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The future of GMO regulation: The troubling trend of financial conflicts at the National Academy Advisory Panel

GMO lovers
© Maxwell MacKenzie / National Academy of Science
National Academy of Sciences building, located in Washington, DC.
The National Academy of Sciences needs to urgently address its one-sided work on GMOs, say public-interest groups, farmer organizations, and academics. In a letter sent to the Academy's president this week, dozens of stakeholders drew attention to what they called a "troubling trend" at the prestigious scientific institution and its work on agricultural biotechnology.

The letter cites a lack of balance, perspective and independence among experts chosen to carry out a taxpayer-funded National Academy study. These experts will advise the federal government on how to overhaul regulations concerning GMOs - including novel biotechnology products developed using synthetic biology and other techniques, such as DNA "editing". The new study is being conducted by the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Future Biotechnology Products and Opportunities to Enhance Capabilities of the Biotechnology Regulatory System.

Comment: The big GMO lie dies on the vine


Chess

Putin calls Obama & cancels regional visits amidst signs of full-fledged war in Donbass

putin obama
© AP
On July 6th, two alarming events took place which leave one worrying about the fate of Donbass.

The first event was a meeting held between the State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Grigory Kasarin, and the German ambassador Rüdiger von Fritsch and French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert in which Russia's concern over Ukraine's actions was expressed. The official report of the Foreign Ministry published after the meeting noted the activation of Ukrainian armed forces and so-called volunteer battalions in Donbass. Such military activity was also recorded by observers from the OSCE mission. The conclusion drawn by Russian diplomats: "We are faced with the symptoms of a military operation being prepared by the Ukrainian military."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we should recall, is a very conservative agency which does not draw hasty conclusions. The concentration of manpower and equipment in the ATO zone and numerous bombardments of the republics' cities by the UAF (several hundred artillery rounds every day) have long since been recorded by observers of the DPR and LPR. But only now has the foreign policy department of Russia stated that the situation could escalate to a qualitatively different state. In other words, Ukraine could transition from the tactic of provocations and destroying infrastructure and the civilian population to a fully-fledged military aggression. Karasin's statement and the official foreign ministry report are a very worrying sign.

Comment: Signs of further escalation in Donbass are worrying indeed. As Putin said while lecturing idiotic Western journalists, the world is being pulled in an 'irreversible direction':
We know year by year what's going to happen, and they know that we know. It's only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries. You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger - this is what worries me. How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction? While they pretend that nothing is going on. I don't know how to get through to you anymore.
Further reading: Ukraine's neo-Nazi parliament speaker Parubiy admits Ukraine won't follow Minsk agreements, exposes absurdity of sanctions policy


Quenelle

Jeremy Corbyn responds to Chilcot: "The Iraq war was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext"

Corbyn on Chilcot

Jeremy Corbyn speaks to the House of Commons on the Chilcot report and the decision to go to war in the future.

[The following is a transcript of Jeremy Corbyn's remarks today in the House of Commons.]


Before addressing the issues raised in the Iraq Inquiry report, I would like to remember and honour the 179 British servicemen and women killed and the thousands maimed and injured during the Iraq war, and their families as well as the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq launched by the US and British governments 13 years ago.

Yesterday I had a private meeting with some of the families of the British dead as I have continued to do over the past dozen years.

It is always a humbling experience to witness the resolve and resilience of these families and their unwavering commitment to seek truth and justice for those that they lost in Iraq.

They have waited seven years for Sir John Chilcot's report.

It was right that the inquiry heard evidence from such a wide range of people and that the origins, conduct and aftermath of the war should have been examined in such detail.

But the extraordinary length of time it has taken to see the light of day is clearly a matter for regret.

Comment: Bravo Mr. Corbyn for standing strong in the face of political coups set against you and for standing up to the entire war establishment of Britain and the U.S.

Further reading:


Handcuffs

"James Comey had no problem keeping me in prison without any charges" - Martin Armstrong

Martin Armstrong jail contempt
© Rick Maiman/Bloomberg News
Martin A. Armstrong, pictured in jail in February 2000, served more jail time for civil contempt than he would have if he had been sentenced for fraud.
To indict someone, the criteria is supposed to be "intent." Comey has used that to pretend there is no evidence that Hillary "intentionally" erased anything. Comey also stated that Hillary's lawyers erased her emails using a keyword search program and they did not "read" the emails. He added that he would not recommend charges against Hillary or her aides.
"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey declared.
It was Comey who indicted Frank Quattrone for claiming he instructed his people to erase emails in his technology-industry banking group at Credit Suisse Group's Credit Suisse First Boston, based upon a single email that read "clean up those files" in December 2000. That was more than enough for his "intent" requirement to obstruct justice. This further illustrates the double standard of justice for them vs. us.

Comey has said that he could not find anyone else who had been prosecuted for such a thing, but then added after clearing Hillary that this is not to say everyone in the government can do this or that they would not prosecute someone else for the same thing. Comey said,"[O]ur judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

Comey presented a scathing rebuke of Hillary's conduct that anyone else would have certainly been indicted for. For Obama to have announced in advance he would campaign for Hillary, it was clear that this was a cover-up and he knew the results before today. For Comey to say, "Although we did not find clear evidence [of any intentional misconduct] there is evidence that they were extremely careless of very sensitive, highly classified information." It is the jury's role to determine if there is any evidence and the case should have been presented for a Grand Jury to decide if she should have been indicted. That, of course, is off limits as well.

