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If This Be Treason

Monsanto: Yet Another Lie

We’re being lied to all the time and have been for at least all my life. Most of these lies are harmful to us. The fact that we accept them, knowing them to be lies, hurts us even more.

This morning I ran across another of those graphics that makes a political statement on Facebook. This one contained a quote by Ronnie Cummins with the Organic Consumers Association that said:

“GMOs aren’t meant to feed the world… they’re designed to sell Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup.”

The Moneylenders In The Temple of Applebee’s


In case you’re one of the two or three people who hasn’t heard the story yet, it goes like this…

A few days ago Alois Bell, a pastor at Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries Church, was part of a group of twenty who dined at an Applebee’s in St. Louis. All in all, they spent over $200, and when it was time to go they evidently asked for separate checks. Ms. Bell’s check came to $34.93. Because there were over eight people in the party an 18% tip was added automatically in keeping with Applebee’s policy–an additional $6.29.

Ms. Bell, however, remembered that when Jesus admonished his flock to “render unto Uncle Sam what is Uncle Sam’s,” he didn’t say anything about giving a little to the poor, hard working young woman who just bent over backwards trying to make sure the experience of dining at Applebee’s was as wonderful as it could be given the fact that it was, after all, Applebee’s. So, in the spirit of Christian charity, Preacher Bell struck out the $6.29 that the computer had nicely computed and printed on her check and wrote in a big fat zero.

For How Long Is Jim Crow Dead?

In a hopeful and uplifting video explaining the voter rights brouhaha that swept our nation during the last couple of elections, President William Barber of the North Carolina Conference of the NAACP, observes, “Poor people can’t compete with the rich lobbyist, so they have to have access to the ballot in order to shape the balance of power.”

httpv://youtu.be/YmtVVmessCo

Amen to that.

Certainly that’s not unknown to most, if not all, of those who sit in our state legislatures, even outside of Dixie, and attempt to turn back the pages to the days of Jim Crow.

Our Truths Should Be True

These days, Facebook is where a lot of us do our politicking. Like most soap boxes, we do a lot of preaching to the choir there, but that’s okay for reinforcement is a good thing. What we’re hoping for, of course, is that our arguments, expressed in the cute little graphics we “like” and “share,” will be so brilliant that we’ll bring some fence-sitters over to our way of thinking or, better yet, help some certified tea baggers see the error of their ways.

The trouble is, we’re not going to win anyone over if what we post merely sounds good but upon examination doesn’t represent truth. If it’s not truth, it’s a lie.

What’s Wrong With Walmart Is What’s Wrong With America

A protest in Utah against Walmart. Photo by Joey Caputo
Today I ran across an old article, originally posted in 2010, 16 Facts About Walmart That Will Blow Your Mind by Ujala Sehgal on Business Insider. Actually, the piece was more slide show than article, but it succinctly explained some rather scary facts about this giant retailer. I thought I’d take this opportunity to go over some of the facts laid out in the article, with my own observations thrown in for good measure.

1. Walmart has more full-time employees — 2.1 million — than seven times the population of Iceland.

My first thought when I read this was about the irony of comparing any aspect of Iceland with Walmart.

Iceland was hit hard by the so-called “great recession” of 2007–2008. Prices on their local stock market dropped by 90 percent, inflation rose 18%, while unemployment increased by a factor of nine. Oh, at the same time all of the country’s biggest banks failed. However, Iceland has recovered nicely, not by bailing out the banks and leaving their private citizens to sink or swim. Instead, they concentrated their efforts on helping people get out from under crippling mortgages and prosecuted the bankers.

Guess what? It worked. According to Bloomberg their economy is now a shining example for the rest of us:

Nowhere To Hide From Industrial Pollutants

Back when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s we knew about pollution, we just didn’t yet understand how pervasive it was. In those days, it was thought that the only thing needed to escape the ravages of industrial pollution was to get out into the countryside, away from bad city air and water. Smog and polluted water were seen as urban problems that didn’t exist in the country. Soil pollution wasn’t even on the radar yet for most of us.

httpv://youtu.be/Rj6UlN6nhYQ

We now know that there is no place to go to get away from chemical pollutants. Even arctic ice thousands of miles away from any source of pollution is infused with man-made chemicals. There are new types of pollution, as well. Yesterday we published a link to a very scary video on biological pollutants, crops that have had their genetics artificially “enhanced” by companies like Monsanto, and that are now cross pollinating with non GMO crops, threatening to wipe out whole varieties of plants that have been on this planet for as long as their have been humans.

It’s Time For A Monsanto Movie Party

It never fails. Every time we post on our Facebook page about the danger posed by Monsanto and their GMO products, we’re inundated by some right wingers who’re trying to pretend to be “reasonable” calling for more specific information. Their argument is that we need to be diligent when it comes to GMOs, but that the scientific evidence is that most of Monsanto’s genetically engineered products are perfectly safe and that the company is hard at work assuring that their products do no damage, either to the health of the world population or to the environment.

httpv://youtu.be/6VEZYQF9WlE

None of this is true. Monsanto has a long history, going back to the days when it was a chemical company paving the way for the introduction of Agent Orange, of hiding facts at its disposal about the dangers posed by its products. There is also ample evidence that GMO products engineered and marketed by Monsanto are a Sword of Damocles hanging over our future.

Assange on the Run: Going Nowhere for Now

Julian Assange
Julian Assange at New Media Days 09 in Copenhagen. Courtesy New Media Days
Assange now has help, but seemingly not enough.

He’s surrounded by hostile Brits and a government threatening to storm the Ecuadoran embassy where he’s holed up. Ecuador’s government has granted him political asylum and is calling the Brits’ bluff, pointedly reminding them they’re not a colony and haven’t been for quite a long time.

If he does manage to escape and get his feet safely planted on Ecuadoran soil, he has a good chance of being able to eventually return home to Australia, where he has a strong support base.

For now, the Brits are unlikely to follow through on their threatened raid; that would set a dangerous precident. Ernest A. Canning, writing as a guest on The Brad Blog, explained the danger the threat exposes:

Kim Dotcom – ‘Dr. No’ Meets ‘Mars Attacks’

When the feds enlisted the help of New Zealand authorities to arrest Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, I figured there was evidence. I’d forgotten that this is the new USA, where the concept that proof is vital in criminal proceedings seems to have died long ago. This is a fact the New Zealand courts are now realizing, as they delve into the matter of their police’s involvement in the fiasco.

They’re also discovering that New Zealand law enforcement was acting on information that could come out of any cold war spy movie from the sixties. Our feds thought Dotcom had a suicide device, a way to instantly destroy the evidence and escape their justice. New Zealand Herald‘s David Fisher quotes testamony from Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, in charge of the New Zealand raid on Dotcom’s home:

Video: Police State In Anaheim, CA 7/29

Editor’s note: If you’ve been following the news you know that many citizens of Anaheim are unhappy after the police shot and killed an unarmed…

If This Be Treason is an AlternativeApproaches Media website.