What happens to Federal Spending, (in terms of cuts) and it also is the amount of money allotted to banks!

Ain't it great! Ain't it grand! The nation is run by the Big Financial Brands.

https://twitter.com/StevenSinger3/status/308024761504636928/photo/1

This will give all of our fine friends in the Political Class their ability to have a cover story while they help get Industry what it wants.

Study was released to be buried inside the 4Pm on Friday news cycle - the usual "PR trick" so that no one in America knows what is going on.

On edit: The study is showing "no apparent harm" will come to the nation from tar sands pipeline, known as the Keystone XL Pipeline. The opening sentence of the above article:
WASHINGTON — The State Department issued a revised environmental impact statement for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline on Friday that makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be.


This gives our President the cover he needs to go merrily about his way. It also helps 53 Senators who on an average got over a half million dollars apiece from the Fracking Industry feel A-okay, conscience-wise, about their maneuvering to help Industry:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/us/us-report-sees-no-environmental-bar-to-keystone-pipeline.html?ref=earth&_r=0

Help others. Jeff Deskovic was wrongfully incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. Years later, he is released and is given a settlement as reparation for the injury. Many of us, myself included, might well spend the rest of our lives angrily sitting it out, enmeshed in self pity. But Jeff wasn't like that. Instead, he has set up a foundation to help others who have been wrongfully accused.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/26/1189866/-Exonerating-the-Innocent-Jeff-s-Been-Down-There-Before-and-He-Knows-the-Way-Out

Do two simple things:

One: think about this: It's now come to light that Jack Lew - President Obama's appointee for heading the Department of the Treasury - had a contract with his last employer, Citigroup, that rewarded him if he left the bank for a "high level position with the United States government or regulatory body."

Now why on Earth would they do something like that...

Two: if you want your signature to be noticed, include a significant campaign contribution!

You have Bill Clinton signing off on the odious Phil Graham sponsored "Bank Modernization and Reform Act," late in the final days of his Administration.

Inside the pages of that bill, Glass Steagall was basically eliminated, with the end result being that a total collapse of the economy occurred some eight or so years later. And with that collapse, the Middle Class is floundering also. (OF course, Clinton might say it all depends on just who you are referring to as "Middle Class." There are now an awful lot of people calling themselves that who make above 200K each year. But of course, for most of the 99%, we don't make anywhere near that amount.)

Now in the old days, when a politician pulled off something like that, they would go to the park near the underground subway and get a big bag of cash. Nowadays, it is more likely the politician gets a deal to receive some $ 100,000 per every speech he offers up in front of a Corporate Podium.

Get that program to be included in the drop down list so I can actually use that program? It isn't enough for the program to be on the machine, apparently i have to include it in the list.

Thanks in advance.

Both Sotomayor and Kagen are Monsanto-friendly, and were probably chosen by Obama as much for their support for this new technology that the Big Agri firms love as for their being female.


On edit: And of course, the Republicans on SCOTUS have rarely ever met a Big Corporation that they didn't treat like a family friend. I certainly do not envy Walters, the small time farmer, in taking this case up against these nine puppets of our Corporate Owned Government.


The news on SCOTUS blog Dot Com doesn't sound good for those of us who want the small family farmers in this country to be able to still farm their land. Once a bird, or the wind, carries a GM seed into your field, you have to hope to Goddess it doesn't sprout, because if it does, the "farm agents" in the hire of Big Agri firms might find out, and you will lose your land to Monsanto. (And since RoundUp has had recorded drifts of up to 1500 feet, an organic farmer who has never purchased RoundUp can find the stuff on his or her farm.)

Anyone here on DU wishing to update these remarks and this post, pls feel free to chime in. Here is a link and a paragraph from SCOTUSBLOG.COM :

http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/02/argument-recap-justices-wary-of-cutting-patent-rights-to-genetically-modified-seeds/#more-159730
When the unremitting assault on Walters finally came to an end, the argument took another unusual turn: The United States appeared as an amicus in support of Monsanto, but Seth Waxman had the Assistant to the Solicitor General (Melissa Arbus Sherry) speak before him, rather than after him (presumably so he could respond to anything she said about the enforceability of Monsanto’s license – a point on which the United States parts ways from Monsanto). Her argument was uncommonly smooth – in large part because the perspective she took was so much in tune with the Justices’ predisposition. The basic position she offered was that Monsanto’s patent rights are exhausted with respect to the seed it sells, but not with respect to other seeds that are later generated; that position resonated with all the Justices who spoke during Walters’ argument.

As so many good people here on DU understand, The Large Agri Firms in this nation have been busy patenting seeds, in order to protect some genetic modifications. In some cases, these firms do this, and the original indigenous people who have kept that variety of corn or whatever alive for thousands of years no longer can freely use it! Additionally, each year, firms like Monsanto sue small farms for "seed infringement." It is very hard for the farmer in those cases to win - if they get legal representation and do win, they pretty much owe the farm to their lawyers.

I know from private correspondence with one Indiana seed researcher, the amounts of fusarium, vomitoxin and other molds and fungal growths found on crops as they are harvested has increased exponentially with the introduction of the GM seeds.

