Newspaper de Jour

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msfreeh
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Newspaper de Jour

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Big Food Still Plans to Sue Vermont Over New GMO Labeling Law

—By Jenna McLaughlin
| Fri Jun. 6, 2014

Last month, when Vermont passed a new law requiring food and beverage manufacturers to label genetically modified foods, Big Food went ballistic. The Grocers’ Manufacturers’ Association, a trade group that represents Monsanto, General Mills, Coca-Cola, and other giant food companies, warned that the labeling law—the first of its kind in the nation—was "costly" and "critically flawed," and vowed to sue the state to force it to scrap the measure.

At the heart of the debate is the question of whether states should be allowed to regulate food labeling. The GMA argues that any laws requiring manufacturers to label genetically modified food should come from the federal government—and only if the feds deem GM foods are a health risk. But Vermont lawmakers argue that the state should be able to move forward on its own. "We believe we have a right to know what’s in the food we buy,” Peter Shumlin, the state's Democratic governor, said in a statement last month.

The GMA insists that genetically modified foods are perfectly safe and pose no risks to human health: “They use less water and fewer pesticides, reduce crop prices by 15-30 percent and can help us feed a growing global population of seven billion people,” the group noted in a press release. But Vermont lawmakers maintain the new law is more about transparency than health, and that customers have a right to know whether genetically modified organisms are in their food. There’s popular support for that idea: 79 percent of Vermonters support labeling genetically modified food, according to a recent poll conducted by the Castleton Polling Institute for VTDigger, a Vermont media outlet.

That polling doesn't seem to have affected the GMA's position. The group hasn't sued yet. But when I called to ask if the GMA still planned to sue Vermont, a GMA representative referred me to last month's statement, which promises a lawsuit "in the coming weeks." Get ready, Vermont—Big Food is coming for you.
Last edited by msfreeh on July 13th, 2014, 10:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

believer
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Good for Vermont. All states should have that law.

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Desert Roses
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I'm amazed they haven't already had the huge fight that California had over this. Good for you, Vermont!!

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We have added a new Category to The Zero's Resources section: Theocracy as Fascism. The Zero's intent with this newly–added (but often integral) category is not to disrespect any religion, spiritual beliefs, or lack thereof. Our only concern is behavior. Our equation is simply: Theocracy = Fascism. It matters not which particular religious mantle such individuals cloak themselves in — Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist — anyone who forces compliance with their own "interpretation" of religious doctrine is a fascist, and you already know what The Zero thinks of fascism.
(Updated 06-04-14)

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Norfolk, Virginia, hires chief officer for 'catastrophic events.'

If you haven't heard the word "resilience" in the context of government, brace yourself. Like sea-level rise, it's coming to a coastal city near you. On Friday, Norfolk, Virginia, announced the hiring of its first chief resilience officer. Hampton Roads

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The United States of Fear
at 12:00am, November 7, 2011.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/books/175465 ... s_of_fear/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch.
Fear
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In 2008, when the US National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the administration of newly elected President Barack Obama, it predicted that the planet's "sole superpower" would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing fifteen years hence. In his new book The United States of Fear, Tom Engelhardt makes clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the United States is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed. Engelhardt offers a savage anatomy of how successive administrations in Washington took the "Soviet path"—pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security—and so helped drive their country off the nearest cliff.

This is the startling tale of how fear was profitably shot into the national bloodstream, how the country—gripped by terror fantasies—was locked down, and how a brain-dead Washington elite fiddled (and profited) while America quietly burned.

Think of it as the story of how the Cold War really ended, with the triumphalist "sole superpower" of 1991 heading slowly for the same exit through which the Soviet Union left the stage twenty years e

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Biggest college & university investment consultant just put out a new report on divestment.


– July 2, 2014

A few days ago, Cambridge Associates, which advises 71% of the largest college & university endowments, quietly published a paper about divestment entitled The Fossil Fuel Divestment Discussion.

This is their first general statement about the fossil fuel divestment movement, although several individual Cambridge Associate consultants have published their own papers claiming significant costs to divestment (Pomona College being the most notable case). In this new paper, Cambridge remains fairly bland and expertly nonpartisan. The general conclusion to their paper is that institutions (in this case mostly schools) should think about social policies and sustainable investments, but be aware that fossil fuel divestment will change the structure of their portfolios.

Although there are many statements in the paper that deserve discussion, a few important issues stand out. In the spirit of the paper, I’ll break it down into two distinct categories:

Theory of Change:

Cambridge consolidates the arguments for divestment, into two general categories. Here they state Limiting Capital Supply as a primary argument. This movement has been very clear that this is not one of the arguments for divestment. Bill McKibben was clear about that on the Do The Math stage, and the students have been clear about that in their campaigns. We can’t bankrupt these companies, but we can bankrupt their social license.

