"Why Occupy Wall Street? 4 Reasons." - DC Douglas
Video features:
Elizabeth Warren (Bookended)
#OccupyBoston General Assembly
Senator Byron Dorgan
Alan Greenspan
Senator Carl Levin
Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs
Senator Susan Collins
Daniel Sparks, Goldman Sachs POS
Representative Alan Grayson
Senator Bernie Sanders
Democracy Now Anchor
READ: http://tinyurl.com/why-ows
WATCH: http://www.DCDouglas.com
LEARN MORE: http://occupywallst.org/
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Why We Cannot Perceive the World Objectively
Why We Cannot Perceive the World Objectively by Michael Michalko
Reasons why we see only what we expect to see.
People tend to think of perception as a passive process. We see, hear, smell, taste or feel stimuli that impinge upon our senses. We think that if we are at all objective, we record what is actually there. Yet perception is demonstrably an active rather than a passive process; it constructs rather than records "reality." Perception implies understanding as well as awareness. It is a process of inference in which people construct their own version of reality on the basis of information provided through the five senses.
In the illustration a grid appears normal in the center, yet the left and right areas are irregular and incoherent. If you stare at the center of the grid for a few minutes, the grid will miraculously heal itself and you will perceive a perfect grid. In reality, the grid is still incoherent but your mind will perceive it as a perfect grid. This is because your mind is strongly influenced by your past experiences, education, cultural values and role requirements as well as by the stimuli recorded by their receptor organs. Your mind expects the grid to be a perfect grid and makes it so.
Perception is also skewed by the observer's own expectations, assumptions and preconceptions.
One classic experiment to demonstrate the influence of expectations on perception used playing cards, some of which were gimmicked so the spades were red and the hearts black. Pictures of the cards were flashed briefly on a screen and, needless to say, the test subjects identified the normal cards more quickly and accurately than the anomalous ones. After test subjects became aware of the existence of red spades and black hearts, their performance with the gimmicked cards improved but still did not approach the speed or accuracy with which normal cards could be identified.
This experiment shows that patterns of expectation become so deeply embedded that they continue to influence perceptions even when people are alerted to and try to take account of the existence of data that do not fit their preconceptions. Trying to be objective does not ensure accurate perception.
In the illustration, read the colors of the words aloud. The colors not the words.
This task is difficult, as I'm sure you've discovered. Not only is it difficult but it is resistant to practice. The difficulty of removing the interference effect of the words when trying to state the colors is because our brains are conditioned to recognize words without effort. In other words, people see the meaning or words without much effort or consciousness. On the other hand, naming colors is not automatic. It requires more effort than reading, thus creating interference in this simple task. Our pattern of the expectation of reading words is so deeply embedded it cannot be turned off and creates the interference with the task of naming colors.
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR INTELLIGENCE AND GOVERNMENTS. The position of the test subject identifying playing cards is analogous to that of the intelligence analyst or government leader trying to make sense of the paper flow that crosses his or her desk. What is actually perceived in that paper flow, as well as how it is interpreted depends in part, at least, on the analyst's patterns of expectation. Intelligence analysts do not just have expectations about the color of hearts and spades. They have a set of assumptions and expectations about the motivations of people and the processes of government in foreign countries. Events consistent with these expectations are perceived and processed easily, while events that contradict prevailing expectations tend to be ignored or distorted in perception. Of course, this distortion is a subconscious or pre‑conscious process.
This tendency of people to perceive what they expect to perceive is more important than any tendency to perceive what they want to perceive. In fact, there is no real tendency toward wishful thinking. The commonly cited evidence supporting the claim that people tend to perceive what they want to perceive can generally be explained equally well by people see what they expect to see.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT. Look at the illustration. Do not read further content until you guess as to what the illustration might represent.
Expectations have many diverse sources, including past experience, professional training, and cultural and organizational norms. All these influences predispose us to pay particular attention to certain kinds of information and to organize and interpret this information in certain ways. Perception is also influenced by the context in which it occurs. Now, suppose I tell you the illustration contains the face of a cow. Can you find it? You will find it if you expect to find it.
Patterns of expectations tell us, subconsciously, what to look for, what is important, and how to interpret what is seen. These patterns form a mind‑set that predisposes the black and white spaces to organize themselves in such a way that you can perceive the face of a cow. This perception is formed on the basis of very little information (i.e., you were told the illustration contained the picture of a cow.).
Once people form impressions on the basis of very little information, they do not reject or change them unless they obtain rather solid evidence. The early but incorrect impression tends to persist because the amount of information necessary to invalidate a hypothesis is considerably greater than the amount of information required to make an initial interpretation. The problem is not that there is any inherent difficulty in grasping new perceptions or new ideas, but that established perceptions are extremely difficult to change.
I promise you that every time from now on you see this illustration, you will immediately see the face of the cow.
Reasons why we see only what we expect to see.
People tend to think of perception as a passive process. We see, hear, smell, taste or feel stimuli that impinge upon our senses. We think that if we are at all objective, we record what is actually there. Yet perception is demonstrably an active rather than a passive process; it constructs rather than records "reality." Perception implies understanding as well as awareness. It is a process of inference in which people construct their own version of reality on the basis of information provided through the five senses.
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| © unknown |
Perception is also skewed by the observer's own expectations, assumptions and preconceptions.
One classic experiment to demonstrate the influence of expectations on perception used playing cards, some of which were gimmicked so the spades were red and the hearts black. Pictures of the cards were flashed briefly on a screen and, needless to say, the test subjects identified the normal cards more quickly and accurately than the anomalous ones. After test subjects became aware of the existence of red spades and black hearts, their performance with the gimmicked cards improved but still did not approach the speed or accuracy with which normal cards could be identified.
This experiment shows that patterns of expectation become so deeply embedded that they continue to influence perceptions even when people are alerted to and try to take account of the existence of data that do not fit their preconceptions. Trying to be objective does not ensure accurate perception.
In the illustration, read the colors of the words aloud. The colors not the words.
 |
| © unknown |
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR INTELLIGENCE AND GOVERNMENTS. The position of the test subject identifying playing cards is analogous to that of the intelligence analyst or government leader trying to make sense of the paper flow that crosses his or her desk. What is actually perceived in that paper flow, as well as how it is interpreted depends in part, at least, on the analyst's patterns of expectation. Intelligence analysts do not just have expectations about the color of hearts and spades. They have a set of assumptions and expectations about the motivations of people and the processes of government in foreign countries. Events consistent with these expectations are perceived and processed easily, while events that contradict prevailing expectations tend to be ignored or distorted in perception. Of course, this distortion is a subconscious or pre‑conscious process.
This tendency of people to perceive what they expect to perceive is more important than any tendency to perceive what they want to perceive. In fact, there is no real tendency toward wishful thinking. The commonly cited evidence supporting the claim that people tend to perceive what they want to perceive can generally be explained equally well by people see what they expect to see.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT. Look at the illustration. Do not read further content until you guess as to what the illustration might represent.
 |
| © unknown |
Patterns of expectations tell us, subconsciously, what to look for, what is important, and how to interpret what is seen. These patterns form a mind‑set that predisposes the black and white spaces to organize themselves in such a way that you can perceive the face of a cow. This perception is formed on the basis of very little information (i.e., you were told the illustration contained the picture of a cow.).
Once people form impressions on the basis of very little information, they do not reject or change them unless they obtain rather solid evidence. The early but incorrect impression tends to persist because the amount of information necessary to invalidate a hypothesis is considerably greater than the amount of information required to make an initial interpretation. The problem is not that there is any inherent difficulty in grasping new perceptions or new ideas, but that established perceptions are extremely difficult to change.
