Occupy Livestreamers Detained At Gunpoint By Twelve Chicago Police Cars
Occupy Wall Street livestreamers Tim Pool, Luke Rudkowski, and Jeoff Shively, along with two other friends, were driving back to their apartment around midnight on Satuirday, after a long day covering the anti-NATO protests in Chicago when they were suddenly surrounded by twelve police cars and told to come out with their hands raised.
“Get your hands up! Hands! Fuckin’ hands!” the officers yelled at them.
The police never explained why the men were being detained but handcuffed and interrogated them, searched their car, repeatedly slammed one of their computer hard drives against the car floor, and attempted to delete their footage of the incident before it could be archived at Ustream.
According to Firedoglake, Pool tweeted a couple of hours later that “the police were still following them on the police scanner around 2 am. They allegedly wanted the targeted journalists to announce where they were staying for the night so they could raid where the journalists were staying.”
A few hours after that, however, Pool posted at Facebook, “We are at a safe place.”
Firedoglake also recounts a similar incident involving other livestreamers and concludes, “In each of these instances, the police did not inform those detained why they were being detained. The police stopped them to find criminal activity that they could then use against the journalists to make arrests. And so far they have not been able to find any justification for arresting any of these people, but they have been able to briefly frighten and infuriate these journalists and also to impound a vehicle.”
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GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD: Universities as Shills for Monsanto
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We are grateful to Tom Philpott, Mother Jones, Food & Water Watch and Mike Adams for disseminating this information and revealing to the public what insiders like us have known for many years—that Monsanto and other Big Ag (as well as Big Pharma) corporations have been in bed with major universities, their faculty (and subsequently the scientific journal publication systems) for many years now.
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Big Ag, Monsanto take over research universities and turn them into pro-industry propaganda machines
(NaturalNews) Back in the old days before food and agricultural corporations consolidated into the behemoths we know them as today, agricultural institutions of higher learning were dedicated to conducting unbiased research into cutting-edge food production and crop systems that benefited society as a whole. But today, these former “land-grant” universities have largely mutated into pro-industry, propaganda machines funded and controlled by corporate agro-giants like Monsanto that steer research efforts in favor of genetically-modified (GMOs) and chemical-based crop systems.In a scathing indictment of this sinister, and rapidly growing, form of agricultural fascism, Tom Philpott from Mother Jones dissects a recent Food & Water Watch (FWW) report in which it is openly disclosed that corporate agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry have basically bought out agricultural research education as we know it. Colleges and universities that once received the bulk of their research funding from the federal government now receive it from Monsanto, DuPont, and others, and their research efforts reflect this.
Colleges that began as cultivators of ‘open-source’ agriculture are now incubators of patented, corporate agriculture
Institutions of higher learning such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UofI) for instance, or Iowa State University (ISU) were originally founded as land-grant colleges, which means the federal government helped fund their building on federal land for the purpose of researching and teaching agriculture, science, and engineering for public benefit. But today, many of these land-grant colleges have essentially been taken over by private interests with little concern for anything other than their own profits.“The idea of the land grants was to generate agricultural research, funded by the federal government, that benefited society as a whole. And that’s pretty much how things went for the first century,” writes Philpott. “But then, starting in the 1980s, the federal government started to level off its investment in ag research […] That’s when food and agribusiness companies, which were then in the process of consolidating into the vast global enterprises we know today, began to funnel huge amounts of cash into land grants.”But even the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which used to more closely represent the interests of the people, has become nothing more than a tool for promoting industry interests rather than public interests. So whether the funding comes from the USDA or directly from private industry, it is essentially all now going towards the promotion of GMOs and chemical-crop systems — little, if any, is used to develop improvements in non-GMO, organic, and sustainable agriculture systems.Mother Jones commenter Linda Ferris said it best when she wrote, “The ‘sell out’ by colleges and universities is no surprise for readers who have lived in communities around any one of the systems mentioned in the article […] This (agricultural schools) is Monsanto’s new incubator of technology and propaganda — a factory of making money on the cheap by controlling these institutions and using their students to do their research and work.”
.Be sure to read the entire Mother Jones piece for a more comprehensive understanding of how private corporations are brainwashing the next generation of farmers into embracing corporate agricultural systems:http://www.motherjones.com
_____Sources for this article include:http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/public-research-private-gain/http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/monsantos_college_strangehold/
Image-commondreams.org](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4djkbshcD1r7yhvfo1_500.jpg)
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD: Universities as Shills for Monsanto
.
We are grateful to Tom Philpott, Mother Jones, Food & Water Watch and Mike Adams for disseminating this information and revealing to the public what insiders like us have known for many years—that Monsanto and other Big Ag (as well as Big Pharma) corporations have been in bed with major universities, their faculty (and subsequently the scientific journal publication systems) for many years now.
