Society's Child
Russia is making consequent its decision last fall to ban the commercial planting of Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO in its agriculture acreage. The latest decision, effective February 15, 2016 does not at all please Monsanto or the US Grain Cartel.
On February 15, a Russian national import ban on soybeans and corn imports from the United States took effect. The Russian food safety regulator Rosselkhoznadzor announced that the ban was because of GMO and of microbial contamination and the absence of effective US controls on soybean and corn exports to prevent export of quarantinable grains, also known as microbial contamination. The Russian food safety regulator added that corn imported from the US is often infected with dry rot of maize. In addition, he said, corn can be used for GMO crops in Russia. The potential damage from import and spread of quarantinable objects on the territory of Russia is estimated at $126 -189 million annually.
Striking the heart of the GMO cartel
The Russian decision is a huge blow to USA agribusiness. For decades, the US grain cartel companies - ADM, Cargill, Bunge - have dominated the global trade in soybeans and corn, the most widely used animal feed for cattle, pigs, chickens because of its high protein content.
It has been estimated that there could be hundreds of thousands of drone owners who have still not registered their devices.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a statement that, "Simply put, registration is all about safety. It provides us with a key opportunity to educate the new generation of airspace users that as soon as they start flying outside, they're pilots."

Field damaged by Israel's spraying of crops within Gaza, 31 December 2015.
Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip have reported that Israeli military planes had sprayed their land with herbicides on three days last December.
The spraying, conducted by crop-dusting aircraft, covered areas up to 200 meters west of the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Moreover, due to the prevailing winds at the time of the spraying, extensive damage was also caused to crops and farmland a further 200 meters further inside the Gaza Strip.
Comment: It is a war crime to destroy crops and leave Gaza farmers without food or work! It appears it is being done deliberately:
- Israel repeatedly sprays crop-killing pesticides on Gaza farms
- 'No one thinks of us' - Gazans speak to RT after Israel destroys 400 acres of crops
Germany has welcomed an estimated 1.1 million refugees in 2015, mostly from the Middle East and Northern Africa, of which about a half are either without official documents or have disappeared. According to Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of Germany's Federal Office for Migration (BAMF), there are as many as 400,000 asylum seekers within the country who have no ID documents and German authorities have proven unable to identify them, the head of the BAMF agency said in Berlin on Thursday.
Last year, Berlin was unable to expel all illegal aliens to the country responsible for them, which according to the Dublin Regulation is the EU state a refugee first entered. Only one in 10 asylum seekers was returned to the country from which they entered [into] Germany, and in 2014 it was one in five refugees. The reluctance of other European states to take back the refugees is understandable: Greece alone has witnessed a 21-fold growth in immigrants in one year.
Comment: While no country in Europe was adequately prepared for the rapid rising influx of refugees and asylum seekers, losing track of such a mass of people seems 'off' in this day of spy cams and facial recognition gizmos. Must be some other explanation than the two offered.
Earlier today, Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert released a letter to shareholders that was filled with all kinds of bad news. In this letter, he blamed the horrible results that Sears has been experiencing lately on "tectonic shifts" in consumer spending...
In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Lampert said the impact of "tectonic shifts" in consumer spending has spread more broadly in the last year to retailers "that had previously proven to be relatively immune to such shifts."
"Walmart, Nordstrom, Macy's, Staples, Whole Foods and many others have felt the impact of disruptive changes from online competition and new business models," Lampert wrote.
The incident took place in December, when Ortega was on a 12-mile drive back home from his children's mother's house when he stopped to get gas. He was extremely tired and admits to falling asleep at the wheel, according to KFOX.
"I stopped at the Circle K just up the street. I don't remember what I put. To this day, I don't remember what I put. I had to check my bank account," Ortega told KFOX.
Ortega doesn't remember anything after that except waking up at University Medical Center. But he does take issue with police accounts of the incident, so he turned to local media for an interview and investigation.
"I had some bruises on my face and I could feel it when making [facial] gestures," Ortega said, but he and his family are sure his worst injuries aren't a result of a car accident. There were also bruises on Ortega's arms, legs, feet, and back, broken bones in one hand and two fingers, along with two Taser lacerations on his stomach, according to medical records. Additionally, records say Ortega had a grand mal seizure while in his car. That explains certain details in the police report, Ortega and his mother say.
The police accident report describes officers responding at 12:45 a.m. to Ortega doing "donuts," or spinning his car until it rammed a rock wall. During or immediately after that moment is when Ortega is believed to have suffered a seizure, which police allegedly unknowingly witnessed.
"When he comes out of [a seizure], that's when he's like walking around like in a state of confusion," Olaya Calanche, Ortega's mother, told KFOX. "I've talked to him and I'll be like 'Junior, Junior, it's Mom.' He'll look at me but like he looks past me."
Comment: Certainly, a lack of education could have played a part in this attack by police, but what sort of person finds this level of violence necessary to 'restrain' someone?