Here is a decent article discussing what is going on, both legally and practically, in terms of the GM seeds and the patents that the Big Agri firms now hold:
http://truefoodnow.org/2013/02/12/as-challenge-over-seed-rights-approaches-supreme-court-new-report-exposes-devastating-impact-of-monsanto-practices-on-u-s-farmers/#more-2107
(I urge everyone interested in the issue to read the full piece, but did copy and pate a few segments of the longer article.)
As Challenge over Seed Rights Approaches Supreme Court, New Report Exposes Devastating Impact of Monsanto Practices on U.S. Farmers
Posted on February 12, 2013

Center for Food Safety and Save Our Seeds Investigate Role of Seed Patents in Consolidating Corporate Control of Global Food Safety
While agrichemical corporations also claim that their patented seeds are leading to environmental improvements, the report notes that upward of 26 percent more chemicals per acre were used on GE crops than on non-GE crops, according to USDA data.
(Snip)
Further, in response to an epidemic of weed resistance to glyphosate, the primary herbicide used on GE crops, Dow AgroSciences is seeking USDA approval of “next generation” corn and soybeans resistant to 2,4-D, an active ingredient in Agent Orange. Monsanto is seeking approval for GE dicamba-resistant soybeans, corn, and cotton.

At the launch of the report via teleconference today, experts from the Center for Food Safety and Save our Seeds were joined by Mr. Vernon Hugh Bowman, the 75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer who, next week, will come up against Monsanto in the Supreme Court Case. When asked about the numerous comparisons being drawn between his case and the story of David and Goliath, Mr. Bowman responded, “I really don’t consider it as David and Goliath. I don’t think of it in those terms. I think of it in terms of right and wrong.”

The Science behind Medical Marijuana:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/john-schwarz-medical-marijuana_n_2697232.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
At the above link, the "father of string theory" addresses his concerns about the fact that our society is run by people who continue to ignore the evidence regarding Medical Marijuana. Yet, meanwhile, the major corrupt actions undertaken by entities like HSBC continue to go on, without any legal intervention against such top "Too Big To Fail Firms."

From the article:
"Being a physicist, not a physician, I don't usually comment on issues in medical science," Schwarz wrote in his editorial. "But I can no longer remain silent while people in my family and profession run the risk of federal arrest so that they can follow the recommendations of their doctors."

One such person is Schwarz's wife, Patricia, who, after being diagnosed with a bladder condition in 1995 found medical marijuana was the only thing that relieved her pain. After listening to her groan about the issue for years, Schwarz said her husband felt moved to take up the cause. "We live in a evidence-based society," Patricia Schwarz told HuffPost. "Why isn't the science getting through?"

Under federal law, marijuana is considered a schedule I prohibited substance, defined as having “a high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment.” (Other examples of schedule I drugs include heroin and LSD, while cocaine, opium and methamphetamine are classified as schedule II drugs with "some accepted medical use."

The federal government has not acknowledged numerous studies showing the medical benefits of marijuana, arguing the studies did not meet the standard of double-blind FDA approval trials. Instead Drug Enforcement Officials cite a four-year-old Department of Health and Human Services paper that found no consensus on medical uses for marijuana.

From 1990 to mid-1991, I dealt with a stalker.

Unfortunately he was subletting an apartment in the same apartment building where i lived. So according to the way the cops deal with "Real Estate law," his lease meant he had the right to live there. And if his idea of living there was to pound on my door for fifteen minutes, at three in the morning, screaming at the top of his lungs that he was going to "break your F____ Neck," there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. The cops dismissed the death threats, even when witnessed by fellow apartment dwellers.

So I remained in a weird sort of limbo, where i didn't feel safe. I actually rented an artists' studio, so occasionally I had somewhere safe to sleep. I tried to have something happen about this abuse, but what that was, I didn't know. The police had no interest in helping me. The best they came up with was a "Maybe you should move out." They did offer reassurance that should I actually be killed, they would at least have a record of the abuse, so they would probably have the right person to nail for my murder. But that is not very much reassurance, is it?

Around the same time, one Nicole Simpson was being battered by Football Hero OJ Simpson, and despite her battered face, her complaints to the police in Southern Calif., usually ended up with the cops badgering OJ for some autographed photos. We know how that one ended.

Even now, things remain like this for women who are threatened. A friend here in Lake County called police when her boyfriend was moving towards her, and attempting to grab her and hurt her. She used her garden hose as a means to keep him at bay till police arrived. And guess what? Since the hose kept him from grabbing her a second time, she was considered guilty of assault, as getting someone wet with a hose is now considered an assault!

And it is not always man on woman violence, as writer Hurtzel attests in a recent article: http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/01/elizabeth-wurtzel-on-self-help.html Her landlord threatens her repeatedly, and the NYC PD could care less.

So Los Angeles police, you have your threats. Lucky for you guys, I have learned how to counsel you, from those wonderful times in the past when your colleagues counseled me. So here goes my counsel "Obviously LA Police - you friggin' deserve it. Something you did tripped this guy up, otherwise he wouldn't be threatening you. And if you don't like the threats, then friggin move out of LA County and get jobs elsewhere.

"So suck it up LAPD. Have yourselves a merry lil time with this - you must all be drama queens to seek out this person's attention! But don't worry, if he kills you, you'll be able to do something about it then."


A website with more information and stats on women and their vulnerability: http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/content/action_center/detail/754