__________
Big Ag, Monsanto take over research universities and turn them into pro-industry propaganda machines
(NaturalNews) Back in the old days before food and agricultural corporations consolidated into the behemoths we know them as today, agricultural institutions of higher learning were dedicated to conducting unbiased research into cutting-edge food production and crop systems that benefited society as a whole. But today, these former “land-grant” universities have largely mutated into pro-industry, propaganda machines funded and controlled by corporate agro-giants like Monsanto that steer research efforts in favor of genetically-modified (GMOs) and chemical-based crop systems.
In a scathing indictment of this sinister, and rapidly growing, form of agricultural fascism, Tom Philpott from Mother Jones dissects a recent Food & Water Watch (FWW) report in which it is openly disclosed that corporate agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry have basically bought out agricultural research education as we know it. Colleges and universities that once received the bulk of their research funding from the federal government now receive it from Monsanto, DuPont, and others, and their research efforts reflect this.Colleges that began as cultivators of ‘open-source’ agriculture are now incubators of patented, corporate agriculture
Institutions of higher learning such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UofI) for instance, or Iowa State University (ISU) were originally founded as land-grant colleges, which means the federal government helped fund their building on federal land for the purpose of researching and teaching agriculture, science, and engineering for public benefit. But today, many of these land-grant colleges have essentially been taken over by private interests with little concern for anything other than their own profits.
“The idea of the land grants was to generate agricultural research, funded by the federal government, that benefited society as a whole. And that’s pretty much how things went for the first century,” writes Philpott. “But then, starting in the 1980s, the federal government started to level off its investment in ag research […] That’s when food and agribusiness companies, which were then in the process of consolidating into the vast global enterprises we know today, began to funnel huge amounts of cash into land grants.”
But even the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which used to more closely represent the interests of the people, has become nothing more than a tool for promoting industry interests rather than public interests. So whether the funding comes from the USDA or directly from private industry, it is essentially all now going towards the promotion of GMOs and chemical-crop systems — little, if any, is used to develop improvements in non-GMO, organic, and sustainable agriculture systems.
Mother Jones commenter Linda Ferris said it best when she wrote, “The ‘sell out’ by colleges and universities is no surprise for readers who have lived in communities around any one of the systems mentioned in the article […] This (agricultural schools) is Monsanto’s new incubator of technology and propaganda — a factory of making money on the cheap by controlling these institutions and using their students to do their research and work.”.
Be sure to read the entire Mother Jones piece for a more comprehensive understanding of how private corporations are brainwashing the next generation of farmers into embracing corporate agricultural systems:
http://www.motherjones.com_____
Sources for this article include:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/public-research-private-gain/
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/monsantos_college_strangehold/Image-commondreams.org
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban
An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.
The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.
The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.
In a little noticed press release earlier in the week — buried beneath the other high-profile issues in the $642 billion defense bill, including indefinite detention and a prohibition on gay marriage at military installations — Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.”
The bill’s supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.
Critics of the bill say there are ways to keep America safe without turning the massive information operations apparatus within the federal government against American citizens.
“Clearly there are ways to modernize for the information age without wiping out the distinction between domestic and foreign audiences,” says Michael Shank, Vice President at the Institute for Economics and Peace in Washington D.C. “That Reps Adam Smith and Mac Thornberry want to roll back protections put in place by previously-serving Senators – who, in their wisdom, ensured limits to taxpayer–funded propaganda promulgated by the US government – is disconcerting and dangerous.”
American Spring: The Documentary (by RussiaToday)
»»>««<
“Even the cold early spring of 2012 could not deter #Occupy Wall Street #OWS activists in New York city. People from different backgrounds continue to come out onto the streets. The agenda driving all the protesters remains the same: income inequality, corruption among banks and multinational corporations, foreclosures, climate change, police brutality and above all, the need to get together and talk in person — … “
U.S. Ambassador: A Battle Plan For Iran Is ‘Ready’
The Pentagon has a ready plan for a military attack on Iran, the American ambassador to Israel warned days before a key meeting over the controversial nuclear program of the Islamic Republic. Western countries and Israel are exerting pressure on Iran to stop uranium enrichment, saying that Tehran is secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb. Iran insists that its nuclear program is strictly civil.
“It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force.’ ‘But that doesn’t mean that option is not fully available – not just available, but it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready,” US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel’s Army Radio on Thursday.
The conflict is to be discussed in Baghdad on May 23, when envoys from the P5+1 group, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US, are to meet Iranian negotiators. The previous round of talks was held in Istanbul on April 14.
Earlier there were numerous reports that Iran may face a pre-emptive strike either by Israel alone or by Israel and its NATO allies, if they see no other option to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities. However, intelligence communities both in Israel and the US believe that Iran has not taken a political decision to build the bomb yet.