Palestinian children play in a poverty-stricken quarter of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on January 5, 2016.
Palestinian medical sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the explosion took place in the city of Jabalia, located four kilometers (2.5 miles) north of Gaza City, on Thursday evening.
They identified the slain child as five-year-old Suhayb Saqir, adding that his brother Mus'ab, 6, was gravely injured in the blast. The injured child was later taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza Strip for treatment.
More than 7,000 un-exploded bombs were left throughout the Gaza Strip following the Israeli military attacks against the impoverished Palestinian territory in summer 2014.

A Palestinian boy walks past a building, which was damaged during Israel’s war against the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, during a winter storm in the city of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on January 24, 2016. AFP
It further revealed that Israeli forces increased their firing of high explosive artillery by 533 percent during the 2014 war compared to the military aggression in 2008-2009.The 2014 military aggression killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others - including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people - were also wounded in the Israeli war.
Calling his confessional series "Dirty Little Secret," the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star has released three videos on Facebook in which he openly talks about his problem with porn.
"Pornography, it really, really messed up my life in a lot of ways," Crews said in his first video, adding that day turned into night while he watched. "My wife was literally like, 'I don't know you anymore. I'm out of here.' And that changed me."
Crews said he went to rehab for his addiction about six or seven years ago to get the help he needed.
In the second video of his series, Crews devoted time to answering fan questions about how he overcame his addiction. The actor and former NFL player candidly talked about therapy and battling depression.

Terry Crews and his wife Rebecca King-Crews pose as they arrive to attend the Warner Music After Party, in Hollywood, California, on February 16, 2016.
Crews also said that he had to overcome shame and a big sense of entitlement to get better.
"I felt the world owed me something. I felt like my wife owed me sex," Crews said. "I felt that everybody owed me. And when you have a sense of entitlement, it's extremely dangerous."
Crews mended his relationship with his wife, telling HuffPost Live last year that the two completed a sex fast that left them "more in love" than ever.
"Ninety days -- no sex, all relationship, all talk, all cuddle," the actor said. "I found that at the end of that 90 days ... I knew who she was, and it wasn't about 'Let's go out because I know I'm gonna get some sex later.' It was like, 'Let's go because I want to talk to you. I want to know you.'"
After two consecutive quarters of declines in US corporate earnings due to the dollar's strength slashing overseas profits, and the government's excessive involvement in the domestic economy undermining market competition, the broader economy is heading for a recession which may happen as soon as later this year. Capital wipeouts on Wall Street and the ongoing oil bust support the gloomy outlook, while declining prices keep inflation subtle, holding back consumer spending, one of the US economy's key drivers. Unless the US corporate sector is able to recover through tax cuts and a quick re-prioritization favoring the domestic market, the overall economic perspective is likely to deteriorate.
Comment: With the American consumer tapped out and short of an all out war, we are headed for some economic hard times.
Joyce Curnell was found dead in her cell July 22, one day after she was arrested at Roper Hospital, where she had been treated for a stomach illness, and taken to the Charleston County Jail, reported The Post and Courier.
The 50-year-old Curnell became too ill to eat or call for help, according to court documents filed this week as part of a planned lawsuit.
Curnell had been taken by ambulance to Roper Hospital from her Edisto Island home after complaining of nausea and vomiting, and she was diagnosed with gastroenteritis in the emergency room. A bench warrant was discovered at some point during her hospital stay, and someone alerted law enforcement officers.
Curnell had been placed on a payment plan in April 2012 to pay $1,148.90 in fines related to a shoplifting case, but she apparently quit paying the following January and a warrant was issued in August 2014.
The newspaper reported Thursday afternoon that Curnell's son, who is planning the lawsuit, notified law enforcement of the open warrant. However, the newspaper did not report whether Javon Curnell was asked about his mother's criminal background — or why.
A local doctor told Curnell's family that her death could likely have been prevented if she had been properly treated for dehydration and the irritation of her stomach and intestines. Simply put: Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water," said Dr. Maria Gibson, of Medical University Hospital.














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