I promise you that every time from now on you see this illustration, you will immediately see the face of the cow.
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Occupy GMOs: Protesters block access to manufacturing plant filled with animal 'Frankenfeed'
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| © unknown "A Life on GMOs" |
(NaturalNews) Tired of the quiet import and use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the animal food supply throughout Europe, a group of protesters in France has decided to make a statement by blockading the entrances of the Glon Sanders animal feed plant in Saint-Gerard, Morbihan, France. The company's more than 200 employees have been unable to come to work for some time now, which means that production has stopped at the plant, and its offices remain empty.
Most of Europe is staunchly opposed to GMOs in general, which is why they are hardly ever sold there, and why they must be properly labeled if they are. But GMOs have been furtively making their way into the European food supply via animal feed, which is often laced with GM soy, corn, and other contaminated ingredients thanks to labeling loopholes that permit "non-GMO" livestock to consume GM feed.
So to push authorities in France to take a stand against this deceitful practice, a group of concerned individuals decided to storm the Glon Sanders factory, which they reportedly felt was the perfect place to make their voices heard.
"Sanders, a subsidiary of Sofiproteol chaired by Xavier Beulin (also president of the FNSEA), is a strategic location to make an act of denial of the use of GMOs in agriculture, particularly in animal feed," said the group in a translated quote from Maville.com, a French paper.
Both the cultivation and consumption of GM soy are linked to a host of environmental and human health problems. The cultivation of GM soy involves dousing plants in millions of tons of toxic Roundup, also known a glyphosate, which causes various diseases in plants, as well as serious health problems in humans (http://www.naturalnews.com/Roundup.html). And consumption of GM soy itself is linked to causing gastrointestinal problems, heart disease, chronic fatigue, thyroid disorders, and reproductive problems (http://www.naturalnews.com/GM_soy.html).
A documentary produced in Germany explains how GM soy is covertly making its way into Europe via animal feed, and why this loophole is a significant threat to the European food supply. It also explains how the cultivation of GM soy around the world is destroying both the environment and human health. You can watch a clip from that documentary here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/031382_G...
Sources for this article include:
http://www.toxicsoy.org/toxicsoy/ne...
Friday, November 18, 2011
Occupy’s victory brings peace, economic security, technological breakthroughs
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| © acluutah.org |
Victory will come to Occupy and 100% of humanity in a relative instant of state-change. All we have to do is keep responding to our heart and mind’s honor.
Occupy exposes and ends the US Orwellian criminal wars, all begun with lies known to be lies as they were told and obvious to all independent analysis. Indeed, lying to steal land and resources has been central to US foreign policy since the 1846 attack and invasion of Mexico. This victory is peace.
Occupy’s victory ends parasitic and criminal economic fraud in the trillions of our dollars. The obvious solutions to create a national money supply rather than a “debt supply” allow for government to be the employer of last resort for infrastructure investment (hard and soft). This obvious policy provides the quadruple benefits of no debt, full employment, the best infrastructure we can imagine, and falling prices from greater economic efficiency from improved infrastructure. This victory is sufficiency and security for all.
Occupy’s victory releases decades of technological breakthroughs that make humanity free instead of under the vicious control of the 1%’s criminals. This victory is unimaginable adventure.
Keep moving forward.
Enact the ideals you’ve always said you embrace.
Now is the time to fully express the person you’ve always wanted to be.
Related:
Projectionists Light Up NYC Buildings, And Protesters' Spirits, With Occupy-Themed Display
US: Woman Gets Jail For Food-Stamp Fraud; Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts
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| © Chris Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
Had a quick piece of news I wanted to call attention to, in light of the recent developments at Zuccotti Park. For all of those who say the protesters have it wrong, and don't really have a cause worth causing public unrest over, consider this story, sent to me by a friend on the Hill.
Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.
Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.
The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.
Wingate had the option of sentencing McLemore according to federal guidelines, which would have left her with a term of two months to eight months, followed by probation. Not good enough! Wingate was so outraged by McLemore's fraud that he decided to serve her up the deluxe vacation, using another federal statute that permitted him to give her up to five years.
He ultimately gave her three years, saying, "The defendant's criminal record is simply abominable .... She has been the beneficiary of government generosity in state court."
Compare this court decision to the fraud settlements on Wall Street. Like McLemore, fraud defendants like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank have "been the beneficiary of government generosity." Goldman got $12.9 billion just through the AIG bailout. Citigroup got $45 billion, plus hundreds of billions in government guarantees.
All of these companies have been repeatedly dragged into court for fraud, and not one individual defendant has ever been forced to give back anything like a significant portion of his ill-gotten gains. The closest we've come is in a fraud case involving Citi, in which a pair of executives, Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, were fined the token amounts of $100,000 and $80,000, respectively, for lying to shareholders about the extent of Citi's debt.
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Anita McLemore, meanwhile, lied to feed her children, gave back every penny of her "fraud" when she got caught, and is now going to do three years in prison. Explain that, Eric Holder!
Here's another thing that boggles my mind: You get busted for drugs in this country, and it turns out you can make yourself ineligible to receive food stamps.
But you can be a serial fraud offender like Citigroup, which has repeatedly been dragged into court for the same offenses and has repeatedly ignored court injunctions to abstain from fraud, and this does not make you ineligible to receive $45 billion in bailouts and other forms of federal assistance.
This is the reason why all of these settlements allowing banks to walk away without "admissions of wrongdoing" are particularly insidious. A normal person, once he gets a felony conviction, immediately begins to lose his rights as a citizen.
But white-collar criminals of the type we've seen in recent years on Wall Street - both the individuals and the corporate "citizens" - do not suffer these ramifications. They commit crimes without real consequence, allowing them to retain access to the full smorgasbord of subsidies and financial welfare programs that, let's face it, are the source of most of their profits.
Why, I wonder, does a bank that has committed fraud multiple times get to retain access to the Federal Reserve discount window? Why should Citigroup and Goldman Sachs get to keep their status as Primary Dealers of U.S. government debt? Are there not enough banks without extensive histories of fraud and malfeasance that can be awarded these de facto subsidies?
The occupiers have already won
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| © roarmag.org |
"I don't think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses ... And I'm not inextricably bound to either party."
Anyone who has read my blog over the last 27 months knows that I sometimes make ridiculous statements. And for some, this will rank up there toward the top. But I really believe that the Occupy Movement, still a newborn and barely in its infancy, has already won.
If you ever seen the movie Gandhi or read one of his biographies (I recommend this one by Louis Fischer) or studied the life of Martin Luther King, it is easy to see how these great men and the movements they inspired, changed the world. And the change happened almost immediately, even if many did not recognize it at the time.
There are some movements which cannot be stopped because they have widespread appeal, are driven by strong, incontrovertible ideals and are not connected with or dependent on a particular group or party.
Gandhi defeated the British Empire through satyagraha, or "truth-force," a fierce commitment to the truth and non-violence. He won because he knew that a system collapses when the people refuse to support it. Our current, corrupt system will last only as long as we (the people) support it. And the beginning of the end is underway.
Gandhi, King and Nelson Mandela were inspired by the idea of peaceful but stubborn resistance to social, economic and political injustice. And they won. We mark their victories many years after they began their struggles, but in the most important sense, they won at the beginning.
They won once they seized on an essential truth within themselves and courageously refused to be denied. They acted as if what they believed was already true and real and their persistence prevailed. They knew they were right, they knew the status quo was unjust and unsustainable and they knew that if they stood up against tyranny, it would not stand.
So it is with the Occupy Movement. With the advent of this movement two months ago, politics in this nation has been permanently changed. The occupiers are not Republican or Democratic. They do not identify with a particular party and they cannot find any particular politicians they believe in or support. In that sense it is beyond politics.
