOwhere in the Constitution does it stipulate that any government (Federal or State) has the right to tell Americans what products they must buy, and then fine them if they do not. NOwhere in that document could I find it stated that it is the duty of the Federal government to tell schools (within different States) what the curriculum should be...
“Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world.” - Lenin
“Give me two generations of children of Americans in school without God and I will take the nation without firing a shot!” - Lenin
Search as I might, I found no dietary mandate for the Federal government within the records. Nor did I find any reference to the Federal government politicians having the duty to enable the ever more greedy, and dependent: the 'give me" generation. As I watch the America I love more divided - and angry - than I ever remember, I see Americans demoralised and asking themselves: Where is my America?
There is no denying that America IS broken, and the next question must be: Who will fix it? Our politicians ignore their sworn duty as set out in the Constitution, and forget that they are servants of the people, elected to serve us, not just ensure a lifetime career with the perks - paid for by your taxes - that they somehow see as their right, their entitlement. Dare to challenge that? You are branded a terrorist, un-American, and subject to public ridicule and character assassination.
NOwhere in the US Constitution does the president have unlimited power over the people, nor the authority to rule over every aspect of the citizens' lives.
Found a very interesting series of videos, where the same simple language as found in the Constitution is used to explain the function and limits of each of the three branches of government. Take a look:
"...their terms [Congress] are short to check corruption... this [the Senate] was designed so their duties would be to have a powerful role in checks and balances to the Federal government , so that it would not gain total power over the people. The Founding Fathers never intended for the Federal government to rule over the states or the people..."
In 1913, the 17th Amendment was implemented, which in effect weakened the individual States' powers to check the Federal government. Go check out the series of videos.
One of those videos focuses on the reason the US chose to be a Republic rather than stay under the Rule of a Monarchy.
There is a very simple Pledge of Allegiance, that swears (as per the original):
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
A very interesting history of that can be found here.
Part of that History can be found here, where it is noted:
In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today.[...]. Today it reads:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
An element present in the Pledge, and enshrined within the Constitution, is the pursuit of Liberty...NOwhere in the Pledge of Allegiance, NOR in the Constitution. is there a pledge to whatever president occupies the Oval Office. NOWHERE! Yet, in the current climate in America, partisanship rules the days and the politicians of all stripes demonstrate on a daily basis that their own allegiance is to their own re-election, and their political agenda, to the peril of the citizens. The cost? Freedom and our God-given Rights to Liberty.
That 1954 version of the Pledge still stands today, and yes, as noted, it was 'in response to the Communist threat of the times.'
That was a very real threat, and in those days America WAS vigilant of any threat to the freedom of the Republic's citizens. As well that might be to today, as we see very real threats to the Liberty and Freedoms determined to beat down the doors of the Republic.
From 1930, and still so very relevant today, with current enemies hell-bent on destroying the American citizens' God-given rights to liberty, and freedom to pursue those liberties:
"War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack.
Our time will come in thirty to forty years. To win, we shall need the element of surprise. The Western world will have to be put to sleep.
So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There shall be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions.
The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate to their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends.
As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist."
Declaration by Dimitry Manuilski Professor at the Lenin School of Political Warfare in Moscow - 1930
Am reminded of : Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. At this time when Putin is on the world stage - front and center as an effective 'statesman' - as POTUS busies himself with drawing ineffectual red lines, and appeasing our enemies, it seems to me that the wolves have already breached the walls of the Republic.
Today, the wolves pervade every level of our government, as the citizenry are apparently intent on proving the truth of those words from 1930;
The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate to their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends.
From where I sit, the truth of that is staggering and is happening right before our eyes, and yet the sheep sleep on, as the current administration continues to run full-speed over their Constitutional duties, and implement programs for the 'gimmes' in our midst, all the while stepping into matters that are not their business. Beer summit, anybody? Trayvon Martin ring a bell? Giving trillions of dollars to auto industries? Meddling in private industries by giving away millions of our tax dollars to 'green ideas'? NOwhere in the Constitution is the power given to any government to dictate every detail of the people's lives. NOwhere in the Constitution is it stated that the Federal government can force any free citizen to buy a product, be forced to give financial aid/incentives, but rather they are given freedom to make their own individual choice.
On the illegal implementation of ObamaCare, someone I know and respect, recently wrote this:
[...]
ObamaCare: It is long past time that this un Constitutional law be repealed, in its entirety.
And no, I will not entertain arguments that the SCOTUS ruled, therefore it is Constitutional. The SCOTUS does not have Constitutional Authority to amend the Constitution, or legislate from the bench. If you want to claim it's Constitutional, quote me the entire clause which makes it so; not two words and not a generality that is defined in following specifics. Quote me the clause of the Constitution that authorizes the Federal Government to FORCE an Individual Citizen to buy anything.
All of which is absolutely correct as stated in the simple language of the Constitution. Written over two hundred years ago, the values and rights of the citizens enshrined by the Founding Fathers are still relevant today. BUT as we see, the government insists on ignoring the rights of a FREE people, and imposing their ideology, on an ever more somnambulant population.
America IS broken: Who will fix it?
Talking with a Military Veteran friend just last night, I was sharing how depressed - how angry - I get at the seeming unwillingness of the citizenry to really grasp the enormity of the current threats to all our Freedoms.
As the Military oath sworn by all new recruits says:
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. [yes, emphasis mine]
And there is part of my depression: it appalls me that our Troops have gone to far off lands to honor that oath, to advance the cause of freedom in places ruled by tyrants and despots. Yet, when they come home, they find the tyrants are more powerful, more pervasive than could almost be imagined.