They then go on to talk about Creating Public Pressure. Let’s remember that divestment is a time-tested political tool. In the cases of adult services, Darfur, tobacco, and South Africa, divestment campaigns were successful in lobbying for restrictive legislation. Institutions should be aware of the history of divestment success.

Risk & Return:

Cambridge compares the energy sector to the general stock market over the last 20 years. What they don’t show is how the market without the energy sector (or the top 200 fossil fuel companies to be more specific) would have performed over time. The question at hand is divestment, not the performance of energy stocks. Investors should be asking “how can we do without these stocks,” not “how are these stocks doing.”

Barry Schachter, advisor at Fossil Free Indexes, wrote in his blog about their S&P 500 without fossil fuels, “Return is usually the primary focus of investors when thinking about
performance. Stated simply, the returns of the fossil free S&P 500 and the S&P 500 are not
 distinguishable, looking at daily returns for the last 10 years.” Financial experts have taken an empirical lens to look at divestment and have found that it can be done at low risk. Institutions should be aware of this.

Now that I’ve gotten those things off my chest, lets hear a few reactions from students at the institutions Cambridge advises:

The report by Cambridge Associates in itself should be considered a win for the fossil fuel divestment movement; it demonstrates the demand for further investigation by financial experts. Given my college’s interaction with Cambridge, I am impressed with the stance the company took on divestment. Cambridge, a key player in leveraging divestment at larger endowments across the country, recognizes (at least at a superficial level) the moral impetus for divestment. My worries are the ways in which Cambridge presents a biased case against full divestment by discounting the non-monetary value of the action. The decision of whether or not to divest is necessarily one based on morality; earning $2 million from fossil fuel investments and the destruction of our planet is equally unethical as earning $1 million. This report demonstrates the serious misunderstanding of people in power of the power of social change and the need, not cost-benefit calculation, of social responsibility.

- Meagan Tokunaga, Pomona College

Anything less than totally wiping our hands of these companies misses the point and ultimately, falls short of the bold action and institutional change needed to address the climate crisis.

Really, Cambridge used a lot of the report to evade any sort of responsibility or involvement in the issue by repeatedly emphasizing that the decision of divestment was ultimately up to their clients. I understand that this is how the investment world works and appreciate Cambridge’s interest in “facilitating informed discussions.” That being said, the longer Cambridge remains “neutral” on divestment, the more complicit they become in our society’s failure to meaningfully address climate change.

- Deirdre Shelly, American University

msfreeh
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see link for full story


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Insane Clown Posse Appeals Dismissal of Lawsuit Against Justice Department
10:37 AM PDT 7/8/2014 by Eriq Gardner
The hip-hop group hopes to revive a lawsuit alleging its fans suffered harassment and discrimination after being painted as a criminal gang in a government report.


But in a ruling dismissing the lawsuit on June 30, U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland identified the failings of the claims. "Five of the six Plaintiffs complain of independent actions by third-parties who are not currently before the court," wrote the judge.

Judge Cleland added that there wasn't any indication that either the FBI or DOJ directed state police to detain and question the plaintiff-juggalos nor participated in the U.S. Army's treatment of the applicant-juggalo.

And as for Bruce and Utsler, who attempted to allege injury on the basis that a Royal Oak, Mich., concert was canceled at the local police department's request, they too failed for lack of any allegation that federal authorities had directed the cancelation. "The court’s review of the NGTA illustrates the voluntary nature of this conduct by independent actors," concluded the judge.

Here's the judge's full opinion, which will now have juggalos in attendance at a federal appeals court at a to-be-determined date.

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The Art and Science of Lies, Liars and Lying
Print This Post Print This Post
By Milicent Cranor on Jun 20, 2014

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msfreeh
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l Niño Triggers Drought, Food Crisis in Nicaragua
By José Adán Silva Reprint | | Print | |En español
The Las Canoas lake in Tipitapa, near Managua, dries up every time Nicaragua is visited by the El Niño phenomenon, leaving local people without fish or water for their crops. Credit: Guillermo Flores/IPS

The Las Canoas lake in Tipitapa, near Managua, dries up every time Nicaragua is visited by the El Niño phenomenon, leaving local people without fish or water for their crops. Credit: Guillermo Flores/IPS

MANAGUA, Jul 10 2014 (IPS) - The spectre of famine is haunting Nicaragua. The second poorest country in Latin America, and one of the 10 most vulnerable to climate change in the world, is facing a meteorological phenomenon that threatens its food security.