It is primarily an economic movement, proclaiming the micro-minority that holds power on behalf of the elite few, is no longer viable. While too many focus on the thousands who sleep and march in our cities, they forget that the economic and social burden in our nation is felt by nearly everyone. In a nation of 300 million, 99% is 297 million. The idea that our government should serve the majority in the middle and at the bottom, instead of the minority at the top, is a radical notion but one that has a wide and growing appeal.
The premise that a democracy should serve most of the people--the majority of human beings in a society--is not profound, but is strangely unique to this movement. You will never hear the Republicans or the Tea Party advocate for the 99% because they would have to believe in equality to do so. Their promotion of free-market capitalism as more important than democracy and equality means the current, massive inequality will be sustained as long as they remain in power.
Until the Occupy Movement began, politicians and the media ignored the fact that the gap between the rich and poor in the United States is among the widest in the world and that this is an intentional result of government policy over the last 30 years. They ignore the gap no more. Until the Occupy Movement began, politicians and the media ignored the fact that we are not a democracy but a corporatocracy. From now on, this fact will be front and center in our daily national conversation.
Until the Occupy Movement began, politicians and the media could only see left and right. The occupiers insist that we admit this horizontal distinction is meaningless when the true axis of power runs vertically, like a pyramid, with all the money and power guarded jealously at its tiny top. Until the Occupy Movement, the media let corrupt politicians and the soulless denizens on Wall Street determine what is true and real each day.
Now that truth and reality comes from the streets. Comes from the people. Comes from regular humans who are not aligned to any particular political party or company but only want a government that serves them, not global corporations. As this progresses, we would be wise to completely abandon the Republican, Tea and Democratic Parties and instead have a People's Party and a Corporation Party.
I am ready to register with the People's Party. How about you?
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Thursday, November 17, 2011
Both the US and the UK Governments Support Slavery of Their Own Citizens
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| © http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/ |
The US and UK are against slavery…right? It’s an abomination and neither nation could possibly condone it…right? People who grow up in either country can be comfortable knowing that their governments will never force them to work without pay…right?
Wrong … Wrong … and … WRONG! Both the US and UK not only allow slavery, both actively support it. Both nations not only support it, but also enforce it. And they do so in a manner that undermines the employment opportunities of other citizens, not just those forced to work without pay.
What is slavery, if not the systemic forcing of people to work without wages? In the US, prisoners are routinely forced to work without pay for the benefit of corporations, or for so little it amounts to none. In the UK, young people are forced to work without pay for corporations or lose their minimal job benefits.
It’s easy to stand on the outside and say, “Well, people in prison have no rights. What’s wrong with forcing them to work?” or “Young people need to learn about the work world, so what better way than to have the experience?” Even if these were legitimate arguments—and they are not!—it doesn’t address the effects on the rest of society, which loses ground to corporate interests with every hour a person is forced to work without fair payment.
United States Government-Authorized Slavery
In the United States, many prisons send prisoners to do labor for corporations. The prisons—often privatized—profit from this slave labor, and the corporations profit from paying substandard prices for the labor. The prisoners? If they’re lucky, they may get to serve less time.
At least 30 states have laws in place that allow convicts to be used as slaves by businesses. Of course, they don’t use the term slave, they say “labor”. But labor that’s coerced and doesn’t receive fair pay can only legitimately be termed slavery—especially when a corporation, or government, profits from it. And that’s exactly what’s happening.
Prisoners make a huge array of products, including blue jeans, electronics, furniture, and automobiles. Honda uses convict labor to replace auto workers who had made $20-30 an hour. They now pay about $2 an hour. Konica pays less than 50¢ an hour to get copiers repaired. Prisoners restock shelves at Toys R Us. Prison labor in Oregon and California is so cheap that clothing made by them gets shipped outside the country.
These were jobs that had paid living wages, wages that supported families and bought homes. Is it any wonder that the housing market crashed? Is it any wonder that unemployment is so high?
Is it any wonder that so many people are in prison for victimless crimes?
Prisoners do not have the ability to refuse to work, nor can they protest at killingly-long hours or other miserable conditions. In fact, they do not contract for their labor. The prisons do, and the prisons profit from it. In Texas, Lockhart Technologies fired all 150 of its workers and opened up manufacturing at the prison. Though they pay minimum wage for each slave, most of it is kept by the prison. The slaves keep only 20 percent.
Prisoners are often subjected to conditions that are outright illegal, such as sorting through hazardous waste without protective gear. Those who refuse or object to bad conditions are subjected to punishment, ranging from losing time off for good behavior to loss of library and recreation privileges to solitary confinement.
While Americans condemn prison conditions in other countries, they do so wearing blinders that keep them from seeing the slave labor and the fact that the US has, by far, the largest number of prisoners by any measure one wishes to use. China, with a population that is 3-4 times greater, has half a million fewer prisoners than the US’s 2 million. That number represents a full quarter of the entire world’s 8 million prisoners.
Again, I ask: Is it any wonder that so many people are in prison for victimless crimes? Who benefits? The answer is blindingly obvious: corporations. Sociopathic corporations.
United Kingdom Government-Authorized Slavery
While not as extensive as in the US, the UK also uses prison slave labor. Prisoners in England and Wales are used by Virgin Atlantic, Monarch Airlines, Speedy Hire, Travis Perkins, and the book publisher Macmillan. Though not as extensive as in the US, the Conservative (Tory) government intends to expand the use of prison labor.
Of course, the Tories are trying to pass it off as a means to help prisoners, to send them back into society as law-abiding citizens, and so forth and so on. That is, they say such things when they’re caught…but the truth is that the prison slave program is kept as quiet as possible.
The UK’s prison program is nowhere near as extensive as that in the US—but the UK has another way of extracting unpaid labor from its citizens. Young people trying to enter the workforce are ripe for plucking, and they’re being well-picked.
The jobless benefit is £53 per week, itself not an amount on which one can survive. To get that, it is, of course, necessary to actively seek work, an entirely reasonable demand. Working at entry-level unskilled jobs in corporations entirely unrelated to one’s training and education can only interfere with job hunting, but that’s exactly what’s happening—and youths are being forced to take these mind-numbing jobs at no pay for as long as 8 weeks. It’s called ”work experience”—things like shelf stocking and cleaning.
Imagine being Cait Reilly, a 22 year old with a degree in geology, forced to work stocking shelves for Poundland, a chain that prices all items at a pound. She’s in that position, in spite of having experience doing precisely that, and doing it for pay. The suggestion that this is genuine work experience is a farce. It is one thing, and one thing only—slave labor for a corporation. Tesco supermarkets, Sainsbury’s, Argos catalog store, and others are taking advantage.
Slavery Is Slavery
No matter what it’s called, slavery is slavery. The UK and the US are forcing people to work without pay, or with very little pay. There isn’t even a promise of a future job. Claims that they’re being trained are ludicrous.
This is being done in the face of unemployment rates unseen in decades. Not only are the US and UK promoting and enforcing slave labor, they are also stealing real jobs from people, transferring them into a slave labor pool.
No wonder unemployment is so high. Not only are jobs being shipped overseas, they’re also being converted into slave labor, and the slaves are fellow citizens.
Sources:
Medical Mafia Fascism Forces Parents to Hide their Children
From Africa there are stories of mothers being hunted down and forced by gunpoint to have their children receive vaccinations known to produce adverse reactions. This might be expected in third world countries. But the same essential tyranny has also been occurring in America.
Gun point medicine American style
As an adult, you can still manage to avoid toxic cancer treatments and toxic vaccinations. But if you attempt to seek alternative cancer treatments for your child, you risk your freedom and endanger your family.