Comment: Mr. Armstrong has a chequered history in the financial world. However his points of comparison between how his and Mr. Quattrone's cases have been handled and the kid-glove approach to Killary is telling.


Arrow Down

Whitewash: Benghazi final report reveals nothing of substance while hiding everything relevant

 US consulate compound in Benghazi
© AFP/Getty Images
This file photo taken on September 11, 2012 shows an armed man waving his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi.
The Republican dominated House Select Committee on Benghazi has released its long awaited final report on the 2012 Benghazi attack which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. And, surprise, the report reveals absolutely nothing of substance that wasn't already known.

Naturally, Democrats running interference for Hillary Clinton have continually charged that the probe was simply an act of partisan politics designed more to hurt Clinton in the presidential campaign than to uncover the truth about what happened. No doubt there is truth to such an allegation.

But the most important fact about this whole manufactured drama, the one that neither Democrats nor Republicans want to touch, is the simple fact that what happened in Benghazi was perhaps the most complete encapsulation of everything wrong and criminal about the illegal US war against Libya. Moreover, it exposes the uncomfortable truth that the US harnesses terrorism, using it as one of the most potent weapons it has against nations that refuse to submit to the will of Washington and Wall Street. In effect, it was not merely terrorists that killed the four Americans in Benghazi, it was US policy.

Comment: To understand what really happened to Libya, see:


Megaphone

Minutes before DARK Act vote activists expose Monsanto's Senate lackeys

protests against monsanto
© djandywdotcom/flickr/cc
A protest against Monsanto takes place outside of the White House in May 2013.

Actions highlight how senators who took money from Big Ag companies are voting against majority public opinion on GMO labeling.


Just before a controversial genetically modified (GM or GMO) labeling bill came up for a cloture vote in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, food and consumer advocates dropped over $2,000 on the chamber floor in a symbolic protest against what they are calling the "Deny Americans the Right to Know" (DARK) Act.

The action aimed to highlight the fact that senators who took money from biotechnology giants like Monsanto are voting against majority public opinion, as recent polls have found that roughly 90 percent of Americans want labels on GMO foods.

Snakes in Suits

Promises, promises: Hillary Clinton announces Sanders-like plan for free college education

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Hillary Clinton has proposed a plan to eliminate college tuition at public universities for families earning under $125,000 a year. The presidential candidate is taking a cue from rival Bernie Sanders, who made free college a central part of his campaign.

In a Wednesday announcement on her campaign website, Clinton said that the plan, called the "New College Compact," would be phased in over the course of five years. However, families that make under $85,000 a year would instantly have access to free tuition at public, in-state universities and colleges.

The threshold for free tuition would increase by $10,000 annually before finally bringing the qualifying income to $125,000 after five years. This would bring free college tuition to 80 percent of American families, the website said.

Snakes in Suits

Obama shifts: Will keep 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan until 2017

U.S. President Barack Obama
© REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Barack Obama, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained precarious, said on Wednesday he will keep U.S. troop levels there at 8,400 through the end of his administration rather than reducing them to 5,500 by year's end as previously planned.

Obama, in a statement at the White House, said the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would remain unchanged: training and advising Afghan police and troops, and supporting counterterrorism missions against the Taliban and other groups. Obama's presidency ends in January.

War Whore

Warmonger Breedlove, the Russophobes and the push for World War 3

General Breedlove

Eye of the [paper] Tiger: Gen. 'the Russians killed Jesus' Breedlove.
The Roman republic began its descent into empire as victorious generals - starting with one Julius Caesar - returned to claim the fruits of their victories, their final conquest being the republic itself. "Crossing the Rubicon" has today become a phrase meaning an event that cannot be undone, usually of ominous portent, and surely this applies to the machinations of one General Philip Breedlove, former Supreme Commander of NATO.

Revealed by hackers who broke into his email accounts, Breedlove's plot to start World War III with Russia recalls the recklessness of Dr. Strangelove in a movie of the same name - except this isn't a movie, it's reality.

Hidden camera captures Breedlove in the NATO war room:


Coordinating with sympathetic retired military personnel, such as Wesley Clark, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Harlan Ullman, a top official of the Atlantic Council, the idea was - as Ullman put it - to "leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U.S. to react" to an alleged Russian threat in Europe. Another academic contact, one Phillip Karber, head of the neoconservative Potomac Foundation, was involved in disseminating a crude forgery supposed to have depicted Russian tanks in Ukraine. Naturally, the Washington Free Beacon fell for it, as did Sen. James Inhofe. Confirmation bias is pandemic in these circles.

Breedlove has himself been at the center of similar hoaxes, claiming that tens of thousands of Russian troops are present in Ukraine, armed to the teeth with the latest advanced weaponry: this was an outright lie, as the German intelligence agency, the BND, pointed out.

Eye 2

Legal loophole gives Tony Blair escape from prosecution for war crimes

Tony Blair
© Andrew Winning / Reuters
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair might never have to face trial after the publication of the Chilcot report into the Iraq war, because he likely committed a crime of aggression rather than a war crime, legal experts say.

Writing in the Guardian, human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC argued on Tuesday that despite "engaging" calls from both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish National Party MP Alex Salmond for Blair's impeachment, the prospect is unlikely.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) warned on Sunday that while Tony Blair would not be prosecuted for war crimes, soldiers on the ground could be.


Comment: How hypocritical is that? Blair is the one who ordered them to Iraq in the first place.


Comment: One more damning indictment of just how broken the political/justice system is.