Medical Marijuana: Obama Vs 74% Of Americans
A poll conducted earlier this month by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project finds that 76 percent of Americans want President Barack Obama to end his crackdown on medical marijuana in states where medicinal use of the plant is legal. Why is Obama siding with a fraction of the country? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
from dusk till dawn: Seattle Creating Massive Edible Forest Filled with Free Food
By Jill Ettinger - organicauthority.com
Taking the urban garden to the next level, Seattle, Washington has officially broken ground on a dedicated seven acre area of city land set to be converted into an “edible forest” that will produce free food for the city’s residents and visitors, human or otherwise. According to the Beacon Food Forest’s website, the project’s mission is “to design, plant and grow an edible urban forest garden that inspires our community to gather together, grow our own food and rehabilitate our local ecosystem.” The perennial permaculture forest project, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., will eventually be self-sustaining, much like the way a forest in nature works. Creating the self-sustaining environment is reliant upon the types of soil, insect life and companion plants placed strategically within the environment.
Seattle’s Beacon Food Forest, located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, will provide an array of edible fruit-bearing plants including apple, pear, persimmon, chestnut and walnut trees; and edible berries such as blueberry, lingonberry and raspberry.
The project, which is already underway, is set to take several years to fully develop the seven acre plot just 2.5 miles from downtown Seattle. After aggressive outreach efforts by the Friends of the Food Forest community group to secure the plan were successful, the innovative planting initiative is underway securing permits to create the nation’s first “food forest.”
Not only will the edible forest provide free food to anyone with access to its bounty, but it will also provide healthy fruits and nuts, which are an important part of every diet and can often be unaffordable for families.
Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger
The American Bear: Learning to Love the MeK
The Wall Street Journal reports: (h/t Paul Woodward)
The Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition group from the State Department’s terrorism list, say officials briefed on the talks, in an action that could further poison Washington’s relations with Tehran at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.
The exile organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MeK, was originally named as a terrorist entity 15 years ago for its alleged role in assassinating U.S. citizens in the years before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and for allying with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein against Tehran.
The MeK has engaged in an aggressive legal and lobbying campaign in Washington over the past two years to win its removal from the State Department’s list. The terrorism designation, which has been in place since 1997, freezes the MeK’s assets inside the U.S. and prevents the exile group from fundraising.
Senior U.S. officials said on Monday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has yet to make any final decision on the MeK’s status. But they said the State Department was looking favorably at delisting MeK if it continued cooperating by vacating a former paramilitary base inside Iraq, called Camp Ashraf, which the group had used to stage crossborder strikes into Iran.
[…]
The U.S. officials said Mrs. Clinton would make her final decision on the MeK’s status no less than 60 days after the last MeK member is relocated from Camp Ashraf to a new transit facility near Baghdad international airport. The U.S. is working with the United Nations to resettle Camp Ashraf residents in third countries. Roughly 1,200 people remain at the camp from an earlier population of over 3,000.
[…]
Iran has regularly accused Western countries of hypocrisy for providing shelter to MeK members while criticizing Tehran’s support for militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. “We believe that despite the claims that others make about fighting terrorism, they [Western nations] provide the most support for terrorist groups,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said last week. “In Europe, the MeK has already been removed from the list of terrorist organizations and they are completely safe to continue their activities.”
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, I’ve posted several pieces on the MEK in the past, here.
Remember, about a month ago, Seymour Hersh revealed that U.S. Special Forces had trained and utilized the MEK for clandestine operations in his piece, Our Men in Iran?.
Israel has also been accused of using the MEK for assassinations inside of Iran.
So, you know, nothing fishy here.
I’ll just add this find from Glenn Greenwald:
In 2003, when the Bush adminstration was advocating an attack on Iraq, one of the prime reasons it cited was “Saddam Hussein’s Support for International Terrorism.” It circulated a document purporting to prove that claim (h/t Hernlem), and one of the first specific accusations listed was this:
Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians.
So the group that was pointed to less than a decade ago as proof of Saddam’s Terrorist Evil is now glorified by both political parties in Washington and — now that it’s fighting for the U.S. and Israel rather than for Saddam — is no longer a Terror group.
And that’s the way it goes.
Occupy Interview - Machiavellian Democracy and Occupy
This week we talk with John P. McCormick, Professor, Political Science Department, University of Chicago about Niccolo Machiavelli’s thoughts on democracy and the advice he might have for the Occupy Movement if he were alive today.
Professor McCormick’s book Machiavellian Democracy is available now on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Machiavellian-Democracy-John-P-McCormick/dp/0521530903
(by 12160info)
(Source: politics-war)