That's because you'll be charged as a criminal and your child will be abducted by a local Child Protection Services (CPS) agent, and then forced by court order to undergo chemo. Now gun point medicine is spreading to vaccinations.
Actual forced chemo cases
Jim and Donna Navarro's child Thomas was diagnosed with brain cancer when he was four. Donna was a former RN with emergency room and military experience. She knew chemotherapy was very toxic. She and Jim agreed to allow partial tumor removal with surgery while looking for a safer yet effective treatment.
Ultimately, their search wound up at Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's clinic in Houston, TX. Under extreme duress from the AMA and FDA, Burzynski's clinic could take in cancer patients only if the patient had undergone enough Medical Mafia "standard of care" to be considered hopeless.
Even taking that level of half dead patients with burnt out immune systems, Burzynski had a cure rate approximating 50%. The Medical Mafia claims a success rate of under five percent with most cancers and 10% to 15% with a few others. The Navarros were shocked to discover that their son Thomas could not undergo Burzynski's treatments until after a full round of chemo.
At a cost of $43,000 per chemo bag, the Navarro's were forced to go into debt to cover the 10 treatments that came to almost a half million dollars. Adding all auxiliary hospital and caretaker expenses brings the total to nearly a million or more dollars. After 18 months of dealing with the FDA, Thomas was finally allowed to become a Burzyinski patient.
After substantial success with the brain tumors in the following seven months, Thomas died. The medical mafia would likely claim Thomas died of brain cancer at age six. But his death certificate says otherwise: "Respiratory failure (from) chronic chemotherapy toxicity."
A couple of years ago, the parents of 13 year old Daniel Hauser went on the lam from their native Minnesota when a judge ruled Daniel must undergo chemo after he had decided he couldn't take it anymore.
Daniel's parents understood. They went to California to seek alternative help and were branded as fugitives. They had to return and submit to the court enforced chemo for Daniel.
Submit your kids for vaccinations or else
We know about the State of California's legislative decision to allowing 12 year old girls to accept the incredibly dangerous Gardasil vaccinations without parental knowledge or consent.
Earlier, Texas Governor Rick Perry had failed to pull an end around with his decree to force college girls into taking the Gardasil series. These are more covert maneuvers with the same results of preventing parents from their duties of protecting their children. And there have been worse cases.
Meanwhile, the vaccine industry is protected by the State from parents of vaccine damaged kids.
The collusion of state and Medical Mafia amounts to "gunpoint medicine." It may be less fierce on the surface than armed African troops pursuing mothers hiding their kids to avoid forced vaccinations. But it is essentially the same tyranny.
Sources for this article include:
Interview of Jim Navarro
Cut, Poison, Burn, the complete documentary download, which includes the Navarro story -
Tribal Fates: Why the Navajo Have Succeeded
Tribal Fates: Why the Navajo Have Succeeded by Wynne Parry
While other tribes have disappeared from North America over the centuries, the Navajo Nation has done the opposite. Two geographers from the University of California, Los Angeles, offer an explanation for why the Navajos have been able to grow to more than 300,000 members today: a combination of geography and culture.
Jared Diamond and Ronan Arthur propose that the geographical isolation and cultural flexibility of the Navajos, who call themselves the Diné, allowed them to expand, even after the arrival of Europeans in North America in 1492 and efforts four centuries later to assimilate them into white U.S. culture.
"Many tribes decreased their numbers, disappeared or lost their homeland, language or cultural identity," Arthur and Diamond write in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Science. "The Navajos are a striking exception."
In fact, they are arguably the largest American Indian tribe in the United States. (The Cherokee Nation, with different membership requirements, also can make that claim.) And the Navajo reservation, established in 1868, has expanded from roughly 3.3 million acres to more than 17 million in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
The reasons for success
In their brief article, Arthur and Diamond argue that just enough isolation in their homeland in the southwestern U.S.made them less accessible to Spanish, Mexican and U.S. armies (although many were rounded up in 1864 and imprisoned at Fort Sumner in New Mexico for four years). That remoteness also allowed them to remain relatively independent while trading with Spanish and American settlers, Arthur and Diamond argue.
What's more, Navajo land was rugged and dry, making it less desirable as farmland for white settlers; and resources such as oil and coal weren't discovered there until the 20th century.
The authors also point to cultural factors: Navajos selectively adopted new practices while retaining their identity, which allowed them to avoid a pitfall of other tribes. Navajo are also inclusive, incorporating individuals, clans and spouses from neighboring peoples, such as the Pueblos and Apache groups, they write.
Historical perspective
"Arthur and Diamond have done a good job in presenting geographical and cultural factors that promoted the expansion of the reservation and the Navajo population," Peter Iverson, a historian whose work provided source material for the geographers and who provided feedback to them, told LiveScience by email. "Given space limitations [in the journal], they cannot furnish a comprehensive overview, but I do think they have made a conscientious effort."
The story of the Navajo people runs counter to the themes of tragedy and victimization that run through American Indian history, said Iverson, an Arizona State University emeritus professor of history. "I don't think we have given them sufficient credit for the staying power they have demonstrated," he said.
Iverson pointed to a number of other factors that ultimately set the Navajo up for success. In 1887, the federal government sought to divide up Indian lands for individual ownership, a step leading toward the eventual demise of native tribes. The Navajos successfully fought this initiative and avoided seeing their land splintered. They also set about acquiring land to add to the reservation, which ultimately resulted in its dramatic expansion.
"In the late 19th century, they realized they were in it for the long haul," Iverson said.
Initially, Navajos resisted education offered by the American government, which included harsh boarding schools intended to help their children assimilate into white culture. But other developments, such as a federal program in the1930s that eliminated most of the livestock upon which the Navajo relied, prompted them embrace it.
Cultural vitality
About half of Navajos today speak their native language, according to the Science article, but Iverson fears that estimate is high.
"I think it's been an enormously important factor in their cultural vitality, but it is more fragile now than perhaps the article suggests," Iverson said. "The young people today, for the most part, are not fluent in the language."
While their reservation is accessible by modern roads and railroad, it was a more isolated place before about 1920, according to Iverson. But even in the 1880s the Navajos had to deal with federal normalization efforts. Christian missionaries also were active, Iverson wrote in an email.
Navajos do have an impressive ability to incorporate new elements into their culture, a trait that shows up in their silver work and weaving, he added. For instance, the Navajo squash blossom design, common in jewelry, incorporates a crescent-shaped pendant, an element that had its origin in the Islamic world and arrived with the Spanish.
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© David P. Smith | Shutterstock The Three Sisters rock formation found in the Navajo nation land of Monument Valley. Two geographers argue that the relatively isolated and rugged nature of Navajo country ultimately contributed to the tribe's success. |
While other tribes have disappeared from North America over the centuries, the Navajo Nation has done the opposite. Two geographers from the University of California, Los Angeles, offer an explanation for why the Navajos have been able to grow to more than 300,000 members today: a combination of geography and culture.
Jared Diamond and Ronan Arthur propose that the geographical isolation and cultural flexibility of the Navajos, who call themselves the Diné, allowed them to expand, even after the arrival of Europeans in North America in 1492 and efforts four centuries later to assimilate them into white U.S. culture.
"Many tribes decreased their numbers, disappeared or lost their homeland, language or cultural identity," Arthur and Diamond write in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Science. "The Navajos are a striking exception."
In fact, they are arguably the largest American Indian tribe in the United States. (The Cherokee Nation, with different membership requirements, also can make that claim.) And the Navajo reservation, established in 1868, has expanded from roughly 3.3 million acres to more than 17 million in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
The reasons for success
In their brief article, Arthur and Diamond argue that just enough isolation in their homeland in the southwestern U.S.made them less accessible to Spanish, Mexican and U.S. armies (although many were rounded up in 1864 and imprisoned at Fort Sumner in New Mexico for four years). That remoteness also allowed them to remain relatively independent while trading with Spanish and American settlers, Arthur and Diamond argue.