There is an old cliche that goes something like 'only those who have fought for freedom, know the true value, the taste of it.' Today, I listen and watch the ever growing segment of our society who have no idea what it means to fight for their freedom. In this time of increasing unemployment stats (and if you believe the official figures released, you really ARE asleep); when a huge percentage of the population is lined up for some form of government hand-out, that they have not earned, I am reminded of the "no such thing as a free lunch' truism. Yes, Obama phones are 'free' for some, and yes, healthcare is 'free' for some, but not only is somebody else (another American citizen) paying for that - again, in direct contravention of the Constitution - but when we as a whole lose our Liberty and our Freedoms because we are too apathetic to fight and defend those very underpinnings of our Republic, there will be NO free anything: Not for you, me or the Obamaphone folks...
When our Military Veterans have to fight at home for the respect and care they have earned, because their Commander In Chief disrespects the sacred duty to our Defenders of Freedom, I have to despair. When I see Gold Star Families being threatened with cut off of their rightful due, because of partisan politics, I am beyond angry...OUR Military (no, not "HIS" Troops, as Obama claims) deserves better from a Chief Executive who swore to defend the Constitution. Part of the Constitutional powers given to the POTUS is to do with the "Defense of the Nation." Seems to me that the POTUS bears direct responsibility - within the clear parameters of the Constitution - for ensuring that those he expects to follow his orders, be well provided for both on and off the battlefield. These days, evidence clearly shows, to those of us paying attention, that the Constitution is irrelevant to the CinC, and he ignores it, as and when it suits his political agenda - aided and abetted by his political cronies and hacks, of course....
In the Constitution it is clearly stated that defense of our borders is part of the government's duties. Tell that to the family of Brian Terry. (Go watch the video at that link. Unbelievable) Tell that to the family of the rancher in AZ who was murdered.
Neither of these lives would have been lost, if the Federal government adhered to the Constitution (and we won't even get into Fast and Furious here, where the guns were supplied by the US DoJ and then proven to be used against Americans because of the open, porous border.) Go here to see how the dereliction of duty by the Homeland Security government department directly affects the US Border Control's ability to defend against all foreign enemies. Gone are the days when oppressed people eagerly grasped the legal opportunity to enter the US, and earn the rights of Freedom and Liberty accorded American citizens. Nowadays we have a POTUS and DoJ who are actively lobbying to reward those illegals who scurry across the unguarded borders in the dark of night. NOwhere in the Constitution does it give this power to POTUS, a deliberate flouting, blatant disrespect of the Republic's laws. And if you don't understand the magnitude of that problem, go look at some videos of the hundreds, yes hundreds, who weekly break our laws, confident that they can rape, murder and more, as they are promised amnesty, and given short-cuts to citizenship of America, that they have not earned.
Freedom and Liberty in America - FOR Americans - is under attack, and we have lost our way from the Founding Fathers' vision of this great Republic.
Our Founding Fathers, here in this country, brought about the only true revolution that has ever taken place in man's history. Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers.
But only here did that little band of men so advanced beyond their time that the world has never seen their like since, evolve the idea that you and I have within ourselves the God-given right and the ability to determine our own destiny. But freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.
The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. Thank You.
And then there is Mark Twain, who is also credited with "what the government giveth, the government can take away":
“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, [...] and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, [yes, emphasis mine] and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.” – Mark Twain, “Official Physic,” The Twainian, November, 1943
The list is long, yet simplicity itself, of the Freedoms - God-given Rights - paid for and earned by Americans, and I have but scratched the surface of those under attack. The attack on the Second Amendment Rights is a battle being fought in parts of the country, as America-loving Patriots understand very well that sometimes we really DO need to fight to maintain the Freedom and Liberty enshrined in our Constitution.
America is so broken. WHO will fix it?
Today this question is so critical, as we face such dangerous threats within our country. We have lost the "one nation under God," and from where I sit, the Republic is in grave danger of collapse.
The Constitution begins: We, the people" and it is my firm belief that only when We, the People wake up and see that it only by our own actions, will we save our Republic. WE who care about our Constitution, who believe that our Freedoms and Liberty ARE our God-given Rights, that no mere politician can squander for their own gain, must defend America.
Am I suggesting we all take up our weapons, and stage an armed insurrection? No. What I am suggesting, URGING, is that all of us who see the precipice directly in front of us, continue to educate the sheep - after we have woken them up, of course! - and make them understand what is at stake here. Read and re-read the Constitution, so that you understand the foundations of America. Demand that every politician set aside their partisan politics, throw away their party loyalties, and demonstrate their loyalty to our country, our Constitution. If they are not capable of that, throw them out of office, and elect those Americans who WILL honor our Founding Fathers' vision of this great Republic.
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.
God bless America.
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Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement: A Corporate Power Grab
“Big business lobbies on both sides of the Atlantic view the secretive trade negotiations as a weapon for getting rid of policies aimed at protecting European and US consumers, workers and our planet. If their corporate wish-list is implemented, it will concentrate even more economic and political power within the hands of a small elite, leaving all of us without protection from corporate wrongdoings.”
“The proposed investor rights in the transatlantic trade deal show what it is really about: It’s a power grab from corporations to rein in democracy and handcuff governments that seek to regulate in the public interest. It’s only a matter of time before European citizens start paying the price in higher taxes and diminished social protection.”
“We hope that the disturbing evidence we provide will show why all concerned citizens and parliamentarians on both sides of the Atlantic need to urgently mobilise against the proposed EU-US trade deal. We have to derail this corporate power grab that threatens to worsen the livelihood of the millions of people already seriously affected by the financial crisis and by the crippling consequences ofEurope 's austerity reforms.”