Scientists at the Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) say the situation is correlated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a weather cycle that periodically causes drought on the western Pacific seaboard and the centre of the country, in contrast with seasonal flooding in the north and the eastern Caribbean coast.

Crescencio Polanco, a veteran farmer in the rural municipality of Tipitapa, north of Managua, is one of thousands of victims of the climate episode. He waited in vain for the normally abundant rains in May and June to plant maize and beans.

Polanco lost his bean crop due to lack of rain, but he remains hopeful. He borrowed 400 dollars to plant again in September, to try to recoup the investment lost by the failed harvest in May.
ENSO brings drought

The warm phase of ENSO happens when surface water temperatures increase in the eastern and central equatorial areas of the Pacific Ocean, altering weather patterns worldwide.

Experts at the Humboldt Centre told IPS that in Nicaragua, the main effect is “a sharp reduction in available atmospheric humidity”, leading to “significant rainfall deficits” and an irregular, sporadic rainy season from May to October.

Over the last 27 years there have been seven El Niño episodes, and each of them has been associated with drought, they said.

If the rains fail again, it will spell economic catastrophe for him and the seven members of his family.

“In May we spent the money we got from last year’s harvest, but with this new loan we are wagering on recovering what we lost or losing it all. I don’t know what we’ll do if the rains don’t come,” he told IPS.

His predicament is shared by thousands of small producers who depend on rainfall for their crops. Some 45 kilometres south of Tipitapa, southwest of Managua, campesino (small farmer) Luis Leiva regrets the total loss of three hectares of maize and squash to the drought.

Leiva sells his produce in the capital city’s Mercado Oriental market, and uses the profits to buy seeds and food for his family. Now he has lost everything and cannot obtain financing to rent the plot of land and plant another crop.

“The last three rains have been miserable, not enough to really even wet the earth. It’s all lost and now I just have to see if I can plant in late August or September,” he told IPS with resignation.

Rainfall in May was on average 75 percent lower than normal in Nicaragua. According to INETER, there was “a record reduction in rainfall”, up to 88 percent in some central Pacific areas, the largest deficit since records began.

Based on data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), INETER has warned that the drought could last until September.

The nightmare is affecting all farmers on the Pacific coast and in the centre of the country. Sinforiano Cáceres, president of the National Federation of Cooperatives, a group of 300 large farming associations, expounded the sector’s fears to the inter-institutional National Board for Risk Management.

“We have already lost the early planting (in May), and if we lose the late planting (in August and September) there will be famine in the land and a rising spiral of prices for all basic food products,” he told IPS at a forum of producers and experts seeking solutions to the crisis. There is a third crop cycle, in December, known as “apante”.

The country’s main dairy and beef producers raised their concerns directly with the government. Members of the Federation of Livestock Associations and the National Livestock Commission told the government that meat and milk production have fallen by around 30 percent, and could drop by 50 percent by September if the ENSO lasts until then, as INETER has forecast.

Moreover, the National Union of Farmers and Livestock Owners said that over a thousand head of cattle belonging to its members have perished from starvation.

It also warned that the price of meat and dairy products will rise because some livestock owners are investing in special feeds, vitamins and vaccines against diseases to prevent losing more cattle on their ranches.

The agriculture and livestock sector generates more than 60 percent of the country’s exports and earns 18 percent of its GDP, which totalled 11 billion dollars in 2013, according to the Central Bank of Nicaragua.

In the view of sociologist Cirilo Otero, head of the non-governmental Centre for Environmental Policy Initiatives, a food crisis would have a particularly severe economic impact on a country that has still not recovered from a plague of coffee rust that hit plantations in Nicaragua and the rest of Central America over the last two years.

“Thousands of small coffee farmers and thousands of families who depended on the crop have still not been able to recover their employment and income, and now El Niño is descending on them. I don’t know how the country will be able to recover,” he told IPS.
Related IPS Articles

Climate Change Could Be Worsening Effects of El Niño, La Niña
NICARAGUA: Giving Women Farmers a Boost
NICARAGUA: Extreme Poverty Falls – But Opposition Asks ‘How’?

According to Otero, if ENSO continues its ravages for the rest of the rainy season, thousands of families will suffer from under-nutrition in a country where, in 2012, 20 percent of its six million people were undernourished, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

“Producers do not know how to mitigate the effects of climate change, nor the mechanisms for adapting to soil changes. Unless the government implements policies for adaptation to climate change, there will be a severe food crisis in 2014 and 2015,” he told IPS.

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