What's more, Navajo land was rugged and dry, making it less desirable as farmland for white settlers; and resources such as oil and coal weren't discovered there until the 20th century.
The authors also point to cultural factors: Navajos selectively adopted new practices while retaining their identity, which allowed them to avoid a pitfall of other tribes. Navajo are also inclusive, incorporating individuals, clans and spouses from neighboring peoples, such as the Pueblos and Apache groups, they write.
Historical perspective
"Arthur and Diamond have done a good job in presenting geographical and cultural factors that promoted the expansion of the reservation and the Navajo population," Peter Iverson, a historian whose work provided source material for the geographers and who provided feedback to them, told LiveScience by email. "Given space limitations [in the journal], they cannot furnish a comprehensive overview, but I do think they have made a conscientious effort."
The story of the Navajo people runs counter to the themes of tragedy and victimization that run through American Indian history, said Iverson, an Arizona State University emeritus professor of history. "I don't think we have given them sufficient credit for the staying power they have demonstrated," he said.
Iverson pointed to a number of other factors that ultimately set the Navajo up for success. In 1887, the federal government sought to divide up Indian lands for individual ownership, a step leading toward the eventual demise of native tribes. The Navajos successfully fought this initiative and avoided seeing their land splintered. They also set about acquiring land to add to the reservation, which ultimately resulted in its dramatic expansion.
"In the late 19th century, they realized they were in it for the long haul," Iverson said.
Initially, Navajos resisted education offered by the American government, which included harsh boarding schools intended to help their children assimilate into white culture. But other developments, such as a federal program in the1930s that eliminated most of the livestock upon which the Navajo relied, prompted them embrace it.
Cultural vitality
About half of Navajos today speak their native language, according to the Science article, but Iverson fears that estimate is high.
"I think it's been an enormously important factor in their cultural vitality, but it is more fragile now than perhaps the article suggests," Iverson said. "The young people today, for the most part, are not fluent in the language."
While their reservation is accessible by modern roads and railroad, it was a more isolated place before about 1920, according to Iverson. But even in the 1880s the Navajos had to deal with federal normalization efforts. Christian missionaries also were active, Iverson wrote in an email.
Navajos do have an impressive ability to incorporate new elements into their culture, a trait that shows up in their silver work and weaving, he added. For instance, the Navajo squash blossom design, common in jewelry, incorporates a crescent-shaped pendant, an element that had its origin in the Islamic world and arrived with the Spanish.
People Power! 'Crackdown on OWS a strategic mistake'
'Crackdown on OWS a strategic mistake'
The United States is currently grappling with growing protest rallies against corporatism, poverty and social inequity in the country.
Interview with Chip Pitts, political commentator
Related:
November 16, 2011: Here's the Risk: "Occupy" ends up doing the bidding of the global elite
November 16, 2011: Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest
November 17, 2011: FASCISM EXPLODES: US VIOLENTLY SUPPRESSING OWS PROTESTS
The United States is currently grappling with growing protest rallies against corporatism, poverty and social inequity in the country.
Interview with Chip Pitts, political commentator
Related:
November 16, 2011: Here's the Risk: "Occupy" ends up doing the bidding of the global elite
November 16, 2011: Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest
November 17, 2011: FASCISM EXPLODES: US VIOLENTLY SUPPRESSING OWS PROTESTS
EPA targets families that generate heat off the grid using traditional wood-burning stoves
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| © akoeneny.wordpress.com |
(NaturalNews) Traditional wood-burning stoves are still one of the most cost-efficient, sustainable, and renewable sources of energy production that families can use to heat their homes. But the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not a huge fan of them, as was evidenced by its recent decision to push those who use traditional models to convert to EPA-approved -- and oftentimes much more expensive -- alternative models.
Throughout history, civilizations have relied on the burning of wood to cook food, warm water, and heat places of dwelling. After all, trees are an abundant and renewable source of wood, which means that the costs associated with obtaining energy and heat from burning wood are minimal. This, of course, is why many cash-strapped folks today are turning to wood-burning stoves rather than their local utilities.
But the EPA is now expressing concern about the 80 percent-or-so of wood stove users that still rely on non-EPA approved models. Most of the wood stoves manufactured before 1990 do not contain the EPA's certification stamp of approval which, in the eyes of the agency, means they are an unnecessary contributor of excess environmental pollution.
This is debatable, of course, as EPA-approved models can still emit excess smoke just like the others, and may not necessarily provide any pollution-reducing benefits at all. Because of their altered designs, many of the new EPA-approved models do not work as well as the older models, either, especially when used in severely-cold weather (http://www.energybulletin.net/51578).
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Most wood-burning stove companies in the US actually went out of business shortly after the EPA established its original certification requirements for wood stoves back in the 1990s. Many of the companies simply could not develop a complying product that actually worked. Today, the EPA is once again revisiting these New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) guidelines in order to push even more people away from the old stoves.
At the same time, EPA spokeswoman Alison Davis recently tried to whitewash the agency's position against wood stoves by claiming that the EPA is "not in the business of telling people how to heat their homes." No, it is actually in the business of restricting the types of wood stoves manufacturers are allowed to produce and sell, which ultimately does tell people how to heat their homes by robbing them of their freedom of choice.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011...
Asthma Drugs Kill More than Asthma, FDA Ignores Risk
Following a long line of reports finding pharmaceutical drugs to be deadlier than traffic accidents and many illegal drugs, it has now come out that many asthma drugs are actually killing more patients than asthma itself.
It may be hard for you to believe, but many popular asthma drugs like Symbicort, Advair Diskus, Serevent Diskus, Dulera and Foradil actually warn customers on their labels that they cause an increased “risk of death from asthma problems.”
Killing around 4,000 per year conservatively, the drugs are killing more people than the disease itself.
It may sound outlandish, but so is the fact that the FDA has known this information for years.
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Instead of listening to the warnings of many doctors and recalling or even just ending the production of these products, the FDA has simply forced the makers to include heightened warning labels on the drugs while holding several hearings over the possibility of a ban yet following through with nothing.
For an organization that is supposed to protect your health, the FDA seems to be allowing deadly pharmaceuticals to run rampant.
The insane history of pharmaceutical death statistics
The history of pharmaceutical-induced fatalities is quite extensive, and truly tragic. Most shocking is the fact that legal drugs like painkillers have actually killed more individuals than illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin combined.
With 3 million deaths from pharmaceuticals and 0 from vitamins over the past 27 years, it is clear that the media campaign intended to demonize high-quality, organic-based multivitamins and supplements is absolutely ludicrous. Instead, the media should be focused on the needless deaths of many individuals taking deadly legal drugs who unknowingly trust the well-intended advice of their doctor.
With painkillers now more deadly than cocaine and heroin, shouldn’t we change the direction of our ‘war on drugs’?
Explore More:
- Is there Really a Difference Between Legal and Illegal Drugs?
- 27 Years | No Deaths from Vitamins, 3 Million from Prescription Drugs
- More Deaths from Pharmaceutical Painkillers than Cocaine and Heroin Combined
- 22 Million Americans Use Illegal Drugs
- Behind ADD | Drugs, Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Lies
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
This Is What Revolution Looks Like
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© Todd Heisler / The New York Times Occupy Wall Street protesters react and wave copies of the court order allowing them back into Zuccotti Park as police block them from re-entering, in New York, November 15, 2011. Hundreds of police officers arrested about 200 demonstrators early Tuesday in an operation to clear the nearly two-month-old camp. |
Welcome to the revolution. Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they cannot speak. They are as dead and useless to us as the water-soaked books, tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, food boxes and clothes that were tossed by sanitation workers Tuesday morning into garbage trucks in New York City. They have no ideas, no plans and no vision for the future.
