Sunday, July 28, 2019

Blueprint for Xing #45 in 16 days


This week, while the internet kept Americans buzzing, it kept them off the streets. With one poll setting pro-impeachment sentiments at 87%, to the south, people in Puerto Rico showed the U.S. the way. (Perhaps many in Puerto Rico are still without the internet after Hurricane Maria laid the island waste in Sept. 2017.) Millions took to the streets in cities, towns and villages all over Puerto Rico to protest a corrupt, misogynist U.S. stooge Governor. They did not wait for pundits to pontificate, nor did they wait for bought politicians who’ve ceased representing them long ago to take the initiative.

In 16 days Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned.


Monsanto, U.S. Top Terminator Corporation


This week, while the USDA opened the door to new, untested, unlabeled GMOs, it’s time to look at Monsanto, the “agricultural company” that killing bees worldwide to control the world’s food supply,.

Founded by a knight of Malta and named for his Sefardi wife, Monsanto Chemical Work’s first product was saccharin, sold to Coca Cola as an artificial sweetener, though the government knew that it was poisonous, and sued to stop its manufacture, it lost in court. Next Monsanto introduced polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) an oil that would not burn, recognized for its damage to reproductive, developmental and immune system disorders. Monsanto was fully aware of its deadly effects but hid them from the public. It’s still present in nearly all animal and human blood and tissue cells across the globe. Its plant outside of East St. Louis is surrounded by the highest fetal death clusters in the state.

 

In the 1930, Monsanto created its first hybrid seed corn, and expanded its production line with detergents, soaps, industrial cleaning products synthetic rubbers and plastics, all of them toxic. In 1940 with uranium research they participated in the Manhattan Project’s first atom bomb, killing hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Its pesticides contain dioxin, guilty of poisoning the planet’s food and water. Monsanto failed to reveal that it used dioxin in many of its  products so it wouldn’t have to admit it destroyed the environment.

It’s emblematic of Monsanto’s perseverance that when its partner, Disney attempted first to break down the “House of the Future” Monsanto had constructed, impervious to  torches, jackhammers and chain saws—even wrecking balls bounced off the glass fiber materials, which could only be removed  by choker cables biting it off piece by piece before it could be hauled away.

In the 1960s Monsanto teamed up with Dow to manufacture Agent Orange. contaminating over 3 million people, killing half a million Vietnamese, and thousands of U.S. servicemen who still suffer from it today—those who haven’t died of it. In court Monsanto was allowed to present its own research claiming dioxin was safe, and without any threat to human health, although it knew at the time that dioxin is a killer. In an internal memo it reflected: “Where do we go from here? …Go out of business, sell the hell out of [Agent Orange and dioxin] as long as we can  [and] try to stay in business…”

Partnering with I.G. Farben of Zyklon B fame, Monsanto next introduced aspartame, a neurotoxin.  Its parent G.D. Searle came up with over 100 faked studies claiming aspartame is safe, although the FDA revealed that it causes Alzheimers in humans, and tumors and massive holes in rat brains before killing them.  But Donald Rumsfeld became Monsanto CEO, using his political influence to sway the FDA. When the FDA product investigator resigned to join Searle’s law firm, the investigation was dropped.

The FDA’s attempts to keep Nutrasweet off the market were stalled by Ronald Reagan who fired the investigator, hired a stooge in his place, allowing Nutrasweet to be approved for human consumption. Now it’s present in 5,000 products, including diet and non diet sodas, sport drinks, mints, chewing gum, frozen deserts, cookies, cakes, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, milk drinks, instant tea, coffees, yogurt and BABY FOOD.

In the 90s Monsanto spent millions—the cost of doing business—to dump dioxins, and other carcinogenic products into drinking water systems.  It continued to be sued for birth defects. injury to plant workers and people living in areas where it operates. It developed synthetic bovine growth hormone and sued companies who refused to use it. When farmers refuse to use Monsanto’s terminator seeds, they are sued and driven out of business although their organic farms are contaminated through wind drift.It continued its ecocidal course with GMO round-up-resistant crops such as soy, corn, wheat and canola oil all of which are toxic, all of which are banned in the EU, but not in the U.S. GMOs are engineered to “self-pollinate”. When bees pollinate a GMO plant or flower, they die of poison. To make sure GMOs crash bee populations, Monsanto bought out Beelogics a firm researching bee colony collapse.

 

Monsanto buys up multiple seed companies trying to eliminate all natural food from the market.  But Monsanto is very careful not to serve GMOs to their employees, claiming it “believes in choice.” although poor nations and Americans at large do not share this choice. 

In the 2000s U.S. spends hundred of millions to fund Round up aerial spraying. Fish and animals die by the thousands, human respiratory distress and cancer spike. Nonetheless, now that the FDA has been captured by the industry, spraying continues. Monsanto merges with Pharmacia and Upjohn and rebrands itself as an agricultural company producing safe and nutritious food.  Its Dupont rival, too big to merge with it, agrees they will mutually drop all patent lawsuits, and share GMO technologies for their mutual benefit.  Meanwhile Monsanto files frivolous SLAP lawsuits, against farmers infringing on their terminator seed patents.  The Supreme Court sides with Monsanto each time such suits are appealed. One hundred thousand farmers in India, bankrupted by GMO crops. drink pesticide so their families can inherit their death benefits.

Whole Foods in collusion with Monsanto, crams its shelves with “natural & organic” food loaded with GMOs, pesticides, rBGH, hormones and antibiotics,  delaying as long as possible any mandatory labeling and coming up with deceptive GMO labeling laws to confuse the public, and keep it in the dark.

Monsanto and partners Archer Daniels Midland, Sodexo, and Tyson write and  push the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, giving corporate factory farms a monopoly to police and control all food grown anywhere, including private backyards, penalizing individuals who refuse the use of its chemicals and non-organic fertilizers.

Obama signs the “Continuing Resolution, aka Monsanto Protection Act,” guaranteeing that no federal court can stop it from planting GMO crops anywhere they want.

America happens to be Monsanto’s last stand.  Why?  Because its practices reflect U.S. domestic and foreign policies. But people have begun to notice that beyond its obscene profits, Monsanto has an even bigger fish to fry: the destruction of human health and the entire planet’s environment.

Despite Monsanto’s  appeals, recent court cases have granted cancer victims affected by use of its products millions of dollars compensation.  And people in general have become more aware that they must practice politics while grocery shopping by reading the labels on every packaged product, and by avoiding octopus Amazon’s Whole Foods.

But for people impacted by aerial spraying on industrial farms, and foreign battlefields, such escape is never guaranteed.



Demand FDA ban glyphosate at:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-the-petition-regulate-monsanto-pesticides-they-are-literally-killing-us?source=2019Monsanto_PA&referrer=group-progress-america&link_id=0&can_id=447ac5b0d7a5124338b20f2bb702d0f8&email_referrer=email_586323___subject_761376&email_subject=what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it

Save bees from toxic pesticides at:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/e_s19_july_pesticidebees_efundraiser_27_c4?express_lane=true&amount=27&refcode=express_lane_SLA


 

If you can't go to D.C. and surround the WH, here are the calls you need please to make NOW. Identify yourself, ask them to support an immediate impeachment  investigation via their subcommittee.

Call to impeach to Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil rights, and Liberties at:
Chair, Steve Cohen, TN 09 (202) 225-3265
Vice Chair: Jamie Raskin, MD-08 (202) 225-5341
Eeric Swalwell, CA-15 (202) 225-5065
Mary Gay Scanlon, PA-05 (202) 225-2011
Madeleine Dean, PA-04 (202) 225-4731
Sylvia R. Garcia, TX-29 (202) 225-1688
Veronica Escobar, TX-16 (202) 225-4831
Sheila Jackson Lee, TX-18 (202) 225-3816