Our decaying corporate regime has strutted in Portland, Oakland and New York with their baton-wielding cops into a fool's paradise. They think they can clean up "the mess" - always employing the language of personal hygiene and public security - by making us disappear. They think we will all go home and accept their corporate nation, a nation where crime and government policy have become indistinguishable, where nothing in America, including the ordinary citizen, is deemed by those in power worth protecting or preserving, where corporate oligarchs awash in hundreds of millions of dollars are permitted to loot and pillage the last shreds of collective wealth, human capital and natural resources, a nation where the poor do not eat and workers do not work, a nation where the sick die and children go hungry, a nation where the consent of the governed and the voice of the people is a cruel joke.
Get back into your cages, they are telling us. Return to watching the lies, absurdities, trivia and celebrity gossip we feed you in 24-hour cycles on television. Invest your emotional energy in the vast system of popular entertainment. Run up your credit card debt. Pay your loans. Be thankful for the scraps we toss. Chant back to us our phrases about democracy, greatness and freedom. Vote in our rigged political theater. Send your young men and women to fight and die in useless, unwinnable wars that provide corporations with huge profits. Stand by mutely as our bipartisan congressional super committee, either through consensus or cynical dysfunction, plunges you into a society without basic social services including unemployment benefits. Pay for the crimes of Wall Street.
The rogues' gallery of Wall Street crooks, such as Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs, Howard Milstein at New York Private Bank & Trust, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers and Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase & Co., no doubt think it's over. They think it is back to the business of harvesting what is left of America to swell their personal and corporate fortunes. But they no longer have any concept of what is happening around them. They are as mystified and clueless about these uprisings as the courtiers at Versailles or in the Forbidden City who never understood until the very end that their world was collapsing. The billionaire mayor of New York, enriched by a deregulated Wall Street, is unable to grasp why people would spend two months sleeping in an open park and marching on banks. He says he understands that the Occupy protests are "cathartic" and "entertaining," as if demonstrating against the pain of being homeless and unemployed is a form of therapy or diversion, but that it is time to let the adults handle the affairs of state. Democratic and Republican mayors, along with their parties, have sold us out. But for them this is the beginning of the end.
The historian Crane Brinton in his book "Anatomy of a Revolution" laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis. Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton's next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.
I have seen my share of revolts, insurgencies and revolutions, from the guerrilla conflicts in the 1980s in Central America to the civil wars in Algeria, the Sudan and Yemen, to the Palestinian uprising to the revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the wars in the former Yugoslavia. George Orwell wrote that all tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but that once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. We have now entered the era of naked force. The vast million-person bureaucracy of the internal security and surveillance state will not be used to stop terrorism but to try and stop us.
Despotic regimes in the end collapse internally. Once the foot soldiers who are ordered to carry out acts of repression, such as the clearing of parks or arresting or even shooting demonstrators, no longer obey orders, the old regime swiftly crumbles. When the aging East German dictator Erich Honecker was unable to get paratroopers to fire on protesting crowds in Leipzig, the regime was finished. The same refusal to employ violence doomed the communist governments in Prague and Bucharest. I watched in December 1989 as the army general that the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had depended on to crush protests condemned him to death on Christmas Day. Tunisia's Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak lost power once they could no longer count on the security forces to fire into crowds.
The process of defection among the ruling class and security forces is slow and often imperceptible. These defections are advanced through a rigid adherence to nonviolence, a refusal to respond to police provocation and a verbal respect for the blue-uniformed police, no matter how awful they can be while wading into a crowd and using batons as battering rams against human bodies. The resignations of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's deputy, Sharon Cornu, and the mayor's legal adviser and longtime friend, Dan Siegel, in protest over the clearing of the Oakland encampment are some of the first cracks in the edifice. "Support Occupy Oakland, not the 1% and its government facilitators," Siegel tweeted after his resignation.
There were times when I entered the ring as a boxer and knew, as did the spectators, that I was woefully mismatched. Ringers, experienced boxers in need of a tuneup or a little practice, would go to the clubs where semi-pros fought, lie about their long professional fight records, and toy with us. Those fights became about something other than winning. They became about dignity and self-respect. You fought to say something about who you were as a human being. These bouts were punishing, physically brutal and demoralizing. You would get knocked down and stagger back up. You would reel backwards from a blow that felt like a cement block. You would taste the saltiness of your blood on your lips. Your vision would blur. Your ribs, the back of your neck and your abdomen would ache. Your legs would feel like lead. But the longer you held on, the more the crowd in the club turned in your favor. No one, even you, thought you could win. But then, every once in a while, the ringer would get overconfident. He would get careless. He would become a victim of his own hubris. And you would find deep within yourself some new burst of energy, some untapped strength and, with the fury of the dispossessed, bring him down. I have not put on a pair of boxing gloves for 30 years. But I felt this twinge of euphoria again in my stomach this morning, this utter certainty that the impossible is possible, this realization that the mighty will fall.
Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.
The octopus' 'human-like' intelligence
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© Visuals Unlimited/Corbis An octopus swims off the coast of Hawaii: The gangly sea creature has been observed using tools and has been known to recognize and remember humans, according to scientists |
The eight-armed mollusk can use tools, recognize humans, and even play games. Time to bow down before our new cephalopod overlords?
Octopuses are smarter than we thought. A mounting pile of evidence suggests that the eight-armed sea creatures exhibit a number of "human-like" tendencies that put them on the same intellectual plane as the wilier house pets. Here's why scientists have new respect for invertebrate cephalopods:
What "human-like" tendencies have been exhibited?
One octopus in captivity was observed "cleaning the front of its den" after securing food, then carefully arranging rocks to cover the entrance before going to sleep. Such an endeavor requires "foresight, planning," and "even tool use," says Sy Montgomery at Orion Magazine. In another study, octopuses "learned to open childproof caps on Extra Strength Tylenol Pill bottles - a feat that eludes many humans."
Hmm. What else?
One female octopus was observed "blowing carefully modulated jets of water from her funnel to send [a pill bottle] to the other end of her aquarium, where the water flow sent it back to her. She repeated the action 20 times," Montgomery reports. One excited researcher quickly got on the phone to call her colleague: "She's bouncing the ball!"
How about their memories?
Octopuses can remember humans, says Josh Rothman at the Boston Globe, and "have particular human friends and nemeses." The animals recognize their own names when called out, crawling affectionately towards caretakers they like. If an octopus isn't enamored of you, he'll squirt water at you when you call.
So they must have big brains, right?
Nope. Most octopuses kept in aquariums have only walnut-sized brains, on par with the gray matter of talking parrots. What's "weird," says Montgomery, is the distribution of the octopus' neuron count. While the creatures only boast about 130 million neurons (humans have 100 billion), three-fifths of an octopus' brain cells aren't even in its head - they're in its arms, as if each tentacle has "a mind of its own," allowing it to feel out environments in a way researchers are still trying to understand.
How did the animal get so smart?
Scientists think the loss of the ancestral shell eventually sharpened the animals' wits. Though the modern octopus' lack of a shell leaves him more mobile for hunting, it also leaves him vulnerable to bigger predators. "Only the smartest octopuses would survive - the ones who could hide the most cunningly, traveling alone to avoid exposure," says Annalee Newitz at io9. It's why the animals "use tools to hide all the time."