Ask these other Judiciary Committee members to support an immediate impeachment investigation at
Chair: Jerrold Nedler, NY-10 (202) 225-5635
Zoe Lofgren, CA-19 (202) 225-3072
Hank Johnson, GA-04 (202) 225 1605
Ted Deutch, FL-22 (202) 225-3001
Karen Bass, CA-37 (202) 225 7084
Cedric Richmond, LA-02 (202) 225 6636
Hakeem Jeffries, NY-08, 202) 225 5926
David Cicilline, RI-01 (202) 225 4911
Ted Lieu, CA-33 (202) 225 3976
Pramila Jaayapal, WA-07 (202) 225-3106
Val DeMings, FL-10 (202) 225 2176
J. Louis Correa, CA-46 (202) 225 2965
 Joe Neguse, CA-01 (202) 225-2161
Lucy Mcbath, GA-06 (202) 225 4501
Greg Stanton, AZ-09 (202) 225-9888
Debbie Mucarset-Powell, FL-26 (202) 225-2778

Making 24 calls might take less time and money than a trip to D.C.


  
Foreign

Puerto Rico’s Gov. Rosselló steps down as party leader, says he won’t seek re-election, as massive demonstrations block Puerto Rico’s main highway and force him to resign 16 days later.

National strike against the Ecuadorian Government demands Assange’s freedom.

Colombia youth bring lawsuit against the president for failing to protect rights of the Amazon forest, and  of future generations.

Reiwa Shinsengumi make splash in Japanese election debut, giving voice to people with disabilities.

Costa Rica doubles its tropical rainforest in just 30 years.

Iceland to hold memorial for Okjökull glacier lost to climate change.

Taliban claims deal on U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan is near.

Two dozen world prominent scientists ask UN to make environmental damage in conflict zones a war crime.

Crying “Climate Emergency,” Greenpeace, UK blocks Johnson’s motorcade as it makes its way to Buckingham Palace.

Domestic

In response to backlash, Twitter restores Assange activism account.

Actions to #CloseTheCamps escalate throughout the U.S.

Hundreds return to Fort Sill, OK protesting #45 plan to jail migrant kids at site.

Sen. Jim Inhofe says plans to hold incarcerated migrant children at Fort Sill have been put on hold.

Thanks to anti-ICE activism, First Third Bancorp following B of A, Wells, Chase, Suntrust, and BNP Paribas announces it will no longer finance the private prison and immigrant detention industry.

Activists pressure Wall Street to drop support for Core Civic and Geo Group the two largest private prison companies who stand to lose $1.9 billion in financing.

Hermitage, TN community members form human chain to block ICE from detaining neighbor.

Federal Judge blocks #45’s restrictions on asylum seeking at the border.

House votes to eliminate subminimum wages, one legacy of slavery.

Amazon workers, angry about low pay and sweltering heat, organize.

A federal district court judge declares registration for the draft requirement for men, but not women is unconstitutional.

California becomes latest state to consider a 2020 ballot measure assuring parolee voting rights.

Exeter and Nottingham New Hampshire adopt Right to Climate laws along with a dozen other New Hampshire communities to protect themselves from corporate polluters from hazard waste dumping. 

Toledo Ohio adopts a charter amendment recognizing the rights of Lake Erie, securing the Lake’s right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.

Environmental activists claim victory after Detroit incinerator closes.

San Juan Islands leads way with six-month educational and outreach program building support for recognizing their Rights of Nature in law to protect the Salish Sea. 

The White Earth Band of Objibwe adopts Right of Manoomin (wild rice) law, guaranteeing its legal rights and  securing on and off reservation protection and the clean, fresh water resources on which it depends.

In California Berkeley leads way banning natural gas hookups.

Oakland’s Police Commission calls for firing five Oakland officers involved in shooting of Joshua Pawlik in 2018.

California legislature votes to ban Ticketmaster scalping software.

House of Reps passes anti-robocall legislation to end harassment and costly calls.

California’s Gov. Newsom calls out Bureau of Land Management for proposing oil and gas development in  California’s Central Coast region in conflict with California policies reducing fossil fuel consumption. 

California and four major automakers uphold fuel efficiency standards in response to #45 fecklessness.

Pushing back against #45’s call for billions of cuts, progressive advocates make case for expanding Social Security during historic House committee hearing.

In Iowa, activists confront 2020 candidates about drones and war making.

Forth Circuit Court of Appeals throws out Atlantic Coast Pipeline permit to continue construction.

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