Source: Boston, io9, Orion Magazine.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Brave New World of Occupy Wall Street
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| Kenny Sun (CC-BY) A photo of the people’s library, taken before it was destroyed by New York City police and sanitation workers. |
We got word just after 1 a.m. Tuesday that New York City police were raiding the Occupy Wall Street encampment. I raced down with the “Democracy Now!” news team to Zuccotti Park, renamed Liberty Square. Hundreds of riot police had already surrounded the area. As they ripped down the tents, city sanitation workers were throwing the protesters’ belongings into dump trucks. Beyond the barricades, back in the heart of the park, 200 to 300 people locked arms, refusing to cede the space they had occupied for almost two months. They were being handcuffed and arrested, one by one.
The few of us members of the press who managed to get through all the police lines were sent to a designated area across the street from Zuccotti Park. As our cameras started rolling, they placed two police buses in front of us, blocking our view. My colleagues and I managed to slip between them and into the park, climbing over the trashed mounds of tents, tarps and sleeping bags. The police had almost succeeded in enforcing a complete media blackout of the destruction.
We saw a broken bookcase in one pile. Deeper in the park, I spotted a single book on the ground. It was marked “OWSL,” for Occupy Wall Street Library, also known as the People’s Library, one of the key institutions that had sprung up in the organic democracy of the movement. By the latest count, it had accumulated 5,000 donated books. The one I found, amidst the debris of democracy that was being hauled off to the dump, was “Brave New World Revisited,” by Aldous Huxley.
As the night progressed, the irony of finding Huxley’s book grew. He wrote it in 1958, almost 30 years after his famous dystopian novel, “Brave New World.” The original work described society in the future where people had been stratified into haves and have-nots. The “Brave New World” denizens were plied with pleasure, distraction, advertisement and intoxicating drugs to lull them into complacency, a world of perfect consumerism, with lower classes doing all the work for an elite.
“Brave New World Revisited” was Huxley’s nonfiction response to the speed with which he saw modern society careening to that bleak future. It seemed relevant, as the encampment, motivated in large part by the opposition to the supremacy of commerce and globalization, was being destroyed.
Huxley wrote in the book: “Big Business, made possible by advancing technology and the consequent ruin of Little Business, is controlled by the State—that is to say, by a small group of party leaders and the soldiers, policemen and civil servants who carry out their orders. In a capitalist democracy, such as the United States, it is controlled by what Professor C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite.” Huxley goes on to write, “This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country’s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communication, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody.”
One of the People’s Library volunteers, Stephen Boyer, was there as the park was raided. After avoiding arrest and helping others with first aid, he wrote: “Everything we brought to the park is gone. The beautiful library is gone. Our collection of 5,000 books is gone. Our tent that was donated is gone. All the work we’ve put into making it is gone.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office later released a photo of a table with some books stacked on it, claiming the books had been preserved. As the People’s Library tweeted: “We’re glad to see some books are OK. Now, where are the rest of the books and our shelter and our boxes?” The shelter, by the way, was donated to the library by National Book Award winner Patti Smith, the rock ‘n’ roll legend.
Many other Occupy protest sites have been raided recently. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan admitted to the BBC that she had been on a conference call with 18 cities, discussing the situation. Another report noted that the FBI and Homeland Security have been advising the cities.
A New York state judge ruled late Tuesday that the eviction will stand, and that protesters cannot return to Zuccotti Park with sleeping bags or tents. After the ruling, a constitutional attorney sent me a text message: “Just remember: the movement is in the streets. Courts are always last resorts.” Or, as Patti Smith famously sings, “People Have the Power.”
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
© 2011 Amy Goodman
Related:
November 15, 2011: Arundhati Roy: Occupy Wall Street is "So Important Because it is in the Heart of Empire"
Occupy Tokyo: Mass demonstrations go unreported by Japanese media
Occupy Tokyo: Mass demonstrations go unreported by Japanese media - Sott.net
You've heard about the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Berlin, Tel Aviv and elsewhere around the world. But did you know that huge demonstrations have been taking place in Tokyo as well? We certainly didn't until a SOTT forum member posted a report on our forum. The general lack of awareness of the protests in Japan is probably due to the fact that there has been zero coverage of 'Occupy Tokyo' - which has grown out of the country's large (and growing) grassroots anti-nuclear movement - in Japan's mainstream media.
Several large demonstrations have taken place all over Japan in recent months, especially in Tokyo. The general mood is the same as elsewhere: ordinary people in Japan are fed up with their leaders' lies, particularly the lies told by TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and how the government has handled the Fukushima disaster. Or rather, how it has avoided handling it. This should all be eerily familiar to Americans of course; BP's lies and the US government's enabling role from the moment the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010 has continued to this day, with the tragedy continuing to unfold in deathly silence.
What is happening in Japan is almost a carbon copy; denial, smear campaigns, heavy-handed tactics and, of course, total media blackout. Up to one million people may have died as a result of Chernobyl, although we'll never really know the true death toll. Fukushima is many orders of magnitude worse...
People in Japan are very angry. Even though the Fukushima disaster is nowhere near ending (in fact, it is getting worse), Japanese media are simply not covering the fallout of the worst nuclear accident in history. Aftershocks from the Magnitude 9 earthquake which struck off the coast of Japan on March 11th are hardly mention in the Japanese media, but the fact is they are still ongoing and people are constantly stressed out by them. The economic aftershock is also beginning to take hold in a big way. The good news, says the SOTT forum member in Japan, is that people are now starting to wake up the fact that the Japanese government, TEPCO, and the media have been lying all this time and that more people are starting to take action to actually deal with the situation rather than wishfully think it will just blow away out into the Pacific Ocean.
Like citizens in other 'democratic' countries, Japanese people have had a crash course this year in learning that their own media is as controlled, if not more so, than those 'less democratic countries' everyone loves to point fingers at. To paraphrase Japanese independent journalist, Mr Uesugi, "In Japan, control of the media is worse than in China and similar to Egypt." An outrageous example of this information blackout was a recent demonstration by over 60,000 people in Tokyo which was never mentioned by the Japanese mainstream news at all. On top of protests focused on the Japanese government's handling of the Fukushima disaster, an 'Occupy Tokyo' movement is gaining momentum as well. Nobody is receiving much information about this either, unless they check out alternative websites. What follows is an overview of some of the events that have taken place in Japan, Tokyo in particular, in the past three months.
Read complete article..
You've heard about the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Berlin, Tel Aviv and elsewhere around the world. But did you know that huge demonstrations have been taking place in Tokyo as well? We certainly didn't until a SOTT forum member posted a report on our forum. The general lack of awareness of the protests in Japan is probably due to the fact that there has been zero coverage of 'Occupy Tokyo' - which has grown out of the country's large (and growing) grassroots anti-nuclear movement - in Japan's mainstream media.
Several large demonstrations have taken place all over Japan in recent months, especially in Tokyo. The general mood is the same as elsewhere: ordinary people in Japan are fed up with their leaders' lies, particularly the lies told by TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and how the government has handled the Fukushima disaster. Or rather, how it has avoided handling it. This should all be eerily familiar to Americans of course; BP's lies and the US government's enabling role from the moment the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010 has continued to this day, with the tragedy continuing to unfold in deathly silence.
What is happening in Japan is almost a carbon copy; denial, smear campaigns, heavy-handed tactics and, of course, total media blackout. Up to one million people may have died as a result of Chernobyl, although we'll never really know the true death toll. Fukushima is many orders of magnitude worse...
People in Japan are very angry. Even though the Fukushima disaster is nowhere near ending (in fact, it is getting worse), Japanese media are simply not covering the fallout of the worst nuclear accident in history. Aftershocks from the Magnitude 9 earthquake which struck off the coast of Japan on March 11th are hardly mention in the Japanese media, but the fact is they are still ongoing and people are constantly stressed out by them. The economic aftershock is also beginning to take hold in a big way. The good news, says the SOTT forum member in Japan, is that people are now starting to wake up the fact that the Japanese government, TEPCO, and the media have been lying all this time and that more people are starting to take action to actually deal with the situation rather than wishfully think it will just blow away out into the Pacific Ocean.
Like citizens in other 'democratic' countries, Japanese people have had a crash course this year in learning that their own media is as controlled, if not more so, than those 'less democratic countries' everyone loves to point fingers at. To paraphrase Japanese independent journalist, Mr Uesugi, "In Japan, control of the media is worse than in China and similar to Egypt." An outrageous example of this information blackout was a recent demonstration by over 60,000 people in Tokyo which was never mentioned by the Japanese mainstream news at all. On top of protests focused on the Japanese government's handling of the Fukushima disaster, an 'Occupy Tokyo' movement is gaining momentum as well. Nobody is receiving much information about this either, unless they check out alternative websites. What follows is an overview of some of the events that have taken place in Japan, Tokyo in particular, in the past three months.
Read complete article..
Is Alarming Rise in Autism Linked to 1988 Event?
Is Alarming Rise in Autism Linked to 1988 Event? - Dr. Mercola
Download Interview Transcript
It was intended to protect infants and young children against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); a bacterial infection that can lead to pneumonia, infections of your blood, joints, bones, and pericardium.
Historically, it has also been a leading cause of bacterial meningitis.
Since that time, the vaccine has been approved in most developed countries, including Denmark and Israel where the vaccine was added to their national vaccine programs in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
Starting in the late 1980's, there was a marked increase in the reported prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among children in the U.S.
A similar increase was seen in Denmark and Israel.
Read complete article..
Related:
Teen in 'Waking Coma' After School Jab
Girl, 13, left in 'waking coma' and sleeps for 23 hours a day after 'severe reaction' to cervical cancer jabs
Download Interview Transcript
Visit the Mercola Video Library
In 1988, the first conjugate vaccine was approved for use in the U.S.It was intended to protect infants and young children against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib); a bacterial infection that can lead to pneumonia, infections of your blood, joints, bones, and pericardium.
Historically, it has also been a leading cause of bacterial meningitis.
Since that time, the vaccine has been approved in most developed countries, including Denmark and Israel where the vaccine was added to their national vaccine programs in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
Starting in the late 1980's, there was a marked increase in the reported prevalence of autism spectrum disorders among children in the U.S.
A similar increase was seen in Denmark and Israel.
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New Campaign Seeks to Make Big Changes at the American Dietetic Association - Registered Dietitians Speak Out!
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| © Alliance for Natural Health |
Registered Dietitians are tired of their organization being financed by the junk food industry and Big Pharma. Now they're starting to speak out.
EatRight.org is the American Dietetic Association's website. It claims to offer "food and nutrition information you can trust." But can we really trust nutrition information from an organization that says sugar, fluoride, and artificial colors are safe for children?
We believe the ADA's partnership with the junk food industry helps fuel the diabetes epidemic. If the ADA succeeds in its attempt to monopolize nutrition services, we will be left with nothing but a deep-fried and genetically modified junk-food-influenced nutrition profession.
In response, ANH-USA, Registered Dietitians, Certified Clinical Nutritionists, MDs, and concerned citizens have joined together to help launch ReallyEatRight.org to highlight how the ADA is working to undermine nutritionists - professional colleagues who also care passionately about health and food. We're also trying to encourage the protection of nutrition services that can prevent chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.
The site is filled with informative articles, including an internal ADA document that specifically discusses eliminating competition in the field of nutrition. The same document plainly states the rationale for the organization's multi-state legislative effort to monopolize nutritional therapy: because "existing legal and regulatory constraints on practice are unlikely to prevent robust, broad competition" in the "growth area" of nutrition and dietetics. It discusses "significant competitive threats" from holistic nutritionists and naturopathic physicians, as well as nurses, pharmacists, chiropractors, and athletic trainers.
The practice of dietetics is one of the many different modalities of nutritional therapy. Many RDs feel that dietitians - and particularly their certification body, the Commission on Dietetic Registration - should respect and compete with other nutrition professions and licensing bodies in the marketplace, and should not subvert competition by creating a government-sanctioned monopoly through legislation.
In fact, growing numbers of Registered Dietitians, dietetic students, and ADA members are gravely concerned about the direction of the ADA and the negative impact that direction will have on its 70,000 members. They believe the ADA's partnerships with junk food companies and the pharmaceutical industry - and the payments it continues to receive from them - have severely damaged the organization's independence and credibility, and have severely compromised the professional legitimacy of dietitians.
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"No group, especially one that receives payments from junk food companies, should monopolize the field of nutrition when there are many other healthcare professionals with advanced nutritional training. The ADA is creating a monopoly over the practice of nutritional therapy - to the detriment of consumer choice and our health," said David Brownstein, MD, a board-certified family physician who uses nutritional therapies in his practice. "I've seen firsthand what the ADA considers 'healthy food,' and it is frightening to see their sugary and chemical-laden foods being given to people who are recovering from surgery," said Dr. Brownstein.
RDs and consumers have good reason to be upset. Consider these facts:
- Lifestyle and nutrition is essential in preventing many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer - which currently place a huge burden on US healthcare. In the US, approximately ten percent of healthcare dollars are for diabetes treatment directly. Indirect costs are much higher and include increased work absenteeism, reduced productivity, and lost productive capacity due to early mortality.
- Instead of taking important preventive measures, healthcare is focused on treating the disease with drugs.
- Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has asked the ADA and other health advocacy groups for a listing of their payments from the pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance industries. The senator's investigation is ongoing.
- The ADA receives about $1 million a year in payments from pharmaceutical companies. Because of Sen. Grassley's investigation, the ADA disclosed their payments from the pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance industries.
- The ADA receives payments from Coca-Cola, Hershey, the National Dairy Council, Mars, PepsiCo, and others. The ADA won't say exactly how much they receive from these companies and industry associations.
- The credentialing arm of the ADA, the Commission on Dietetic Registration, offers continuing professional education courses sponsored by Coca-Cola.
- The ADA allowed the junk food company - sponsored "Smart Choices" food labeling program (now widely considered a failure and an embarrassment) to be introduced at their Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. One of the biggest critics was Food Safety News (a very mainstream website, not particularly natural-health-friendly), whose reporter said, "The corporate takeover by Big Food was worse than I even imagined."
- The ADA allows pharmaceutical companies to market their controversial products at ADA events. At the 2007 ADA Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, GlaxoSmithKline was allowed to promote their first over-the-counter diet pill, Alli, even though the drug's weight loss effectiveness is minimal and there are side effects such as hard-to-control bowel movements and anal discharge. The FDA has since issued warnings for Alli, noting the possibly of severe liver damage, and consumer groups are asking the FDA to remove Alli from the market.
ReallyEatRight.org is designed to help RDs stand up and take back their profession from junk food companies, and to insist that their professional association start acting like a responsible partner in health instead of attempting to undermine their colleagues (nutritionists) through legislation. The site features Action Alerts designed specifically for Registered Dietitians and ADA members, as well as the general public. It currently has state-based initiatives for residents of New York and New Jersey!
It is our fervent hope that dietitians and nutritionists will be able to work together to improve the health of our citizens, without being weighed down by Big Pharma and junk food company interests. Our goal: To persuade 5,000 nutrition professionals and 25,000 citizens to sign the petitions, which we will deliver to the head of the ADA and request a response, with media documenting the event.
Please to go ReallyEatRight.org and sign the petitions today!
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